Taylor Lautner pads onto Saturday Night Live

     As with any show that has been on a long time, NBC's Saturday Night Live has its ups and downs.  I can think of no other show like it that has been on for thirty-five years, and its ups are good enough to keep watching through its downs.  Unfortunately, after last year's very big up, this year has been mostly down.  The one exception that leaps to mind is the Taylor Swift-hosted fantastic episode more than a month ago, and possibly some of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's.  Another Taylor, Lautner, (Jacob in the Twilight series) stepped up this week, and sadly did not do as well.

     The opening monologue was amusing enough, with Taylor reliving the Kanye VMA moment, and somehow keeping it from being stale, though the event itself is by this point.  It will only fuel more rumors on if the two Taylors are in fact dating (Swift dropped a more obvious hint in her opening).  The best skit he was in by far was the Team Jacob vs. Team Edward skit, where he was the girl defending the Edward side, of course.  It was a play off of the commercials.  He also performed admirably in the football interview skit, and was the only (slight) redeeming part of the middle school choir piece.  His love connection segment was terrible, one of the worst in recent memory, but was unable to salvage "Surprise!"  As much as Kristen Wiig is the star of the show now, if she never revives Aunt Sue, many will give thanks.

     The rest of the show without Lautner fumbled, mostly.  Seth Meyers is trying, and sometimes succeeding, hosting Weekend Update alone, but Amy Poehler is certainly missed in that spot.  Nasid Pedrad delivered a very funny take as Mistress #15 during Update, and Jason Sudeikis tried very hard to make the Tiger Woods scandal shine during his PGA announcements, with mixed results.  The rest of the episode, as has too often been the case this season, was forgettable.  Even musical guest Bon Jovi was dull, his tunes more mellow than in years past.

     Can SNL revive itself again?  Surely so.  Andy Samberg has given us many a gut-splitting Digital Short.  Wiig, Sudeikis, Will Forte, Kenan Thompson, and Meyers are far from past their prime, and the new additions of Pedrad, Bobby Moynihan, and Abby Elliott were very helpful.  And the rest of the cast isn't half bad.  Hopefully the writer's will find another dash of genius soon.  They have one more chance in 2009.  Come on guys!  Sarah Palin is back in the headlines.  Take a cue!

     Saturday Night Live will present a two hour primetime Christmas special this Thursday (unfortunately hosted by Wiig's most uber-annoying character, Gilly), and will conclude their fall batch of episodes this Saturday with host James Franco and musical guest Muse.

New Moon turns new page

     Before I even begin my review of the second movie in the Twilight saga, I'd like to admit outright that I expected this movie to suck.  Here's why.  I read all four books, and while I enjoyed the story, I believe that Stephanie Meyer is a terrible writer.  Her writing style is uneven, and many of the characters are two-dimensional.  I feel like that series is a great idea, but would have been handled better by another writer.  Thus I was excited to see the first film, hoping someone had fixed her mistakes.  Sadly, I was disappointed.  The entire thing felt poorly executed, capturing the book exactly.  Add to that, even fans of the series have trouble getting through that overly depressing second book (until Edward comes back), and I almost didn't even make the trip to the theater this weekend.

     Boy am I glad that I did.  New Moon was fantastic!  Kristen Stewart proved her acting chops, making me regret doubting her as Bella.  Taylor Lautner similarly delivered as Jacob, showing that he did not need a recast.  A slightly expanded role for the wonderful Billy Burke as Charlie was welcome, and I delighted when Ashley Greene's Alice returned near the end.  I wish there were more of the vampires, especially Rachelle Lefevre and Elizabeth Reaser, who proved themselves to be quite capable in What About Brian? and Grey's Anatomy, respectively.  The action was great, the effects flowed seamlessly, and the story didn't drag like the book did.  Bella's moping was done artistically, instead of torturing the viewer.

     I did, however, figure out what was wrong with the first movie, and this is going to be a very unpopular revelation.  It's Robert Pattinson as Edward.  He was wooden and lacked chemistry with any of the other actors during his thankfully abbreviated screen time.  I now realize it was his fault the first movie was so bad, as Kristen can act when taken away from his talent-sucking pout.  I am strongly against recasting movies, but I beg the producers to reconsider in this case, although I know they won't.  Perhaps Robert could enroll in some acting classes?  Or simply be tutored by a few of his costars, each one a worthy teacher?  New Moon was a great piece of cinema, but I worry about the upcoming sequels if Edward remains unchanged.  I know that's the point of his character, but come on!  Learn from your success.