Mad props from BlogCritics

My last Veronica Mars review was selected as an Editor's Pick over at BlogCritics Magazine. Also, another VM review was syndicated to national newspaper Web sites. Here's what BC has to say:

"What a great show! Just every episode, I love every episode. I think Mike Moody loves it too, otherwise how could he cover it all so well? And, who doesn't love Veronica? I think we all love Veronica. Veronica who? Veronica Mars!"
-BlogCritics Magazine

We done good

I couldn't believe it. Close to 2,000 hits yesterday and today. Wow. This little blog got close to 4,000 hits in two days.

This is really motivating. Most of the hits came courtesy of Whedonesque. It seems the editors of the A-list Joss Whedon blog really dug the "Catching up with the Buffy cast" post I wrote last week. It looks like I'll have to write that promised part 2 pretty soon.

So yes, this does mean I'm not abandoning Gold Teeth. I probably won't have the time to update it daily, but for now you can still look forward to fresh content every week. I've yet to decide what to do with this blog permanently though, but I'll figure it out.

Thanks for reading, and expect more Whedonverse posts plus media reviews, news, music and more .

Gold Teeth closes mouth

Gold Teeth will be pretty quiet in the coming months. Actually, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this blog from now on.

I got a new job and it's going to demand a lot of my time for a while. The good news is that part of the new job will be blogging about TV and pop culture, so anyone will be able to read Gold Teeth-esque content at the new Web site we're building for Valley Freedom.

Stay tuned for more. Thanks ... MM.

Film: Aykroyd says Ghostbusters III will be CGI

Dan Aykroyd recently told country music station CISN that he is working on a second sequel to the 1984 hit Ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters III: Hellbent will be a CGI film instead of live action, Aykroyd said. The plot involves the Ghostbusters traveling to hell (shades of Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey?). Aykroyd wrote the script.

Bill Murray has agreed to voice a character, probably reprising his role as wisecracking Peter Venkman from the first two films, and Harold Ramis is already attached.

There have been rumors of a third Ghostbusters film for years. The idea of a "young Ghostbusters" film was circulated in the 90s with names like Will Smith and Ben Stiller tossed around. Hellbent sounds more like an all-star, big budget version of The Real Ghostbusters animated series from the 1980s.

Aykrod and Ramis wrote and starred in the first two films. There's no word yet on a release date or whether this project will hit theaters or go straight to DVD. Listen to the Aykroyd interview here.

TV: Veronica Mars (3.11) - 'Poughkeepsie, Tramps & Thieves'

vm 3-11

(Air date: 1/30/07)
The theme of this week’s episode was trust -- when to give it and who to give it to. Apparently, according to Veronica Mars, you can kinda trust hookers looking to evade their pimps. Unfortunately, you can’t trust a semi-reformed bad boy like Logan Echolls.

The teaser and first act of this ep were hilarious and very, very intriguing. There was no sign of Piz, Mac or Wallace, but we did get a whole lot of face time with Max (a.k.a. the Louis Skolnick-looking dude who sells phony term papers on campus). I couldn’t keep up with how many clever Battlestar Galactica references were dropped in the opening scene alone (I lost count at 400 billion). If more Max means more Galactica references, then I say give the guy some credit sequence billing.

Besides giving Veronica a reason to say "frak," Max provided her with the mystery of the week: Track down the hot hooker hired by my friends to seduce me.

I was right there with Veronica in doubting the sudden spark between Max and Chelsea/Wendy/ Fiona (she’s the hooker with a thousand names, and yes, she has a heart of gold). Veronica’s a little more jaded than most -- coming of age while tailing unfaithful spouses for money will do that to you -- but it wasn’t a stretch to think that, maybe, this hooker was playing our Starbuck-loving friend for a fool. He’s desperate and he’s got wads of cash. He’s the perfect mark for a cute hooker-con woman.

But this is Veronica Mars. Things are much more complicated than that. Unfortunately, as the ep went on and the plot continued to coil, things came to a drowsy crawl before the last act hit. It wasn’t hard to keep up with the twists, but after I while I just stopped caring. I’m guessing that most viewers felt the same.

The Galactica references were very funny, and brave, and the plot wasn’t exactly humdrum, but I was a little disturbed by this ep. With the news that VM will ditch season-long arcs in an effort to gain new viewers, one thought kept running through my brain: Name-dropping another low-rated cult TV series and throwing the viewer a million curveballs in one ep probably won’t help raise the ratings. It doesn’t make sense that the powers that be behind VM would want to sacrifice the arcs, which the fans love and have proven to up ratings, but keep all the obscure references and super-dense plots, which undoubtedly alienate new viewers.

Speaking of arcs, we got a great interrogation scene with Keith. Decked out in too-tight fake police duds, he hammered the sanctimonious Lilith House chicks about the night Dean O’Dell died. Yeah, they egged his van and his office, but head Lilith Nish says she egged the Dean’s Volvo alone. Too bad for her then that O’Dell wasn’t driving the Volvo the night he died. Also, Nish’s mouth almost hit the floor when she learned that Keith was investigating O'Dell's death as a murder. I guess that makes her suspect number three, right behind Prof. Landry and Cheaty O’Dell.

I liked the quiet moments between Veronica and Logan, especially the intimate Q&A session at the end (scored by Leonard Cohen). Veronica was pleased and surprised to find out that Logan had never slept with a hooker. He smartly copped to fooling around with that surfer skank in the last ep, but Veronica was cool with it. However, she wasn't cool with Madison (where'd she come from anyway) saying she had a fling with Logan in Aspen. My guess? It might have happened, but Madison is a liar and she likes to push Veronica's buttons. It wouldn't be the first time she tried to screw with Veronica.

Random thought: Why is it that everyone Logan hangs out with or screws, save Veronica, is a shallow jerk (Dick, Mercer, Chip, surfer skank and now Madison)? Logan's come a long way. Shouldn't his friends reflect that journey?

The CW is now streaming this ep online. Also, watch a preview of next Tuesday's ep and consider the question: Is Veronica preggers?

Memorable quote: (Besides all the great Galactica references)
Veronica: (Examining the escort search engine) It's like a Zagat guide for hookers!

Friday Video: Le Tigre - 'Deceptacon'

Here's the Devo-esque clip from Le Tigre's Feminist Sweepstakes. Try this dance at home -- I dare you.

TV: Catching up with the Buffy cast (Part 1)

buffy cast

A few former cast members of Buffy the Vampire Slayer will appear at February's New York ComiCon, Variety reported earlier this week. The news got me wondering about what some of my favorite Buffyverse alums are up to these days.

Sure, most of us know about Alyson Hannigan's blossoming TV career and that Sarah Michelle Gellar has mostly resigned herself to starring in artless horror flicks, but did you know that Nick Brendan (Xander) does voice work for Disney Channel? Have you seen Tom Lenk's (Andrew) insane short film series about an eccentric dancer?

Read on to find out about how these former Buffy actors are keeping busy. I'll post more info about other Buffyverse alum in the coming weeks. And remember; let's try to support some of their projects. It's the least we can do for these talented performers.

Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris)
Nick Brendon had a tough time in TV land after Buffy went off the air in 2003. He starred in a sitcom pilot that never became a series, The Pool at Maddy Breakers, and Fox quickly cancelled Kitchen Confidential, the critically acclaimed but low-rated single-camera series in which Brendon co-starred with Bradley Cooper from Alias.
In between those projects Brendon starred as Roswell's Majandra Delfino's gay cousin in the surprisingly decent ABC Family flick Celeste in the City.
In 2004, he voluntarily entered rehab to fight his addiction to alcohol.
He served as honorary chairperson for the Stuttering Foundation of America during Stuttering Awareness Week from 2000-2003. According to his official Web site, Brendon's fans have raised more than $5,000 for the SFA.
In 2006, Brendan starred in LA's Blank Theater Co. production of Lobster Alice. He co-starred with Charisma Carpenter in another ABC Family flick, Relative Chaos, in 2006 and does voice work on the Disney Channel animated series American Dragon: Jake Long.
Catch Brendon's next project Fire Serpent, a SciFi Channel original film, on Feb. 24.


Emma Caulfield (Anya)
Before arriving on Buffy, Emma Caulfield had already guest-starred on a number of TV series, most memorably on Beverly Hills 90210. Since Buffy's end, she's mostly gone back to taking TV guest spots (Monk, Robot Chicken).
In 2004, Caulfield parodied herself in the award-winning indie mockumentary Bandwagon. In the film, Caulfield portrays herself as a self-absorbed starlet on a downward spiral. Bandwagon won the Maverick Award at the 2004 Newport Beach Film Festival. The film also features cameos by Buffy alum Tom Lenk, Buffy director David Fury and Joss Whedon. Read an interview with her about the film here.
Catch Emma in A Valentine Carol, Feb. 12 on Lifetime.


Tom Lenk (Andrew Wells)
Yep, that's Tom Lenk in that Wendy's commercial. He's also popped up recently on a number of TV shows, including How I Met Your Mother, Six Feet Under and House M.D.
In 2004, Lenk reprised his recurring role as Buffy's Andrew Wells for two hilarious episodes of Angel on theWB. He had a cameo as "Frodo" in Alyson Haniggan's 2006 film Date Movie and will appear in two of this year's major Hollywood releases, 23 with Jim Carey and Michael Bay's Transformers. According to IMDB, he plays a Pentagon analyst in Transformers. (That should be interesting.)
Tom will also appear in the upcoming indie film Equal Opportunity and the horror sequel Boogeyman 2.
Tom is also a well-received stage performer and comedian. He's part of the L.A.-based Strangely Attractive sketch comedy troupe. He started the bizarro comic stage production Unitarded in LA with acting partner Patty Wortham. Tom has also appeared in and directed several short films with other Strangely Attractive members. He has a few of these shorts posted on his MySpace page. The oddest ones star Tom as Trudy, a nerdy, 8-year-old female tap dancer. Check out the clip below.



Next week: Catch up with Amber Benson (Tara), Danny Strong (Andrew) and Tony Head (Giles).