Full Length 'Breaking Dawn' Trailer: Bella's Lookin' a Bit Peaked

After she's the blushing bride in the flowing white dress, Bella Swan, in the first installment of the Twilight series' Breaking Dawn, retreats to an island paradise with her dashing vampire husband, Edward Cullen.

Soon, very, very soon thereafter, Bella becomes pregnant and experiences the fastest gestation in modern cinema. Judging from the newly-released full-length trailer, being pregnant with Edward's baby doesn't suit Bella so well. Somebody give that girl some iron or something.

Notes on Pop Culture/Politics: 'Breaking Dawn' Trailer, 'The Killing' & Weiner-Gate

Tags: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

I Got Your Breaking Dawn Trailer Right Here

My resident Twilight fan – my 12-year-old daughter – was thrilled to watch this brand, spankin’ new promo for the first part of Breaking Dawn. Wonder how graphic the brutal pregnancy and birth will be . . . Wonder if she can handle watching this movie . . .



The Killing Confounds

Did ya catch the recent episode of The Killing? The one that spent the entire time focused on Sarah Linden looking for her temporarily missing 13-year-old/wanna-be delinquent son while being carted around Seattle by her partner Stephen Holder? Strange and out of the norm for this series, eh?

Well let me tell you, I wasn’t a big fan of this installment. I wanted more in the way of clues to the murder’s identity, seeing as though there are now only two more episodes left, not an episode on a tangent. I reviewed it for CliqueClack TV.


Weiner-Gate

I hardly know what to say about this pathetic, ridiculous story about the married, fortysomething New York Congressman who was stupid enough to take and send lewd photos of himself to various women, then lied about it only to have to face the press and issue a mea culpa in front of a bank of news cameras just like the many horny male politicians who were caught with their pants down before him, like (just to name a few) Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford and John Edwards. Have none of these men learned anything?

It’s just preposterous that, in this age of 24/7 media, U.S. Rep. Weiner would even think that these images would never go public.

Among the interesting post-mortems, this one from Jezebel saying things like this from male pols are “rooted in male narcissism.” I think that goes without saying.

Can't wait to see what the late night comedians do with this . . .

'Simpsons' Lampoon 'Twilight' with Harry Potter's Help

 Vampires. A werewolf, actually, a werepoodle. And Daniel Radcliffe’s voice, otherwise known as Harry Potter. All of those elements were mashed together on a recent installment of The Simpsons where Homer was himself turned into a vampire after Lisa was romanced by the dashing, pint-sized “Edmund” in a sly take on the Twilight mania.

Loved the werepoodle.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Eclipse' Rises, Turning on the Lights on FNL and Tales from a 'Breaking Bad' Virgin

Eclipse: Better Than the First Two Twilight Flicks

I went to see Eclipse on opening weekend and am happy to report – even though it might diminish my credibility with some literary/film school/independent flick types – that I enjoyed it, thought it was much better than New Moon and more light-hearted in places, not taking itself TOO seriously.

My pop culture column over on Mommy Tracked this week also points out that, despite the fact that the movie (like the book series) has all these super-strong werewolves and vampires protecting the fragile human Bella Swan from violence and possible death -- at times even being held her involuntarily hostage in order to keep her “safe” -- Bella’s no slouch when it comes to protecting those she loves either, that’s when she’s not pining or pondering becoming a teenage bride.

Friday Night Lights: The Lights in Carroll Park



Being a teenager is damned hard, at least in Dillon, Texas, at least for the likes of Becky, who’s 16 and pregnant, and for Vince, who can’t find a job because he’s been arrested and has been trying as hard as he can not to fall in with the gang and the violence that threatens to envelope him.


While Vince, whose mother's drug problems make her AWOL as a parent, had Coach Taylor there to help him get a job – at Ray’s BBQ where Virgil offered to hire him as long as he kept himself out of trouble, 16-year-old Becky, herself the child of a teenage mother who's largely absent while tending bar, had no one to advise her after she got knocked up from a one-night-stand with Luke Cafferty. Though Luke has spoken with her and offered help, she’s leaning toward an abortion, though she’s still on the fence and in serious need of guidance. And seeking out Tim Riggins’ counsel – the same guy who’s working at an illegal chop shop after hours – doesn’t seem like the best move.

Meanwhile, while Eric Taylor was looking for Tinker to find out why he’s missed practice, Eric witnessed the aftermath of a shooting of a 12-year-old in Carroll Park, which made him realize that for some of his players who live in the area just getting to football practice unscathed, never mind escaping the reach of violence that plagues that area, is a constant challenge. Ever the optimist, Eric wanted to try to do something about it, but he went about it in his typically awkward Eric kind of way. No politician he.

Eric needed Buddy’s help – again -- just like he needed him to help rustle up the support of the East Dillon football alums for a Homecoming event earlier this season. With Buddy’s assistance, Eric met with a community organizer, who had credibility with some of the youth in the area, and they arranged not only to get the lights turned on in the troubled park, but to bring the community together with a pick-up football game between neighborhood players and the East Dillon Lions.

The best moment of the episode: Eric playing wry with Tami when he informed her that he was disgusted by the notion that, by the mere fact that Glenn had kissed Tami, Eric was one degree away from kissing Glenn. (When Glenn apologized to Eric, who knew nothing of the drunken kiss, loved, just loved Eric’s surprised, restrained rage look.)

Finally Saw Breaking Bad’s Freshman Season


The web site to which I contribute blog items about TV – CliqueClack TV – has this regular feature called, “The Virgin Diaries.” The writers who contribute to the site pick a show that has already aired that they, personally, have never seen before, watch it and chronicle their reactions. Fans who’ve already watched those seasons of the show get to re-live it through fresh eyes, remembering what it was like to learn a certain fact or see a new character for the first time.

My first “Virgin Diary” entry was posted today about AMC’s Breaking Bad starring Bryan Cranston. I just finished the first season – it was only seven episodes long -- over the weekend and wrote about how the star, Bryan Cranston surprised me by absolutely making me forget that he ever knew anyone named Malcolm or ever once donned roller skates and did a routine to the song Funkytown.

Image credit: AMC.

Robert Pattinson Doesn't Think He's a Good Actor

With only a few weeks to go before the June 30 premiere of the third installment of the Twilight saga, Eclipse, the media hype is starting to gear up in earnest. And ABC’s Nightline got into the act by interviewing Robert Pattinson, who stars in the Twilight films as the vampire Edward Cullen who's in love with the human, Bella Swan.

During the interview, Pattinson, who apparently doesn’t think he’s a very good actor, seemed pretty self-deprecating, low-key and almost shell-shocked by the fact that he’s considered a heartthrob and that loads of strangers want to chime in on his personal life, hence he tries to keep certain things -- like his love life -- private.

I found it interesting that, near the end of the interview, the 24-year-old joked about his “fears” about being too lucky all at once because, “If too many good things happen, then you’re gonna die at 30 and I didn’t want that to happen.” Hopefully he's not taking those James Dean comparisons too much to heart.

Yet Another 'Eclipse' Clip to Whet Twilight Fans' Appetites

As we get closer to the June 30 release date for the third film installment in the Twilight series -- Eclipse -- the Twilight PR machine is trying to amp up demand by releasing little tidbits from the movie, like this new one featuring Edward getting in Jacob's face after Jacob said he had kissed Bella. (*and all the tweens swoon*)

Edward was relatively restrained, considering, well, you know, that Jacob's a werewolf and Edward's a vampire. And, is it just me, or does Bella's dad look almost as pale as Edward?



I'm hoping Eclipse is better than New Moon, which I didn't enjoy as much as the original Twilight. Is that asking too much?

Jimmy Fallon + Robert Pattinson = Team Funny

For a while now, Jimmy Fallon has having some fun at the expense of the insane popularity of Twilight hunk Robert Pattinson. (He plays Edward Cullen, the vampire, captain of Team Edward, for those of you not in the know.)

Fallon’s been doing spoof videos which he calls, “Bothered with Robert Pattison,” where Fallon dons uber-pale makeup and messes up his hair in order to look like Pattinson’s very serious character Edward. Occasionally, Fallon willl growl like Edward the vampire does after he's climbed into a tree in order to ponder things that “bother” Pattinson.

The Valentine’s Day installment of “Bothered” was hilarious:



On Monday, Pattinson himself appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in order to plug his new movie Remember Me (in which I’m interested in seeing, but want to read reviews first). Not only did Pattinson nervously field questions as fans went completely ape *bleep* over him -- that’s when he wasn’t touching his hair (that’s one heck of a nervous tick he’s got, wanted to scream, “Stop messin’ with your hair dude!” while watching the interview) -- but he was a very good sport by agreeing to appear in a “Bothered” video with Fallon.



Don't you think Pattinson's got some kind of weird hair issue going on here?

'Twilight' . . . Just a Teen Romance, Don't Expect Anything More

When I wasn't doing the whole Thanksgiving celebration thing last week, I was immersed in the world of Twilight.

My editor at Mommy Tracked had asked me to write a column about the film New Moon, the second film based on the four-book series, which has become a mega-hit. To prepare to write the piece, I Netflixed Twilight and watched it with my Twilight fan daughter (who's read three of the four books), went to the theater to see New Moon, proceeded to read Stephenie Meyer's book, New Moon, and then, because New Moon included so many Romeo and Juliet references, re-read the gold standard of angst-ridden teen love stories.

My conclusion after spending all that time thinking about vampires, werewolves and tragic teen romances: Don't go asking the Twilight book series to be Shakespeare, or the films to be Oscar caliber, or have its lead character be some kind of feminist hero. (The lead character Bella Swan, plunges into a deep depression in the second film/book after her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, dumps her.) The whole Twilight phenomenon is a love stories about teens (though the vampire dude has actually been on earth for more than a century) seen from the irrational teen perspective of "I can't live without him (or her) or I shall perish."

Why are thirty- and fortysomething moms -- nicknamed "Twimoms" -- so enthusiastic about the series? I write in my column that these women "can recall with fondness those days of being adored by an infatuated boy who sees nothing in his world but you. Their days are now filled with ferrying children around, work, all things domestic and something as quaint as a love life that seems as though it's been put on the backburner, moms can recall the days when when romantic love was everything by pouring through the thousands of pages of Twilight books and hours of feature films, like they're taking a little vacation, albeit with those pesky, bloodsucking vampires and irritating werewolves."

Have you seen the Twilight movies and/or read the books? What do you think explains the mania for all things Bella, Edward and Jacob?

Image credit: Summit Entertainment via GateHouse News Service.