Rob Cohen and Vin Diesel in for another round of XXX action

Sources say that producer Joe Roth is in talks with Columbia Pictures about a third XXX film, which will supposedly be called XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, which will star Vin Diesel and will be directed by Rob Cohen. Now, correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Xander Cage (Vin Diesel's character) supposed to be dead? I mean, his death was the reason that a sequel, XXX: State of the Union (starring Ice Cube and directed by Lee Tamahori), could be made, right? Anyway, ignoring the blatant inconsistency and predictability of the movie (let me guess, Xander Cage didn't die, cue gasp of shock), having Vin Diesel starring in another action movie (without the actual acting) is even less appealing than ever. I mean, I get it, a tough looking guy with lots of muscles, bad guy gone good, action stunts galore, but really, who could ever learn anything remotely important from a film entitled: XXX?

By the way, Bablyon A.D.? Poor decision mister Vin Diesel. Poor decision.

Gossip Girl Episode Recap S2Ep2: Never Been Marcused

Gossip Girl Episode Recaps

How weird is this episode's title? Seriously, who has ever been Marcused?

(Spoilers. Spoilers. Spoilers. You are duly warned.)

Gossip Girl Season 2 Episode 2 Recap
Never Been Marcused

After their short, meaningless talk last week, we find Dan and Serena just waking up on the beach after they had their straight-out-of-a-romance-novel scene. Serena woke up all confused, which got Dan confused, and rendered me confused as well. Don’t tell me Serena is suddenly having second thoughts after finally being with the one person she has been pathetically pining after all summer. Oh, wait. She is. They talk, kiss, and agree that they need to actually think (uh, duh) before officially getting back together, and then they part ways.

Meanwhile, Blair and her Lord Marcus seem to be having a good time together. Blair is hoping for a more royal future, but Marcus seems to be evading Blair’s introduction to his family. This prompts Blair to excuse herself and call Serena for an immediate best friend therapy. Chuck sees Blair preoccupied and sneaks in towards Marcus for the kill. Uh, the killing of any hostility that is. Our Chuck Bass-tard befriends the Lord, and even scores a date with him. A squash date.

Back to S and D, we find my least favorite couple trying, and failing, to keep their hands off each other. They even manage to join the 60 miles per hour club in a bus. And, I only realized how cute Dan is when he is not speaking.

Nate on the other hand is still having some trouble with his parents. We find out that his mom is trying to keep him from going back to the city because his home is being searched.

During a call we find out that Catherine, Nate’s clandestine married lover, is actually a duchess. Marcus’ duchess stepmother to be exact. She is also the main reason why Marcus doesn’t want Blair to meet his royal family. Lord Marcus is afraid that his wicked stepmother might scare his precious Blair away. Of course, Blair doesn’t know this, so she creates an impromptu party to get Marcus to spend more time with her. And impress him with her ability to throw a royal party.

A little scene with Rufus and Vanessa tells us that Rufus is getting a kick out of being a semi-rockstar and isn’t sure whether he is done touring. Vanessa assures him that she’ll be sticking around to help out his kids however she can. And, isn’t Vanessa just the sanest person ever in Gossip Girl land?

Nate is wandering around like lost little puppy because police people are raiding his home, and he’s got no one to talk to. Aw, Chace Crawford is so cute in this episode.

During their squash date, Chuck subtly interrogates Marcus about his stepmom, and finds out about Blair’s Hudson party.

Meanwhile, Blair and her sidekicks Dorota and Serena plan her impromptu Hudson party, and makes sure that her guest list is up to par with royal standards, which unfortunately, does not include most of her high school friends. Shockingly however, it does include Humpty Dumpty. Uhm, I meant Dan Humphrey.

Puppy Nate goes to Chuck for some bestie time, but Chuck is too busy selling his Burlesque club. He says it’s a good way to impress Blair, but we find out later that it’s actually a loan for Nate’s mom. Speaking of, Nate’s mom has some huge hellhounds with her, seriously where did those beasts/dogs come from?

Meanwhile D and S has some more “we should think first but I want to see you anyway” drama.

Vanessa tries to comfort Nate. And she does so quite well. Nate promises to see her later, because he found out from a call from his mom that a certain “he” is loaning their family some money for their financial trouble. Again, Chace Crawford is so cute in this scene.

Meanwhile Chuck calls for a meeting with the duchess Catherine herself and discusses, I’m guessing here, the coolness of limos? That’s the only thing they have in common after all, right?

Over at Hudson, everything is lame because we all know that Mozart is never a good choice for party music. Chuck shows up with wicked stepmom duchess Catherine, and Blair introduces herself with a capital B, as in Beeyatch.

After realizing the error of her ways, Blair decides to apologize with some coaxing from Serena, this of course, makes no difference to Catherine because there is no way that her precious Marcus will ever be with a lowly Waldorf. But don’t worry, she immediately changes her mind when Nate arrives for the party and Blair catches them together in the library. Oh My Effing God indeed. Nate also tells Chuck off for trying to help his family because Chuck lied to his face. Uhm, okay. Eventually, Nate finally gets to talk to someone about his family's financial problems. Catherine. Catherine, being a callow-former-swimsuit-model-enslaved-by-her-own-insecurities who has some compassion (all according to Blair), offered Nate some help.

Dan comes home with Little J in tow and they find their semi-rockstar Dad, Rufus, cooking up some family dinner time. Still not sure whether he will go back to touring, or stay home, though there are some hints pointing to the latter. This is Gossip Girl land after all, who knows what that sentimental reminiscing Rufus did could actually mean?

Over at the Van Der Woodsen/Bass home, Blair is staying over for some bestie time, and seems to enjoy her after battle flirt with Chuck. And, how sweet is their little goodnight to each other? Over at Vanessa's place, we see that she has set up a romantic Chinese take out for two, but her guest Nate is away in a limo making a deal with the wicked duchess.

Anyway, overall pretty interesting episode, there were a bit more twists than last week. I kinda miss their high school setting, hopefully we’ll get more of that next week. And, I’m increasingly disliking the Dan and Serena tandem. I hope the writers find something more interesting for them to do than just the drama of breaking up and getting back together routine.

More episode recaps next week from your non-Gossip Girl gossip girl.

My Spidey-sense is Tingling

Look out spideyfans, Spiderman 4 and 5 is on the way!

Sources say that Sony got Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire to return for Spiderman 4 and 5. There was no one else considered for the part of Peter Parker but Maguire. And with good reason, Maguire is great as Spiderman. There is no news yet about Kirsten Dunst’s deal, but sources say that there would be no recasting of Mary Jane even though Dunst has been having some recent rehab drama.

Even with The Dark Knight’s immense success, the Spiderman 4 and 5 team won’t be borrowing some darkness because Spiderman’s drama isn’t about Peter Parker’s struggle with his dark side, it’s his struggle with sacrifice. Spiderman 3’s short stint with the darkness was entirely because of a black suit, Peter Parker has no dark side.

Sources also say that Sony is gonna try and shoot Spiderman 4 and 5 at the same time, apparently because it’s cost effective.

I can’t wait for more Spidey goodness.

Spiderman 4 is hoping for a May 2011 release.

Source: Deadline Hollywood Daily

Another Philippine version of famous reality shows.

Pautakan! Pagalingan! Patatagan!

Waw.

So here I was, chatting with fellow Filipinas about patriotism and the beauty of the Philippines, and lo’ and behold, I stumble across the pinoy version of the long-running hit reality-competition show: Survivors.

Survivor Philippines!

Who will be the first Pinoy Sole Survivor? 18 castaways will compete for the title this September.

Will it be the laundry woman with the strong hands or the male model with the chiseled abs?
Could it be the driver who wants to achieve a better life or the nanny who dreams of showbiz stardom?

The first Pinoy Sole Survivor could be any of them or the 14 other hopefuls all vying for the P3 million grand prize in GMA-7’s reality show.

After thousands of Filipinos flocked to local auditions, GMA-7 decided to give more people a chance to be part of this once in a lifetime event. Instead of 16 contenders, Survivor Philippines picked 18 castaways from different corners of the country and from all walks of life.

Among them is a female farmer who seeks greener pastures, a call center agent who wants to quit the graveyard shift and a basketball player who wants to take a shot to win the jackpot.

Isolated in an island, deprived of basic necessities and challenged to chart unfamiliar territory, 18 strangers will fight it out armed only with instincts, strength and wit.

Expect fierce competition, willful deceit and sly strategies as each challenger tries to be the last one standing. Who will outwit, outlast and outplay all castaways to become the first Pinoy Sole Survivor?

Find out as Survivor Philippines fires up your TV screens this September only on GMA-7.

(GMA Press Release)

Article from SurvivorPhilippines.com

The Survivor Philippines castaways went shooting on Thailand’s Tarutao from July 21 ‘till August 29. The show will air with host Paolo Bediones on the Philippine channel GMA 7 on September 15.

Gossip Girl Episode Recap S2Ep1: Summer, Kind of Wonderful

Gossip Girl Episode Recaps

The last time we saw our fabulous East Siders, Lily got married, Dan and Serena just broke up, Chuck ditched Blair on a helipad, Jenny was interning at Eleanor’s fashion line, Rufus was touring with his band, and Nate was… well, he was there.



All caught up?



Good. Now onto the episode recap.



(Spoilers. Lots.)



Gossip Girl Season 2 Episode 1 Recap

Summer, Kind of Wonderful



We see that Nate has been busy. An older girl? A married older girl? Well surely that’s gonna end well. Thanks to Serena’s cover, Nate’s been dating a mysterious older woman that we know practically nothing about. Except that she’s married.

Thanks to Gossip Girl, Chuck got wind of Blair’s arrival, and spent massive amounts of cologne and hair gel (I assume) to clear any evidence of his usual philandering with topless women on the beach.

But of course, he shouldn’t have expected Blair to come home alone, all vulnerable and hurt. She is Blair after all. She came home with James, all vulnerable and hurt. And who is James?

Clue: He’s not from Princeton nor Georgetown.

Lonely Boy turned into a Playboy, and not a very good one. He’s been interning as an assistant for his favorite author, and amidst all the work that he was supposed to have done yesterdays ago, he’s been kissing, dating, and two-timing other women. He has this book assignment that he was supposed to do to get a referral from his boss, but apparently he can’t keep his mind from a certain girl whose heart he broke.

Clue: She’s tall, blonde, and despite the rumors, not dating Nate.



As for the youngest Humphrey, she’s an intern for Eleanor. As the little social climbing bee that she is, Jenny offered her boss, Laurel or Laura (I forgot), a custom made dress she made for her to wear for the White Party. Her reward for all the hard work? More hard work.



So what does Little J do? Use Eric.

After her (not all that) convincing apology for how she treated him like gum stuck on her faux Manolo Blahnik’s, she asked for his help. And Eric, the only sensible person in this land of debauchery (New York), invited her to the oh-so important White Party, introduced her to some important person I forgot the name of, and did this all in front of her arrogant boss. Poetic justice. Or maybe not. Duly impressed by her cunning and subtle bitchiness, Laura/Laurel nicely chatted with Jenny and said she’ll see her back on work.

Blair tried, and succeeded, in making Chuck jealous with her new boytoy James. Unfortunately for her, James is not as dumb as he looks and saw through Blair’s games. Fortunately for Blair, James is actually British. A royal British. Who still has feelings for her even though she treated him like a squire boy.

After Chuck’s pleas, he still couldn’t convince Blair to ditch the lord and stay with him, because he failed to give her the three magical words.

After some sound advice from his rockstar father, Dan decided to trot over to the Hamptons to find Serena. When he got there, Serena’s Grandmother decided to bestow her niceness upon him and helped him clean up for the White Party.

However at the White Party, Nate and her faux date Serena were busy trying to make Nate’s married girlfriend jealous by kissing and acting like a couple.

Of course, during their liplock was just the exact moment that Dan decided to appear.

After showing us his judgmental, irritating, and whiney side for the thousandth time, Dan finally got served. By scorned women with cocktails.

Those were his “girlfriends” during his Playboy days. Which were about an hour ago. So in the end, Serena got back with Dan after moping after him throughout the summer.





Blair is going out with a Lord. Chuck still can’t say the three magical words. Nate is a mistress. And Jenny turned from a social climber into an ambitious intern. I'm kind of tired of the whole Dan and Serena couple trouble. They were cute at first, but I lost all respect for Dan during the fiasco that is Georgina. He was just too judgmental and righteous all the time. I'm more interested in what Gossip Girl has in store next for Blair and Chuck.



All in all, the episode was pretty good. Not great. But a good enough intro for the rest of the second season.



The end.



What?



Were you expecting me to say XOXO?



HAH!



More next week from your non-Gossip Girl gossip girl.