Jennifer Garner | pinartarhan.com

Covert Affairs starring Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham & Kari Matchett

Posted on January 22, 2011 Written by ripitup

Covert Affairs starring Piper Perabo, Christopher Gorham & Kari Matchett. Image via screenrant.com

Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) is a talented and beautiful CIA trainee who outperforms others at pretty much anything. And she speaks 6 languages so Langley can’t wait to get her on the field.

The reason she wanted to be CIA was because she no longer wanted to suffer from deception. A while back, the love of her life – Ben (Eion Bailey) walked out on her, with a note that said “truth is complicated”.

Annie does her best to adjust to CIA protocol as well as her cold yet confident boss Joan (Kari Matchett), who is married to the Arthur Campbell (Peter Callagher), who happens to be their boss. While Joan and Arthur try to solve their marital problems, they also strategize on how to make the best use of Annie, without truly revealing the truth. Annie’s ex Ben was right. The truth is complicated and he just might be a big part of everything.

Blind and brilliant tech guy Auggie (Christopher Gorham) becomes Annie’s best friend and ally, as well as the series’ main sense of humor.

Of course Annie is expected to hide her real job from her sister Danielle (Anne Dudek). Danielle is happily married with two kids and Annie is staying at their guest house. Living close to them makes keeping secrets harder and stressful.

Each episode covers a new case as well as some foreshadowing on “the complicated truth”. We get action, deception, role play, a little drama and more action, with some comedic relief attached.

Covert Affairs is a fun action/drama with a decent cast. It looks like Kari Matchett decided her supporting role in Leverage as Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton)’s ex-wife didn’t cover enough espionage or screen time so here she is in one of the leading roles.

Peter Callagher (The O.C., Sex Lies and Videotape, While You Were Sleeping) is getting older and more charismatic, certainly looking his powerful position. And isn’t it fun to see Anne Dudek in such a domestic role after she was the bitch of a doctor on House and beat the crap out of Josh Radnor’s Ted Mosby on an episode of How I Met Your Mother?

Sure, my favorite CIA agent ever will be Jennifer Garner’s Sydney Bristow of Alias. Covert Affairs started at a fun but medium pace. So far, it lacks the excitement level of the first Alias seasons, but it is very entertaining and promising. Since I no longer have Alias, I might as well have another spy show with a female lead.

Certainly recommended for Alias fans, lovers of the spy genre and definitely anyone who loves to see the female lead a girl kick ass.

7.7 on IMDB.

Fun notes:

Piper Perabo was nominated for Golden Globe this year for her role as Annie. She lost out to Katey Sagal, who won for her role in the series Sons of Anarchy. I don’t know about you, but for me Katey Sagal will always remind me of her hilarious role of 11 years as Peggy Bundy on Married with Children.

Canadian actress Emmanuelle Vaugier plays the beautiful and charismatic reporter who might give CIA a hard time. She also plays The Morrigan, head of the local dark Fae government in Lost Girl.

7 Engaging Tv Shows with Suspense Featuring Castle, The Mentalist, House, NCIS Los Angeles and More

Posted on June 16, 2010 Written by ripitup

crime scene — Case-solving, murder, mayhem, mischief and mystery. These are the 7 shows to provide all or some of those elements. Image from: southcarolina1670.files.wordpress.com/

How do you like mystery? Crime? Drama? Thrillers? Secret Agents? Detectives? If you like smart characters that follow clues, pay attention to detail and solve cases or if you simply like to play spy, go under cover and enjoy shows with multi-tasking, multi-tasking operatives, I have 7 shows for you. The list is here.

But if you want detailed profiles on these shoes, below are the individual pages.

Alias starring Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan
Castle starring Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic
House starring Hugh Laurie
The Mentalist starring Simon Baker and Robin Tunney
NCIS Los Angeles starring Chris O’ Donnell and L.L. Cool J.
The Forgotten starring Christian Slater
My Own Worst Enemy starring Christian Slater

Valentine’s Day starring Julia Roberts, Jessica Alba, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper, Ashton Kutcher and More

Posted on May 2, 2010 Written by ripitup

Valentine's Day starring Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Anne Hathaway, Ashton Kutcher, Taylor Lautner, Taylor Swift, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Topher Grace, Jamie Foxx and Queen Latifah. There is a chance I missed some of the name. It is not my fault that the cast is so crowded. Image from: http://www.shockya.com/

I was so looking forward to this movie. I mean have you seen the cast? With the exception of Taylor Swift, the names are really impressive: Julia Roberts, Bradley Cooper, Eric Dane, Patrick Dempsey, Jennifer Garner, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Jessica Biel, Anne Hathaway, Topher Grace, Taylor Lautner, Shirley Mclaine…

But it is like director Gary Marshall (Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, Runaway Bride) knew he would have an all-star cast so no effort or whatsoever has been put into the script. There are many intersecting stories and ordinary dialogue. Yes, it takes place on A Valentine’s Day but nothing interesting happens- either in the comic or romantic sense.

The stories? Well, it is more like a bunch of characters:

– Grandparents and their little grandchild in love and missing his mother and teenage granddaughter announcing she will have sex.

– A married, two-timing doctor (Patrick Dempsey) and his clueless girlfriend (Jennifer Garner)

– A nice guy working in the mailroom (Topher Grace) and his girlfriend ( Anne Hathaway)- who is secretly working as an adult phone entertainer. Yes, phone sex. And no, he doesn’t know about it.

– A PR professional who hates this day – Jessica Biel

– A football player whose future is in jeopardy- Eric Dane- oh, his PR gal is Jessica Biel.

– Two strangers on a plane- Julia Roberts and Bradley Cooper

– Two high school kids in love- Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift- friends with the couple getting ready to have sex

– A flower shop owner- Ashton Kutcher- who just proposed to his girl friend (Jessica Alba). Unfortunately for him, she is not that eager. And, oh- he also is friends with Jennifer Garner’s character Julia- who is a school teacher, also the teacher of the lovesick grandkid

– An unhappy sports news guy-Jamie Foxx-given a Valentine’s Day assignment-trying to secure a sports gig, with the help of our PR girl Jessica Biel

2 hours with some fun moments. Watch it if you have no better alternatives or if you just wanna see a movie where almost everyone is pretty. 5.7/10 on imdb. 5/10 from me. But hey, I will recommend other films and TV shows with the cast members for you- their other projects that are either more fun, that have more soul or both. Click on the red to go to the reviews.

*Jessica Biel: The Illusionist. She is the co-star the Edward Norton in once cool period drama/romance/thriller/mystery

*Ashton Kutcher: Butterfly Effect, What Happens in Vegas, Just Married, My Boss’ Daughter.

*Jennifer Garner: Watch her TV show Alias. Amazing, kick-ass show with the right amount of romance, action, drama and comic-relief. But more action than anything. She is playing the same characters in her movies over and over again. Same goes for Ashton Kutcher obviously. But the movies I recommended above for him are either really gripping or really funny so who cares?

*Patrick Dempsey- Watch the first 2 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy or Made of Honor. Made of Honor is a typical romcom but at least its comedy part is actually funny

*Eric Dane: Marley and Me where he stars alongside Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. But if its about giving him screen time, he has been a regular on Grey’s Anatomy since season 3 or so.

* Taylor Lautner: Twilight, New Moon

* Bradley Cooper: He also stars in Alias alongside Jennifer Garner. But he also played in awesome comedies like Wedding Crashers and The Hangover. And if you want Cooper in a romcom that is worth seeing, see He’s Just Not That Into You.

*Julia Roberts: She has done many good movies. Start with Conspiracy Theory, if you want original action/thriller.

* Jessica Alba: The Sleeping Dictionary, Awake. And for mindless entertainment and eye candy for girls, watch Into The Blue where she stars opposite Paul Walker.

*Topher Grace: That 70’s Show, obviously- where you will also see a very funny Ashton Kutcher. And please check out the solid comedy/drama In Good Company where he stars opposite Dennis Quaid and Scarlett Johansson.

* Anne Hataway: Becoming Jane

*Jamie Foxx: Law Abiding Citizen

The Invention of Lying starring Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Garner, Tina Fey and Rob Lowe

Posted on January 16, 2010 Written by ripitup

Invention of Lying starring Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner — If you are mad about The Office, you may be disappointed. But be ready to expect drama, and you are golden.

Warning: This movie is not a comedy. It is a comedy/drama and even the comedic bits aren’t really laugh-out-loud funny. They are funny in a way that makes you giggle or smile.

Now, that we got that out of the way, I’ll say that I truly enjoyed this movie. If you accept the fact that there is going to be a lot of drama, you will stop expecting to laugh that much, which will prevent you from being disappointed.

Mark Bellison (Ricky Gervais) lives in a world where people don’t know what a lie is. They are incapable of lying, and on the top of that, they are inconveniently blunt. This of course has hilarious results for the viewer and equals misery for our lead Mark. He is a pretty average guy. Average height, chubby built, not a pretty face, average job… He is unhappy. He is waiting to get fired from his job as a screenwriter. And don’t be fooled by the word writer. People can’t lie, can’t make believe- hence there is no fiction. There is no imagination. Just plain, boring storytelling. He also has a date with Anna (Jennifer Garner) who is beautiful, fit and has a well-paying job. She makes it clear from the beginning that she is way out of his league. He is alone, surrounded by other miserable people and facing eviction.

But something really amazing happens. He suddenly gets the ability to lie. He realizes this is the best thing that ever happened to him. He gets money, gets his job back and persuades Anna to at least hang around. His sudden bright status annoys his fellow screen writer Brad (Rob Lowe) who is a shallow jerk but he is also something Mark is not: good-looking. So while Anna actually loves Mark, she starts dating Brad for his looks. After all, her children are probably going to be better looking and healthier if she got Brad’s genes…

One of the fun things about the movie is how Mark gets to be a better person- or at least realizes he is a much better guy than he thought he was- when he gets to lie. It might sound ironic, but you will see how he puts lying to good use and helps people out. One of the better moments of the film is when Mark produces a lie about afterlife and how everyone gets addicted to his words. I really enjoyed the religious (or non-religious/anti-religion)- depends on how you look at it) aspects of the film. This movie is sincere, funny, emotional, fun and at times very original.

Sure, if you start looking for plot holes, there are a lot of them. I can think of at least 10 on the top of my head. Some people are bothered by how shallow most of the characters are. People, this is a script written by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson (they also directed the film). It is their baby, their “what if” scenario. Of course you would have written it differently. Would you have been able to write something better? I am not sure. All I know is that it has less clichés than a typical film and the clichés it has, really works for the comedy aspects. Frankly, I didn’t even like The Office and had no idea Gervais could actually act. Even Jonah Hill is lovely here. Rob Lowe is hilarious and Jennifer is always a delight to watch. Oh, and if you like Tina Fey, she is here too.

Overall verdict? You should see it. It has way many pros than cons.

[pro-player width=’530′ height=’253′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ThtN7qoWgM&feature=related[/pro-player]