Three underachieving high school seniors decide to throw a party to make a name for themselves. But as word of the event spreads, its starts to get out of control. The three try to salvage their lives while creating a legend. Starring Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown. Directed by Nima Nourizadeh. Written […]
Tag: Drama
NBC’s “SMASH” Hits All the Right Notes!
It is extremely refreshing to see a series where a courtroom, a hospital, or a crime scene are nowhere in sight. Networks don’t often take chances on a series without one of those popular and successful staples as its foundation. And let’s also get another thing straight – with the exception of the inclusion of […]
DVD REVIEW: JCVD Earns JCVD Some Genuine Respect!
For some reason, I can’t get this little bit of meta filmmaking out of my mind. Maybe it’s because Jean-Claude Van Damme comes across as a real person in this tale of a just-past-his-prime C-list martial arts star getting caught up in a hostage situation while tying to get the money to pay his lawyer […]
MOVIE REVIEW: The Soloist Plays Brilliantly!
I don’t know who made the decision to back The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as Paramount’s most likely Oscar® candidate, and to shuffle The Soloist to the spring release schedule where it will undoubtedly get lost among the spring blockbusters, but they definitely backed the wrong metaphorical horse. The Soloist is a film of […]
TELEVISION: Rescue Me: A Coffee Table on 9/11 Re-Opens Old Wounds In The 5th Season!
Rescue Me [FX, Tuesdays, 10 p.m.] chronicles the gradual self-destruction of New York firefighter Tommy Gavin [Denis Leary] ever since his cousin Jimmy [James McCaffery]died in action helping to evacuate the Twin Towers. As season five opens, Tommy has been sober for a year, an achievement that his cousin, Father Mickey [Robert John Burke], says […]
TELEVISION: Kings Brings The Story of David To Life In An Alternate Universe!
The story of David’s conquest of the giant, Goliath, is timeless – the little guy defeating the much bigger guy because he isn’t taken seriously [and with the hand of God to guide him]. Of course, the rest of the story isn’t as well remembered because it can’t be boiled down into three words like […]
TELEVISION: Saving Grace Welcomes Christina Ricci For Three Episode Arc
Tonight, Saving Grace [TNT, 10/9C], one of the more unusual cop shows returns – bringing Detective Grace Hanadarko [Holly Hunter] a new partner, Abby Charles [Christina Ricci in a three-episode arc] and Grace’s “last chance angel,” Earl [Leon Rippy], a seeming setback in his assignment to help Leon Cooley [Bokeem Woodbine]. Heart of a Cop […]
DVD REVIEW: Breaking Bad – The Complete First Season: Dying Chemistry Teacher Turns to Crime to Provide For His Family!
When Bryan Cranston won the Emmy for Best Actor, last year, it came as a surprise to most of the Awards show’s audience. After all, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm had all the buzz for that series going for him. That and Cranston’s Breaking Bad role, chemistry teacher Walter White, being a guy who decides, upon […]
TELEVISION: Lost: You’re Gonna Love Jughead!
Well, sir… Lost [ABC, Wednesdays, 9/8C] is continuing on its roll! Among other things, we learn that Locke [Terry O’Quinn] was born in March of 1956 – and that ties into Charles Widmore [Alan Dale] in a supremely unexpected manner. It also figures in explaining why Locke was visited by Richard Alpert [Nestor Carbonell] as […]
TELEVISION: The Closer: Suicide Is Painless – But Was This Suicide?
The winter premiere of The Closer [Mondays, TNT, 9/8C] is following a pretty hard act – it’s mid-season cliffhanger, and so we both learn the fate of Detective Sanchez [Raymond Cruz] and witness Deputy Chief Brenda Lee Johnson’s [Kyra Sedgwick] reaction to Fritz’s marriage ultimatum. Even better, there’s an apparent case of suicide that coroner […]
TELEVISION: The Best and Worst of 2008!
There was an overwhelming amount of great TV, this year [and, as you’ll see not too much later, an almost equally overwhelming amount of excessively bad TV]. Given the truly amazing amount of quality to be found between the networks and the various cable outlets, I’ve decided to list my favorite fifteen shows of the […]