Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire tells a pretty basic rags-to-riches tale that has oddly charming and wrenchingly violent sidetracks. It begins when Jamal Malik’s [Dev Patel] hot streak on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire culminates in a ten million rupee total before he is taken away by police on charges of […]
Tag: Drama
MOVIE REVIEW: The Day The Earth Stood Still: Well Mounted But Empty
The Robert Wise film, The Day The Earth Stood Still, was a metaphor for a cold war that was threatening to go hot. The remake is an ecological horror tale – if we can’t take care of the earth, we – and everything we’ve created – will be removed. It seems that we are at […]
TELEVISION: CSI Cliffhanger Makes the Most of Petersen & Fishburne
This season, CSI [CBS, Thursdays, 9/8C] has been a real rollercoaster ride. It started with the death of Warrick [Gary Dourdan] – followed by a murderer who used dead people to create some very warped art; an unsolved case involving an engaged couple; a killer hypnotist and even the return of Lady Heather [Melinda Clarke]. […]
TELEVISION: Caprica Is a Go!
After months of dithering, the Sci Fi Channel has finally determined that Caprica will be added to their schedule in 2010. The announcement, made today, is that the series has a twenty episode order – including the two-hour pilot. The series, which a prequel to Sci Fi’s signature series, Battlestar Galactica, stars Eric Stoltz [Milk, […]
DVD REVIEW: Studio One Anthology: Amazing Programming From the Dawn of the Television Age
Beginning in 1948 and boasting a nine year run – and over four hundred and fifty episodes – Studio One was the premiere anthology series in a time when live television drama was brand new. Every week, brought a new story – and the multitude of other anthology series that followed were equally productive. To […]
MOVIE REVIEW: Bolt in 3D: Disney Closes The Gap On PIXAR – But Only a Little
Walt Disney’s Bolt is a thoroughly enjoyable bit of fluff with just the right amount of darkness and danger to give kids [and their parents] a bit of a scare before everything works out. In terms of animation, it’s almost to the level of PIXAR, though the storytelling isn’t as fluid. The 3D, however, works […]
TELEVISION: Wagon Train: The Complete Color Season – Experience One of the Most Influential Treks in Television History!
When Gene Roddenberry pitched Star Trek to NBC, he described it as “Wagon Train in space.” Without Wagon Train, there might well have been no Star Trek – or any of its sequel [and prequel] series. But Wagon Train influenced Star Trek in more ways than simply trekking through space. The series, which had a nine-year run […]
TELEVISION: Ghost Whisperer: The Rumors Were True, So, Now What?
In last week’s episode of Ghost Whisperer [CBS, Fridays, 8/7C], the unthinkable happened: Jim Clancy [David Conrad] was killed, accidentally, when a police detective shot him thinking he was someone else. The episode concluded with Jim’s ghost appearing to his widow in his hospital room. Tonight’s episode, Threshold, finds Melinda [Jennifer Love Hewitt] unable to […]
TELEVISION: Sanctuary Renewed; Series Keeps Getting Better!
With the announcement that Sanctuary [Sci-Fi, Fridays, 10/9C] has been renewed for a second season, perhaps those who those who don’t like to commit to a new series for fear it’ll be cancelled will now give TV’s first green screen series a chance. Two upcoming episodes are good examples of the kind of quirky quality that […]
DVD REVIEW: Kung Fu Panda/Secrets of the Furious Five
The story of how Po [Jack Black] becomes the Dragon Warrior – despite the skepticism of the Furious Five Masters, Crane [David Cross], Mantis [Seth Rogen], Monkey [Jackie Chan], Tigress [Angelina Jolie] and Viper [Lucy Liu] – is one of the year’s surprise hits, critically as well as at the box office. The film’s DVD […]
MOVIE REVIEW: Synecdoche, New York – What Does It All Mean?
It’s been several hours since I walked out of the theater and I’m still wondering whutinthehighholyhellwuzzat?!? If you’ve seen any of the films that Kaufman wrote previously [Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind], then you know that is the usual state of mind that follows a screening his work. It’s just […]