THE IDES OF MARCH

Starring: Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella
Kinda Like: A political movie that you’d actually watch. (But don’t worry, it’s not really a political movie.)
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Deal:
Ryan Gosling stars as Stephen Meyers, an up-and-coming campaign press secretary who becomes entrenched in moral dilemmas while working for Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney), a Democratic presidential candidate. Clooney also co-wrote and directed the film, based on Beau Willimon’s Broadway play, Farragut North.

While working alongside a seasoned advisor (Seymour Hoffman) Stephen is offered the chance to join the competition during the final days of the all important Ohio presidential primary. Stephen must decide if he should further his career and betray his boss who just happens to be a friend and someone he believes in. This decision becomes harder to deal with once Stephen discovers a shocking campaign secret.

Make no mistake, Ryan Gosling is the lead actor in this film and is able to hold his own against vets like Clooney, Giamatti, Seymour Hoffman and Tomei. Combined with his recent release, Drive, Gosling is about to become one of the biggest leading stars in Hollywood, and it’s about time.

– Jeevan Brar/Dose.ca

**For press conference coverage, click here.**

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

Staring: Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon, Judy Geer
Kinda Like: If Marshall never met Lily.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
The Deal:
Jason Segel stars as Jeff, a thirty year-old who still lives at home with his mother (Susan Sarandon) and is awaiting his destiny. Jeff, also a stoner, believes that all things in the universe are connected (as outlined in M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs).

Jeff needs to run an errand for his mother but gets sidetracked when he receives signs to find or follow a “Kevin.” This journey leads him to his estranged brother, Pat (Ed Helms), who is going through his own personal crisis — his wife (Judy Geer) could be having an affair.

Unfortunately we don’t see much of this family interacting with the mother or Jeff even living at home. Instead, we have Jeff, who just needs to reference better movies. Although the reunion of the brothers at the end is heartwarming, it remains unclear as to what caused the rift in the first placed.

– Jeevan Brar/Dose.ca

THE ORANGES

Starring: Hugh Laurie, Leighton Meester, Oliver Platt, Allison Janney, Adam Brody, Alia Shawkat, Catherine Keener
Kinda Like: Blair Waldorf has an affair with Dr. House
Rating: 3 out of 5
The Deal:
After breaking up with her fiance, Nina (Meester) returns home for Thanksgiving after a five-year absence. Her mother (Janney), immediately begins setting her up with Toby, the son of their neighbours/best friends. Things for both families turn sour as Nina and Toby’s father, David (Laurie), become increasingly attracted to each other and begin having an affair. We see the situation unfold from the eyes of Vanessa, who used to be Nina’s (Shawkat) childhood best friend until Nina made a play for her crush.

As you’d expect with this cast, the performances were pretty solid. Their biggest strength was with their comedic timing. Shawkat, Laurie and Janney all delivered. However, the subject matter is pretty serious. This affair has caused chaos for two families and best friends. What was missing was some more interaction between the former BFFs Nina and Vanessa and some heavy confrontation between Toby and David (After all, Dr. House did just steal Seth Cohen’s almost-girl).

– Jeevan Brar/Dose.ca

Click here to view the original article: Interview: Stamkos and Roenick talk gaming on and off the ice, originally posted on Dose.ca on September 1, 2011.

Steven Stamkos and Jeremy Roenick were on hand at the X’11 Canada event in Toronto to preview the upcoming EA Sports’ NHL 12. Stamkos, who recently extended his contract with the Tampa Bay Lighting, is the cover athlete for the game and confesses that it’s been a surreal honour.

Stamkos says he didn’t hesitate when the call came asking him to be on the cover. “I got to play this game as a kid, I got to make it to the NHL and that was a dream come true,” he shares.

The forward joins a roster of recent cover athletes such as Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Dion Phaneuf, Eric Staal and Alexander Ovechkin.

As a lifelong fan of the video game franchise, Stamkos says “seeing yourself in this game for the first time as a character and now being on the cover, it’s amazing. It’s surreal to think you’re now a part of that illustrious group.”

NHL 12 introduces a slew of new features, including dynamic goalies (where the players can make contact with the goalies and even fight them) and the option to play as a legend. Stamkos believes this feature appeals to all generations. “The younger kids get to see their favourite players in today’s game and maybe they don’t know as much about the legends and [now] get to play with them. The older crowd gets to see the stars of their generation.”

Jeremy Roenick, who joins other legends Ray Bourque, Chris Chelios, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Borje Salming and Steve Yzerman, says “being in the first batch is always something that people will remember.” As for future legends, Roenick would like to see Mark Messier and Paul Coffey included in the next installment.

Although this is the first time that Reonick appears as a legend in an official capacity, this isn’t his first experience with the game franchise. In NHL 94, everyone wanted to play as Chicago because of how good Roenick was in the video game.

“It is the one thing that everybody talks about. It’s the one thing that everywhere I go, people commend me on my video game prowess much more than my on-ice prowess, which is obviously really nice.”

Being referenced in the film Swingers by Vince Vaughan (“It’s not so much as me, as it is Roenick”), helped catapult Roenick into pop culture. Roenick recently teamed up with FoxSports.com and FuelTV’s Cubed to re-create that clip, which he says was a blast.

“They put me in a Gretzky shirt which is kind of ironic. I think a lot of people with get a kick out watching the re-enactment.”

As for the current situation in Roenick’s former market of Phoenix, the retired star agrees that the league is wasting time and money there.

“It doesn’t look good for the organization,” he says. “Losing their potential buyer was a big loss and the fact that people there aren’t going to go watch hockey games until the playoffs, I don’t know how it can survive.”

As for the biggest difference in today’s game versus the game when he started, Roenick says that the players are much more advanced and talented in addition to being stronger, faster and in better shape. “It’s an eleven to twelve month sport now, not just an eight month sport. In the summer, they have to train every single day to be ready for the season.”

There’s no doubt expectations are tougher on players now than they were ten or twenty years ago. Discussing his new five-year contract, Stamkos says, “Obviously, the expectations are there now. I’ve been in the league for three years now and there’s no excuse that you’re still trying to feel it out. We had a tremendous run at the end of the year and going as far as we did in the playoffs. That experience was new for me. It was such a valuable experience that no one can take away. You know what it takes to win and the sacrifice that you have to have to get yourself, in our case, one win away from the final. So, with the new contract, there’s a little more expectation and I put that on myself the most. I’m not trying to change anything. We’ve got a great thing going in Tampa, with the new ownership, Steve Yzerman and the new coaching staff. We’ve all had a year to really gel and maybe progress a little quicker than expected but now the bar’s been set for our team and we’re looking forward to come out of the gates as strong as we finished last year.”

When asked why he wants to play in the sun belt as opposed to a market where hockey is much more popular, the Markham native attributes his decision to stay based on the “unbelievable” crowds he has witnessed during the recent playoffs. “I think we had 21,00 people a night! It was crazy! The atmosphere was great and for a lot of people who didn’t get to see that and experience that first hand, they don’t know that. You look at when Tampa won the cup, listening to some of the guys that were on that team, they said it was the best place to play hockey and other than the great weather, the fans were unbelievable. The past couple of years have been tough because we haven’t really given them much to cheer about but this past year, we gave the fans a great playoff run and the fans are just as excited about this upcoming year. To me, it’s a great place to play and you have a great balance. There’s not much of a media spotlight and you can go out to dinner, you can go to the mall – there’s a great balance with that. It’s a beautiful place to live too.”

As for what the Lighting needs to do to top the Bruins this year, Stamkos says the team isn’t getting ahead of themselves. “Boston’s a great team, we were so close. But in order to compete in the East, it’s going to be tight this year. We look at what Philly’s gone out and done, we look at what Washington’s done and Boston, who are obviously coming off the Stanley Cup win. You know that all these teams are going to be improving. Winnipeg now, they have a new outlook and you look at Florida with all the new signings – the great thing about our sport is the parity, so many teams are going to be great. We can’t let the success that we had last year get to our heads and the other teams are hopefully going to respect us a little more now. We’re going to get our team’s best every night. We’re a true contender; we believe that and other teams are going to know that heading in.”

The closeness with his teammates is quite evident and Stamkos says video gaming deepens their bond when they’re off the ice. “This year on our team, Call of Duty was a big hit for us. Steve Downey, Ryan Malone, Mike Smith (who is now in Phoenix), a bunch of our trainers and equipment manager, we’d all get online, create an account and have games against each other. It got competitive! We brought Xbox out on the road on long trips and played. It’s fun, not only do we play EA Sports games like NHL but some other games and keep it competitive and loose. It’s a fun way to pass time.”

As for playing the new NHL 12, Stamkos reveals that he and Roenick have already enjoyed a quick, friendly game. “We didn’t play the whole game. I was winning 1-0 and got cut off!”

EA Sports’ NHL 12 will be released in North America on Sept. 13, and will be available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platforms.

© Copyright (c) dose.ca

Photo credit: Xbox Canada

From All My Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Ringer — take a look back at Sarah Michelle Gellar’s career in television and film.

Check out the gallery here.

Click here to view the original article: Interview: The Young and the Restless’ Tracey E. Bregman, originally posted at The TV Watercooler on May 16, 2011.

The Young and the Restless’ Tracey E. Bregman (Lauren) was in Toronto this past weekend to promote her jewellery line on The Shopping Channel and was able to sit down with us for an interview. We discuss Lauren’s upcoming storyline with Victor Newman, the potential of a Lauren/Michael/Diane triangle, the daytime fad of doppelgangers, the cancellations of All My Children and One Life to Live as well as her favourite storyline and who she enjoys working with.

Tracey also played a trivia game with us: “Guess the Doppelganger.”

***

Click here to view the original article: Interview: Tracey E. Bregman Returns, originally posted at The TV Watercooler on July 26, 2011.

The Young and the Restless‘ Tracey E. Bregman returned to Toronto last week to showcase her new jewellery collection on The Shopping Channel and took some time to speak to us about her latest Rome-inspired line, her thoughts about soaps moving to the online arena and the latest about Y&R.

Click here to view the original article: Interview: The Young and the Restless’ Michelle Stafford, originally posted at The TV Watercooler on May 9, 2011.

The Young and the Restless‘ Michelle Stafford appeared at the Georgetown Market Place on Saturday, May 7, 2011 for a fan event. I got the change to interview her for a couple of minutes before she met with fans.

Lady Gaga returned to Montreal on April 25th for her fourth overall show and told the crowd that she’ll been taking a little break after this – which shouldn’t really come as a surprised to her monsters. The Monster Ball, which began in Montreal on November 27, 2009 will conclude later this week in Mexico after a whopping total of 201 shows. The concert was re-imaged in January 2010 as the original tour was constructed in a short time span after Kanye West dropped out of the joint, “Fame Kills” tour following his Taylor Swift outburst at the MTV VMAs. Set in New York, the “pop-electro opera” tells the story of Lady Gaga and her friends who get lost while trying to find the “Monster Ball.”

The wait between the opening act, Semi Precious Weapons, and the main show seemed like an eternity. This was a good opportunity to scope out the mixed crowd. Many were in costume – most notable included a mother/daughter duo who were dressed as two different incarnations of Lady Gaga, as well as a few with black and white skeleton face paint, as seen the “Born This Way” video. Nearing 10 p.m., frustrations were felt all across the crowd. Someone in particular mentioned that he was “fed up” and that “When Celine Dion was scheduled to come on at 8 p.m., she came on stage at 8:03 p.m.”  Just as he and his friend left, the lights went dark and the crowd began to cheer in excitement as the curtain-screen lit up and the instrumental opening of “Dance in the Dark” began to play. Luckily, what would follow for the next two hours would be the furthest thing from a Celine Dion concert.

The show was split into five parts (four “acts” and the encore): City, Subway, Forest and Monster Ball. The performances of non-singles like “Teeth,” “Monster” and “Boys Boys Boys” were just as spectacular as the big hits like “LoveGage,” “Paparazzi,” “Alejandro,” and “Poker Face.” Gaga made it clear that she did not lip-synch. The acoustic piano version of “Born This Way” enabled Mother Monster to showcase her impeccable vocal range. The lack of a live Beyonce during “Telephone” wasn’t a big deal for fans and many attributed “Bad Romance” as their favourite performance. Costume changes were done quickly as gothic graphics kept the viewers occupied in between the acts.

Lady Gaga revealed mid-way through the show that she wouldn’t be performing her latest single, “Judas” because she didn’t want to mess with the current show’s choreography but the fans can look out for the performance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show later in the week — the song later played as the crowds left the packed Bell Centre with the single’s artwork on display.

Lady Gaga emit so much positive energy and made it clear that everyone was welcome to the Monster Ball. When the show came to an end past midnight, the crowd left satisfied and even forgot all about the hour-long wait.

For photos of Lady Gaga’s concert at Montreal’s Bell Centre, click here. Lady Gaga presents The Monster Ball Tour at Madison Square Garden will air on Saturday, May 7 at 9 p.m. on HBO Canada. The 2-hour special was filmed during Lady Gaga’s hometown stops on February 21 and 22. “Born This Way,” will be released on May 23. Lady Gaga will next appear in Canada on June 19 when she performs at the 2011 MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto.

The “Scream” film franchise revitalized the horror movie genre in the late 90s. The series also managed to cast emerging talent at the time while securing high profile actors for bit parts and cameos. Take a look at all the major cast members of the first three films as well as the latest additions. “Scream 4” premieres on April 15, 2011. Spoiler Alert: This gallery gives away plot details for the first three films. | Check out the gallery on Canada.com here.