The Gleek Critique: "Goodbye" Episode

Santana and her mother (Gloria Estefan) on Glee.  Image property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

In the Season 3 Finale of Glee, we say "goodbye" to several of our favorite characters (although temporarily because most of them are rumored to return next season) as they graduate from McKinley High School.  So what are everyone's future plans?

Well, Mercedes is off to Los Angeles to sing backup for an Indie label and Mike is going to be dancing in Chicago.  Quinn is off to Yale, but not before saying a tearful goodbye to Coach Sue and giving Puck one final kiss.  That kiss gave Puck the moxy he needed to pass his Geography test and therefore scrape up enough credits to graduate.  Now it's off to California to clean pools.

Not everyone will be graduating though.  Brittany, the lovable ditz with the best one-liners, has a 0.0 GPA and is being held back a year.  Santana discovers this while the couple are having dinner with Santana's mother, Maribel (Gloria Estefan), at Breadstix.  She's upset that Brittany will be stuck in Lima for another year... and she's also unsure of her own future plans.  She's been accepted on a cheerleading scholarship to Louisville, but her heart is set on being a performer.  Ultimately she decides to go to New York and pursue being an actress, and her mother supports her decision.

Not everyone will be going to New York either.  Finn, Rachel and Kurt are all awaiting their acceptance letters and when they arrive they wait to open them all together.  Finn goes first and is sad to learn that he wasn't accepted into The Actor's Studio despite what he thought was a good audition.  Kurt has equally depressing news:  he wasn't accepted into NYADA.  Rachel is last to open her letter and after all the disappointment she feels guilty to say that she was accepted.  Despite her flopped audition, it looks like Carmen Tibideaux gave her a second chance after all.

So what will Kurt do now?  He's going to stick around for a year and audition again.  He and Blaine had earlier decided not to split up despite Kurt's moving away, so now they won't have distance as an obstacle anymore.  But one couple does split up, and it's the biggest shocker of the episode.

Finn is driving Rachel to what she thinks is her wedding when they pull up at the train station instead. He tells her that she's going to New York to scout out apartments and tour her new school.  Her dads are meeting her there.  She's confused, telling him that she'll wait to go to New York when he's accepted into The Actor's Studio, and that's when he drops the bomb that he's enlisted in the army and he's going to Georgia.  He loves her, but he can't marry her.  He loves her, but he can't get in the way of her dreams.  So it's with a sad farewell that Finchel breaks up.  The episode ends with Rachel boarding the train and arriving in New York City.

A perfectly bitter-sweet ending to the season.

The Pros:

• Aw... the original glee club kids sang "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat" again!  Just like in the pilot! :)
• Burt Hummel is the best dad ever.  The end.  His "Single Ladies" dance was hilarious and awesome all wrapped up into one.
• Finn and Puck's "Glory Days" by Bruce Springsteen was a great graduation song.  And I gotta say, I wish more graduation ceremonies were like the Glee graduation ceremony.  There was so much musical energy!  My high school graduation was a snore...
• Kurt sang Madonna's "I'll Remember" as his final farewell to the New Directions.  It was good and I was happy that he and Blaine are still together.  I love them.
• The Quinn/Puck kiss made me happy!  Those two need to get together again.  They were good for each other I think.  None of this Quinn/Joe crap.  Blegh.
• "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals and "In My Life" by the Beetles were good songs.
• Mr. Schuester hasn't sung in a while and I liked his "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart.  It had kind of a country feel and it was very touching.
• Roz Washington always cracks me up!  And her plan to join forces with Sue to bring down Principal Figgins next season sounds pretty interesting... hee hee.
• I'm glad Glee went the realistic route and Finn didn't get into The Actor's Studio.  There is no way in hell that would happen...
• The breakup wasn't necessarily a positive thing, but I thought the scene was one of Glee's best dramatic moments.  It was simply shot with no annoying piano accompaniment and I thought the actors performed very well.  It was heartbreaking, but it had to be done.  On that note, Rachel's final song ("Roots Before Branches" by Room For Two) was the perfect ending to the episode and I can't wait to see what she does in New York City.  You're a star, Rachel Berry.  You can do this.

The Cons:

• I wanted a Kurt/Blaine kiss and I didn't get it.  What a bummer.
• I thought I would cry more than I did, but I guess they are all coming back next season anyway.  This episode really could have been better.
• I feel really bad for Kurt.  He nailed his audition and got really high praise, so that rejection letter must have really blindsided him. 
• Gloria Estefan's special appearance was fun and all, but I wish she would have sang.  Her acting is only so-so.

From the Queue: 'Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro'

by Brian Kesler

Hayao Miyazaki is one of the great storytellers; his imagination is unsurpassed. Films like 'Spirited Away,' and 'Ponyo' have taken us to worlds and introduced us to characters and creatures nobody but the brilliant mind of Miyazaki could dream up. He got his start directing the third movie in the 'Lupin the Third' series. In Japan, 'Lupin the Third' is unimaginably popular, and it has been for over forty years. It started as a manga (comic book) series, which was a spin-off of a series of novels, and has been translated into several films, animated and live action, four television series, yearly television specials, video games, and even a musical.

In this 'Lupin' film, we have the great high-strung action of the manga series intertwined with the visual imagination of Miyazaki. Lupin is the world's greatest thief, a cocksure goof off who likes to send a calling card to warn the owners of desired items of his intentions to rob them. He does this to make the attempt more challenging and fun for him and his sidekick, Daisuke. This time, his victim is the evil Count Cagliostro, who is holding a beautiful princess captive in a tall tower and plans to use her to discover the secret treasure of the Castle of Cagliostro. Lupin wants the treasure, and the girl.

From its very first moments this movie is an electrifying adventure. The great advantage of animation is that impossible situations can be realized and believed: When Lupin drives his little yellow car up a steep, rocky cliff to surpass the enemy, or when he looses his grip as he's climbing the castle wall and runs down the wall to keep from falling to his death, or in my favorite scene, when he and the count sword fight while maneuvering through the gears of an enormous clock tower. The final sequence, in  which the princess is cornered and must sidle along the minute and hour hands of the clock may remind some viewers of a more recent film, 'Hugo.'

I haven't seen the other 'Lupin' films, or any of the television series, but I'd imagine this is the best, if not only for Miyazaki's great talent at realizing the intricacies of his mind, limited only by holding true to the nature of the original work. This film seems like your run of the mill 1970s action flick, but the story maneuvers and twists in ways you'd never have guessed. That unpredictability, that constant discovery and total immersion is, I've decided, the cause of great admiration for Japanese storytelling in the United States. It is so unlike American storytelling, which almost always follows a pattern. Miyazaki is the pinnacle Japanese storyteller, along with Kurosawa. His films remind us what storytelling was invented for in the first place: Distinct and lively characters set against the backdrop and a plot of pure imagination.

The Gleek Critique: "Nationals" Episode

Will and Emma on Glee. Image property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

The kids are in Chicago and things aren't going so well.  Mercedes is sick, the boys are all fighting, Puck is trying to study and Quinn's newly rehabilitated legs are struggling with the dance moves. Will is really worried that the kids won't win and he can't bear the thought of a second Nationals defeat.  And to make things worse, Jesse St. James is harassing Rachel and she's just stressed that Ms. Tibideaux isn't there to watch her perform.  Luckily she has Finn to cheer her up with a Chicago glass mug that he plans on smashing at their upcoming Jewish wedding.

Now it's time for the competition!  New Directions performs first in what they call "the death slot" but they pull it together and perform amazingly well!  And after a pep talk from Kurt and Mercedes, the drag queen Unique is the star of the Vocal Adrenaline performance.  The celebrity judges include blogger Perez Hilton, actor Rex Lee and actress Lindsay Lohan, desperately trying to make a comeback.  She's devastated to find out the event isn't televised nor does she get a spinning judge's chair like on NBC's The Voice.  After a comedic debate, the winners are announced:  Unique wins MVP but Vocal Adrenaline as a whole gets second place.  Who gets first?  NEW DIRECTIONS!

The kids are ecstatic and they return to McKinley High as champions.  Instead of slushies in the face they get confetti thrown at them.  Everyone is kissing and hugging.  There's champagne and cake.  A giant trophy to put up in the choir room.  Finn made a bet with the hockey team that they would win so he's rolling in dough.  Sue gets to give a big ol' check to Figgins, securing her spot as Cheerios captain.  Hopeful lower classmen are asking for Rachel's autograph in the yearbook.  Emma Pilsbury decides she's ready to have sex with Will.  The good vibes just keep coming!

And to top off the happiness, Principal Figgins asks Rachel and Finn if the group will perform at the school's awards assembly where they present Mr. Schuester with the Teacher of the Year Award!  Oh, and how could I forget the other good news:  Ms. Tibideaux showed up and even Jesse told her that she should give Rachel a spot in NYADA.  We'll see what happens...

The Pros:

• I love the Troubletones!  You know, the short-lived all-girl group they formed earlier this season...  Anyway, I love them and I loved their version of Lady Gaga's "Edge of Glory."  I even love the random female backup dancers that are in no way part of the glee club.
• The New Direction set list continued with a Rachel Berry solo, sung to Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" and then ended with a fantastic and rousing number of Meat Loaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"!  It was so so so so good!
• Wade's female persona Unique shone once more as she led Vocal Adrenaline in their performances of Nick Minaj's "Starships" and The Who's "Pinball Wizard."  He really is something else... and he more than hinted that he'd be going to McKinley High next season.
• The "when it's finally time to have intercourse" pamphlet made me happy!  Yay!  Go Emma and Mr. Schue!  And I loved when Sue asked Emma, "Why do you look different?" after they did the deed.
• The group's cover of Grouplove's "Tongue Tied" was a fun soundtrack to their victory at Nationals and I really loved their rendition of Queen's "We Are the Champions."

The Cons:

• How the hell is Jesse St. James the director of Vocal Adrenaline anyway?  He was in high school two seasons ago.  Wouldn't he need some sort of degree?  But I did like his suit jacket. :)

The Gleek Critique: "Props" Episode

Will Schuester dressed as Coach Sylvester on Glee.  Image property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

Unique is now a show choir celebrity making Vocal Adrenaline all the more powerful when it comes to Nationals.  Sue wants Kurt to dress in a flapper's gown as Porcelina... and she's also making the choir use a bunch of dorky props like a welder's mask and leg warmers.  But even when Puck decides to take one for the team and dress in drag, it doesn't look like they have what it takes to beat their arch rivals.  In the end, however, they realize that their "unique factor" is their ability to come together as a team.

Being a team player isn't always easy to do though.  Tina is tired of being ignored in the glee club and she finally speaks her mind.  Rachel thinks she's being ridiculous, but Tina just wants to have her moment in the spotlight.  She wants to be Rachel.  And after a horrible trip and fall into a mall fountain, she IS Rachel!  What?  Yeah... it's trippy.  Rachel and Tina have switched places and so has everybody else.  Puck is Blaine and Blaine is Puck.  Finn is Kurt and Kurt is Finn.  Weirded out?  It gets weirder!  Artie and Santana have swapped.  Mercedes and Brittany have swapped.  Quinn and Sugar,  Mike and Joe, Sam and Rory, Mr. Schuester and Sue! WHAT IS GOING ON!?

Well, it was just a crazy hallucination, but it helps Tina realize that sometimes it's okay to sway in the background.  She's only a junior and she can shine next year.  So she encourages Rachel to speak to Carmen Tibideaux, the NYADA judge.  Rachel has already tried calling multiple times, so the two of them set out on a mini road trip to speak to her in person.  Rachel begs Ms. Tibideaux to see them perform in Chicago, but it doesn't seem like she's going to give Rachel the second chance she's asking for.


Meanwhile, Santana, Brittany and Mercedes find out that Coach Beiste is still with Cooter and they confront her about it in the teacher's lounge.  She tells them that she's given him a second chance, even though things aren't getting any better at home.  It takes Puck to have an emotional breakdown for her to realize that they both need to start believing in themselves.  You see, Puck gets into a fight with one of the hockey players when he calls Puck a "Lima loser."  After Beiste breaks up the fight and talks with Puck she makes the decision to finally leave Cooter for good. And sensing a kindred spirit in Puck, she talks his geography teacher into giving him a second chance on the final exam he bombed.

With Beiste in tow, the episode ends with the kids all on the school bus heading toward Chicago where they will compete in the National Show Choir Competition.

The Pros:

• Kurt dressed in drag in a Halloween flashback was awesome!
• Jason Mraz's "I Won't Give Up" performed by Rachel Berry was a nice start to the episode.  Despite what some haters say, I still love Rachel's voice!  I'm glad she's determined not to give up on her dreams!  (Although 14 messages to Tibideaux's voicemail is a little much...)
• Go Tina!  Demand some attention!  You're an original member!!  And didn't she kick some Celine Dion ass on "Because You Loved Me"?
• Seeing the characters all dressed like one another was pretty awesome!  So funny!  Blaine looks sexy with a mohawk!!  Ha ha.  It was even funnier than when Mr. Schue got sick and saw everyone as little children last season...
• "Cooter was in 21 Jump Street?  I didn't know he was an actor."  Oh Brittany.  You are so dumb and I love it!
• The fight scene was very well-done!  And Puck's breakdown scene in the locker room with Beiste was one of the most emotional scenes I've seen on Glee in a while.  Mark Salling did a great job with it.  I was literally in tears.
• Second-most emotional scene followed closely after when Beiste left Cooter.  The Beiste/Puck duet of Taylor Swift's "Mean" was perfect for their situations... and Beiste sounded a hell of a lot better on it than she did on "Jolene" earlier this season.
• Tina and Rachel come together on their little road trip to see Carmen Tibideaux and it's further solidified with their first duet together when they sing "Flashdance...What a Feeling."  Fun and adorable and it left the episode on a high note.  We are now ready for Nationals!

The Cons:

• Puck is one ugly woman!  Yeesh... "Some things can't be unseen" is right, Artie!
• Mullet-boy was one of the worst actors I've ever seen on Glee.  And that's saying something.

Movie Reviews: LOL, It's a Five-Year Shadow!

by Jack Garcia

Movies this time of year are really hit or miss, aren't they?  I saw LOL which I thought I would absolutely despise, but it turned out to be slightly better than expected.  Slightly.  I also watched Dark Shadows which I thought would be decently funny and was instead dreadfully disappointed.  The only movie I saw that was worth watching was The Five-Year Engagement.  Oddly enough, I'm heading towards a four-year engagement in my own life...

LOL AVERAGE

I really wanted to give this movie an "awful" rating.  I really did and perhaps I should have.  But I wasn't completely miserable while watching it so I decided to be nice.  The movie tells the story of Lola (Miley Cyrus)--or LOL as everyone calls her--a teenage girl looking for love.  "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree" they say, and her mother, Anne (Demi Moore), is searching for love as well.  Their stories often parallel in interesting ways, and essentially this is a movie about women and sexuality.  The director, Lisa Azuelos, also directed the 2008 French film LOL (Laughing Out Loud) that this movie was based on.  Unfortunately, she also wrote the screenplay and I think she's a better director than she is a writer.  While the the movie is well-shot, the situations try too hard to be edgy and the characters fall flat.  It's like I could sense what this movie wanted to be, it just wasn't quite there yet.

The Five-Year Engagement AWESOME!

While not the comedic gem that Bridesmaids was, The Five-Year Engagement had me laughing and smiling the whole way through.  The movie begins where most romantic comedies end: the proposal. Tom (Jason Segel) proposes to Violet (Emily Blunt) and she happily accepts.  They have the engagement party--with the best drunken toast ever give by Violet's sister Suzie (Community's Alison Brie with an English accent)--and everything looks promising... that is, until Violet gets an awesome career opportunity in Michigan, whisking Tom away from his chef's job in San Francisco.  They keep finding excuses to postpone the marriage and in the meantime, grow further and further apart.  This movie is about falling in love, falling out of love and then falling in love again.  It reminds us that no one is "perfect" for us (in a hilarious conversation between sisters done in Sesame Street voices) and that love takes work.  Oh, and did I mention it's funny?  So very funny!

Dark Shadows AWFUL

The Tim Burton/Johnny Depp collaboration is growing stale.  It really is.  And if you don't believe me, go and watch Dark Shadows.  Actually, scratch that.  Nobody should have to see Dark Shadows.  It's horrible.  It's a dark comedy that isn't dark enough or funny enough, and the result is a lot of cool set pieces and costumes with no story to bring them to life.  A movie cannot exist based on pop culture references and special effects alone, even if it is based on a 70s soap opera.  Depp plays Barnabas Crouch, a vampire who has been locked up for centuries by his scorned lover Angelique (Eva Green).  He breaks free in the year 1972 and finds the last descendants of his once-prosperous Collins family.  Here a lot of potentially interesting characters are introduced, but none of them are ever explored fully.  The plot meanders dully with a lot of painful dialogue and tedious exposition and halfway through I realized I could have just watched a quick slideshow of image stills and been more satisfied.  Not even a cameo by Alice Cooper managed to save this abysmal movie.

The Gleek Critique: Prom-asaurus

Tina, Santana and Brittany sing at prom.  Image property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

It's that time of year, kids!  PROM!  And Principal Figgins reminds Brittany that she's been neglecting her school president duties.  Her much overdue first act of business is throwing prom.  And the theme?  Dinosaurs!

When the prom nominees are announced, Rachel is a little upset that Finn is running for prom king along with his ex-girlfriend Quinn.  She's also still heartbroken about her ruined NYADA audition, so she's decided to throw an anti-prom party at a local hotel.  Kurt's all for it since he doesn't want a repeat of last year's prom, Blaine joins him since Brittany has banned him from wearing hair gel to prom anyway, Puck is in because he's tired of being thwarted in his attempts at spiking the punch and Becky tags along because she is upset about not being nominated for prom queen.  Unfortunately, there night doesn't seem to be too exciting...

Meanwhile at prom, the glee club is entertaining the crowds with popular numbers and everyone is having a good time.  Everyone except for Finn and Quinn who get into an argument in the bathroom.  He sees her standing out of her chair, which would be inspirational had she not been milking her handicap for pity votes.  He later yells at her to stand up and dance causing Sue to throw him out of prom.  He arrives at the anti-prom party to find Rachel looking stunning in her dress and the two decide to go to prom anyway.  The boys do too, leaving behind Puck and Becky to play strip poker.  After losing almost all of his clothes, Puck makes Becky's night by crowning her queen of the anti-prom party and the two leave arm-in-arm to join their friends at prom.

Quinn, feeling guilty about the way she's been acting after Rachel apologizes to her for being so jealous, works with Santana to rig the vote in Rachel's favor.  Finn and Rachel are crowned prom king and queen and all is happy at McKinley High.

The Pros:

• Principal Figgins:  “You have accomplished nothing except one memorandum written in crayon saying ‘Drill baby, drill.’"
  Brittany:  “Yeah, I no longer believe we should be drilling for babies."   
• The only song of the night that wasn't part of the prom entertainment was Rachel, Kurt and Blaine's rendition of Fergie's "Big Girls Don't Cry."  Rachel was dealing with some of her problems, and the boys were there to support her.  It was a good song.
• Brittany's takeover of the prom committee was pretty funny.  I love when she gets some extra screen time!  And her prom performance of Ke$ha's "Dinosaur" was amazing!  Nobody else but Brittany could have done that song justice!
• The rest of the prom night continued with "Love You Like a Love Song" by Santana and the girls, "What Makes You Beautiful" by some of the boys harnessing their inner boy band mojo, and ending with "Take Your Breath Away" sung by Santana and a standing Quinn.
• Sue to Joe:  "What are you looking at, Jar Jar Binks?"
• Both Kurt and Brittany rocking top hats!
• Adorably cheesy prom photos with a dinosaur.  What's not to like?
• Becky was front and center this episode and I like when she gets some screen time.  Her British inner monologue is always fun and I almost cried when Puck crowned her with the crown he made from a beer box... so sweet!
• Speaking of Puck, he was stripped down to boxers and one sock.  Very nice.
• Blaine:  "Freedom to use haircare products?  It's in the Bill of Rights."  And it was definitely awesome to see his wild and curly hair without gel!
• Next week's episode is two hours long!

The Cons:

• Some of the drama surrounding Quinn tonight seemed a little much... especially with the dramatic piano underscore.
• It was obvious that Quinn and Santana were going to lie about the winners, and once Finn was announced king it was even more obvious that Rachel was going to be the queen.  So why on earth was there a long dramatic pause before Figgins said her name?  We're not holding our breath in anticipation, Glee.  We saw it coming a mile away.

Movie Reviews: The Safe Raven Avenges in the Woods

by Jack Garcia

Within the past week or so I was able to see quite a lot of movies.  Two of them were midnight showings even!  And all of them were with Michelle (Wes joined us for Cabin in the Woods too)... for some reason I can't seem to drag Brian to the movies anymore!  Of course, this isn't exactly "movie season" and with the exception of The Avengers I didn't really care for most of the movies I saw.

The Raven AVERAGE

John Cusack stars as the famed author Edgar Allen Poe, and do you know what?  He isn't half bad.  In fact, he does an admirable job playing the brooding author.  Unfortunately, this isn't a biopic and the historical figure is thrust into a ridiculously contrived storyline involving a serial killer whose murders are inspired by none other than Poe's classic horror stories.  Detective Fields (Luke Evans) asks for Poe's help on the case, and things get more complicated when the killer captures Poe's love, Emily Hamilton (Alice Eve).  While there's some gore and creepy parts, The Raven never manages to scare or even be all that mysterious.  Oh, not to mention the big reveal at the end is a huge letdown...

The Cabin in the Woods AVERAGE

Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard, this horror movie is being praised by movie critics and fanboys alike.  I, however, was not so impressed.  I came into it being told that my mind was going to be blown... but it wasn't.  Five college kids (Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Anna Hutchison, Fran Kranz, and Jesse Williams) go to a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend and yada yada yada you can take it from there.  Where the movie gets more creative, is that all of the horror movie cliches are being controlled by a bunch of men in a room somewhere underground.  For me, this part was actually pretty intriguing and I feel that handled differently, I could have liked this movie.  The way Sitterson (Richard Jenkins) and Hadley (Bradley Whitford) dryly joke about the deaths they are initiating--as everyone places their bets on who will die first and how--pose many moral questions.  A more interesting movie for me would have followed that route.  Unfortunately, much of the movie is spent watching uninteresting characters make out with mounted wolf heads or run away from redneck zombies.

Safe AVERAGE

Mei (Catherine Chan) is an 11-year-old genius who has a gift with numbers.  A Chinese gang known as the Triad uses her to memorize a very long and important number, but of course other groups--including some corrupt cops and the Russian mob--are also after what they are after, and soon Mei is caught in the middle of some really dangerous stuff!  In walks our hero, Luke Wright (Jason Statham), an ex-cage fighter who has a beef with the people involved and who finds himself drawn to the little girl.  He does everything he can to help her and to keep her safe, which involves some serious ass-kicking!  The action scenes are all really awesome--so testosterone-filled men should be more than happy--and there's some creative camerawork at times hinting at the type of movie it wants to be, but the dialogue and the acting bring the movie down to sometimes laughable levels.

The Avengers AWESOME!

The superhero movie of all superhero movies has arrived!  Marvel's The Avengers, directed by Joss Whedon, is delightfully fun.  The story centers around the imminent threat of earth's complete and utter destruction by Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who wields the power of the Tesseract.  Scary huh?  So Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D gathers together a team of superheroes that he calls The Avengers.  But as the saying goes, you can't have too many cooks in the kitchen.  Initially Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) do not get along.  In fact, Hawkeye is "evil" for most of the movie.  But eventually, the team puts aside their egos and work together.  The final battle is epic beyond epic as we see every member of the team kicking some serious alien butt and destroying all of Manhattan in the process.  Poor Manhattan.  It's been destroyed in so many movies...

The movie really thrives on the perfect blend of comedy and action, which is what you'd expect from a movie based on comic books.  And while Loki may not be the most menacing of villains--in fact, he's kind of puny--he has a wicked grin that makes him very entertaining.  But while we know that The Avengers will come out victorious no matter what, the real battle--the one between themselves--is where the movie really shines.  Watching Tony Stark put down Captain America or egg on Dr. Banner is highly entertaining!  The actors all do a fine job of demonstrating the strengths and weaknesses of their various superheroes and it's a real treat to see them interact with one another.  So go out and watch The Avengers! 

P.S.  Stay for the credits.  At the very, very end was probably my favorite scene in the whole movie.  So funny!  Of course, it might have been funny to me because it was three in the morning...

The Gleek Critique: "Choke" Episode

Puck rockin' out on Glee.  Image Property of Fox.

by Jack Garcia

Tonight was an episode with not-so-happy endings, which is unusual for the sugary-sweet, brightly optimistic Glee...

Rachel Berry wants to be a star... duh... and has been preparing non-stop for her NYADA audition.  She's avoiding milk and germs while practicing all her smiles.  She's dedicated.  And when she hears that Kurt might take a risk and switch to a more challenging song at the last minute in his audition, she advises him not to do so.  She's sticking with something safe:  "Don't Rain on My Parade" which she's sung since she was two years old.  But in the end, Kurt goes for it, and his risk pays off.  The school's representative, Carmen Tibideaux (Whoopi Goldberg), is more than impressed with him.  But when it's time for Rachel to perform, she chokes.  She messes up the words not once but twice, and Ms. Tibideaux is not impressed.  Looks like Berry's dreams of stardom just went up in flames.

Puck might not graduate, but things could possibly turn around if he can pass Geography.  But when his plans to seduce the teacher fail, he thinks all hope is lost.  He's ready to just flunk out of school and clean pools forever... until his estranged father approaches him for money.  With $500 less in his pocket and a horrible vision of his future, Puck asks the boys for help to cram for his test.  Unfortunately, sometimes in life your hard work doesn't pay off.  He gets an F.

Roz Washington (aka "Black Sue") caught the girls making jokes about Coach Beiste's new black-eye.  Mean jokes.  Jokes about her being beat by her husband, Cooter.  But Roz doesn't think that domestic violence is something to laugh about, so she, Beiste and Sue try to teach them about the seriousness of a situation like that.  And although Beiste initially tries to lie and say she hit her eye while working out, she eventually admits that her husband got drunk and hit her.  Will she have the strength to get out of the situation?

The Pros:

• Puck's okay with not graduating why?  "Gowns are for ladies and tassels are for strippers."  Ha ha!
• Here's another funny line for ya:  "Black Sue and Original Recipe Sue are gonna take care of it." Oh, Sue, I love you.
• Puck's performance of Alice Cooper's "School's Out" was so much fun!  Cheerleaders dancing around him with creepy painted eyes and the grand finale of a burning guitar were all pretty damn awesome.
• Broadway songs!  Yay!
• I love "Cell Block Tango" from the musical Chicago!  While this wasn't as good as the movie version, it still made my heart happy... which is weird because it's a song about murder.  And I laughed out loud when Roz said, "But oh no, you pick a song about crazy women in their panties killing their men for chewing gum.  How is that supposed to help?
• Kurt was in his element with "Not the Boy Next Door" from the musical The Boy From Oz.  Go Kurt!  Now I must YouTube Hugh Jackman singing that song because... well... that needs to happen.
• Whoopi Goldberg!  I love Whoopi!
• I watched this episode with my friend Michelle who pretty much hated the punk rock cover of My Fair Lady's "The Rain in Spain," but I actually kinda liked it.  It was a little awkward at the start (mostly because I was thinking, "What the heck?") but as the boys fell into their groove I thought it was kinda fun.  Not something you'd run off to download onto your iPod, but it was a cool little novelty.
• The best song of the night, in my humble opinion, goes to the girls' cover of Florence + the Machine's "Shake It Out." So beautiful!  I was almost in tears.  Oh, and Tina got to sing finally!  Poor girl gets so forgotten...
• Rachel's rendition of Kelly Clarkson's "Cry" was another one that got me all sad and stuff.  Lots of emotion packed into this episode.

The Cons:

• Kurt singing "Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera was not my favorite.  I'm glad he changed his mind and auditioned with something else.
• Rachel choked on her audition!!  Oh no!  Sad to see someone's dreams shatter like that...
• Is Blaine a junior or a senior?  I mean, sometimes I get the impression that he's not graduating (like when he cried about missing Kurt next year in the Whitney episode) but then he's often lumped into the group of graduating senior boys.  Oh, and no song from him?