There is a big danger in taking an already short television season and turning it into a single multi-episode storyarc. If the story isn't successful – if it isn't compelling, if the character arcs aren't interesting, if anything falls out… Read More ›
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Chasing After the Midnight Express
It is often said that the punishment should fit the crime. As a concept, that makes total and complete sense. The realities of the statement however don't always quite match up. One person's idea of the correct punishment for a… Read More ›
And Knowing is Half the Battle: G.I. Joe Hits DVD
Ah, the fabulous, freewheeling 1980s, a time when nothing was off limits, a time when a company could take a decades old toy and give it new life by creating a cartoon to promote the toy. Throw in a few… Read More ›
Spying on The Echelon Conspiracy
Sometimes watching a film one has to wonder how exactly the producers got so many name actors to be in such a bad movie. Coming soon to Blu-ray (after an incredibly short stint in the theaters) is The Echelon Conspiracy,… Read More ›
Is Raising the Bar Raising its Game?
Every week this season that I've turned on Raising the Bar – and that's been all of them – I've wondered why I didn't like the show anywhere near as much last season. Last year, I watched several episodes of… Read More ›
Wii are Distressed with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Hitting One Out of Bounds
Now, I’m all for tough scoring in golf. I’ve never been one of those people willing to kick a ball out of the rough or improve my lie. Consequently, my golf scores have never been very good – I’ve always… Read More ›
Can Royal Pains Ever Achieve Greatness?
After several weeks of watching it, I find myself totally and completely unconvinced by Royal Pains. I'm not saying that it's bad, I'm not even saying I dislike it, I'm just saying that I don't get it. Watching the series… Read More ›
Leverage Returns and Dark Blue Premieres
Next week, July 15 to be exact, TNT will be launching its third wave of summer original programming. This time out it's the premiere of the second season of the Timothy Hutton-starrer, Leverage at 9pm, followed by the series premiere… Read More ›
SciFi? Syfy? Either way, it’s Sci-Fi (for now)
Yesterday, the network once known as SciFi (pronounced like sci-fi) became the network currently known as Syfy (still pronounced like sci-fi). Is it no longer a sci-fi based network? Well, no, it probably is. They, technically speaking now don't necessarily… Read More ›
Diving into The Deep
In 1975, the film Jaws opened. It was, as you may already know, a huge hit. In fact, some argue that Jaws helped bring about the current “blockbuster” era of filmmaking, but that's neither here nor there. Whether or not… Read More ›
Catching up with some Grumpy Old Men
There are some comedy duos that just plain work, pairs that are natural together and inherently funny. Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau were one of those teams. Even when the film they were wasn't the best, when the two men… Read More ›
Taking the Battle to Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Movies based on videogames do not have a terribly good reputation. While it is possible to make a successful and popular film based on a game, more often than not, the audience is left with a terribly disappointing movie, one… Read More ›
A Few Summer TV Options
Today I awoke and found myself oddly pleased with the summer television fare available to me. Usually, I dread summer TV, or, at the very least, I recall dreading summer TV, whether I did or not may be debatable. In… Read More ›
Doing a Little Waltz with Bashir
There are times when someone sits down to watch a film and after 90 minutes realize that they've been sitting there in stunned silence the entire time. Did they like it? Maybe, maybe not. Was it a good movie? Well,… Read More ›
The Triumphant Return of Nova scienceNOW
Traditionally speaking, television in the summer is filled with reality shows, burn-offs of series that failed, and lots and lots of repeats. Cable has slowly started to change the game, launching lots of original scripted series over the summer. However,… Read More ›
Doctor Who and "The Next Doctor"
There are certain moments in television, certain episodes, to which I greatly look forward. Yes, season premieres and finales are most certainly among them, “special” episodes for sweeps tend not to be. On my favorite long-running series though I hugely… Read More ›
Steven Spielberg and Noah Wyle to Fight Aliens for TNT
News comes to us from TNT today that Noah Wyle has signed on to a pilot with them. In the as-yet-unnamed series Wyle is set to play the leader of a group trying to resist an alien invasion of Earth…. Read More ›
Getting Into Striking Distance
I hesitate to instantly, right out of the gate, damn a movie with faint praise, but the recently released to Blu-ray Bruce Willis action flick Striking Distance… isn't bad. At least, in hindsight it isn't. Oh sure, the movie wasn't… Read More ›
Promoting Watchdog Television
On last night's episode of Screen Time, Erin Medley and I discussed – in a terribly joking fashion – the notion that some sort of new version of Fight Back! with David Horowitz ought to exist (the Fight Back! website… Read More ›
Sure, There’s No Way Back, but you Wouldn’t Want to go There in the First Place
It is essentially a rule of Hollywood — become a big enough star and all your early work (the stuff from before you were a global superstar), no matter how bad, will get released to every new medium. While there… Read More ›