Zandervision

Spring Movie Preview

2011-03-01T21:34:00.004-05:00

With the Oscars now firmly behind us, it's time to look ahead to the new movies coming out over the next few months. If you haven't been catching up on Oscar movies, there hasn't been a whole lot to see since the new year. But that changes this very weekend with a number of March and April movies that seem potentially worth watching. Will one of these break out the way Memento and Eternal Sunshine did in the past? Or at least entertain us until the Summer of Superheroes Begins?

Happythankyoumoreplease (March 4th)

Yes, it was a hit at Sundance last year, but the real reason I'm excited is that it's directed by and stars Ted Mosby (aka Josh Radnor), meaning this is the closest thing to a How I Met Your Mother movie we have.

Red State (March 5th)

Kevin Smith doing a horror movie? Kevin Smith doing a political horror movie? Definitely has the potential for disaster. But that makes me all the more curious. And I've seen every other Kevin Smith movie (even Cop Out), so why stop now?

Paul (March 18th)

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost do for nerds what they've already done for zombies and cops. Since the previous two were hilarious, I expect the same for this one.

Win Win (March 18th)

I'm not really sure what it's about, but actor-turned-director Thomas McCarthy's previous two movies were The Station Agent and The Visitor. With a cast featuring Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, and Jeffrey Tambor, seems like he's up for a third critical hit in a row.

Sucker Punch (March 25th)

I can't say I'm too big of a Zack Snyder fan (though liked Watchmen better than some), but something about his newest looks cool. Maybe it's the largely unknown cast. Maybe it's the promise of crazy-ass visuals. Whatever it is, I figure this will either be the coolest movie of the spring or the lamest.

Your Highness (April 8th)

The trailer didn't wow me the way I hoped it would, but the Eastbound and Down team plus James Franco and Natalie Portman taking on The Princess Bride = something I need to see.

Hanna (April 8th)

Regardless of what you think of a movie about a teen hit girl, you have to admit the trailer is pretty badass.

Rio (April 15th)

With Pixar using its 2011 slot on a sequel to one of its least liked movies, there's room for another studio to take its buzz. As one of the few bright spots among movie trailers during the Super Bowl, Rio seems a good place to start.

Scream 4 (April 15th)

I probably shouldn't admit this, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3 Scream movies back in my teen years and am secretly excited about the prospect of a fourth. Will it be terrible? Probably. Will I still see it? Absolutely.

Water for Elephants (April 22nd)

One of the few movies on this list I'm legitimately excited about. I LOVED the book, and the trailers give every indication this movie will do it justice. Plus, who doesn't want to see Christoph Waltz outside a Nazi setting?

And possibly:

Friends with Kids (April TBD) - Skeptical this will actually make it out this spring, but I'm definitely excited for a movie that pairs Don Draper with Adam "Are we having fun yet?" Scott.

An Oscarcast That Will Live in Infamy

2011-02-28T21:08:00.003-05:00

It seems every year I write a variation on the same post about how the Oscars sucked in any given year. The banter's lame, the show's too long, the 20 minute interpretive dance number made absolutely no sense - there's always something to complain about. Which is why this year I had to stop for a moment and check the general consensus to make sure I'm not just repeating myself. Because in fact no, this year was not just the same old crap. This year really was particularly bad.

If you've read this blog at all in the past few months then you already know I think their choices for picture and director were awful. But what may have been less predictable is just how bad everything else was. I was skeptical of James Franco and Anne Hathaway as hosts, but figured they could somehow pull it off. Not so much. Rather than using the charm of his talk show bit in 127 Hours, James Franco came off as stiff and monotone the whole time, like he didn't want to be there. And while I think Anne Hathaway has the right energy for the job and could make a good host someday, she just wasn't given any good material. Plus somehow everyone I've talked to who watched the show thought they were high.

Nobody else did any better in trying to come up with something memorable. Kirk Douglas hijacked the show for about ten minutes. Then Melissa Leo hijacked it for another 15. How was she allowed to talk about nothing forever yet Aaron Sorkin got cut off after 30 seconds? Would a bad speech give the Academy the right to revoke her Oscar and give it to the far more deserving (and adorable) Hailee Steinfeld?

What else was there? I would applaud the return of the best song performances this year, except this had to be the worst year for best original song in my memory. The winner has to be the least memorable song Randy Newman has ever written. I admit that I did enjoy the auto-tuned Harry Potter, so I'll give them that. And the elimination of the long, pointless montages was a welcome decision. But that hardly makes up for what otherwise was an awkward, uncomfortable, and rather dull show.

The weak production puts even more focus on the awards themselves, which bucked the past four years' trend of actually rewarding good movies by taking us back to the '90s when any middling movie from Harvey Weinstein could win Best Picture. I had some hope Social Network might surprise when it went into the final four awards leading The King Sleeps 3-1. Clearly it wasn't a total lovefest if Speech wasn't getting the clean sweep.

But then something even the more pragmatic of Oscar predictors didn't expect happened: Tom Hooper won best director. A relative newbie whose direction was far from the best thing about the movie beat the vastly greater respected and more accomplished David Fincher, whose mark was on every frame of Social Network. It just doesn't really make sense. How did other directors make that decision? Who would pick him over ANY of the four other nominees? To be clear, I'm not saying Speech was poorly directed. It was perfectly adequately directed. But you could have handed that script to many a fellow Brit and gotten a similar result. The movie was a feat of writing and acting; not directing. And yet he's now an Oscar winner.

As for best picture, I had pretty much resigned myself to the inevitable, but it still sucks. I've already written enough about how strongly I feel The King's Speech is unworthy of the win, so I'll save you reading the same rant over again, but I still think it cheapens the meaning of the Oscars. Sure, we mock the Academy's choices every year and never take their decisions too seriously, but they had picked well for four years. Yet this year, joke institutions like the Golden Globes and the National Board of Review made better choices. What does that say of the validity of the Oscars as the highest award in the business?

Anyway, enough complaining. Goodbye 2010, hello 2011. Let's hope next year the Academy returns to awarding quality films instead of just sticking to their favorite subjects (British royals, Holocaust). And let's also hope The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is good, since David Fincher will probably win for it regardless. After all, he's now overdue. And that's how the Oscars work.

Final(ish) Oscar Predictions

2011-02-22T22:08:00.002-05:00

After a whole lot of build-up, the Oscars finally air this Sunday, and to be honest, I've kind of stopped caring. Once it became clear The King's Speech was the heavy favorite to win I realized there's no point in paying attention to an awards ceremony willing to bestow its highest honor on such an irrelevant pick. Nevertheless, here are my current picks and predictions for what will happen on Sunday.

Best Picture

Will Win: The Social Network

Should Win: The Social Network

Will Actually Win: The King's Speech

This is the category I've struggled with the most, and I'll probably change my mind five times before I finish this post. Because in truth, The King's Speech will almost certainly win. It won all 3 major guilds and is the more "traditional" pick. But at the end of the day, I still don't believe it. The King's Speech has been sitting in the frontrunner seat for about a month now, and that feels like enough time for the backlash to kick in. And The Social Network's win at the editing guild means there's reason to hold out hope, as silly as that may sound. I'm almost certainly wrong on this, but I think it's closer than people think, and I'd rather bet on what I'm rooting for than on a horrible mistake.

Best Director

Will Win: David Fincher, The Social Network

Should Win: David Fincher, The Social Network

Biggest Competition: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Despite the win at the Directors Guild, it would take a clean sweep for Tom Hooper to repeat at the Oscars. The Oscars like to reward auteurs, not newbies. So this feels like a far safer bet for Social Network than Best Picture does.

Best Actor

Will Win: Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Should Win: James Franco, 127 Hours

Biggest Competition: James Franco, 127 Hours

There's not really any scenario in which Colin Firth doesn't win. Many think he's overdue from A Single Man last year and his movie has the most nominations total. But how cool would it be if the Oscar host won an award?

Best Actress

Will Win: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Should Win: Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Biggest Competition: Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Annette Bening's lost a lot of hype since the summer, and Black Swan just crossed the $100 million mark. Since Natalie Portman worked crazy hard for the part, expect her to be equally rewarded here.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Should Win: Christian Bale, The Fighter

Biggest Competition: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

If Geoffrey Rush wins this award, you KNOW The King's Speech is taking Best Picture. Cause otherwise this is clear cut win for Bale.

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Should Win: Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Biggest Competition: The ladies of The Fighter

Melissa Leo was considered the favorite here, but the tides have turned away from her as of late. Since she's also got to fight against Amy Adams (who I personally think gave a stronger performance), I give the edge to the newbie, who showed what a true breakout debut can be.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: The King's Speech

Should Win: The Kids Are All Right

Biggest Competition: Inception

With Social Network comfortably in adapted, and the writer getting lots of publicity for his decades-long quest to get this movie made, this is a no-brainer.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: The Social Network

Should Win: The Social Network

Biggest Competition: True Grit

Since the screenplay is probably the best thing about it, and with The King's Speech comfortably in original, this is a no-brainer.

I'll keep it to straight predictions for the rest:

Best Documentary Feature

Inside Job

Best Animated Feature

Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film

In a Better World

Best Film Editing

The Social Network

Best Cinematography

True Grit

Best Original Score

The Social Network

Best Original Song

"If I Rise" - 127 Hours

Best Art Direction

Alice in Wonderland

Best Visual Effects

Inception

Best Sound Mixing

Inception

Best Sound Editing

Inception

Best Costume Design

Alice in Wonderland

Best Makeup

The Wolfman

Best Animated Short

Day & Night

Best Live Action Short

Na Wewe

Best Documentary Short

Strangers No More

Oscar Morning

2011-01-25T08:50:00.003-05:00

After watching the 8:30 AM announcement of the major Oscar nominees, it appears there were no MAJOR surprises. I can say that since I only missed 4 nominations total from my predictions a few days ago, and went 10 for 10 on best picture. But what do we know so far?

Biggest surprise for me was John Hawkes getting into the best supporting actor category, and totally deserved. I think most of us thought his performance would be a touch too subtle to compete with some of the showier parts this year. But since I'd vote him right behind Christian Bale, I was happy to see him get recognized. Still, sad to see it come at the cost of Andrew Garfield. As much as I love Jeremy Renner, I would have gone with Garfield over him. I hope it doesn't show flagging support for The Social Network.

The second biggest surprise for me was the Coens taking Christopher Nolan's slot in best director. And again, always happy to see the Coens be recognized, but maybe they could have taken David O. Russell's slot instead? It just seems weird that Inception is being recognized for its writing and not its directing.

I imagine the foreign film category was surprising to many, given that it included challenging critics' fave Dogtooth, which from my understanding includes incest and cat killing. But this year has been so devoid of popular foreign film options that I truly don't care. Even with all of the marginally known options nominated (Biutiful, Incendies, In a Better World), I haven't seen any of them and probably won't. What happened to the days when movies like Life is Beautiful, All About My Mother, and Pan's Labyrinth were in this category?

As far as overall trends, it sounds like The King's Speech has the most overall nominations, and True Grit and Winter's Bone did better than expected. Social Network lost one in Andrew Garfield and Black Swan lost one in not being nominated for screenplay. But that's not ultimately what will decide the race. As I already wrote a few days ago (in depth), it's Social Network vs. The King's Speech, and the winner depends on the Academy's mood this year.

(For those curious, the other two nominations I missed was Javier Bardem for best actor instead of Ryan Gosling and Another Year for best screenplay instead of Black Swan.)

UPDATE: Just saw the list of nominees not announced on TV. For the most part, the movies in the big 10 continued to dominate in the smaller categories too. So just a few observations:

Many would say this was a better year for nonfiction films than fiction, so I was curious how documentary would go. As expected, presumed frontrunners Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inside Job were nominated, though other popular choice Waiting for Superman was not. Of the serious summer war docs, Restepo made it in but The Tillman Story did not. And haven't heard of the other two. Still rooting for Exit Through the Gift Shop. At least until I see Inside Job.

Also, Hereafter for visual effects? Really? I mean, I haven't seen it, but over Tron?

Pretty happy with all of the nominees in best score, and hoping Trent Reznor will soon be able to call himself Oscar winner.

Finally, the best song category is weak since there were no particularly good options this year, and they didn't even nominate the song from Waiting for Superman that I think was expected to win. But they did two things right: only nominate 4 songs since there clearly weren't five good ones (yet only three the year of The Wrestler, Wall-E, and Slumdog?), and keep Burlesque shut out.

Oscar Nod Predictions

2011-01-23T10:55:00.004-05:00

The Oscar nominations will (finally) be announced first thing Tuesday morning, and this year I've decided to venture some predictions on the major categories because, you know, why not. But before I list the predictions, I wanted to write a little about how the big race has been shaping up so far this season, especially in light of The King's Speech's first major win at the Producers Guild Awards last night.

All season long, the Oscar bloggers have been calling this a two-horse race between The Social Network and The King's Speech, and, until the awards starting pouring in for Social Network, giving King the edge. And all season long, I've assumed this was some kind of strategy on the bloggers' part to ensure Social Network would be the eventual winner. After all, the frontrunner tends to stumble, so by talking up a lesser movie as the frontrunner over the obvious winner it would only help Social in the end.

But after last night, it's clear they weren't just being devious, and that all the reports of Academy members responding better to King weren't just too small sample size after all. Sure, common knowledge says that the Academy is old-fashioned and goes with the obvious, traditional movie that pulls the heartstrings over the hip, innovative, and better respected movie. But that hasn't been the case since, well, Crash infamously beat out Brokeback Mountain. The Departed, No Country for Old Men, The Departed, and even Slumdog Millionaire are unconventional Oscar movies for different reasons. Compared to them, Social Network actually makes a lot of sense for Oscar's mandate.

Because while conventional wisdom is that The King's Speech is the obvious Oscar movie while The Social Network is the challenging critic's choice, I'm not so sure I agree. First of all, the Oscars generally go for big movies. If Forrest Gump vs. Pulp Fiction is the prototypical "Oscars are traditional" example, then Forrest Gump is a whole lot more epic than King, which is just a nice little very British history lesson. Some have mocked the Oscars' recent push towards more challenging fare as turning them into the Indie Awards, but all of those recent winners are still bigger than King.

Second, the Academy wants its picks to seem "important." Even Crash pretended to have something relevant to say. The Social Network is no doubt the "important" movie of the year, attempting to define a generation and a technological movement. At the end of the day, what is King's Speech really about? One man overcoming a disability? A king who must inspire a nation to get through a war? Cause if it's that, I don't think the movie successfully proves the speech made much of a difference. I mean come on, how much power does a king in the 20th century really have? Sure it's nice to see him succeed, but beyond that, who really cares?

Finally, I think the whole emotional debate is not as cut and dry as many would believe. "The Social Network is heartless; The King's Speech is moving." I disagree. Maybe it's hard to sympathize with Mark Zuckerberg the character, a socially-challenged rich kid who turns against his friends to succeed. But Eduardo Saverin is an extremely sympathetic character, in a lot of ways the second protagonist, and I have trouble believing nobody felt for him at the end. And even Mark deserves a little pity as he pathetically refreshes his page, waiting to see if Erica accepted his friend request. While again, King's ending was nice, but I wasn't jumping out of my seat in applause. And if that one scene is what's supposed to make this the best movie of the year, I'm not buying it.

So I'm not saying The Social Network is a slam dunk for best picture, but I am saying The King's Speech would be the worst best picture pick in a long, long time, maybe even worse than Crash. Not because it's a bad movie. The fact that it is impossible to hate is the biggest reason it's considered so highly. But because it would be an entirely irrelevant choice. Best Picture is supposed to go to the movie to represent the year, that you come back to 20 years from now. 20 years from now, people will see The King's Speech and say "I have no idea what that is." The Queen and Frost/Nixon weren't considered frontrunners in their years, so I honestly can't understand why people think so highly of The King's Speech. Then again, everyone I know liked King a whole lot more than I did, so maybe I'm letting personal feelings get in the way of objective thinking. Either way, I don't get it.

Anyway, enough ranting, time for predictions. Each category is ranked in order of likelihood to be nominated.

Best Picture

The Social Network

The King's Speech

Inception

Black Swan

The Fighter

True Grit

Toy Story 3

The Kids Are All Right

127 Hours

Winter's Bone

Best Director

David Fincher, The Social Network

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Tom Hooper, The King's Speech

Christopher Nolan, Inception

David O. Russell, The Fighter

Best Actor

Colin Firth, The King's Speech

James Franco, 127 Hours

Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine

Best Actress

Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone

Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole

Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Fighter

Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech

Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Andrew Garfield, The Social Network

Jeremy Renner, The Town

Best Supporting Actress

Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit

Melissa Leo, The Fighter

Amy Adams, The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech

Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Original Screenplay

The King's Speech

The Kids Are All Right

Inception

Black Swan

The Fighter

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter's Bone

127 Hours

Zandervision Movie Awards 2010

2011-01-19T21:22:00.004-05:00

Following up on my top 10 list (posted yesterday), here are my picks for the best actors, directors, etc. of 2010. Rather than sticking to the standard winner/follow-up formula, this year in the major categories I'm going up to five choices, ranked in order, so this can double as what I would pick as the Oscar nominations (which are announced next week).

Best Actor

James Franco, 127 Hours

Runners-Up:

Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network

Jeff Bridges, True Grit

Colin Firth, The King's Speech

Leonardo DiCaprio, Shutter Island

Best Actress

Natalie Portman, Black Swan

Runners-Up:

Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone

Carey Mulligan, Never Let Me Go

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

Emma Stone, Easy A

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Fighter

Runners-Up:

John Hawkes, Winter's Bone

Andrew Garfield, The Social Network & Never Let Me Go

Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right

Pierce Brosnan, The Ghost Writer

Best Supporting Actress

Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit (yes, it's a lead role, but this is where she's campaigning)

Runners-Up:

Amy Adams, The Fighter

Olivia Williams, The Ghost Writer

Barbara Hershey, Black Swan

Keira Knightley, Never Let Me Go

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan

Runners-Up:

David Fincher, The Social Network

Edgar Wright, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Danny Boyle, 127 Hours

Christopher Nolan, Inception

Best Original Screenplay

The Kids Are All Right

Runners-Up:

Inception

Black Swan

Easy A

The King's Speech

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Social Network

Runners-Up:

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Toy Story 3

True Grit

127 Hours

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2010

2011-01-18T22:24:00.004-05:00

2010 is widely considered a weak year for movies. There were full months where there was almost nothing to see, and this year's awards season seems to have settled on its choices even earlier than usual. But I would argue that while 2010 wasn't a great movie year quantitatively, it still succeeded qualitatively - the few movies worth seeing hold up. In that spirit, here are the ten movies I thought held up the most.

1. The Social Network

At this point, to say that The Social Network is the best movie of 2010 is less an opinion than an objective fact. I hate making the same picks as everyone else and seriously considered going with another movie just to be different. But I'd be kidding myself. Nothing else even comes close. How often do you find a movie that has it all? Writing, directing, acting, score. Thought-provoking, timely, entertaining, funny. Filled with memorable characters and epic struggles. What began as "the Facebook movie" now really is the film for this generation, and will be what people are still watching twenty years from now.

2. Black Swan

Brilliant or tawdry, classic or cheap melodrama. You can guess where I sided in one of 2010's biggest movie debates. You might begin Black Swan thinking you're getting Darren Aronofsky's previous film The Wrestler transposed into the world of ballet. But quickly it becomes clear there's a lot more going on. The film could succeed as a backstage ballet movie alone without all the craziness in the final act, but that just wouldn't be as much fun. And with scenes like the opening ballet dream and that final "perfect" line, I left the theater sufficiently wowed.

3. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Here's a movie that exemplified one of the biggest trends of 2010: great movies bombing at the box office. Sure, the demographic may have been somewhat narrow (guys and a few girls exactly my age who grew up on exactly these video games) and the stylization extreme, but I was in love before the studio banner had left the screen. While the video game allusions and unique visual style may have been what made the movie so original, it was the characters that caused Scott Pilgrim to level up. And the dialogue. And the music. Really just across the board awesome.

4. 127 Hours

When was the last time you were so physically affected by a movie you left the theater shaking? For me, it was 127 Hours. And I mean that in only the best possible way. Forget about "the scene" - they get you through that as quickly and painlessly as possible. No, what makes this so hard to watch is the claustrophobia - sitting there with him as he struggles to figure a way out. But if you let yourself get scared off due to a little discomfort, you're not only missing an amazing viewing experience, but also one of the slickest movies of the year. With the entire Slumdog team in place, the music, editing, and cinematography all create what has to be the best possible execution of an unlikely movie idea. Don't be a baby. You're just missing out.

5. The Kids Are All Right

You don't have to look at the abysmal Golden Globes slate to see this wasn't a year filled with great comedy options. Yet into the dregs of summer fell the exact type of intelligent, emotional comedy we've been waiting for. The premise sounds like something out of a sitcom: "What happens when a lesbian couple meets their kids' sperm donor? Wackiness ensues!" Yet The Kids Are All Right avoids that trap by making you care for all of the characters. It would be so easy to view Mark Ruffalo's character as a loser out to steal the family of Annette Bening's, or to see Bening's as uptight and better pushed out of the way. But the writing and acting never give you either option. And when things get serious toward the end, there have been so many laughs beforehand that it feels totally earned.

6. Inception

No doubt about it: Inception was the movie event of the year. It was the only movie that kept me up for a midnight screening and the only movie that should have. Nearly single-handedly saving an infamously bad summer season, Inception was a blockbuster in the best sense of the word. No, I don't understand all (or, let's be honest, even half) of what actually happened. But who cares? Scenes like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's zero-gravity shoot-out and the building caving in on itself are movie magic, pure and simple. Besides, when was it a bad thing for pop entertainment to make people use their brains?

7. Toy Story 3

With possibly the most successful track record in Hollywood - creatively and financially - Pixar could have easily rested on its laurels, especially in making a sequel nearly a decade after the previous entry in the series. Instead, Toy Story 3 ups the ante of the first two, growing up with its audience to become a more mature and meaningful movie. While we may primarily remember the movie for its final scene, the rest deserves credit for being a thoroughly entertaining prison break, including some amazing visuals. But while the toys are great, this one is really Andy's movie.

8. Never Let Me Go

Another movie that failed to get the attention it deserved, Never Let Me Go is one of those rare adaptations that can stay faithful to its popular source material while still feeling like its own complete entity. There' s something about the dreary English countryside and the uncomfortable looks of the teachers that hits more immediately onscreen than on the page. Maybe it's the stunning cinematography and melancholy score. Maybe it's the extremely likable trio of Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield. But if you aren't moved by the emotional climax, you must be some kind of clone.

9. Shutter Island

Shutter Island got somewhat forgotten this year. Whether it was the early release date or the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio played basically the same character in Inception a few months later is anyone's guess, but I'd rank this close behind in terms of the year's coolest thrillers. It may have started slow and talky, but the suspense built and built as Leo was led on a surreal journey through a crazy looking prison ward and various possibilities of what was real. You definitely guessed some of the ending, but probably not all of it. And Martin Scorsese showed he knows his stuff when it comes to genre filmmaking.

10. True Grit

The Coen Brothers' most accessible and commercially successful film at first glance doesn't feel like a Coen Brothers movie at all. The story of a 14 year old girl who perseveres by pluck alone to save the day? Sounds like a Disney movie. But look closer and it's all there - the twisty, verbose dialogue that requires subtitles to fully understand; the quirky, oddball characters (what was up with Josh Brolin?); and the sudden violence. Still, the movie really belongs to Hailee Steinfeld, who breaks out in the biggest of ways as the quick-tongued and fearless heroine. Toss in a delightfully grumpy Jeff Bridges and this was the most fun movie of the Christmas season.

Honorable Mentions:

The Ghost Writer - Say what you will about Roman Polanski as a person, but this smart, intelligent thriller shows he still knows how to make damn good movies.

Easy A - The smartest, funniest high school-set satire since Mean Girls.

Greenberg - As unlikable as its protagonist may be, the movie makes coming back home decades later painfully relatable.

How to Train Your Dragon - Who would have thought a movie about dragons would feel so fresh and fun?

The Town - An old-school heist movie with a tinge of Good Will Hunting makes for a solid piece of Boston-set entertainment.

Now that I've made my picks, it's your turn. What am I leaving out? (And no, the exclusion of The King's Speech and The Fighter was not a mistake.) What am I overrating? And would you say 2010 ranks among the best or worst movie years? Leave a comment at the beep.

Premiere Week Redux: Yay or Nay

2011-01-12T21:37:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year everyone! I could say I resolve to write more than one blog post a month, but, you know, no promises there. I can promise I will post my top 10 list soon....ish. Before the Oscars at least.

This week saw a bunch of new TV show premieres, of which I flagged four to check out. And since I clearly don't have time to write about what I'm watching, I've decided it's time to stop giving middling shows multiple chances before dropping them. I mean, I still have full seasons of Nikita and No Ordinary Family on DVR that I somehow believe I may someday watch.

But no more. From now on, each show is getting a yay or nay after one episode. So while I haven't gotten to Shameless yet (and my disinclination to do so may suggest which way I'm leaning there), here's how the new system has worked on three new shows that premiered this week.

Episodes

I was pretty much onboard with this one from the promo alone. Entourage lost its ability to successfully mock Hollywood seasons ago, so there was a void for some other show to take its place. And at least so far, Showtime's new comedy about an unsuccessful transition of a British hit to American schlock brings in the satire and the laughs, Turtle-free.

Now, sure, some of the jokes are a little obvious. And there is one glaring flaw to the pilot: they barely introduce major character Matt LeBlanc, who by most critical accounts is the funniest part of the show. But that just means the show's bound to get even better. And with a British-style limited run of seven episodes, there's less time to lose focus.

Verdict: YAY

Lights Out

One of the downsides of the success of shows like The Sopranos and Mad Men and Breaking Bad are that now cable channels think every one of their shows should be dark, slow, and downbeat (which, by the way, none of those three previous shows entirely are). And as well-done and cinematic as some of the shows to follow are, at a certain point enough is enough. I need some entertainment in my TV.

This also ties into the trend to make TV shows more like movies. And when you get something as big scale and unpredictable as Lost, great. But for some movies, even good ones, two hours is plenty. Loved 127 Hours, but wouldn't want it to be a second longer. Which brings me to Lights Out, a cinematically-minded show that's well-done enough but I just don't want to watch 13 hours of it.

In some ways, Lights Out is like if you took Breaking Bad and replaced drugs with boxing. It's similarly about a guy with financial troubles forced to do something his family would disapprove of in order to provide for them. But the similarities end there. There's no humor, no immediate stand-out characters, and overall it's just kind of a bummer.

Now, I'm also not a fan of The Fighter (though fully support Christian Bale's upcoming Oscar win), so maybe I'm just not into boxing things. Or at least boxers. Just as Mark Wahlberg's character was the least interesting thing about the movie, here too I don't feel like the main guy is strong enough or interesting enough to anchor the show. And movies have so mined this kind of story before there just may not be too much new to say.

I dropped Terriers after one episode too, and weeks later critics were saying it was the best show on TV. So that could totally happen again. But Terriers was still a lot more fun. I'm not in any way saying Lights Out is a bad show or that you shouldn't watch it. But I've got dark cable drama fatigue, and this just isn't good enough to make the cut.

Verdict: NAY

The Cape

I won't write too much about NBC's latest attempt to get a superhero show going, since that would be somewhat unfair when I only made it a half hour into the two hour pilot. I didn't get to Summer Glau's introduction or even to where the main guy officially becomes "The Cape." But I still maintain that a half hour was plenty of time to label this craptacular.

To keep it brief, I'll just sketch out the reasons I labeled this with the c word. First off, ridiculously serious tone. This is a superhero show in the absolute most conventional sense. Music that rips off other superhero movies, dialogue that's ripped from a comic book; the only humor here is unintentional (though there's plenty of that). Next, bland main character. It may not help that he again looks identical to Mr. Schu from Glee and the main guy on Rubicon, but since he has less personality than either of them that can't be blamed. And again, the dialogue is just atrocious.

Verdict: NAY

The Golden Globes Are a Joke

2010-12-14T08:58:00.003-05:00

If there's one thing the Golden Globes are most famous for (on the movie side, anyway), it's nominating movie stars for unworthy performances just to get them to show up. So following such gems as Nicole Kidman in Birth and Sandra Bullock or Julia Roberts in anything, I was curious: what kind of craziness would the Globes come up with this year?

The answer? The entire musical/comedy category. That's right, the entire category is awful. Now, we knew going into it that this was a weak year in that area. There was no big popular comedy like The Hangover or big Oscar-baiting musical like Chicago, but there were still some decent enough choices they could have gone with. They could have picked a high-quality cult hit like Easy A or Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World. They could have picked a mainstream but enjoyable comedy like Date Night. Or a slightly more serious pick like Love and Other Drugs, which they clearly liked enough to give Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway nods (both totally deserved).

Instead, they took the one serious contender which is a shoo-in to win (The Kids Are All Right) and surrounded it with crap. To be fair, Red was a popular and well-liked movie, so I guess it gets a pass. But the Johnny Depp double dip is exactly the kind of star whoring the Globes are infamous for. Do you know a single person who didn't think Alice in Wonderland was one of the biggest duds of the year? Or a single person who saw the trailer for The Tourist and said "wow, that looks awful"? Followed by critics saying "remember when you said that looked awful? It's just as bad as you think it is." Yet it scored nods for picture, actor, and actress. And Johnny Depp got nominated for both! I'm not even going to bother getting into Burlesque - I think the name speaks for itself. I guess I should be grateful Cher and Christina Aguilera were left out. And at least they had the sense to nominate Emma Stone.

Anyway, the HFPA got most of their star whoring out there so the drama section's a considerably better field. With drama, the Globes like to play at predicting the Oscars, and the five nominees are all likely to make the big 10: The Social Network, The King's Speech, Black Swan, Inception, and The Fighter. The success of the first two was pretty heavily expected, so the only story here is all the love for Black Swan and The Fighter. I think some people online have been underestimating Black Swan cause they think Oscar voters don't know what a good movie looks like. Here's some proof they're wrong. As for The Fighter, this gives it a legit boost and some much-needed buzz to keep it's spot in the 10 (since the movie doesn't live up to the great performances in it). That still won't get Mark Wahlberg in at the Oscars though.

Other things of note in movies: True Grit was completely shut out. Not sure if that means they really didn't like it, or the movie wasn't available to screen at the time they voted. Suspecting the latter. 127 Hours, Winter's Bone, and The Town were all MIA in Best Drama, but none of those were too surprising. The Globes would never go for something as indie as Winter's Bone, or even really 127 Hours, and both still got something (actress and screenplay, respectively). The Town could have used the boost as it's fighting for spot #10 with Winter's Bone, but the nod for Jeremy Renner is a boost enough. And in case you were wondering, yes, the nomination for Halle Berry counts as star whoring.

On to TV, where I have considerably less to say. If the Globe movie nominations are known for star whoring, the Globe TV nominations are known for praising the new and the fresh over the old and the stale. Which often makes the Globes much better than the Emmys, though it also means weak new shows have a better chance than great long-running shows. But in a year with VERY few new breakout hits, this year's crop has a nice mix of both.

On the new front, no surprise to see Boardwalk Empire and The Walking Dead under drama, as they were the only new shows to make any impression this year. It's a strong category overall, as they're joined by Mad Men and Dexter, two shows past the Globes' usual cut-off date that both had great seasons, and The Good Wife, which now seems to really be the only good network drama. True Blood did very well with the Globes the past two years, but after a widely panned season it's deservedly out of favor. And I was happy to see a nod for Idris Elba in one of my personal new faves Luther down in the miniseries category. Though if they were going to reward one Dexter actress, I would have picked Jennifer Carpenter over Julia Stiles.

As for comedy, not a whole lot to say. With nothing new to shake anything up, it's pretty much a repeat. There's a lot of Showtime love with both Nurse Jackie and The Big C in most categories, which I neither support nor oppose. The Office and 30 Rock continue to coast on by with weak seasons cause apparently awards voters don't watch Community or How I Met Your Mother. With Glee less of a force than it was last year, I'd expect Modern Family to take it.

So that's my morning-of reaction. I've been spotty with the blog as of late, but heading into Oscar season I'll try to be on here more reviewing some of the movies in question, keeping you updated on how the Oscar race is shaping up, and of course, my annual top 10 lists for movies and TV. Stay tuned.

Zombies, AMC Style

2010-11-04T22:58:00.002-04:00

AMC immediately branded itself with Mad Men and Breaking Bad as a place for sophisticated, mature, and quality TV dramas. And since then it's been trying to help that brand grow. Rubicon attempted to take a similar approach to the political thriller...but forgot that political thrillers aren't supposed to be really, really boring. So now AMC's taking on the zombie genre, something radically different than the rest of its line-up.

The Walking Dead did begin as a comic book, and the pilot is certainly filled with lots of gore, but otherwise it fits right in at AMC for one clear reason: like the titular zombies, it moves very slooooow. At an hour and a half, the pilot has far more long silences than dialogue or action, setting the mood beautifully but not doing a ton for the plot. Most of the major characters beyond the protagonist are limited to a single scene, and the protagonist's lengthy walks around his ghost town might as well be happening in real time.

That said, it's not necessarily a bad thing just yet. This isn't a Rubicon case where we spend a half hour staring at a parked car and aren't entirely sure why. The silences do very much put us in the world of Rick Grimes, a sheriff's deputy who wakes up in the hospital after recovering from a gunshot wound to discover the world around him has greatly changed. There's a whole lot of emptiness, but the only signs of life come from those very much no longer alive. It may be pretty similar to the opening of 28 Days Later, but it's still effective.

Once he finds other survivors things pick up considerably. On a quest to find his wife and son, Grimes runs into a father and son getting by after their wife/mother joined the ranks of the dead. And we soon find out many of the people from Grimes' previous life are out there in a survivors' camp after all. Personally, I'd rather see what happens once Grimes meets up with them, but I get a sense that's how this 6 episode run will end.

If 6 episodes seems short for a first season, here's why it makes sense: this feels way more like a miniseries than a full series. That doesn't mean there's not more life in the show. It could turn out like the miniseries that initially launched Battlestar Galactica which, by the way, I didn't like nearly as much as the series that followed.

Ultimately, Walking Dead's pilot was strong enough to keep me going, but I'm not yet entirely sold. If the moodiness and slow pace of the pilot were intended to make an impression and help this stand out from other zombie things we've already seen (and there's not much else in the plot so far that does), then I'm cool with that. But if they really expect us to accept Rubicon-style pacing in a show about zombies (and zombies that are more sad than scary, for that matter), then I'm not so sure I'll be in for the long haul. Let's see how episode 2 goes.

Sanity Restored

2010-10-31T22:15:00.002-04:00

I can't let the month of October end without having made a single blog post, and conveniently I just got back from Washington DC, having migrated there along with thousands of others for the Rally to Restore Sanity. So for any of you who may have watched the rally on TV (whether Comedy Central or C-SPAN) or the internet and wondered what it was like down on the ground, the answer: a whole lot of fun.

Yes, the sheer quantity of people was pretty insane. The estimate is over 250,000 people. A bunch of people I talked to after the fact said they couldn't really see or hear most of what went on. And that was the case for me some of the time too, especially when I first arrived to find myself right in the middle of a busy passing lane, but once I got settled in front of a Jumbotron (and once they finally turned up the volume), it was all good.

There may have been a lot of people, but everyone very much acted within the spirit of the day. There was no pushing and shoving, even in the 45 minutes it took to exit. Instead everyone was polite, courteous, and friendly. Most of the crowd was happy to chat with each other. While I expected a demographic closer to what I imagined Daily Show's audience to be (young white men), that's not who I saw at the rally. My immediate area had more people my parents' age than my age, equal numbers of men and women, and a good amount of racial diversity as well (though yes, still predominantly white).

As for the show itself, I imagine it may have played like a pretty decent episode of Daily Show or Colbert on TV, but of course it was a whole lot more enjoyable live. All the critics concerned about what the rally means for Jon Stewart's role in society can relax. This was no serious political rally - it was a positive, fun, upbeat, and entertaining gathering of good people to have a good time. Much of the content was completely apolitical, addressing sanity and fear more in the abstract. And when it did get political it was always in the most positive way, appealing everyone to just get along.

The Roots made for a great opening act, immediately getting everyone pumped. Then John Legend came on and took the energy down a notch. I guess if the idea of the rally was to keep everyone mellow, chill, and sane, he did his job, but after a little while it started to feel like nap time. I was surprised the Mythbusters segment even made it to TV. It was a clear "warm up the crowd" ploy that went about 15 minutes too long (though I admit I couldn't hear a lot of it).

So the show really got going once Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert took the stage. Loved Colbert's poem as read by Sam Waterston. Enjoyed all of the sanity and fear awards, especially giving one to a 7 year old girl for having more courage than the news organizations that wouldn't let their employees attend. Loved the Stewart and Colbert song, even if it did mean listening to Stewart uncomfortably try to keep up with Colbert vocally. My favorite lyric: "From gay men who watch football to straight men who watch Glee."

Favorite part of the actual show: the dueling train songs. On one side, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam, on the other Ozzy Osborne. Hilarious. I enjoyed most of the other guest appearances as well. Fun to see Father Guido Sarducci, though not sure how many other people my age remember him from 1970's SNL. The Kid Rock/Sheryl Crowe duet was...unexpected. A little "We are the World," but felt appropriate for the occasion. And Tony Bennett's presence made the whole thing seem classier.

And Jon Stewart's moment of sincerity at the end felt exactly right to me. It was what those of us who don't throw a fit every time he steps out of his comedian role for a second want from him. He was rational, he put things in perspective, and was even pretty inspiring. It wasn't a tirade against Fox News but a plea for people to strive to be better than all of the sniping of today's age. Very sane.

Best part overall though: the creative signs people carried. Sure, there were a few people who seemed to miss the message of what the rally was about (one poster showing Republicans with Hitler mustaches seemed to completely miss the point), but the vast majority were in the spirit of the event. I wish I could remember more, but here are some of my favorites:

Hitler is a Nazi

No one is Hitler*

*except Hitler

Will Read Tea Party Signs that Need Spellchikking for $5.00

Gay Agenda:

1. Call my mom

2. Buy groceries

3. Equality now

I will hold this sign for 20 minutes max and then I'm done

No more Texas

I Heart Kittens

Bring Back Firefly

Christine O'Donnell turned me into a newt

There's nothing to fear but the Zombie Apocalypse

Any sign referencing The Dude

RIP Lone Star

2010-09-28T23:47:00.003-04:00

Today, Lone Star became the first cancellation of the new TV season. Which sucks, cause it was actually one of the better new shows. I still haven't seen the second and final episode, but judging from the pilot this was an entertaining and appealing show that, for better and for worse, was very different from everything else on TV. The fact that the show doesn't quite fit into any particular box (smart drama, trashy soap, or both?) made it hard to market, and harder to get people to watch. But still, how are people ignoring this and choosing instead to watch obvious crap like Shit My Dad Says and Outlaw?

Not that it matters much anymore, but the pilot centers on Bob/Robert Allen, a con man running two long cons simultaneously. In one, he's selling shares to non-existent wells to people in Midland, Texas, while living with his girlfriend. In another, he's married and working his way up in his father-in-law's oil company. And in both, his con man father is close by to monitor his progress.

I think a lot of people were turned off by the idea of a guy sustaining two separate relationships, but while it may certainly make him an anti-hero, Josh Wolk has enough charisma as an actor that Bob/Robert remains likable. It also helps that he's trying to get out of the con life and actually believes he loves both of the women. The best stuff in the pilot involves his interactions with his dad, all of which feels like something out of a Sawyer flashback from Lost (which I mean in a good way). When it gets too far into the family drama with the oil company, then it heads a bit into Dallas territory.

So there's the issue right there. For the most part, it's a smart drama, but it's also a bit of soap. It's a con man show, but has a lot of other things going on. It's hard to tell from the pilot what would happen next, and I guess we may never know. Still, this one had a lot of promise, and I'll get to that second episode at some point, even if I don't ever get to see the third.

Premiere Week Part 2

2010-09-25T13:18:00.011-04:00

Premiere week is now over, and I still have a lot to watch. But here are some quick takes on all the comedies I watched this week, both the returning and the new. New shows first.

If you listened to most critics on Fox's two new Tuesday night comedies, you'd set the series pass on Raising Hope and figure Running Wilde would be a complete waste of time. But personally, I liked Running Wilde better. It's certainly flawed and far from perfect, but when it comes to which one holds more promise and makes me laugh more, it's Wilde.

From the creator of Arrested Development, starring Will Arnett and featuring David Cross, Running Wilde has very much the same tone as its comedy classic predecessor. Steven Wilde (Arnett) is the rich son of an oil company owner who's never had to work or grow up in his life, and Emmy Kadubic (Keri Russell) is an environmental activist who's spent the past six years in the Amazon. They had a thing when they were teens, and now Emmy's back in town. The show's narrated by Emmy's daughter Puddle, who otherwise chooses not to speak, and the rest of the supporting cast consists of the people who take care of Wilde and his competitively rich frenemy/neighbor.

Like most pilots, this one crams a lot into 22 minutes, so it's hard to tell what a normal episode will be just yet. Arnett and Russell's interactions could use some work, and nobody in the supporting cast has really stood out so well (though I sense potential in the neighbor character). But given the amount of talent behind this show, I bet all of that can be worked out down the line. In the meantime, the pilot has more laughs than most other comedies on TV, the three leads are all likable, and AD's style of humor is very much at work. There's even an overt reference to it with one of GOB's catchphrases.

Verdict: May ultimately go either way, but I'm certainly sticking with it for the time being.

As for the show that airs before it, Raising Hope, I'm betting this falls into the category of decent shows that just aren't for me. From the creator of My Name is Earl, the tone is very similar: sweet and funny, but way more sweet than funny, with a cast of colorful hicks. Jimmy (Lucas Neff) is a young pool skimmer trying to figure out his life's purpose when he ends up in charge of a baby for fairly entertaining reasons. His parents want him to give it away since they barely managed to raise him, but he's determined. So the show's about the three of them not-so-successfully trying to raise the baby.

There's a big missed opportunity by taking the baby's mother out of the picture by the 15 minute mark, since she was one of the better characters. And the pilot's best moment may be an inside joke about My Name is Earl's cancellation. Since otherwise the show's more about awww moments than big laughs. And when it does go for laughs, it tends to be in the broader slapstick direction, especially those involving Cloris Leachman's often-topless senile grandmother. And it doesn't have as strong a hook or characters as Earl did. It wants to be the next Modern Family, but it's just not as clever.

Verdict: I'll give it one or two more episodes to be sure, but this one just isn't for me.

Speaking of Modern Family, it came back this week very true to form: no frills, no crazy plot developments, just simple hilarity. Of the three plotlines this week, I'm calling Mitchell and Cameron the funniest, as Mitchell sets out to build Lily a castle using his supposed college theater abilities while Cameron and Jay try to keep him as far away from the tools as possible. Mitchell defending himself while accidentally cutting down the flowers is classic. But plenty of good stuff elsewhere as well, with the Dunphys taking one last trip in the car they hadn't used in years, and Gloria getting jealous of Manny's study date. MF continues to be the most consistently funny show on air.

On to NBC's Thursday, where Community started off the set with plenty of cliffhangers to resolve. Last year I gave Community three episodes then let it go. But it takes time for a comedy's ensemble to gel together, and when I gave it another shot this summer I ended up really liking it.

The premiere sure makes it seem like this could be a break-out year for the show. With season 1 ending with all sorts of love quadrangle drama, this week addressed everything in a way that stayed funny and set up the rest of the season. Overexposed as she may be, Betty White's guest spot totally worked, and it will be interesting to see how letting Senor Chang into the study group will alter the dynamics.

With The Office and 30 Rock increasingly heading into old age, Community's quickly becoming NBC's top show to watch on Thursday nights.

30 Rock started its 5th (!!!) year with plenty of meta references to the fact that nobody expected it to last this long. It's also no longer top comedy dog now that buzz has shifted over to Modern Family and Glee. Which I think is a good thing, as all the overhyping didn't really serve what's basically a fun little gem. And with lowered expectations, it still delivers.

It does seem 30 Rock is the place to go for dramatic actors trying to prove they can do comedy, as Matt Damon follows in Jon Hamm's footsteps to reprise his season finale role as Liz's pilot boyfriend Carol. Having initially played the role pretty straight, Damon definitely gets laughs as he reveals Carol to be kind of needy. Too bad he can't stay too long if he wants to keep making movies.

Elsewhere, the Kenneth-gets-fired plot continues, as Tracy misses him while he settles in at CBS (sorting the Letterman audience by attractiveness). A bit of a missed opportunity as Jenna is given a producer credit only to give it up by the end of the episode. Would have been fun to see her fight with Liz and Pete on stuff throughout the season. And no sign of Danny, except on Glee. There's a danger this season will continue on the all Jack and Liz's love lives, all the time track it keeps heading on, but so far so good.

Finally, The Office maybe should have ended a few seasons ago (why do they want to continue after Michael leaves?), but it always starts its seasons strong and this year was no exception. Last year we met some summer interns, and this year we got Luke, the new office assistant. Who's also Michael's nephew. And sucks at his job. Which led to plenty of hilarity and great Michael moments.

Even better, a return to the Jim and Pam pranks of old, which had been neglected since the writers decided all Jim and Pam could do was be cute. Unfortunately, Dwight continues to become more of a sitcom caricature with every second he's onscreen. Enjoying Kelly thinking she's smart and professional without backing it up. Sad for Andy that Erin left him for Gabe. And not really sure what the deal with the lip dub thing at the beginning of the episode was about. A take-off on a youtube video I haven't seen?

If this year's like the past few years, The Office has 5 good episodes in it before it starts to drag again. But all the writer interviews I've read say they're stepping it up for Michael's last year, so maybe this will be a return to form. It's certainly possible.

Premiere Week Part 1

2010-09-21T22:51:00.006-04:00

With SOOOO many shows premiering this week, both new and returning, it's going to be awhile until I get to everything I'd like to. Possibly weeks. So in order to leave myself time to actually watch some of these shows, I'm just going to do a whole bunch of quick takes on everything I've seen so far all at once.

Glee was probably the returning show I was most looking forward to, and the premiere reminded me how much fun this show is, if also why it's often called out as problematic. Beginning with a list of all the criticisms people have made about the show, the premiere went on to exemplify one of the bigger ones: fitting 5 episodes' worth of plot into a single hour. Which is why I wouldn't say the episode itself ranks among Glee's best.

But as far as setting up the new season goes, it definitely did the job. Coach Bieste throws a whole new twist into the Schue/Sue relationship, and fun to see them working together for a change. Just about every major kid character had some kind of change: Finn getting kicked off the football team, Artie losing Tina, Rachel having to compete with newcomers, Quinn back as captain of the Cheerios, etc. New characters (Sunshine, Sam, and the new Vocal Adrenaline coach) were introduced in such a way that you got a good sense of them without them taking away from the leads. And great musical numbers combined with good Sue Sylvester lines made for a very enjoyable hour of TV.

Going right to the theme episodes next week with a Brittany Spears homage may be a bit too soon, but hey, we knew this wasn't Mad Men. Glee doesn't take its time. The important thing is that all of the fun, energy, and humor of the first season is still very much intact here in year two, and this will continue to be the show I actually watch the night it airs.

I've got a lot of pilots I still need to get to, but the one new show I know I'll be sticking with is Boardwalk Empire. Between Martin Scorsese directing and Sopranos alums running the show, the pilot had a lot to live up to. And as far as I'm concerned, it succeeded. Personally, I'm getting a little of sick of shows on HBO, AMC, and FX that take their sweet time getting to the point, making you sit through a few dreary hours before getting amazing by the fifth episode. Boardwalk Empire is not like that. There's so much action, character, and, yes, actual humor in the opener alone that this isn't just a prestige show; it's actually entertaining.

Beginning right at the beginning of Prohibition, the show centers on Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi), a city councilman in Atlantic City, New Jersey who puts together a bootletting operation to keep his city wet. He plays the politician by telling the temperance ladies he's one of them, then makes deals with New York (in the form of Michael Stuhlbarg's Arnold Rothstein) and Chicago (meet young Lucky Luciano and Al Capone). But just as central is Nucky's driver Jimmy (Michael Pitt), a young guy who turned down Princeton to fight in WWI, who plays the Christopher to Nucky's Tony. And at the same time, the Feds are trying to close the operation down, specifically Michael Shannon's Van Alden.

I've heard some criticism of Steve Buscemi as the leading man, and I will say I'm reserving judgement on that front. He definitely plays the part well, but as an excellent character actor he doesn't quite have the gravitas of, say, a James Gandolfini. But with so many great supporting players that may not make a difference. Michael Pitt's character is already emerging as just as much of a protagonist. And while much of the cast can be hard to distinguish as "white guys who look alike," enough stand out right away that everything should fall into place a lot earlier than in other HBO historical series like, say, Rome.

Obviously the production values of the $18 million pilot are extraordinary, and that's a reason to check it out alone. The show brings old Atlantic City to life in a big way, and the visuals are amazing to watch. You can tell the pilot was directed by Scorsese since it has the feel of his movies, which may have a lot to do with why it's so watchable. This is no dry history lesson, but a show that brings its era to life in much the same way Mad Men does, except with a lot more violence.

Given that the showrunners previously worked there, the show feels a LOT like The Sopranos, but in a good way. If you've been looking for something to fill that void, this is definitely it. And if you haven't, it's still a different enough show you might find something to like. With no other new shows breaking out as big hits the way Glee and Modern Family did last year, this seems to be it. HBO certainly thinks so, having already renewed it for a second season. If the rest of the season lives up to the promise of the pilot, we'll be seeing Boardwalk give Mad Men a scare at the Emmys next year.

How I Met Your Mother had what was pretty widely considered a weak fifth year. The showrunners are the first ones to admit that, so they wanted to step it up big time for season six. And in a lot of ways, this week's premiere showed the benefits of listening to your fans. It was a very back-to-basics episode, taking place almost entirely within the bar on a single night. Ted got to be the focus again (but not in an obnoxious way), and every character generally acted like themselves.

But while the rest of the episode was perfectly solid and enjoyable, it's the ending that makes this a great premiere and one that should re-hook any questioning fans. The show may be more of a "Friends for the 21st century" than an actual story about Ted meeting his wife, but this week brought the mother story a big step forward by revealing they meet at a wedding. The bigger surprise: Ted is the best man at the wedding! Ted doesn't know that many people. Marshall and Lily are already married. So the two most obvious guesses would be Barney or Robin. Though maybe it's Rachel Bilson marrying her new girlfriend. Why she'd chose some guy she dated for all of a minute as her best man I don't know, but she does at least she would presumably invite the mother-to-be.

Ah well, plenty of time to keep speculating. I'm certainly intrigued to find out.

Ok, catching up with some stuff from last week, Top Chef: Just Desserts premiered last Wednesday and while it's certainly not up to original flavor standards, I'd rank it above Masters. Like in the original, Desserts has contestants who really care about winning, so it's not all a good-natured lark like for the pros. The personalities are even bigger than on the regular version, so it almost feels more like Project Runway (not saying that's a good thing, just observing). But most importantly of all, there are so many delicious looking desserts that I will immediately need to run out to Crumbs after every episode. Total food porn.

If that weren't enough, everyone's favorite TC judge Gail Simmons is hosting, and Hubert Keller is supposed to show up somewhere down the line. It's hardly appointment TV, so too bad it's on during the busy fall instead of, say, the summer, where it would be exactly the right type of fluffy fun I'm looking for. But as a placeholder for real Top Chef, it works.

Finally (and STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE TOP CHEF FINALE YET), I finally saw the Top Chef finale tonight, and somehow stayed spoiler-free beforehand. Which made me all the more shocked by the result. It was clear from the episode that Kevin's was the meal they liked best, so in that sense he deserved to win. But it wouldn't have been clear that he would be Top Chef from any other given episode this season. He always seemed like one of the chefs that was good enough to stay in but not good enough to win too much. Then again, Ed sealed his fate when he decided to delegate the entire dessert course, and Angelo was working with a pretty severe disadvantage. Kevin did seem REALLY happy about it, so it's hard to hold it against him. But he seems more like another Hosea than one of the more obvious winners.

Well...So Much for True Blood This Year

2010-09-14T22:50:00.002-04:00

I hadn't been a huge fan of True Blood this season, but I had faith it would pull itself together. Every season has a slow build-up before getting good, so it was ok that the first half of the season was kind of boring. I was frustrated that each of the main characters was stranded in a completely separate storyline and that there were more new characters than returning ones, but I believed it would all come together somehow. And now that the finale has aired, it's clear that....it didn't.

Nope, instead of all the separate characters pulling together to stop Russell Edgington like they did Mary Ann last year, each of the storylines remained just as separate as they've been all summer. Even worse, not one of them was properly resolved. Some fizzled to a lame end with the possibility of an encore, like Russell. Others went the cliffhanger route. And still others made it clear this entire season was just a big set-up for next year.

Let's start with Russell, who was supposed to be the unifying Big Bad this year. The moment that really got me re-hooked on the show and convinced me these last few episodes would kick into gear was, of course, when Russell killed the newsman on TV. Great, I thought, now Russell's going to go absolutely insane and have to be dramatically put down. But he didn't. That was the climax of his character arc. And since he was basically captured at the end of the last episode, he was rather easily defeated by Bill and Eric this time. He's obviously coming back, so I can't even say his cement burying counts as an ending, but since he was the only new character that positively added to the show that's ok with me.

Moving on to the main characters, a whole lot happened between Sookie, Bill, and Eric, but not a whole lot of it really worked. Bill went back and forth so many times it was hard to keep straight what he was up to, except that he may have completely lost it. Maybe this is supposed to signal a darker Bill in season 4 who kills anyone who looks at Sookie funny, or one deadset on covering his tracks. Given how many times Sookie's hated then loved Bill this season, it's hard to say if the reveal of his betrayal affects their relationship any more than anything else that's happened. And it's hard to take the Bill/Sophie Ann airborne fight scene too seriously.

Oh, and all the Sookie's a fairy stuff led to her entering fairyland. So.....again a set up for next year.

But even if it didn't all pull together, the Sookie/Bill/Eric stuff was still the most entertaining storyline throughout a season filled with extraneous ones. Were the sideplots worth sitting through? Let's see, we put up with Sam's consistently painful to watch birth family all year so....he could shoot his brother. Maybe. Seriously? Lafayette's romance with Jesus.....will make more sense next year, cause it was entirely set-up. Tara being depressed...caused her to cut her hair. Arlene being afraid of giving birth to Rene's baby....will continue. And worst of all, the complete waste of Jason's character we've witnessed this year seems to exist solely to put him in charge of a depressing village of meth addicts. That's not getting me excited about next season.

So I think it's safe to call season 3 an off year for True Blood. There was a whole lot of plot, but not a lot of drama. Most of what was built-up hasn't paid off yet because the pay off (hopefully) still has yet to come. Hopefully with Jesus and the Wiccan waitress already on the show there won't have to be too many new cast members next year, and we can spend more time with the ones we got. Hopefully the cast will also spend more time together instead of going off on separate adventures with various new supernatural creatures. Personally, I think witches are better than werewolves (not that the werewolves even served much of a point this year), so I believe next year will be better. Or at least I hope so.

Fall TV Season Begins

2010-09-12T23:31:00.003-04:00

Premiere week may not be for another week still, but this past week already saw the premieres of two new shows that caught my attention: FX's Terriers and The CW's Nikita (that's right, I'm letting the Ashley Tisdale cheerleading show Hellcats go by unwatched). I'm still planning to do a full fall TV preview post at some point, but in the meantime here's verdicts on these two pilots.

First up Terriers, a light detective drama starring The Tao of Steve's Donal Logue and True Blood's Michael Raymond-James as unlicensed private detective partners. The two leads are very likable with lots of good banter between them, and the generally breezy tone makes this a perfectly enjoyable hour of TV.

But with all the crime shows on these days, is a straight-up detective series enough to cut it? The clips of upcoming episodes make it clear this is not just a case-of-the-week procedural, and that the events of the pilot will have repercussions on the rest of the season. But while watchable enough, the set-up's not quite intriguing enough to keep me coming back. I'd be curious to hear if things pick up down the line, but with so much else to try out, this just doesn't stand out enough to warrant a DVR pass.

On the other hand, I'm a little surprised to say I will be giving Nikita at least one more episode. I haven't seen the movie or the original USA TV show, but I can say that the newest update is a lot Alias and a lot Dollhouse. But since I like both those shows and neither is still on the air, I'm ok with that.

Nikita (Maggie Q) was part of a secret government organization called Division that trained attractive young people to be assassins. But something turned her against them, and now she's waging a one-woman war to take them down. Meanwhile, Alex (Lyndsy Fonesca) is a new Division recruit, just starting her training. With other familiar faces including The O.C.'s Melinda Clark, 24's Xander Berkeley, and Shane West, it's an appealing group.

The pilot crams in a lot, and it's clear this won't be the most character-based show on TV, but it's got potential. Between this summer's Covert Affairs and the fall's Undercovers, there's a bunch of new spy shows but this is the only one attempting an Alias-like mythology (though without the Rambaldi stuff, I hope). After a few episodes it may turn out to be more of a cheesy CW execution than some of the other genre shows it aspires to be, so I may bail after episode 2 or 3. But I could use a fun action show, and it's possible this could be it.

Must-See Fall Movies

2010-09-01T19:08:00.003-04:00

With September starting today, it's time to leave behind this summer's rather disappointing slate of movies and look ahead at what the next few months will bring. Summer blockbusters largely didn't pan out, so brainier fare may be just what we need. Here are the ten I'm most excited about.

Never Let Me Go (September 15th)

Based on an acclaimed book by Kazuo Ishiguro, containing a cool premise (which I won't spoil here), and starring the extremely likable Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightly, and Andrew Garfield, Never Let Me Go has a lot to be excited about. Truth is I've already seen it, but I can confirm it's even better than it sounds and a strong contender for my top 10 list. So definitely a must-see for everyone reading.

Wall Street 2 (September 24th)

Have you ever seen the original Wall Street? Sure, it's a period piece now, but still fun and fascinating today. With Michael Douglas reprising his iconic part, Carey Mulligan in her second buzzworthy role in one month, and trailers showing the spirit of the original is still there, this should be worthwhile even beyond its timeliness.

The Social Network (October 1st)

Somehow "the Facebook movie" has become one of the hottest movies of the fall. Maybe it's the Fincher/Sorkin/Rudin combo. Maybe it's the glimpse of the future Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Maybe it's that really cool cover of Radiohead's "Creep" in the trailer. Or maybe people are just hopelessly obsessed with Facebook. Whichever it is, I'm going opening weekend.

It's Kind of a Funny Story (October 8th)

As much as I enjoyed Half Nelson, I'm even more excited to see its writer/directors go a little more mainstream with what looks like a teen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest starring a very appealing and eclectic cast including Zach Galifianakis, Aasif Mandvi, and Lost's Jeremy Davies. Plus the trailer looks great.

Due Date (November 5th)

I'd already be excited since it's Todd Phillips' follow-up to The Hangover, but he made this all the more exciting by rejoining with Zach Galifianakis (also with two entries on this list) and adding Robert Downey Jr. It may basically be a remake of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but with the two of them that sounds like a great idea.

127 Hours (November 5th)

Danny Boyle always surprises with his movie choices, whether going sci-fi (Sunshine), horror (28 Days Later), family friendly (Millions) or the Bollywood/Dickens hybrid that is Slumdog Millionaire. So of course I'm excited to see what he does next. The idea of a movie about a guy trapped under a rock for 127 hours doesn't immediately sound exciting, but the trailer shows there's a lot more going on.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (November 16th)

If you don't know why I'm excited about this, you probably haven't spent much time on this planet the past decade.

Black Swan (December 1st)

Like Danny Boyle, Darren Aronofsky is following up an acclaimed 2008 release (The Wrestler) with something ambitious and cool. A Persona/Mulholland Drive type thriller set in the world of ballet starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis? Yes please. And with universally good reviews coming out of Venice, this one looks like a winner.

The Fighter (December 10th)

David O. Russell may not be a nice person to work for, but he does make good movies. And with Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale starring, this looks to be one of them.

True Grit (December 25th)

Coen Brothers, Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin. Need I say more?

And 5 more:

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (Sept. 22nd) - Cause I can't say no to a Woody Allen movie

Let Me In (Oct. 1st) - Definitely curious to see what an American version of the atmospheric Swedish vampire movie looks like.

Morning Glory (Nov. 12th) - The plot may be out of How I Met Your Mother (and the shortlived comedy Back to You), but the involvement of JJ Abrams and Rachel McAdams has me intrigued.

Love and Other Drugs (Nov. 24th) - A Jake Gyllenhaal/Anne Hathaway reunion, and a plot involving Viagra.

Somewhere (Dec. 22nd) - Curious what Sofia Coppola does with what sounds like the plot of a Nick Hornby book.

So there are my picks. Which ones will you be seeing? What did I leave off?

Last Minute Emmy Predictions

2010-08-29T15:17:00.004-04:00

Emmys are tonight, and with a ton of fresh blood in the field it's actually tough to predict this year's crop. Will Emmys keep to their infamous tradition of rewarding the same old same old? Or will they recognize one of the strongest crops of new shows since, well, the year Lost premiered? Here are my (probably very wrong) guesses:

Best Drama

Will Win: Lost (but realistically probably Mad Men)

Should Win: Lost or Dexter

Dark Horse: Pretty much anything but True Blood

Snubbed: Damages

This is a really tough category to call. Do they reward Lost for finishing strong despite a controversial ending (like they did with The Sopranos)? Do they recognize Dexter's best year? Do they reward The Good Wife for being a break-out freshman and a traditional network drama? Do they side with the critics in calling Breaking Bad the top show? Or do they let Mad Men go three for three? Seeing as it's the Emmys, it will probably be Mad Men, but for some reason I'm going with Lost.

Best Comedy

Will Win: Modern Family

Should Win: Modern Family or Glee

Dark Horse: Glee

Snubbed: Party Down

This one's a little easier. Despite 30 Rock winning in all of its three previous years, I think everyone knows this one's really between the two break-out new shows: Glee or Modern Family. Glee's won most of the awards for being the phenomenon of the year, and Emmys have occasionally gone that route in the past (like giving Lost a win in its first year). But Modern Family's so much more Emmy-friendly (and consistent) that I bet it takes the win.

Best Actor, Drama

Will Win: Michael C. Hall, Dexter

Should Win: Michael C. Hall, Dexter

Dark Horse: Bryan Cranston, Hugh Laurie, Jon Hamm

Snubbed: Timothy Olyphant, Justified

Another really tough category. Bryan Cranston won the past two years and Breaking Bad fans say this season's been his best yet, so he's definitely the favorite. But Michael C. Hall's won other awards this year for his best year yet. Plus he's shockingly never won here before. But neither have Hugh Laurie and Jon Hamm, both of whom had very strong submissions. Could go any of the four ways.

Best Actress, Drama

Will Win: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife

Should Win: Glenn Close, Damages

Dark Horse: January Jones, Mad Men

Julianna Margulies has won everything else so far, and I think it's a safe bet she'll take this one too.

Best Supporting Actor, Drama

Will Win: Michael Emerson, Lost

Should Win: Terry O'Quinn, Lost

Dark Horse: Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad

Snubbed: Campbell Scott, Damages

There is a very strong chance the two Losties (both of whom have already won) will cancel each other out, and Aaron Paul will win for what I'm told is a fantastic performance. But here's my thoughts: Michael Emerson has the better episode submission, since Dr. Linus is one of the best of the season. But Terry O'Quinn gave the better season-long performance, since he had to play polar opposites in the Man in Black and Sideways Locke. And there's always the chance Andre Braugher takes it instead.

Best Supporting Actress, Drama

Will Win: Christina Hendricks, Mad Men

Should Win: Christina Hendricks, Mad Men

Dark Horse: Archie Panjabi, The Good Wife

Snubbed: Jennifer Carpenter, Dexter

Joan may have been woefully underused last year on Mad Men, but the episode she submitted is a knockout, plus everyone loves her. Though Archie Panjabi is just as much of a scene-stealer on The Good Wife, so the Emmys' clear love for the show could carry over to her. I also wouldn't count out Elisabeth Moss or Christine Baranski.

Best Actor, Comedy

Will Win: Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Should Win: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Dark Horse: Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Snubbed: Jay Harrington, Better Off Ted

Tony Shalhoub has won this category so many times that I don't think the rest of the world's disdain will keep Emmy voters from giving it to him one final time. Though in recent years they've loved Alec Baldwin even more. Most people are rooting for Jim Parsons though, so maybe that will pay off?

Best Actress, Comedy

Will Win: Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Should Win: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Dark Horse: Toni Collette, United States of Tara

Snubbed: Portia de Rossi, Better Off Ted

Emmy voters love Edie Falco, so expect her to be rewarded for making them forget about Carmela. But they also love Toni Collette playing multiple personalities. And they love Tina Fey. But Edie Falco will ultimately win this.

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy

Will Win: Ty Burrell, Modern Family

Should Win: Ty Burrell, Modern Family

Dark Horse: Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Snubbed: Ed O'Neill, Modern Family

As long as this isn't a repeat for Jon Cryer, I'm happy with anybody who wins here. NPH absolutely deserves this award, but deserved it more the past 4 years. Eric Stonestreet would be the obvious Emmy pick, but Ty Burrell is really the stand-out. And while Chris Colfer's nomination was a pleasant surprise, he's probably too young and too dramatic a role to take it. But you never know.

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy

Will Win: Jane Lynch, Glee

Should Win: Jane Lynch, Glee

Dark Horse: Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Snubbed: Lizzy Caplan, Party Down

This seems like one of the biggest no-brainers of the night, though Sofia Vergara is also hilarious. But how can they keep Sue Sylvester from adding another trophy to her case?

Christmas in August

2010-08-02T21:44:00.003-04:00

Mad Men typically takes its time to get its seasons started, doing a slow build that pays off big time by the finale. But after two episodes, it seems season 4 is no typical Mad Men season. That extra energy present in the season 3 finale that had been absent in the rather gloomy and downbeat season preceding it was back in full force in last week's premiere, as we watched Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce well into their start-up mode and very much in action.

There's a new feel to this season, and so far the change is for the better. Sure it's sad to see characters like Paul go, but that just means more time for favorites that had been neglected last year, like Peggy and Roger. And I imagine we'll see everyone soon enough, seeing as we've already had returns from Freddy Rumsen and Glenn, both of whom I'm pretty sure haven't been seen since season 2. Though I may need to refresh my Mad Men memory. Is Peggy's boyfriend new, or was he on last season?

As fun as the premiere was, it was actually the second episode I'd put as the first classic of the season. As odd as it may be to watch a Christmas episode in the midst of this heat wave filled summer, it was certainly a great one. Last week I think we witnessed the emergence of Diva Don - Don's the star of the new agency and everyone else pretty much has to do what he wants. But Don's star was nothing compared to that of Lucky Strike Lee, who's previously used his power to get Sal fired. As the sole person keeping the new venture afloat, he got to act like a little kid and have everything his way. The big party, the present, and most forcefully Roger in a Santa suit all came about to attend to his desires. Who else thought Roger might put the company in jeopardy by punching him in his over-tanned face?

While Roger was swallowing his pride to keep the agency going, Don didn't worry about his. Needing to be tucked in at night first by the nurse down the hall and then his secretary, it's clear his post-divorce life isn't going so hot. Though this week's Don's storyline was really ruled by his secretary, who I can't say I had noticed before (did she come over from Sterling Cooper or was she new last week?) but did a pretty great job establishing her character within the one episode. From competently yet flirtily taking care of Don's holiday shopping to thinking her crush had gone requited only to seemingly be paid off to keep quiet, she got quite the arc for a character whose name I still don't know. May be interesting to see if that continues this season.

Finally, I guess Glenn was always kind of creepy, but he definitely went big time creepy this week. I'm not sure if his sneaky phone calls or his breaking in was worse, but he seems to be getting kind of stalkerish towards Sally. Or maybe he's just trying to make Betty jealous. I have to admit I'm not minding the diminished screentime for Betty so far. Her courtship with Henry last year took away valuable time from the office. She's clearly sticking around, but for now at least she's taking up an appropriate amount of the episodes.

Oftentimes when shows try to change things up, it either fails miserably (Weeds moving to the Mexican border) or devolves back into the show the writers were trying to escape from (Nip/Tuck moving to LA). But while it's only been two episodes, it's looking like the move to SCDP was just what Mad Men needed after all. I'm looking forward to seeing how the new agency manages.

Elsewhere on AMC, Rubicon, the network's third original series, premiered last night. Due to a DVR mix-up I've only seen the first of the two episodes, but I can't say I'm excited to keep going. While the premise certainly sounds like my kind of show and the opening credits had me intrigued, Rubicon's pilot had to be one of the slowest moving hours of TV I've ever seen. I swear if they eliminated every long silence it would have been a third as long.

So what did happen? Not too much. Kim Bauer's ex now has Will Schuester's hair and first name and works at some government office where he sits around and does crossword puzzles all day. One of the crossword puzzles turned out to be dangerous and got his boss/father-in-law killed. This caused him to stare at a parking lot for 20 minutes. And....that was the first episode!

I will say that the preview for coming episodes did look a whole lot more interesting, but maybe that's because they took the entire season's worth of plot and condensed it to 30 seconds. I don't want to dismiss this one too soon because I wasn't wowed by Breaking Bad either and now I've got 3 seasons to catch up on since everyone says it's the best show on TV. But so far Rubicon is feeling to me like Treme did: something that's slow and boring but gets critical acclaim anyway. While I now know Treme never did pick up, there's still a chance Rubicon could. Did anyone watch the second hour? Will it change my mind? Or should I just enjoy Mad Men and not worry about what comes after it?

Emmy Reactions

2010-07-08T09:32:00.003-04:00

You can find the full list of nominees elsewhere online, but overall I'm pretty happy. Most of the picks from my Wish List last night (that weren't complete longshots) found their way on, even some less obvious ones like Matthew Fox (for I believe the first time!) and Chris Colfer.

Things I'm Happy About:

Lots of love for Lost, including Best Drama, Best Actor (Matthew Fox), Best Supporting Actor (Terry O'Quinn and Michael Emerson), and Best Guest Actress (Elizabeth Mitchell)

Lots of love for Modern Family, with Comedy, 3 Supporting Actors, and 2 Supporting Actresses

Lots of love for Glee, with Comedy and an actor in each of the four major acting categories, plus guest nods for Mike O'Malley, Neil Patrick Harris, and Kristin Chenowith

Entourage was shut out

Christina Hendricks AND Elisabeth Moss for Mad Men

Martin Short got in for Damages

John Lithgow, Gregory Itzin, and Ted Danson in guest actor. Quite a strong category.

The fact that NPH got 2 nominations.

Things I'm Not so Happy About:

While I'm happy about Damages' 5 acting nominations (including 2 in guest), it still should have gotten nods for Drama and for Campbell Scott. I realize its place in Drama was taken by True Blood, another show I watch and like, and which just had its breakout year, but Damages was better

I'm aware Better Off Ted and Party Down nominations were never going to happen, but Portia de Rossi still should have gotten one.

I've only seen a few episodes of each, but Joel McHale and Timothy Olyphant deserved nominations.

How is Nurse Jackie a comedy?

Jon Cryer.

Overall, a good selection of what was actually good this season, rewarding the new breakout hits (Glee, Modern Family, The Good Wife) while letting long-running shows past their prime take a breather (Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, to a lesser extent The Office). We just better not see a Mad Men/30 Rock threepeat come fall.

Emmy Wish List

2010-07-07T23:27:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow morning the Emmy nominations will be announced. Rather than doing any kind of involved list of predictions or picks, I figured I'd list a few possibilities in each category that I'd like to see nominated, regardless of whether there's any probability of that happening. So here's what I'm rooting for tomorrow - the likely and the longshots:

BEST DRAMA

Lost

Dexter

Damages

Mad Men

BEST COMEDY

Glee

Modern Family

Party Down

Better Off Ted

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA

Michael C. Hall, Dexter

Jon Hamm, Mad Men

Matthew Fox, Lost

Timothy Olyphant, Justified (even though I've only seen one episode of the show so far)

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA

Glenn Close, Damages

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA

John Lithgow, Dexter (he'll be in guest actor but should be here)

Terry O'Quinn, Lost

Michael Emerson, Lost

Campbell Scott, Damages

Martin Short, Damages

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA

Jennifer Carpenter, Dexter

Christina Hendricks, Mad Men

Rose Byrne, Damages

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY

Jay Harrington, Better Off Ted

Matthew Morrison, Glee

Adam Scott, Party Down

Joel McHale, Community

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY

Lizzy Caplan, Party Down

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY

Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother

Ty Burrell, Modern Family

Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Ed O'Neill, Modern Family

Chris Colfer, Glee

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY

Jane Lynch, Glee

Portia de Rossi, Better Off Ted

Sofia Vergara, Modern Family

Julie Bowen, Modern Family

Megan Mullally, Party Down

HBO is Summer TV Central

2010-06-29T21:40:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday saw the return of Entourage which, when combined with True Blood's third episode, means we're really in summer TV season now. HBO may air a lot of serious stuff like The Pacific and that Al Pacino as Jack Kevorkian movie, but they know what people want to see in the summer: super light escapism. So for those of us who want to turn off our brains but maybe not so much as to tolerate America's Got Talent, here's where we'll be.

I went into Entourage's 7th (!!!) season the way I have every season since like season 3: by saying, "Why is this show still on and why am I still watching it?" But as it did last summer, Entourage reminded me: because there is no other show that better exemplifies summer fluff TV than this one. It's a show about rich people with problems so minor you'll have forgotten them by the time the credits roll. And in the meantime, plenty to live vicariously through.

After the season 3-5 rough patch where the show forgot what it was about and made Vince's career tank, Entourage is back in full-on fluff mode. Last year Vince basically took the year off with nothing to do, but this year he's back doing what he does best: acting as a vessel for a glimpse inside Hollywood without showing any personality whatsoever. This week saw him doing a stunt with no training to prove he's not a pussy, which of course made him seem all the bigger a pussy for not being able to say no to his director. That meant we got to see Vince on set, see a guy light up on fire, and watch his team react to Vince's whining. What more do you need?

Elsewhere, Eric had a light episode, enjoying a lunch with now fiance Sloane (at a restaurant that seemed to employ Top Chef season 5's Stefan?) and doing some basic Vince work. Ari realizes being head of WME (or whatever fictionalized name they came up with) is a lot of work. And Drama and Turtle are still really, really annoying. Turtle wins for worst subplot of the night, partly due to it involving Heroes-killer Dania Ramirez. But hey, Entourage was never a great show. Or even a particularly good one. But it's fun, and that's what makes it good summer TV.

I heard a lot of announcements between seasons about the huge number of new characters coming to Bon Temps this season, which made it all the nicer to see them all largely absent from the premiere. So many shows lose themselves in new characters and new plotlines that it's good to see True Blood sticking by its core characters. But the premiere also saw them all completely spread out. Sam off with his bio family, Bill in Mississippi, Jessica in her house - it was looking like we'd be getting 8 different separate subplots all season long.

While that's still somewhat the case, at least by episode 3 there's been some convergence. Sam is back at Merlotte's and interacting with everyone else. Jessica's been linked back in through Franklin's visit and Sookie's request that Sam look out for her. Sookie's left again in search of Bill, but her trip to Dallas last year didn't hurt anything.

Thing is, True Blood is one of the few shows that actually structures each of its seasons on one of the books it's based on. Which means each season is structured like a novel, with beginning, middle, and end spread out throughout the season. So there's no rush to introduce important characters right away - Eric didn't show up til like midway through season 1, I'm guessing so it would line up with the page he entered on in the book. And these first 3 eps have been a lot of build-up.

So while it's too early to know which of the many plot threads will pay off, here's how I'm feeling about them so far. Among the better ones, True Blood's decision to use actual wolves instead of really crappy CGI has paid off, and the werewolves have come off less lame than on most similar shows and movies. And cool to see Eric and Godric fighting Nazi werewolves. Franklin's super creepy so far, which could go either way. So far so good, but could overstay his welcome a la Maryann. And while she hasn't had too much to do yet, I'm liking the increased screen time Pam's promotion to regular has led to.

On the other end, Sam's family drama isn't doing it for me so far. Maybe it's cause I still remember his little bro being annoying on Prison Break, or because they've mostly been in their own little world, but so far it feels separate from everything else and not so interesting. I've got nothing against King Russell as a character, but that subplot won't kick in until somebody else shows up there. And way too early to say anything on Alcide, who's only barely been introduced (yet I believe is meant to be the biggest new character this season).

However the various threads end up working out, True Blood's got a solid start so far and seems bound to keep getting better each week. I'm glad to have its campy style of fun on my TV this summer.

This Week in Summer TV

2010-06-10T22:01:00.006-04:00

This week, my TV season fully transitioned from regular season to summer, with the finales of Glee and Top Chef Masters, and the premieres of two shows I thought I'd give one (and only one) episode each: Persons Unknown and Work of Art. I already discussed Glee, but here's my brief takes on the other three:

Persons Unknown sounds cool on paper: a bunch of people are kidnapped and put in a mysteriously empty village where they're watched by unknown people. Sounds a little like The Prisoner meets Lost, right? Well, if NBC hoped you'd think that, they didn't work too hard to make it known. I didn't hear about the show until the day of, which makes it all the more clear this is just typical summer burn-off.

But summer trash can still be summer fun. If there's any show Persons Unknown really resembles it's Harper's Island - CBS' attempt to do a weekly horror series that, well, didn't do so well. Like Harper's it's got kind of an intriguing idea, but also like Harper's it's undone by a rather C-level execution. By the end of the first hour, you don't really know anything about any of the characters, other than that they're all kind of annoying. And they don't really do much but wander around and yell "How do I know you're not THEM?!?!"

In the promo at the end, NBC's emphasized that the show will give you answers, and soon. But what they seem to forget is that people wanted answers on Lost so badly because they really cared about the questions. And so far this scenario just isn't quite creepy enough. Lost had the Monster and the polar bear. The Prisoner had the giant bubble and the question of why No. 6 resigned. Persons Unknown has grainy video footage and a bunch of Chinese guys saying "Please" a billion times a second. That's not gonna cut it.

No characters and weak acting and dialogue is one thing. But if this is gonna go for the campy guilty pleasure that is really its only hope, there's gotta be a bit more going on. I wouldn't mind watching another episode, but at the end of the day, I'd rather spend that time working through my TV on DVD.

Last night Bravo unveiled their newest entry into the Project Runway/Top Chef family: Work of Art. It's basically Project Runway with art instead of fashion. Take a bunch of wacky creative types, give them a mentor (but now with an accent!), and have them judged by a panel of experts in their field.

If "Project Runway with art" sounds good to you, you'll probably enjoy this show. Magical Elves make good reality TV, and it certainly feels like Bravo-era Project Runway. And unlike the Lifetime editions, this show actually does have some colorful characters and maybe even some talent (not that I'd have any idea).

But another part of me feels like this is to Project Runway what Top Chef Masters is to Top Chef: it's watchable enough, but it doesn't feel quite as right as the original. The new mentor doesn't have quite the spark of Tim Gunn, and the judges don't have the zing of Michael Kors and Nina Garcia. I'm also a little iffy on the concept. The artists all get to work in their own media, so you've got painting vs. photography vs. photoshop. No wonder the photographers came out on top; which do you think takes longer?

Again though, the reason I can't get into it is I'm just not that into art. And I'm over Project Runway. Really, the only reality TV I want to be seeing is shows involving food. So while I'm not opposed to having this on in the background, if I'm watching Bravo this summer it's for Top Chef.

Speaking of which, Top Chef Masters aired its season finale this week, and we again saw one of the biggest differences between the spin-off and the original: everyone on Masters always makes good food. The finales are never about who's going to win; it's about watching a whole lot of food porn. So the fact that the three came so close in the end is no surprise; any one of them could have won. But it was nice that Marcus did. Guess I should try out Aquavit some time.

Summer TV Preview

2010-06-09T09:17:00.004-04:00

There may not be a whole lot worth watching on TV over the summer, but that doesn't mean there isn't anything you could watch. So I've put together a list of the return dates for some of my cable faves as well as what new shows the networks are burning off this summer. Things I'm planning to check out are in caps.

The Good Guys (June 7th, 9:00, Fox)

Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks star. Kind of looks like a USA show, no?

PERSONS UNKNOWN (June 7th, 10:00, NBC)

Sounds cool, is produced by The Usual Suspects' Christopher McQuarrie, and stars Ferris Bueller/Spin City's Alan Ruck. So why did I first hear of it the day of its premiere?

Pretty Little Liars (June 8th, 8:00, ABC Family)

Alloy Entertainment tries for another YA series to TV show success with this teenage Desperate Housewives.

WORK OF ART (June 9th, 11:00, Bravo)

It's Project Runway but with art instead of clothes. Since PR is no longer worth watching, maybe this will fill the void? (Note: Regularly airs at 10:00)

TRUE BLOOD (June 13th, 9:00, HBO)

A premiere I'm actually excited about! They've announced an insane number of cast additions for the season and the promos all look awesome. Proof that good summer TV can still exist.

Scoundrels and The Gates (June 20th, 9:00 & 10:00, ABC)

It's cute that ABC is trying for original scripted shows in the summer, but that doesn't mean I'll watch either of these. Scoundrels seems like another USA-lite show about criminals trying to go legit, but it stars Tony Almeida! And The Gates is Desperate Housewives with vampires. If you're looking for some trashy fun this summer, maybe that will do the trick.

Rookie Blue and Boston Med (June 24th, 9:00 & 10:00, ABC)

Oh look, another cop show, how original. Boston Med however is not a generic doctor show to logically follow, but a documentary-series a la Hopkins from a few summers ago, this time set in Boston.

Hung (June 27th, 10:00, HBO)

Is this any good? I watched the pilot and wasn't wowed. If you were, this is when the second season premieres.

ENTOURAGE (June 27th, 10:30, HBO)

Mark Wahlberg promises there will only be 6 episodes after this season. So if you've made it this far, might as well see it to the end.

Huge (June 28th, 9:00, ABC Family)

Another show Alloy Entertainment made off of a YA book series. This one's about fat camp and stars Hairspray's Nikki Blonsky.

Louie (June 29th, 11:00, FX)

It's gotta be better than Louie C.K.'s last show on HBO, right?

HAVEN (July 9th, 10:00, Syfy)

The logline sounds like 5 other Syfy shows (mysterious town where supernatural stuff is going on), but it's based on a Stephen King novella and therefore will be awesome. Unlike most of the shows on this list, I actually plan to watch this pilot.

The Bridge (July 10th, 8:00, CBS)

Oh look, a cop show. Way to be original CBS.

The Glades (July 10th, 10:00, A&E)

A procedural....but wait! The main guy doesn't play well with authority. That IS quite a twist!

Rizzoli & Isles (July 12th, 10:00, TNT)

Procedural based on Tess Gerritsen's bestselling book series. Should fit in nicely at TNT.

Covert Affairs (July 13th, 10:00, USA)

The logline sounds like every other USA show ever, but it's got Piper Perabo, who was very cute in Coyote Ugly....not that I saw it or anything...

The Pillars of the Earth (July 23rd, 10:00, Starz)

An event four-part miniseries based on Ken Follett's massive tome. Should be pretty epic.

MAD MEN (July 25th, 10:00, AMC)

Are you ready for Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce? Cause I certainly am!

Masterchef (July 27th, 9:00, Fox)

Since it worked so well when NBC tried to rip-off Top Chef, now Fox is giving it a go.

Jersey Shore (July 29th, 10:00, MTV)

My must-NOT see of the summer. But for those of you that like trash, mark your calendars.

RUBICON (August 1st, 8:00, AMC)

AMC's track record alone (Mad Men, Breaking Bad) makes their 3rd original show worth checking out, but it helps that it also sounds pretty awesome. (Note: Regularly airs at 9:00, and a preview episode airs after the Breaking Bad finale this Sunday)

COMEDY CENTRAL ROAST OF DAVID HASSELHOFF (August 1st, 10:00, Comedy Central)

If I watched last year's roast of Joan Rivers, I'm definitely watching them tear into the Hoff.

Big Lake (August 3rd, 10:00, Comedy Central)

It's a comedy from Will Ferrell's prod.co. that's got some SNL alums in it.

WEEDS (August 16th, 10:00, Showtime)

I hear they're finally ending the nightmare that was the past two seasons on the Mexican border and relocating to Seattle. That's got to mean an improvement, right?

THE BIG C (August 16th, 10:30, Showtime)

A female-centered half-hour dark comedy that may ultimately feel more like a drama? Will fit in perfectly on Showtime.

That Sue Sylvester - She's a Marshmallow

2010-06-08T22:43:00.004-04:00

This year's crop of finales has had quite the mix: crazy twists (Gossip Girl), emotional but puzzling (Lost), out-of-nowhere action (Grey's Anatomy), and business as usual (24, The Office, Modern Family). So while the TV season may have actually ended a few weeks ago, I'm still naming Glee as the one that was overall most satisfying. As tough an act as Sectionals was to follow, Regionals more than rose to the task, reminding everyone all over again why we fell in love with this show over a year ago when they first sang "Don't Stop Believing."

Glee may generally call itself a comedy, but this finale had far more moments to make some hypothetical person (totally not me) tear up than laugh. From Tina breaking down in that super depressing pizza "party" to Mr. Shu pumping everyone back up with his Journey idea, there was plenty of emotion on display well before everyone said how far they had come this year. To casual fans it may have come off as cheesy, but to us true Gleeks it was heart-warming.

While we all knew "Don't Stop Believing" would be sung to bring the season full-circle, the Regionals performance was a whole lot more than that: a medley that also included "Faithfully," "Anyway You Want It," and "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'." And as was the case in Sectionals, they showed who brought the fun, getting everyone up on their feet to clap along (except Sue, of course). And everyone got a chance to sing - not just all Rachel and Finn.

While the Journey made for the musical highpoint, there was still plenty of music to go, starting with Vocal Adrenaline's ambitious cover of "Bohemian Rhapsody," which further proved Jesse's assessment of the group as "soulless automatons." Still, that was some of the craziest fill-every-inch-of-the-stage-with-super-speedy-people dancing I've seen. And all the more amusing for being set against Quinn's delivery. Quinn shouting out lines from the song was definitely too much, but otherwise I thought the juxtaposition worked. And I love that Quinn and Mercedes are now bffs.

As for the judging, as soon as celebrity came up you knew Sue was going to show the heart beneath her steel tracksuited shell and save the day. Josh Groban and Olivia Newton-John's cameos were kind of lame last time around, but ON-J was pretty awesome dressing down Sue, being offended only one group chose one of her songs, and insulting just about everyone. Groban still not so much. And though Sue couldn't get New Directions to place, she was able to make a jab at the hilariously named Oral Intensity.

So while I knew Sue would be the one to convince Figgins to keep Glee Club alive, that didn't diminish the super moving "To Sir with Love" performance the club gave to Mr. Shu (though still not as good as "My Life Would Suck Without You"), the series of insults Sue had to get out before she could give him the good news, or how great it was to hear him tell the club "One more year!" Oh, and the twist that Shelby adopted Quinn and Puck's baby? Brilliant.

So to me, the finale had everything we want in a Glee episode: great musical numbers, involvement of all of the characters, classic Sue Sylvester moments, and for it to leave you feeling good. Still one of the most satisfying hours on TV, and I can't wait to watch Will go up against John Stamos' dentist next season.

Free Outdoor Movies!

2010-06-08T09:24:00.006-04:00

New Yorkers, bookmark this page! Here is your one-stop guide to all of the many free outdoor screening series this summer. So what are we seeing this summer?

BRYANT PARK

The most well-known of the various screening venues is usually the most creative with its choices, but you can always count on a number of popular picks. All are on Monday nights.

June 21st Goldfinger

June 28th Carousel

July 5th The French Connection

July 12th My Man Godfrey

July 19th The China Syndrome

July 26th Monty Python and the Holy Grail

August 2nd Rosemary's Baby

August 9th The Goodbye Girl

August 16th 12 Angry Men

August 23rd Bonnie and Clyde

RIVER FLICKS (Hudson River Park)

Just like last year, the theme is movies from the previous summer. So I've pretty much seen all of these, but watching The Hangover outside could definitely be fun. Wednesday nights.

July 7th The Hangover

July 14th I Love You, Man

July 21st The Proposal

July 28th District 9

August 4th Julie & Julia

August 11th Public Enemies

August 18th Star Trek

RIVER FLICKS FOR KIDS

Same series as above but for kids and on Friday nights. I'm always down for Muppets.

July 9th The Wizard of Oz

July 16th Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

July 23rd The Great Muppet Caper

July 30th Monsters vs. Aliens

August 6th Big

August 13th Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

August 20th Annie

SUMMER ON THE HUDSON (Riverside Park South)

Another series that seems to lean towards the recent movies. Also on Wednesday nights.

July 7th NeverEnding Story

July 14th Pan's Labyrinth

July 21st Inkheart

July 28th The Fall

August 4th Big Fish

August 11th Stranger than Fiction

MOVIES WITH A VIEW (Brooklyn Bridge Park)

Lives up to its title - this is the best view of any of these series. But you can't always hear when the subway goes by. Thursday nights.

July 8th Annie Hall

July 15th Monsters vs. Aliens

July 22nd The Big Lebowski

July 29th Rear Window

August 5th Brokeback Mountain

August 12th Dreamgirls

August 19th The Blues Brothers

August 26th Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

September 2nd Public's Choice

RIVER TO RIVER FESTIVAL (Movie Nights on the Elevated Acre)

More Muppets! Also Thursday nights.

July 29th Broadway Danny Rose

August 5th Auntie Mame

August 12th The Country Girl

August 19th The Muppets Take Manhattan

INTREPID SUMMER MOVIE SERIES
Watch movies on a boat. Saturday nights.

May 28th Top Gun
June 19th Field of Dreams
July 9th Ghostbusters
July 23rd The Goonies
August 6th Raiders of the Lost Ark
August 20th Rocky

ROOFTOP FILM NOIR/VAULT OF HORROR SCREENINGS (Tony Dapolito Recreation Center)

I think this is a new one. Friday nights.

July 8th Laura

July 15th Double Indemnity

July 22nd Sunset Boulevard

July 29th All About Eve

August 6th Freaks

August 13th Invasion of the Body Snatchers

August 20th Night of the Living Dead

August 27th Rosemary's Baby

CENTRAL PARK

Not yet listed; check back later for schedule

Party Down on DVD This Summer

2010-06-07T23:07:00.003-04:00

With Glee providing the last major finale tomorrow night, the main TV season is most definitely over. And as much as the networks may talk about their 52-week schedules, we all know that summer TV, at least on the networks, is a bust. The benefit: more time to watch shows we somehow missed when they originally aired. Whether it's older shows you always meant to try (yes, I'm still working on The Wire) or new shows it's not too late to jump into, summer TV for me is all about the TV on DVD.

Or in this summer's case, TV on Wii. Thanks to Netflix adding Wii to their list of Netflix ready devices, I can now watch anything on Netflix's instant viewing section on my TV. Which is largely how I came to try Party Down, a show that premiered as one of Starz's first original programs a year ago and is currently on its second season, but few people seem to know about it. Despite big names in the cast and among the producers, it has remained very much below the radar.

Which is exactly why I'm recommending it for TV on DVD this summer. I got so hooked after starting I ended up watching all 10 episodes of the first season in just 2 days. So what is it? Well, it's basically The Office but set at an LA catering company comprised of wannabe actors, with each episode set during a different party. Though probably more the British version of The Office than the American one. And since it's on cable and is set in LA I'd toss in a little Extras, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Entourage. Think of the American version of a Ricky Gervais show and you're on the right track.

I was originally intrigued because one of the creator/producers is Rob Thomas, who previously created one of my all-time faves Veronica Mars. If you like Veronica Mars you'll definitely find a lot to like here, since a lot of Veronica Mars alums show up. Of the six regulars, four of them have some kind of Veronica Mars connection, as Ryan Hansen played Dick Casablancas, Ken Marino played Vinnie Van Lowe, and Adam Scott and Jane Lynch both guest starred. And more of their former castmates have guested here, including Kristen Bell (Veronica), Enrico Colantoni (Keith), Jason Dohring (Logan), and Alona Tal (Meg).

The rest of the cast is plenty accomplished as well. There's Jane Lynch, who has since left the show to become Sue Sylvester. Martin Starr, a Freaks and Geeks alum who stuck with the Apatow clan (and is probably best known as the beard guy from Knocked Up). And Lizzy Caplan, who you either know as Janis from Mean Girls or Jason's V-addicted girlfriend on True Blood (or both).

Anyway, I'll give imdb a rest and move on to the actual show. Ken Marino plays Ron, the David Brent/Michael Scott-like team leader of the catering crew who takes his job more seriously than anyone else there does and has the low-aiming dream of opening up his own chain soup restaurant. Adam Scott plays Henry, the Tim/Jim character whose greatest achievement as an actor was a beer commercial that gets him recognized everywhere but led him to quit acting. And Lizzy Caplan is Casey, the Dawn/Pam character, an aspiring stand-up comedian whose husband wants her to move to Vermont.

The party-of-the-week format allows for a ton of great guest stars (JK Simmons, George Takei, and Rob Corddry are a few more) as well as many different scenarios for hilarity. Some of my favorites: A college Republicans party in which the team manages to ruin the flag the students were planning to give to Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Hollywood sweet 16 where the birthday girl won't leave her room, a post-party for the porn awards, and a party for a Russian gangster who just got away with murder (but also recognizes everyone from their F-list acting jobs).

The show does have one major flaw though: it can't hold on to its cast. Jane Lynch leaves after the first 8 episodes to join Glee, which admittedly is an improvement for both Lynch and the world. Less acceptable is the news that Adam Scott will only be in three episodes in the third season due to his role in Parks and Recreation which is troubling for three reasons: 1. He's basically the main character on Party Down, 2. Party Down is a better show, and 3. Parks already has a large ensemble and doesn't really need him. That said, the producers' explanation that realistically catering tends to be a temporary job and people come in and out all the time makes sense. The show can survive it.

Far better news is that Netflix is able to stream the second season as each episode airs, so I can keep watching without having to wait for the DVDs. So if you're looking for something funny to watch this summer, give this a shot.

Want some more TV on DVD recommendations? Here you go!

Dexter - It's had four consistently great seasons, and with 24 and Lost over it is now the most addictive drama on TV.

Damages - It may or may not get a fourth year, but it's still got three crazy suspenseful seasons out there that I still can't believe more people didn't watch.

Glee & Modern Family - They were the breakout shows of this past season. If you haven't already, time to figure out why (these may not actually be on DVD).

True Blood - If you wished Twilight had a lot more nudity and was awesome instead of the stupidest thing ever, then this is for you.

Lost - You know you were secretly curious listening to your co-workers talk for hours about the finale. Go marathon all six seasons, and when you finish in two weeks we can talk.

Clocking Out on 24

2010-05-24T23:05:00.002-04:00

This week saw the end of two of the biggest dramas on TV, which also happened to be two of my favorite shows from the past decade. While most of the attention has been paid to Lost for many obvious reasons (more build-up, more unanswered questions, less of a drop in quality over time), I'm still processing its polarizing ending and am not yet ready (ie don't have the time) to do a full write-up. Though while I can't say I loved the very ending, I still liked the episode overall.

Compared to Lost, 24 didn't try to do too much. While it was cancelled in plenty of time to craft a series finale, it still felt very much like just a regular season ender. Up until the last five minutes there was nothing broader-reaching than ending the season's plot. No references to earlier seasons, no surprise returns of previous characters, just...well...about what you'd expect.

I admit that I was behind for most of this season, and spent the past few weeks rapidly catching up so I could watch the finale on time. And overall it was uneven. After a very slow start and one of the stupidest storylines in 24 history with anything having to do with Dana Walsh, the middle of the season kicked it into gear as the Hassan assassination plot came back with a vengeance, and it felt like vintage 24 was back.

That momentum carried in briefly to phase 2 with the return of President Logan, 24's Benjamin Linus or Arthur Frobisher, and one of its most enjoyable villains. But as Jack got a little too into his crazy revenge killing spree, something happened that frequently happens to long running shows: everybody lost their likability. Jack's always walked a fine line between good and dark, but even if he was trying to expose the truth it was clear he had just straight-out lost it. Since most of us watch the show to see Jack be badass, crazy Jack just isn't as much fun. With President Taylor having gone crazy in the opposite direction and most of the cast already written out, that pretty much left Chloe as the sole person worth rooting for.

So much of the finale was about bringing everyone back to sanity. Chloe talked Jack down off his Russian president-assassinating ledge to get him to expose the conspiracy. President Taylor called off the peace treaty at the last second to announce her involvement in the cover-up. Even Pillar wanted to call off the hit on Jack....before Logan went full-out crazy and shot him because...oh, who knows. Was it believable Logan would kill his trusted aide just to be extra sure nobody would find Jack on time? Not so much.

If Logan's end didn't make a whole lot of sense, it was at least somewhat surprising. For a show that's prided itself on its big twists and shocks, these final two hours were surprisingly by the book. The biggest character death was Pillar's, since we were led to believe Logan would survive. There were no shocking reveals or reversals. Even ending with Jack in exile isn't anything new. Previous seasons have seen him fake his own death and go into hiding, be captured by the Chinese, and wander around the world hiding from a government investigation. Other than setting up the movie we all know about, Jack's end didn't accomplish much.

For me though, what brings 24's end from unambitious to disappointing was the relative lack of Jack Bauer throughout its running time. He basically spends the second hour in a gurney. There's no awesome Bauer moments where he does something crazy and badass. He doesn't outwit anyone in any clever way. He starts off crazy, and ends just sad and depressed. There's something wrong when the finest moments in the episode are between President Taylor and Dahlia Hassan. This is Bauer Hour, and Jack didn't go out on top.

I wish 24 had gone out with a bit more of a bang. I wish we could have had a surprise visit from Mandy, or Tony, or at least Aaron Pierce. Seriously, how was the final season the only one out of eight to not feature our favorite secret service agent? But it just goes to show that this was the right time for 24 to end. It didn't overstay its welcome with an embarrassing end, just an unexceptional one. I'll have more to say about the 24 legacy eventually, but this final season certainly didn't harm it. It may be awhile until any show comes close to matching 24 for action, suspense, and daring, but until then we can look forward to the movie.

Last Day of Upfronts

2010-05-20T09:11:00.002-04:00

Today's the last day of the network upfronts, and it belongs to last-place finisher The CW. You can check out the full schedule here. As a guy over the age of 14, I don't watch a lot of CW, but still somehow more than CBS. So here's my thoughts.

Only two new shows, Hellcats and Nikita. Hellcats is a cheerleading show starring a girl from High School Musical. While the show may be set in college, I'm skeptical anyone college-age or above will be watching. Which leaves Nikita as the CW's most promising new show by default. The original was supposed to be cool, so may be worth a shot (even if it is another remake).

In the returning shows front, Life Unexpected was renewed, fortunately. It may have had an uneven first season, but it was likable enough that it deserves another year to figure things out. One Tree Hill continues to be the show that won't die. But you do have to give it credit as one of the few shows that cares so little about quality they'll do whatever they think seems crazy. And Melrose Place is, unsurprisingly, history.

So now that we've filled in the network grid, how's the fall looking? Compared to this past year, I'm seeing surprisingly few conflicts a DVR can't solve. Nothing near the difficulty of Glee vs. Lost. On Tuesdays at 8 Glee's going against the promising-sounding No Ordinary Heroes, but let's wait to see how that is before worrying about time-delaying it. Thursdays at 8 is Community vs. Big Bang Theory, which will piss off a lot of people but I don't currently watch either. And Sundays continue to be cable-only for me.

We won't know if any of these new shows are any good until pilot reviews start popping up and we get a chance to check them out ourselves. But I'm skeptical this fall will be a repeat of the previous one, when Glee and Modern Family broke onto the scene. Maybe I'll find one or two shows to add, but the networks aren't going to find appointment TV if they keep relying on the same cop shows, lawyer shows, and remakes they've depended on for years.

CBS Fall Schedule

2010-05-19T09:08:00.005-04:00

Entertainment Weekly posted CBS' fall schedule, and I'm going to have to break my "two shows worth checking out per network" pattern from the past couple days cause I don't see anything that looks like it's for me. While some are calling CBS "bold" for moving around its hit shows on the schedule, there's nothing bold about the typical parade of procedurals and conventional sitcoms that CBS is adding to the schedule. It has that reputation for a reason.

Here's what they've got:

Hawaii Five-O - Remake, but at least with a good cast

Criminal Minds 2 - In case the original wasn't bad enough

Defenders - Yet another legal show

Blue Bloods - Yet another cop show

Shit My Dad Says - Sounds like it's been given the broad CBS sitcom treatment

Mike and Molly - Another probably lame sitcom, but Chuck Lorre did make Big Bang Theory, so the only thing that might be worth checking out.

I'm still waiting for the next Lost.

Tuesday Upfront Update

2010-05-18T09:09:00.003-04:00

Entertainment Weekly just posted ABC's fall schedule, so time to take a look at what they've got going on this fall. As with the other networks, the majority of shows seem to be more cop and lawyer procedurals. Seriously, are there people watching every single one of these? Enough! But just as yesterday I picked out the two most promising sounding shows for NBC and Fox, I've got 2 ABC shows I'm looking forward to as well.

No Ordinary Family - A drama about a family that suddenly gets superpowers, this is basically Heroes meets The Incredibles. But The Incredibles is awesome, and with a cast that includes Julie Benz (Dexter) and Tate Donovan (Damages), I'm hoping it can hold up better than Heroes did.

Mr. Sunshine - When Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip premiered, I had high hopes that it would be Sports Night starring Matthew Perry. But it's looking like this new comedy may be closer to the mark, with Matthew Perry playing the owner of a sports stadium. The pilot's even directed by Sorkin-collaborator Thomas Schlamme! Also stars Allison Janney.

Monday TV Tidbits

2010-05-17T22:55:00.006-04:00

I know I've been away from the blog for awhile, but today marks a good day to check-in with plenty of TV activity. First up, NBC and Fox announced their fall schedules today, and I look at the shows I'm most excited for this fall (despite not having even watched the trailers yet). Next, what I thought was the How I Met Your Mother finale but clearly wasn't. And finally, a very action-packed Gossip Girl finale. Spoiler warnings for the latter.

Next year, the networks have some big shoes to fill with two of the biggest giants in appointment TV retiring: Lost and 24. So what are they doing to cash in on that void? From what I've seen, it appears not much. So far the upfronts have led to announcements of the typical parade of cop shows and lawyer shows (if fewer doctor shows) and nothing trying to be the next Lost. But there are a few shows that seem promising.

Undercovers - Not only the first pick-up of the season, but one of the most high-profile new shows for the fall. With JJ Abrams returning to his Alias roots by putting out a spy show, it's bound to make for a good time.

Running Wilde - Creator of Arrested Development + Will Arnett + Kerri Russell. That's enough to make it my most anticipated comedy so far.

The Event - Wondering what to watch when 24 ends? Well The Event isn't very subtle about trying to fill the void. Not only is it a thriller that features the president as a character, but it's even in 24's current timeslot. Whether it lives up to its predecessor or not, seems worth a shot.

Terra Nova - We have to wait til midseason for this one and nothing's been shot yet, but this Spielberg produced time-travel dinosaur show is the only thing that seems to be thinking on Lost's scale.

ABC, CBS, and the CW are still upcoming, so more to come later this week.

For some reason, I thought tonight was the How I Met Your Mother finale, but despite its year-in-the-making premise, it was clearly just another episode. It was fun to revisit season 4's activities, but did the movie-within-the-show have to be SO exaggerated? I know it's through Future Ted's distorted memories, but it still came off as particularly broad, especially since we were told it was instantly the 5th highest grossing movie ever. More proof that the show is getting more sitcommy with age. Still better than The Office's attempt to do a movie-within-the-show though. But revisiting the Stella arc just served as a reminder of how little Ted's had to do since then. Maybe he'll get something in the real finale.

Lastly, the Gossip Girl finale aired tonight with lots of crazy twists. It didn't seem like there was too much left to do after last week's episode, which so thoroughly tied up the William Baldwin storyline that it felt like a finale in itself. But turned out there was plenty leftover: Jenny's general craziness, Chuck's ultimatum to Blair, Dorota's pregnancy, and so on.

I have to say, for a show as ADD as Gossip Girl that typically finishes up its storylines within 3 episodes and then moves on, these last two episodes did an impressive job pulling everything together. Jenny's drugdealing, Dan and Georgina's one night stand, Jenny and Eric's early-in-the-season fight - all came back. Even Georgina's Grand Central entrance was straight out of the pilot. So while most of the episode may have been designed to shock, at least there's that.

As for the big twists: Jenny and Chuck was just icky, but at least it had some dramatic consequences. Blair banning Jenny from Manhattan was pretty bold. But still, gross. Dan and Serena - last season made everyone beyond sick of them when they broke up again and again, but the show did work best when they were together. Just no more scenes about the Bass brunch. And who knows, maybe it will make Serena seem like less of a bitch than she's been all season (and especially as of late).

Chuck getting shot: Already in interviews the writers aren't even pretending there's a chance he might die. Clearly just for cliffhanger drama. But I guess it worked. Still, biggest cliffhanger was Georgina's pregnancy. I believe it's real (though it sure looked fake), but she's still got to be up to something. Could it be Dan's brother's? Or did the show forget he exists? I certainly did. And what was up with all that stuff about Russia?

Whether any of these things lead to an improved fourth season I couldn't say, but with most of the season ranging between uneven and dull, at least the finale got my attention. With a baby, a gunshot, a pregnancy, a deflowering, and a send-off, most of the May trademarks were present. So not a bad way to start finale week.

We've Reached the Final Four Episodes

2010-05-04T22:19:00.003-04:00

Wow. I figured tonight's Lost would be big. Not only did it begin the final four episodes of the series (!!!), but next week's episode is a Jacob/Man in Black flashback ep. And whenever there's a flashback ep, there's always a huge cliffhanger the week before to keep you watching. But I still wasn't expecting an episode that should thoroughly silence anyone worried this season wasn't moving fast enough. Obviously, HUGE SPOILER ALERT to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, as you don't want to be spoiled. I'll skip a few lines and then continue for those of you who have already watched.

Ok, has everyone else left? Good. So much happened it's hard to know where to start. How about in sideways world, which boiled the show down to its original conflicting relationship: Jack and Locke. In sideways world, it's Jack who's the believer and Locke who's the cynic. And turns out Locke's alternate path was chosen by a familiar event: a plane crash. Instead of restoring his legs, a previous plane crash took his ability to walk away.

We know Desmond's plan to make Locke remember the island worked to some extent, as he flashed to his time in the hatch while unconscious. And certainly Jack saying aloud Locke's own posthumous words, "I wish you had believed me," made a difference. So while Desmond may be the link between the two worlds, it's Jack and Locke who are the center, the ones all the other characters are flocking to.

All that said, the sideways story wasn't anywhere near as riveting as the island story, which was easily the most suspenseful and most upsetting episode of the season, if not the series. All of the island characters (minus chronically MIA Richard, Ben, and Miles) converged at Widmore's camp and made a break for the plane. With Locke declaring the plane unsafe, claiming Widmore was trying to bring them into a contained space and kill them, the back-up plan became the sub....an even more contained space.

As soon as the sub dived and everyone realized "wait, why did Jack let Locke put his backpack on," things got fucking nuts. Of course Locke put the bomb in the backpack, but why? Oh, because he was the one who actually wanted to get everyone in a contained space and kill them so there would be no candidates left to stop him. But Jack had a solution: Locke can't kill the candidates, so if they do nothing, it will be like Jack lighting the dynamite on the Black Rock. Nothing would happen. But Sawyer didn't believe him, and the clock sped up.

Then the show's resident Iraqi Jack Bauer did what Jack Bauer always threatened to do: sacrifice himself to save everyone else. While it was certainly rough to see such a fan favorite go, Sayid's death made a lot of narrative sense. He hadn't been himself ever since coming back from the dead in the Temple, and he's been going through the season like a zombie. But he showed signs of humanity when he didn't kill Desmond (nobody really believed he did), and has been getting more normal since. So by taking one for the team, he proved Ben and MIB wrong in their continued insistence that he's just a killer. A noble death for one of the show's strongest characters.

While Sayid's death was at least understandable, Jin and Sun's just hurt. As many times as Jin insisted he could free Sun, it was clear what was going to happen: he would stay to die with the woman he spent 3 seasons trying to find again. Talk about a Joss Whedon move, killing them off one episode after their reunion. Sure, it was a bit Titanic with the water level rising, but Jin and Sun easily made for one of the saddest death scenes of the series to date. It was also a lot like Charlie's death, which was also under water. Man, Lost characters really need to stop going underwater.

So between Sayid, Jin, Sun, and I suppose Lapidus as well, this was Lost's deadliest episode ever, and a clear set-up to the end of the series. There's no more question about which of the island gods is good or evil, or what side to choose. It's survivors vs. MIB at this point, and at all cost. We know Desmond will play an important part given Sayid's final words to Jack. And while despite the episode title we didn't find out who will actually replace Jacob, it seems pretty clearly to be Jack. Next week should provide some major answers that were in shorter supply this week. But for an action and character packed episode, this one seems bound to stand up with some of the series' best. I'm gonna miss this show.

Summer Movie Preview

2010-04-29T22:36:00.003-04:00

Sorry for the long absence. I just went through a move which always makes me unable to do anything else for a few weeks, but I'm back now! And with May a couple days away, what better time to look ahead at what movies this summer has to offer.

Now, maybe I'm alone in this, but they seem pretty lackluster this year. Sure, there are a couple of movies I'm very excited about, but a lot of the biggies aren't getting me pumped. Prince of Persia, Sex and the City 2, Eat Pray Love....just not for me. Still, I've sifted through my Entertainment Weekly summer preview issue and picked out ten movies that, at least as of now, seem worthwhile.

Iron Man 2 (May 7th)

Summer movie season begins next week with one of its most highly anticipated offerings and most fun sounding sequels. Adding in Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke to the cast could make it overstuffed a la Spider-Man 3, but more likely this will be a straight-up good time.

Robin Hood (May 14th)

Despite word of a troubled shoot, all of the trailers seem to suggest a cool epic emerged in the end. Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe are definitely back in Gladiator mode, and that's something I want to see.

Get Him to the Greek (June 4th)

Usually this kind of comedy spin-off would go the direct-to-DVD route, but instead this is getting a high-profile summer launch. Since Russell Brand's Aldous Snow was arguably the best part of instaclassic Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I'll be seeing it.

Toy Story 3 (June 18th)

A great Pixar movie in the summer has become a given the past few years, and this year it will be Toy Story 3. I don't expect it to live up to Wall-E, Up, or Ratatouille, but it can fall below that high threshold and still be one of the most enjoyable movies this summer.

Knight and Day (June 25th)

I had pretty much written off Tom Cruise (and to a lesser extent Cameron Diaz), but after seeing the highly entertaining trailer for this spy comedy it looks like the comeback is in full swing.

Cyrus (July 9th)

With so many of the big blockbusters likely to disappoint, it's the lower-profile indies that will likely emerge as the best of the season. And early word says Cyrus will continue Fox Searchlight's streak of break-out summer hits.

Inception (July 16th)

Far and away my #1 must-see movie of the summer. Christopher Nolan's promised a Memento-like puzzler, but gets to do so with a post-Dark Knight budget and an awesomely eclectic cast. Can I buy my midnight tickets yet?

Dinner for Schmucks (July 23rd)

Between the Paul Rudd/Steve Carell collaboration and Jay Roach's first movie in what feels like awhile, this seems like one of the safer bets among this year's crop of comedies.

Salt (July 23rd)

I'm not much of an Angelina Jolie fan, but there's a reason this made Entertainment Weekly's cover. I figure this one will be too big to ignore.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (August 13th)

Michael Cera may be playing into his comfort zone again, but a guy fighting off his new girlfriend's seven evil exes makes for a pretty cool plot. Similar-in-my-mind Kick-Ass may not have exploded the way the buzz suggested, but I bet this one does.

So what am I leaving out? What are you most excited about seeing? Let me know in the comments.

Meet the Greenberg

2010-04-07T21:24:00.005-04:00

Grade: A-

It's becoming increasingly clear that Noah Baumbach's movies are an exercise in empathy. From Jeff Daniels' horrifyingly pretentious professor in The Squid and the Whale to, well, everyone in Margot at the Wedding, his characters tend to be self-involved, clueless to others' needs, and very vocal about their strong and unpopular opinions. So in that sense, Roger Greenberg, as played by Ben Stiller in Greenberg, is very much a Baumbach lead.

How you feel about Greenberg may have a lot to do with how able you are to tolerate its protagonist. Having left LA for New York in his youth, Roger returns after a mental breakdown to housesit for his far more successful brother. Unable to drive (since he's a New Yorker, natch), he soon buddies up to his brother's assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), a pretty and much younger woman inexplicably interested in him. Much of the rest of the movie consists of them hooking up, him freaking out on her, then asking her for another chance.

See, Greenberg is pretty much an asshole from start to end. He constantly badmouths the wife of his best friend Ivan (Rhys Ifans) while insisting Ivan devote all his time to driving him around. He's unapologetic about ruining his high school band's chance at the big time by turning down a record deal for creative reasons. And he continually treats Florence terribly, whether because she's too young for him, works for his brother, or because he'd rather be with his high school ex-girlfriend who barely remembers him.

But lest you think this is just Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Movie, there is a lot to sympathize with in Roger too. As a guy returning to his hometown after leaving over a decade ago, as a New Yorker in LA, and as someone who never grew up when all his friends did, his disconnection and desperation is legitimately sad. Despite telling everyone he's concentrating on "doing nothing," he spends a lot of the movie begging people to meet him for a drink or for dinner, desperate for company. And he continually has to hear that they're too busy with family and children. Helps forgive some of his jerkier qualities.

As you may have also gathered, it's not a typical part for Ben Stiller. He's not the everyman nice guy from Meet the Parents nor the comical bad guy of Dodgeball. He's not even playing a grown-up Jesse Eisenberg, as I had guessed from the trailer. It's a very different kind of role for him, which makes his performance all the more impressive. He makes all of Roger's more unlikable qualities believable, but he carries in his own charisma so that somewhere in that awkward little smile you sense you should feel for him.

And as downbeat as some of the story can be, Baumbach is fantastic at finding a way to add humor in all the right places. There's a great recurring bit in which Roger writes complaint letters to companies about all sorts of minor things. Even the most ordinary scenes have some great lines that are just so clever or witty that I found myself laughing through a lot of the movie. Then again, other people I know who have seen it didn't think it was funny at all, just sad. So everyone's likely to have their own personal reaction, good or bad. As always, comedy is extremely subjective.

Whether you laugh or not, Greenberg's bound to make you feel something. And unlike in Margot at the Wedding, all of the supporting characters are generally likable, so it makes an impact when Roger does or says something particularly outrageous. This early in the year, it's good to have something a little more thoughtful in theaters.

Best Pairing Ever

2010-04-07T08:58:00.003-04:00

I wasn't planning to write about Date Night for reasons of obvious bias, but after going to the premiere last night I realized I'd be doing my readers a disservice not to tell them it's the first great comedy of 2010 and the funniest movie to be released since The Hangover. And I'm totally not just saying that cause I got to see Tina Fey. Though I did.

The idea of putting Steve Carell and Tina Fey in a movie together seems brilliant on paper, but turns out it's even more brilliant in reality. Not only are they both individually hilarious, but they have amazing comedic chemistry. Their interactions make every scene ten times funnier. It would be a huge shame if this was their only chance to work together, but seems like a safe bet it won't be.

While the two of them are certainly the biggest draw, everything else about the movie works just as well. The supporting cast is absolutely ridiculous, with people like Kristin Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, and Leighton Meester filling in some of the smaller roles (and for any Curb Your Enthusiasm fans out there, J.B. Smoove plays a bit part and is just as great here). The script keeps the jokes going strong and consistent, and contains two big sequences I won't spoil here that kept me laughing from start to finish.

With Baby Mama better in concept and casting than execution, Tina Fey's biggest success in film is still for writing Mean Girls. This will be the movie that launches her as a movie star. So if you enjoy laughing, go see Date Night this weekend. It's a far better use of your money than the super lame looking Clash of the Titans, and you don't have to pay the extra $4 for added-after-the-fact 3-D.

Also, 300th post!!!

Alice in Narnia

2010-04-01T22:27:00.002-04:00

Grade: C+

I saw Alice in Wonderland opening weekend, and given its crazy box office numbers, many of you have probably seen it by now as well. It may be a month later, but I figure there's still plenty of people out there wondering if they should pay what I think is now $17 in New York for 3-D tickets, so here we go.

Despite seeing the many negative reviews heading in, I hoped for the best in Alice's first half. Sure, the opening segment was almost identical to the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean. I mean seriously. An ahead-of-her-time 19th century young British woman who doesn't want to marry a boring guy and complains about wearing corsets? Makes you wonder if they even switched out the script. But in case you were wondering, Alice is a Disney movie far more than a Tim Burton movie, and one that borrows liberally with previous Disney movies.

Still, the beginning left me hopeful largely due to Mia Wasikowska's performance as Alice. She gives the part a nice touch of spacy oddness, like Luna Lovegood-as-Disney princess. She embodies Alice's curiosity in a believable and appealing way. And when she first enters Wonderland, or Underland as it is inexplicably called here, there's a certain amount of good will for Tim Burton's visual sensibility. Based more on Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass than Alice in Wonderland, the movie has a very Return to Oz vibe - dark and busted up. Unlike Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Burton went all circus-y, here he actually delivers the dark Burton vision his fans crave.

But as soon as it becomes clear the movie has more of a plot than just following Alice through the land, the movie quickly begins to lose steam. Taking the Jabberwocky poem from Looking Glass as an inspiration, the script has some prophecy say that Alice must slay the Jabberwocky. This is said many, many times. Also, she may not be the "right" Alice. Oh, and there's an evil queen in control of the land who's only major difference from the queen in Chronicles of Narnia is that she didn't create permanent winter. And she has a big head. That's also mentioned a lot.

By the time you realize Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter is not a wacky loon but in fact a super serious rebel leader dead set on creating a revolution against Helena Bonham Carter's Queen of Hearts, Alice has been shrunk to Thumbelina size and begins to spend most of the movie in people's pockets. The curse of getting a big star like Depp is that he insists on playing a major role, so he practically becomes the main character. And at this point Depp just recycles the same "I'm crazy" act he's done in the last however many movies. It's getting old.

Alice's biggest sin though is that for a movie based on the most infamously drug-induced fantasy ever written, there's just not enough fun. Everyone's so dreary and straight-to-business, whining about the queen and talking about the resistance. Alice still has some time to wander and react to the wacky characters, but it's all rushed through to get to the "big movie plot." Which is pretty lame. Especially since by the time the White Queen and Red Queen's armies are fighting each other, it's become clear the movie has just turned into a direct Narnia rip-off. Except with a very silly talking dragon.

A lot of these problems wouldn't matter if the movie didn't take itself so seriously. But the only one in the cast bringing any levity is Carter, who has a ball with the Queen's catchphrase of "Off with their heads!" After sucking all the humor from her lines in Sweeney Todd, she's made up for it by being the sole source of it here. There's a lot of cool effects on display here, from the visual palette to, ok fine, the 3-D (even if it mostly consists of stuff jumping out at you. It's no Avatar and probably not worth the extra $4). But there's no wonder to be found in this Wonderland, and Johnny Depp dancing doesn't change that.

Sex, Drugs, and Sorry I'm Bored

2010-03-25T22:36:00.002-04:00

Grade: C

When it comes to movies about music, there are some that really nail it, like Almost Famous, and there's those that just don't. Put The Runaways in the latter category. If the sole purpose of the movie was to help Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning break away from their Twilight images while providing some nostalgia for people alive in the 1970s, then I suppose it accomplished that. But it doesn't do anything more.

The Runaways was a band of teenage girls in the 1970s that seems to mostly be remembered for launching Joan Jett, here played by Kristen Stewart. Yet The Runaways is based on a book by Runaways singer Cherie Currie, played here by Dakota Fanning, which means this is no duel biopic - it's the Dakota Fanning show from start to end. Which is a shame, since Stewart gives the far more dynamic performance. Fanning may not make you think of her childhood roles, but with her pale skin and soft voice, she comes off here like a bland version of Gossip Girl's Jenny Humphrey. She may be growing up, but she just doesn't have the star power to carry a movie yet.

Not all of that is Fanning's fault though. The movie in no way takes the character approach, only shallowly exploring any of the central figures. Two of the band members are basically extras. The drummer seems appealing in her early scenes, but all but disappears once the band takes off. Even Stewart is really only allowed to play guitar, wear leather jackets, and make out with girls every now and then. Stewart gives a believable impression, but the script doesn't give her the opportunity to go any deeper.

Ok, so the movie's not going to give us insights into the girls in the band or try to get us to know them. At least those of us who had never heard of the Runaways can get the cliff notes history, right? Well, the movie fails as a conventional biopic as well. It's never clear at any given point how successful the band is supposed to be. In one scene, they're playing a high school kegger. In the next, they're being swarmed by fans. When did the fans get the chance to hear of them? As for the "fall" section of the typical "rise and fall" arc, it occurs solely in one scene, and it doesn't make a strong impression.

So the movie isn't about character, and it isn't about telling the history of the Runaways. What does it want to do? Sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That's right, this is one of those movies that thinks showing teenage girls hooking up and snorting cocaine will so thoroughly shock and titillate us that those scenes alone will make the movie. No context or significance to the story needed, it's just there for shock value. Thing is, it doesn't. Compared to what we see on MTV any given hour today, these girls seem tame in comparison. And there's been so many other, better movies about the 1970s that it's hardly a revelation that this was going on. All the sex and drugs just becomes monotonous and adds to the overall boredom.

All that said, the music does, well, rock. All of the performances have an energy completely lacking in any of the non-musical scenes, and just try to get "Cherry Bomb" out of your head afterwards (kind of embarrassing to be sitting at your desk inadvertently going "ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-CHERRY bomb, but so be it). The movie ends on a high note by playing out the Freaks and Geeks theme song over the credits, further proof a Joan Jett movie would have been more worthwhile. And Michael Shannon gives a terrific performance as the band's sketchy manager/producer/writer. He hams it up and showboats to the max, but he's got so much charisma and energy that the movie comes to life whenever he's onscreen.

With musical biopics becoming so ubiquitous, there's no excuse for making a movie about Joan Jett that's this limp and dull. If you're in the mood for some rock, save yourself the money and go see Almost Famous again instead. In fact, I should probably go do that too so I remember what a great music movie looks like.

The Trials of Ricardo Alpert

2010-03-24T00:14:00.002-04:00

Tonight's crazy good Richard Alpert-centric Lost actually reminded me of something that first appealed to me about Lost. Back in the early days of season 1 flashbacks, I remember thinking how Lost was a completely different show depending on whose episode it was. On a Kate week, the flashbacks could feel like a Hitchcockian thriller. For Jack a family melodrama. And not to mention full stories in Korean, Arabic, etc.

So I thought about that when we were first sent back to 19th century Canary Islands, a location and story that seemed more like it was out of a 19th century novel than the Lost we know. As Ricardo begged for medicine for his wife and later sat in a prison cell awaiting his execution, it almost felt like something out of Les Miserables or The Count of Monte Cristo. There's not many shows that can get away with doing episodes this radically different.

But things got a bit more familiar once Richard landed on the island (somehow destroying the statue with the strongest boat known to man) and the familiar squeals of the Smoke Monster chimed in. After a rather lengthy time trapped in his chains, Richard escaped to find himself trapped again in that chess game between Jacob and the Man in Black that has become the show. Having previously only seen him in that one pivotal scene from last year's finale, we got a lot more actual Man in Black this week, feeding in to Richard's explanation for the island in order to get him to do his bidding. And interesting that he used the same words to Richard that Dogen used to Sayid when he sent him to kill Man in Locke.

Speaking of Richard's explanation for the island, I'm sure plenty of people worried the island really would turn out to be Hell. After all, the producers have publicly denied that the island is Purgatory, but they never said anything about Hell, and have been known to use such tricky wordplay in the past. But since we've seen people come back and forth and dead people already walk around the island as ghosts, it didn't seem too likely.

Instead, Jacob and MIB just kept calling each other the devil to get Richard on their side. And in doing so, we learned a WHOLE lot more about what their game entails. According to Jacob, he believes people are inherently good, and MIB believes they are corruptible. Jacob brings people to the island to prove his point, while MIB forcibly tries to make his. Since Jacob doesn't like interfering on free will, he hires Richard to do his bidding, giving him immortality cause it was Richard's third choice behind getting back Isabella and being forgiven for his earlier murder. If that seemed a slightly convenient and unlikely explanation for a three season long mystery, it was one of the rare rushed moments in an otherwise well-paced story.

Speaking of Isabella, this episode also has something in common with the second season finale, in which we first met Penny Widmore and learned of her troubled romance with Desmond, and by the end of a single episode declared them one of the best romances on the show. Similarly, a single episode here was enough to make Richard and Isabella such a compelling couple that the final scene with Hurley really made up the emotional center of the episode. Regardless of whether you felt the "big answers" promised in this episode delivered (which probably depends on how much you care about Jacob and MIB's feud), it thoroughly succeeded in telling an individual character story that you cared about, no matter how minor a character Richard may have seemed before this week. Makes you wish there was time for a whole Lapidus backstory too.

Tonight's episode at times felt more like a self-contained movie than an episode of a weekly TV show, but it certainly accomplished a lot. We learned pretty much everything we need to know about Richard, making him a far more layered and sympathetic character than we ever thought. We know even more what the stakes of this season are (namely, Locke escaping = hell on earth). And we got solid proof that Jacob absolutely could have beat the crap out of Ben had he desired. Not such a calm, peaceful island god after all.

We're now halfway through the final season. Things are only going to get crazier from here.

March Madness: Entertainment Style

2010-03-18T22:14:00.004-04:00

Do you enjoy the bracket-style competition of March Madness but could care less about college basketball? Then you're like me, and it turns out plenty of other creative thinkers who have come up with other more interesting uses of the bracket formula. A couple years ago someone came up Lost Madness, a tournament to pick your favorite Lost character (spoiler alert: Desmond won). And of course we all remember the classic How I Met Your Mother episode in which they used March Madness to figure out which of Barney's exes had been messing with his pick-ups.

So what do we have this year? Well, I've scoured the web and found four different games all transposing the March Madness brackets into an entertainment context. They are:

Hulu - Best in Show

In this game, Hulu users pick their favorite TV shows in one-on-one matches. It began by separating categories (comedy, workplace comedy, detective drama, medical drama, etc.), and it's already on to Round 3. What have I learned from this game? That Hulu users have TERRIBLE taste. I mean seriously, Community has somehow managed to beat both Modern Family AND Glee. How does this make any sense? Almost as bad: Parks and Recreation beat The Office and 30 Rock. The only show I watch that's still in the running is Lost, and if that somehow loses to Parenthood then I give up.

Esquire - Sexiest Woman Alive Madness

It's pretty much what it sounds like - Esquire matches up women from music & fashion, television, sports, and movies, and you pick which one is hotter. They're taking a full 3 weeks for each round, and with good reason: there are some toughies. Rachel McAdams vs. Anne Hathaway? Freida Pinto vs. Zoe Saldana? Kristen Bell vs. Marion Cotillard? Megan Fox vs. Helen Mirren? Ok, maybe not that last one. Best one they came up with: Heidi Montag at 19 vs. Heidi Montag at 23. Too bad you can't put none of the above.

The Morning News Tournament of Books

For the more literary among you, here's a site that every day gets someone to read two books from the past year and declare definitively which is better. So far the more well-known titles have generally won out (The Help, Wolf Hall, Let the Great World Spin), with a few surprises (poetry book The Anthologist beat well-loved short story collection Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned). Bottom line: nobody reading this blog has heard of any of these books, and I only know most of them from literary awards. No room on there for John Irving and Jonathan Tropper, really?

Suvudu Cage Match

Finally, the New York Times linked me to this sci-fi website's tournament in which they put classic characters from fantasy and sci-fi into cage matches with each other and declare who would be the victor. The site must be pretty hardcore nerd though, since just about anyone you've ever heard of got beat by somebody out of a Dungeons and Dragons game in round 1. Though still in the running: Aragorn and Gandalf from LOTR, Aslan from Narnia, and Dumbledore from Harry Potter. Better luck next year, Ender Wiggin and Arthur Dent.

If You Wish Modern Family Replaced Laughter with Tears...

2010-03-17T22:51:00.004-04:00

....then you'll love NBC's new drama Parenthood! At least that's my impression after catching up on the pilot last weekend. It's aired two episodes since then, and I hear they're a definite improvement. But after such a downbeat and unpleasant pilot, I see no need to give it a second chance.

As you may remember if you watched any given 30 seconds of the Olympics, NBC has made quite a big deal promoting Parenthood as their next (ok, only) big thing. You may also remember the promos emphasizing the "comedy" part of the "comedy/drama" label they're trying to put on the show. But if there was any "comedy" in the pilot, it came only in the form of lame Grey's Anatomy-style banter that just came off as forced as unfunny. No, this one's a drama with a capital D and that rhymes with C and that stands for Crying.

Parenthood is a "family drama" in the tradition of shows like Six Feet Under and ABC's very similar-sounding Brothers and Sisters, but Parenthood ups the ante with a family so big I spent most of the pilot just trying to figure out who everyone is. I mean, there's FOUR central siblings, but one of them wasn't given any major plots so how was I supposed to know she wasn't just a guest star? When you add in spouses and kids, plus two parents, you can see why the list of regular cast members ran longer than on any HBO show. That's a lot to introduce in one hour.

So who do we have? Well, the show centers around four siblings. There's Adam (Peter Krause), an all-around good guy who's struggling with the realization that his son has Asperger's. His sister Sarah (Lauren Graham) is a single mom who's moved back in with their parents to get her life back in order. Dax Shepard plays the family black sheep, and continues to remind us why Kristen Bell is too good for him (in real life). Erika Christensen had a glorified cameo, so it's hard for me to say what her story is. And the parents didn't do too much either.

As you might guess, the Asperger's storyline gets a lot of the "very special" moments. I'm talking multiple scenes with "touching, heartfelt" music while people cry onscreen. Though Sarah's the angstier one, yelling and crying far more than any other character. At a certain point, I started to feel like the pilot just crammed five after school specials together into one hour.

Despite all of that, I might be tempted to tune in again if I connected more with the characters. The cast is certainly impressive, with Krause already having successfully fronted Six Feet Under and Sports Night, Graham had Gilmore Girls, and while I know he's done bigger things, I still give Craig T. Nelson highest credit for The Incredibles. But while Krause is likable and charismatic enough to get me to buy all the emotion in his story, I can't say I cared much for anyone else. Graham may have charmed as Lorelai, but as Sarah she's so far coming across as shrill and annoying. Mae Whitman plays the annoying teenager a bit too well. And Dax Shepard is still Dax Shepard.

At the end of the day, there are already better shows doing what Parenthood is trying for. If I want to watch interconnected families, you better believe I'm picking the hilarious Modern Family over this piece of depression. And if I want something heartwarming and cheesy, at least Life Unexpected is fun and filled with much more likable characters. So nice try NBC, maybe next time it will work out. And if Parenthood ends up proving me wrong somewhere down the line, let me know and I might give it another shot.

The Final Cut

2010-03-10T22:55:00.004-05:00

I may have given up on Nip/Tuck last fall (which was still at least 2 seasons too late), but I still wanted to see how it would end (even if it took me a week to get to it). It's only every so often a show gets a chance to air an actual series finale, and I'm always fascinated to see how it will play. Will it satisfy, like Battlestar Galactica and Scrubs did last year? Or will it be totally lame like Alias?

Turns out the answer was the least thing I'd suspect from a show that began by feeding a dead gangster's body to crocodiles: boring. Nip/Tuck has always prided itself on being absolutely outrageous, trying so hard to shock that it couldn't really do anything else. Yet for its finale, the big episode to end everything, there was probably less going on than any given episode from its entire run. Nip/Tuck would have never ended a season like this, but somehow did for the series.

So what happened? Well, if you're like me, you probably need the "previously on." Had to watch a couple times, but the highlights seem to be Julia's moving to England, Liz is having a baby using Sean's sperm (and is somehow friends with Christian again even though they were going through a bitter divorce last time I watched), and Matt tricked someone into marrying him only to leave her at the altar for Ava, the tranny from season 2. Got it? Didn't think so.

Aside from a traditional patient-of-the-week story about an old Japanese porn star that didn't in any way scream series finale, the main plot here is, of course, the bromance between Sean and Christian. With Julia leaving and taking the kids, Sean's free to do whatever he wants. But dead Kimber says Christian is a negative force on him and needs to let him free. So the episode mostly consists of a series of downbeat goodbyes. Liz leaves Sean so the baby won't know him. Julia leaves for England. Matt lies about reconciling with his ex so he can leave with Ava. And Christian convinces Sean to leave plastic surgery and the country with some baby Ava left behind because...well, I missed that part.

And throughout the cheese factor was cranked to the max. From a very serious talk about the morality of plastic surgeons (to remind us we were indeed watching the end) to the final line, Christian telling a woman at an airport bar, "I'm a plastic surgeon," everything was super dramatic and hyper emotional. In a show where the characters hadn't gone off the rails years ago, sad goodbyes could have been emotional and heartwarming. But emotional and heartwarming aren't what Nip/Tuck does well. Nip/Tuck was, at its best, a crazy soap that was outrageous but fun. Its end was just blah. At least it's over.

On a completely different note, I also just caught up on last night's Lost, which was something I wouldn't have expected to see a few seasons ago: a heart-warming Ben episode. I've heard complaints about this season that it's too much leading up to answers or just not enough answers, but as long as they keep delivering episodes like this one I have no complaints. I don't know what the sideways stories mean, but the past few weeks they've been every bit as resonant as the original season 1 flashbacks.

Off-island, Ben's a European history teacher who eats lunch with Dr. Arzt and tutors his prize pupil Alex. When Locke takes a move from the being inhabiting his body on-island and convinces Ben to claim power, he makes a grab for the principality (yes, I'm calling it that). But power comes with a cost: the principal will torch Alex's chances at Yale if Ben goes through with his plan. So what does he pick, power or Alex?

On-island, Miles exposed that Ben killed Jacob, and now bodyguard and maybe adoptive daughter Ilana wants vengeance. Locke Monster still wants Ben on his team, so he offers him an escape. But Ben just wants to explain himself, in a speech so moving you completely forget he's the guy who pretended to kill a bunny in front of Sawyer. Aww. And off-island he picked Alex, giving up his plans for power for a glowing recommendation and the return of his history club. Double aww. On any other show the villain going cuddly would be a cop-out. Maybe it still is, but at least it's a very satisfying cop-out.

As for the bigger stuff, once again we've moved a little bit further to that war that's brewing. All of Team Jacob has rallied together, and Widmore's back to make some mischief. I was minorly worried he might sit this season out, making his significance the past few seasons kind of irrelevant, but of course the writers are ahead of me. We know he helped Locke in his efforts to bring everyone back to the island, but does that make him Team Jacob or Team Man in Black? Can't really see him siding with Ben. And where's Desmond?

We also got further confirmation that Richard Alpert did indeed come over on the Black Rock, as well as an interesting continuation of a previous plot point. Richard can't kill himself, the same way that Michael couldn't kill himself when off the island. Should we assume Michael was touched by Jacob as well, even if he didn't appear in the flashbacks from last year's finale? His name must have been somewhere on that wheel, right? And if Jack's "Man of Faith" stuff got a little annoying last year, it was a lot cooler when he was making his bet with a stick of dynamite.

So to me, this season of Lost just keeps getting better and better. From the Locke ep to the Jack ep to Sayid to Ben, we've had a steady string of great episodes, all of which moved the pieces a few steps forward to their endgame. Clearly most of the action is coming later this season, but I'm not worried about guessing how it will go down. I'm just along for the ride, and Lost is still the best one in town.

No Alarms and No Surrpises

2010-03-08T00:17:00.002-05:00

The biggest mystery for me coming out of this year's Oscar ceremony was this: how did it still go past midnight? After all, it seemed like they cut every extraneous element to the show. No best original song performances. Only three montages. And far less awkward presenter banter (although the Cameron Diaz/Steve Carell bit had enough unfortunateness to make up for the next 3 hours combined). So seriously, with such a focus on just getting the awards done, how did the show still end the same time?

Yes, despite all the promises from the new producers that they would spice things up and deliver an Oscar show unlike anything we'd ever seen, this year mostly felt like an effort to get us in and out as quickly as possible. The awards went by fast and furious, and little was done to add any extra oomph. Sure, the Neil Patrick Harris opener went a long way, but this was his fourth awards show in the past year. His presence is kind of expected now. So while he was of course great, I assumed there would be more innovation to follow.

As far as Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as duel hosts go, I'd give them a B. They, like Neil Patrick Harris, have the uncanny ability to spout out somewhat lame material and still make it funny based solely on their delivery. There was an almost effortless quality to their hosting, knowing they could coast on their personalities alone to still make things enjoyable. So while that was the case, they didn't do much more. With Neil Patrick Harris essentially doing the "monologue" section for them, they just had to step in and say a few words every now and then. Seemed like a pretty hands-off hosting affair. So while they certainly did their job, this was no Hugh Jackman situation where anyone would accuse them of revolutionizing the show.

As for the awards themselves, well, I predicted 16/24. I know that doesn't sound all that great, but I'm REALLY bad at predicting. And of the 8 I missed, most of them were my 2nd choices. If you poll the broader Oscar watching community, I doubt anyone would say there were any real surprises. Probably my biggest surprise came when Precious stole Up in the Air's best adapted screenplay award, but that "surprise" was more about the fact that Up in the Air really deserved it more. I also went against the consensus in predicting Inglourious Basterds for original screenplay over the expected Hurt Locker, proving consensus generally ruled out.

So what are the takeaways here? The Hurt Locker gets to go down in history as the best picture winner of 2009, and I'm totally fine with that. A lot of deserving frontrunners won their expected awards, like Kathryn Bigelow making history as the first woman to win best director, Jeff Bridges taking a lifetime achievement-ish award for his great performance in Crazy Heart, and Christoph Waltz and Mo'nique winning awards only unexpected because they stand so far above their competitors.

I'm disappointed they still had five people introduce the best actor awards, as it seemed to add that entire last hour to the show. Fun to try to figure out the connections, but otherwise just extra time wasted. However, I'm glad they introduced all the best picture nominees, even if there were ten of them. It helped me remember how much I loved Up in the Air, and even more so Up, to the point that I kind of wished Up had somehow managed to win best picture. And I certainly don't begrudge anyone the John Hughes tribute, which was easily one of the highlights of the night.

I feel like every year it's expected that everyone criticizes the Oscars for any number of reasons: for making picks either predictable or wrong, for the hosts being too conciliatory or too inflammatory, for being too long or insanely too long. So I don't want it to seem like I'm just going through a yearly ritual and kvetching. Because at the end of the day, the deserving movies and performances and craftsmen generally won, and the producers got us through the night in a perfectly reasonable way. Did I feel like this was a particularly innovative year outside of the ten best picture nominees? Not in the slightest. But there was nothing particularly offensive about it either. Mostly, I just hope this time next year there will be movies I loved even more, so that I'll feel even stronger about the outcome.

TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2009

2010-03-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

Now that it's March, I've waited an absurd amount of time to give my top 10 list, as this really should have been done 2 months ago. So while it's kind of irrelevant at this point, I figure as long as I slip them in before the Oscars it still counts, right? Plus, as some of these won't be rewarded tonight, I can still give them something.

1. Up in the Air

At one point this was poised to be the one to beat for best picture, and I'm not really sure why that changed. Up in the Air is a movie that feels simultaneously timeless and timely. It's the kind of impeccably written and acted adult comedy/drama that they just don't make like they used to, and the movie to best use our current economic troubles in a meaningful way. It was a very tough choice between this and my #2 pick, but ultimately this is the one I'll keep re-watching in years to come.

2. The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker's had so much acclaim elsewhere it can settle for #2 on my list. Still, in so many ways this is the movie people have been waiting for. For those craving a classic war like the Vietnam films of the 1970s, here you go. For those wondering if anyone could find a way to turn the Iraq War into art instead of a sermon, here's your answer. And if you want to see the most suspenseful movie of the year with the kind of knockout breakthrough performance that comes along very rarely, well, this is the one.

3. Avatar

There's a reason this is now the highest grossing movie of all time: it offers a cinematic experience unlike anything I've had before. It's easy to laugh off 3-D as a gimmick meant only for kids at an amusement park until you see how James Cameron used it to such stunning effect in creating an entirely original and believable world. Avatar certainly doesn't feature the most original story of the year, but it is the kind of big, epic narrative that demands to be taken seriously. In a year where so many big blockbusters failed to deliver, Cameron proved that the popcorn flick can dazzle instead of just amuse.

4. Up

Pixar has had such an insanely consistent record of excellence that Up isn't even my favorite of theirs and it still makes my top 5. It earned its spot with that early five-minute sequence alone, which created such a strong foundation for the rest of the movie you felt you knew everything about the character. Easily the best sequence of any movie this year. But they went the extra step in making sure the quality lasted for the rest of the film, giving a fun update on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World along with one of animation's best characters ever in Dug the dog. I may be too old for the Happy Meal toy, but I still love shouting "Squirrel!"

5. A Serious Man

The Coen Brothers love to spice things up, playing with different genres and styles in every one of their movies. Yet despite returning to the world of their youth, every frame still feels like a Coen Brothers movie, with the same wry and absurd sense of humor and same attention to visuals. There's a lot of ways this movie divides people, but its intelligent and hilarious script combined with the extraordinary way the Coens captured this time period proves they should keep trying new things, as I'll certainly be watching.

6. Inglourious Basterds

When I first heard this movie announced, I thought "Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, and World War II. None of these things go together." I was wrong. Tarantino took the set-up of all those old classics and gave it his own unmistakable spin. He created so many amazing characters they could probably front their own movies, and his signature dialogue is far better served than in the unfortunate lark that was Death Proof. Here he definitively silenced anyone calling him a director of the '90s, as he once again created a defining movie for this past decade.

7. (500) Days of Summer

Following Little Miss Sunshine and Juno, some felt Summer was just another overly precious indie that wasn't as good as its fans made it out to be. Obviously I'm not of that camp. Summer took the most traditional of movie plots and made it feel fresh. Sure, gimmicks like the time jumping and split screen scene helped, but what really caused all the love was its sincerity. In a time when so many similar movies are filled with quirkiness and snark, real characters and feelings make this one stand out.

8. District 9

The other big alien movie of 2009 was pretty much unlike Avatar in every other way, with its relatively tiny budget, no name cast, and grittier style. It was also the far more successful allegory, teaching me more about apartheid in South Africa than Invictus ever did. Everything about District 9 was untraditional, from its unlikable protagonist to its documentary style opening. Which is why District 9 kept me guessing more than anything else from the year.

9. An Education

Like (500) Days of Summer, An Education is a movie that seems simple at first but actually has more going on. The traditional coming-of-age movie has been done to death, but rarely with all the elements in such fine form. Between Nick Hornby's humorous and touching first screenplay and Carey Mulligan's breakthrough role, there was plenty to freshen up this tale. And by really going into the time period, it played almost like a British, female Mad Men. With such a strong supporting cast, this gem still feels overlooked despite the Oscar nods.

10. Star Trek

To this day I've still never seen a single episode of any Star Trek TV show nor any of the other movies. So the fact that I was able to enjoy this just as well as hardcore Trekkies (or, sorry, Trekkers) shows J.J. Abrams can do a reboot like no other. With its very appealing cast and great action, it was both a perfect summer movie and the kind of strong franchise-starter that leaves me eager to see what comes next.

Honorable Mentions: The Hangover, Food Inc, The Princess and the Frog, The Informant, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Best Picture: Up in the Air

Runner-Up: The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Runner-Up: James Cameron, Avatar

Best Actor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Runner-Up: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education

Runner-Up: Maya Rudolph, Away We Go

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Runner-Up: Peter Sarsgaard, An Education

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'nique, Precious

Runners-Up: Anna Kendrick & Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds

Runner-Up: Up

Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air

Runner-Up: An Education

Best Animated Film: Up

Runner-Up: The Princess and the Frog

Best Documentary: Food, Inc.

Best Song: "The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart

Runner-Up: "All Is Love," Where the Wild Things Are

Oscar Predictions

2010-03-04T22:20:00.004-05:00

As you may have heard, the Academy Awards are this Sunday night. So with a few days to go, I'm going on the record with my predictions. Feel free to follow me on your Oscar pools, but remember that I'm usually very wrong.

Best Picture

Will Win: The Hurt Locker

Top Competitor: Avatar

Should Win: Up in the Air

This one's boiled down to The Hurt Locker vs. Avatar, if perhaps just for the David vs. Goliath ring to it. I'm rooting for Up in the Air mostly to be a contrarian, but Inglourious Basterds is the dark horse most likely to slip in. Still, while it could go in any direction, I'm feeling the Hurt Locker love right now.

Best Director

Will Win: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

Top Competitor: James Cameron, Avatar

Should Win: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

There's a strong argument that picture and director will split between Hurt Locker and Avatar, and that the Academy may want to reward Cameron for his decade of work and serious innovations. I still expect Bigelow to be the first female director to win.

Best Actor

Will Win: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

Top Competitor: Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Should Win: Jeff Bridges or Jeremy Renner

Jeff Bridges is a very safe bet here, but if they REALLY love Hurt Locker Renner could surprise for his breakout role.

Best Actress

Will Win: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Top Competitor: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Should Win: Carey Mulligan, An Education

If those of us who refuse to see The Blind Side can't understand how Bullock was even nominated, remember this: Actors vote for actors, and actors LOVE her. Gabby Sidibe might actually be more likely to surprise than Streep.

Best Supporting Actor

Will Win: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Top Competitor: Um.....

Should Win: Christoph Waltz

This contest ended months ago.

Best Supporting Actress

Will Win: Mo'nique, Precious

Top Competitor: Someone from Up in the Air?

Should Win: Mo'nique

Again, not really much of a contest here.

Best Original Screenplay

Will Win: Inglourious Basterds

Top Competitor: The Hurt Locker

Should Win: Inglourious Basterds

The Hurt Locker may very well win here, but I'm still betting on Tarantino for the win.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Will Win: Up in the Air

Top Competitor: An Education

Should Win: Up in the Air

I think Up in the Air's super polished script is a safe bet, but I guess Precious or An Education could surprise.

Best Animated Film

Will Win: Up

Top Competitor: Um...

Should Win: Up

Another no-brainer.

Best Foreign Language Film

Will Win: A Prophet

Top Competitor: El Secreto de los Ojos

Should Win: Haven't seen any of them

The White Ribbon's the most well-known of the lot, but the foreign language branch of the Academy doesn't care about that. I hear Secreto is the most conventional and will hence probably win, but let's compromise on A Prophet.

Best Score

Will Win: Up

Top Competitor: Avatar

Should Win: Up

Up's music was great, therefore it will win.

Best Song

Will Win: "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart

Top Competitor: "Down in New Orleans" from Princess and the Frog

Should Win: "The Weary Kind"

It's the only song nominated that really deserves to be there, so it should be a clear victory.

Best Documentary

Will Win: The Cove

Top Competitor: Food, Inc.

Should Win: Food, Inc.

The Cove has won every single doc award for the year, so that will probably continue. But Fooc, Inc. was really really good.

Best Art Direction

Will Win: Avatar

Top Competitor: The Young Victoria

Should Win: Avatar

I don't really know what I'm talking about here, but I refuse to predict Nine for any victories. Seems like a good place for Avatar to take an award, but they do love period pieces in these categories...

Best Cinematography

Will Win: The Hurt Locker

Top Competitor: Avatar

Should Win: The Hurt Locker

Again, Inglourious Basterds has a real shot, but I see it being between the two top-nominated movies. And here I think conventional filmmaking will win out.

Best Costumes

Will Win: The Young Victoria

Top Competitor: Bright Star

Should Win: I haven't even seen most of these movies, and for good reason.

I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about here, but period pieces always win here.

Best Makeup

Will Win: Star Trek

Top Competitor: The Young Victoria

Should Win: Star Trek

Did you recognize Eric Bana? Yeah, I didn't think so.

Best Film Editing

Will Win: The Hurt Locker

Top Competitor: Avatar

Should Win: The Hurt Locker

Tends to go to the movie with the most noticeable editing, so again, that's Hurt Locker.

Best Visual Effects

Will Win: Avatar

Top Competitor: District 9

Should Win: Avatar

Which of these movies reinvented cinema? Oh, right, that one.

Best Sound Editing

Will Win: Avatar

Top Competitor: The Hurt Locker

Should Win: Avatar

Avatar should be sweeping these tech categories.

Best Sound Mixing

Will Win: Avatar

Top Competitor: The Hurt Locker

Should Win: Avatar

May be a "different" category, but same deal.

Best Documentary Short

Will Win: The Last Truck: Closing of a GE Plant

Top Competitor: China's Natural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province

I haven't seen nor read anything about these, so I'm basing my judgement on title alone. But the GE Plant one sounds timely, and the China one sounds depressing, so there you go.

Best Live Action Short

Will Win: The New Tenants

Top Competitor: Kavi

I don't really know much about this category, but I heard "Tenants" is really funny, and that "Kavi" is the serious one.

Best Animated Short

Will Win: A Matter of Loaf or Death

Top Competitor: Logorama

Wallace and Gromit won feature animated film in its year (I think), so I bet it takes short as well. Though Logorama is also a cool name.

I reserve the right to change my mind multiple times in the next few days, especially in those last three categories. Good luck with your Oscar pools, and we'll discuss more on Sunday!

Tell Me Where the Unsecure Nuclear Materials Are!

2010-02-25T21:07:00.002-05:00

There's a reason I haven't written about 24 yet this season: I've been consistently behind by at least 2-3 episodes. Starting with four episodes in a row is tough on those of us with lives (however minimal they may be). But tonight, after over a month and 9 episodes, I've finally caught up.

So what's the verdict? Not great. 24 long ago gave away its position as top dog among buzzy, addictive serials to shows like Lost, Dexter, and Damages, but last season it was able to act as fun TV comfort food - not leaving you breathless for the next episode, but usually pretty enjoyable.

This year so far feels closer to the much maligned season 6, in which there's not enough Jack, and way too much lame filler plots. Most guilty among them this time is Dana Walsh (Katee Sackhoff aka Starbuck), whose storyline falls somewhere below Kim's cougar and Terri's amnesia on the list of stupidest 24 plots ever. As a woman with a shady past whose blackmailing ex is threatening to expose it, Dana has done no actual work all season nor performed any logical actions, and each week keeps getting more and more absurd. It seems to be over now that the ex and his psycho friend are dead, but we'll still be subject to the unfortunate "what do we do with the bodies" episode. Hopefully once that's done Dana and Cole can get back to work and stop wasting the show's time.

Also in this category: David Anders as the son of the Russian with the nuclear rods that make up this season's MacGuffin. Anders played one of Alias' most memorable characters and was the only good thing to happen to Heroes after season 1, but somehow 24 made him boring. He mostly just complained about his brother, then became main villain for all of 5 seconds before being killed off this week. For that matter, how many villains have we had? Vladimir, Sark's dad, Sark, Middle Eastern Jason Schwartzman, and now his band of merry terrorists. And none of them are memorable. Who knew we'd so miss the days of Nina and Sherry Palmer?

As far as Presidents Taylor and Hassan.......sorry, I fell asleep. I liked the idea of making the big threat an assassination a la season 1, but that threat was resolved within the first four hours. Now we're back to the same threat as every season: nukes. Whether rods or in a suitcase, it's the same thing. Hassan's turn from benevolent leader to paranoid dictator should be interesting, but it just isn't. And Taylor's trapped scheduling meetings, while her new chief of staff just makes phone calls.

That leaves Jack and Renee in charge of carrying the season, given that Chloe gets three lines per episode, Hastings/Dana/Cole don't really work, and Shia LeBeouf just wants to gossip about Dana. And I admit to usually enjoying Jack's undercover plotlines. But when they drag on too long, that's too long when Jack's not in control. All the worse since Renee's the primary undercover agent here. And I'm not sure Annie Wersching is a good enough actress to pull off psycho Renee. Sure, she's more interesting that way, but it's all a little silly.

Still, if there's one thing that always succeeds, it's the classic "Jack Bauer is awesome" moments. It's no wonder the most talked about scene this season has been when Jack pulled Renee's knife out of his body and threw it in some guy's neck. I also enjoy any occasion in which Jack kills a guy with his feet, or knocks a guard out by karate chopping him in the neck. Next week Jack leads a team to rescue Middle Eastern Jason Schwartzman, so we're bound to get some good action there. And when Jack's onscreen, the show definitely improves.

Problem with 24's method of basically introducing a new cast every season is the show's not all that great at creating characters. The writers seem to hope 2 out of 10 will stick (last year it was Renee and President Taylor), and the rest can just be killed off, as is 24's way. But despite the high number of new characters and the impressive actors playing them, not one of them has made a positive impression so far. Which means it continues to be the Jack Bauer show, and anything else is just running the clock.

Spring Movie Preview

2010-02-20T14:24:00.005-05:00

It may not feel like spring with all the snow the East Coast has been hit with the past month, but that's what we're going to call the season from February through April. So if you've already seen Avatar twice and just can't drag yourself to go see The Blind Side, here's ten upcoming movies that may prove worth leaving your apartment to see.

Shutter Island (February 19th)

Yes, this came out yesterday, but since I couldn't put it on my fall preview it's going on now. With reviews calling this Scorsese's The Shining and Dennis Lehane as the source material, I'm excited enough that I've already got my tickets for today.

Cop Out (February 26th)

Admittedly, the trailers don't look that great. It seems like a lame buddy cop comedy is released every spring and I end up checking it out on DVD or not at all. But I've never not seen a Kevin Smith movie (that includes Jersey Girl), and Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are a fun pairing, so I may give this a shot.

A Prophet (February 26th)

This French film is one of only two Best Foreign Film nominees at the Oscars that anyone's ever heard of (and who really wants to sit through The White Ribbon). An intense gangster/prison movie, I'm not entirely sure what it's about but the trailer's pretty compelling.

Alice in Wonderland (March 5th)

One of the first big event movies of 2010, and the one that will get Avatar kicked off all the 3-D screens. Tim Burton could just mess this up the way he did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but I'm betting his oddball vision will be just what Lewis Carroll's classic has always needed.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (March 19th)

You may not have heard of the bestselling YA series this movie is based on, but you should work on fixing that. I tore through the first 3 books in 3 days, and laughed out loud constantly from start to finish. If the movie's even half as funny (and I've heard it's well more than that), we're looking at a movie that could nail the horrors of middle school and make it funny.

Greenberg (March 26th)

Whatever you thought about Margot at the Wedding, there's no denying The Squid and the Whale as one of the greatest movies of the 2000s, so I'm eagerly anticipating Noah Baumbach's next one, in which Ben Stiller seems to play an older version of Jesse Eisenberg's typical character.

Hot Tub Time Machine (March 26th)

Really funny or really, really stupid? Too soon to tell. But with John Cusack, Rob Corddry, and Darryl from The Office in the cast, there's hope for the former.

Clash of the Titans (April 2nd)

Another 3-D experiment that may just give Greek gods the Transformers treatment (not that I can even decipher the trailer). But I'm a sucker for Greek mythology and Liam Neeson, so I may get dragged into it if it's not too awful.

Date Night (April 9th)

Fox and Shawn Levy give America the comic pairing we've dreamed of in Steve Carell and Tina Fey as regular family folk whose night out gets them caught up in all sorts of action shenanigans. The rest of the cast is equally awesome and the trailer looks pretty damn funny.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (April 23rd)

The first Wall Street is a classic that nails the world of 1980s finance. Now's the perfect time for a reboot. The fun trailer's a good sign, and adding Carey Mulligan and Josh Brolin to the cast helps me forgive the inclusion of Shia LaBeouf.

So what are you most excited to see before Iron Man 2 kicks off summer movie season? What future classics did I shamefully leave off (anyone excited for Green Zone? Anyone?)? And which ones are only on here so I could reach the magic number 10 (I'm looking at you, Clash of the Titans)? Let me know in the comments.

Lackluster, Actually

2010-02-14T23:34:00.002-05:00

Grade: C

With the utter glee critics have taken in brutally destroying Valentine's Day in print, you'd think it was the second coming of Gigli. Entertainment Weekly gave it an F, Peter Travers called it "the date movie from Hell," and Manohla Dargis said its only saving grace comes from making Love Actually look good in comparison (a rather backhanded compliment for one of the best date movies ever made). Against all of that critical hatred, I find myself in the rather odd position of trying to defend a movie I didn't particularly like. Valentine's Day may be a predictable and painfully cliched romantic comedy, but it's hardly an affront to human decency.

Now, when I first heard of Valentine's Day, I thought what many of you must have: "An American Love Actually! Nice!' And that was certainly the idea, as not only does Valentine's Day take the same format of individual love stories with somewhat connected characters, but it even rips off some of the same plots. When you see a young boy who's recently been separated from his mother seek advice on how to woo a girl from school, it's hard not to think of Liam Neeson and "All I Want for Christmas." But in execution, this version is less a cultural translation and more of a straight-up advertisement for the Valentine's Day holiday.

For all of Love Actually's cutesiness, each and every one of the individual love stories was clever and something different. A prime minister who falls for a servant. An English man who falls for a non-English-speaking Portuguese woman. Porn stars who fall in love during film shoots. A rock star who realizes his closest relationship is with his agent/business manager. All individually interesting stories that, when put together, form a filmic mosaic of all types of love. It's hard to watch that movie and not feel good.

What does Valentine's Day have? A florist (Ashton Kutcher) who realizes he's meant to be with his best friend (Jennifer Garner). Said best friend realizing her boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey) is married. An agency mail room guy (Topher Grace) whose new girlfriend (Anne Hathaway) secretly works at a phone sex hotline. An older man (Hector Elizondo) who learns that his wife (Shirley MacLaine) hid an affair years earlier. A publicist (Jessica Biel) who hates Valentine's Day until she gets the attention of a sports reporter (Jamie Foxx).

Does any one of those storylines seem like something you haven't seen a billion times before? Ok, fine, maybe the phone sex. But otherwise, the individual stories here make up an impressive cross-section of the most obvious romantic plots possible. I think I can say that literally every romantic comedy cliche is utilized to some extent. The very public reunion that leads everyone to clap? Check. The minority best friend who offers sage advice? Check. Talking your way through airport security to stop someone from getting on a plane? Check. And enough nauseating lines about love that I actually left the theater with a headache? Check a hundred times over.

On a rather more specific note, I'd like to point out Taylors Swift and Lautner for carrying the most extraneous subsection of the movie. Unlike everyone else, they actually have no plot of their own. There's one scene where he doesn't love her V-Day gift and you think that's going to be the story, but nope, never brought up again. Instead, they pop up randomly around other characters while sporadically hogging screentime so Lautner can do backflips and Swift can do what seems to be a 40 year old's idea of how high schoolers act. Seriously, she was just there like a year ago, has she forgotten so soon?

Still, despite all of what I've said, I do think the critics miss one important thing: the movie's still pretty watchable. Sure, in the last half hour (which drags on waaaaaaaaay too long) the cheese factor gets too much to bear, but until then the movie is a painlessly mediocre experience. Even when given nothing to do, likable stars do go a long way. Anne Hathaway, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper, Topher Grace - all people I'm willing to watch do otherwise stupid things. Even Ashton Kutcher as the de facto lead didn't bother me as much as usual (and goes the longest you will ever see him away from Twitter).

Obviously Valentine's Day is a movie that hinges on its title and release date, script be damned. But what else was I supposed to take my girlfriend to on Valentine's Day? The Wolfman? No thanks. Nobody else stepped up with a smarter romantic comedy, so Valentine's Day gets to carry the weekend. And I should also point out that I'm hardly the target audience here. My theater was pretty evenly split between couples and large groups of girls, making the male proportion of the theater about 15-20%. Women who enjoy watching these cliches over and over again probably had a perfectly good time. For the rest of us, we'll just enjoy the real Love Actually all the more next time we see it.

A Serious Jew Movie

2010-02-10T20:55:00.002-05:00

Grade: A

Yesterday, A Serious Man came to DVD. Two weeks ago, I paid to see it in theaters. That may seem silly, knowing if I just held off a little longer I could have just Netflixed it, but I stand by my choice. Not only did it allow me to be 9 for 10 on best picture nominees last week, but I was able to see how people reacted in the theater. Instead of the theater laughing all at once, I would find myself laughing alone at some parts, and others laughing alone later. And others probably weren't laughing at all. Which is why this has been one of the more debated movies of 2009. Some people responded to it, and some people didn't.

Jewish physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) seems to be living a good life, but all of a sudden things begin to rapidly unravel for him. His wife (Sari Lennick) announces out of nowhere that she's leaving him for smooth-voiced widower Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), the titular serious man whose insistence on handling things "like adults" just make him all the more obnoxious. Larry's brother (Richard Kind) shows no signs of looking for an apartment as he spends all his time in Larry's bathroom draining a cyst. A Korean student is bribing him to change a grade. The Columbia record club is hounding him for payments on records he never ordered. Oh, and people keep dying right in front of him.

If all of this doesn't sound quite as bad as what happened to Job, Larry's biblical precedent, it's not. In fact, a lot of what happens to Larry happens less to him and more around him, a maelstrom of ridiculousness to which Larry is forced to observe. But as in the story of Job, the central question is why? The script is structured by Larry's meetings with three rabbis - young, older, and oldest - through whom he tries to seek some guidance. The best visit is the second, in which the rabbi tells an elaborate story that, while amusing, doesn't seem to actually have a lesson, much to Larry's frustration. In fact the story does have a moral, one shared by the movie: sometimes there are no answers. Which may make this one of the most Jewish movies ever made.

It's not just all the rabbis and Hebrew that makes people call this Joel and Ethan Coens' most personal movie yet. Set in a close-knit Jewish community in the 1960s, the characters here live much as the Coens must have growing up in Minnesota. And they truly do nail that world. Looking at the washed-over colors and drab architecture, it's amazing how similar it looks to pictures of the era my parents grew up in.

They also really understand what it was like growing up in that world, often to hilarious effect. Many of the funniest moments surround Larry's son, who listens to Jefferson Airplane on a walkman in Hebrew School while his teacher drones on about Hebrew verb conjugation and goes to his own Bar Mitzvah while stoned. There's the way everyone's answer to Larry's questions is "go ask the rabbi." And the way nobody actually knows the word for a Jewish divorce.

If this is the Book of Job though, it's not God bringing all of this down on Larry so much as the Coen brothers, and I think the movie can best be enjoyed if you view it from their perspective. Some people find the whole thing just depressing, and I imagine if you're really empathizing with the characters then you might think so. But there's so much absurdity that I couldn't imagine taking the movie at face value. I think a better criticism would be that the whole movie is some dark joke amongst the Coens, watching their characters squirm for their amusement. But hey, at least it's a funny one.

Especially if you're a Coen Brothers fan, A Serious Man impresses by being so entirely different from anything else they've made. It's hard to imagine it came from the same minds as No Country for Old Men. If I had to pick a movie it's most similar to, I'd probably land on Barton Fink, another odd one about internal crisis with an unusual ending (A Serious Man's ending won't confuse you like that of No Country for Old Men, but its bleak punchline may leave you just as unsatisfied). I might also go with The Big Lebowski, a completely dissimilar movie that oddly shares a somewhat similar tone.

There's a lot that's potentially off-putting about A Serious Man. It's very Jewish not just in the amount of Hebrew they throw at you early on, but in the entire style of humor they employ, and if you haven't chanted haftarah, you might feel out of the loop. The comedy is so pitch-black that you may not even realize the Coens are joking. But if you enjoy intelligent movies that pose serious questions, making you think hard about the fact that there's no intention of answering them, you'd be missing out not to see it. And while Sy Ableman may be a serious man, the movie itself is more seriously funny.

Welcome to Alterna-Lost

2010-02-02T23:48:00.004-05:00

For the number of times it's been said on the show, tonight it became true: it's the beginning of the end. Lost began its 6th and final season with a two-hour premiere both exciting and baffling, filled with tons of mythology, great character moments, and, yes, more questions, despite a promise to end them in ABC's promo. What's with the multiple timelines? Who are the people in the temple? Why after two hours do we still not know the name of the Man in Black/Fake Locke/Smoke Monster? Let's get to it.

Following the season-ending white-out, this season begins with Jack back on Oceanic 815, reliving a scene from the pilot with Cindy the flight attendant. But not everything's the same. The turbulence that originally sent the plane down passes. Desmond pops up next to Jack (though was he really there?). Shannon is definitely MIA, and there's no sign of Michael, Walt, Ana-Lucia, Eko, Libby, or Nikki&Paolo (though that doesn't mean they weren't there). Oh, and the island is now under water.

While it seems like without the island their flight would end in a normal and boring fashion, plenty of people find nasty surprises at LAX. Kate of course is still in the custody of the Marshall. Charlie was trying to hide his drugs at the time of the plane's crash, and without it he is indeed caught (though not before nearly killing himself trying to swallow the bag). Less expected - Christian's coffin didn't make it to LA (so maybe he's still connected to the island somehow?) and Jin gets in trouble for the money he brought over to start a new life with Sun.

I had a feeling the nuke would lead to us seeing the flight land as normal, and was concerned it would cause a retread of season 5 in which everyone had to be found and brought back to the island, just killing time before the real plot could begin. Thankfully, that's not the case. Instead, we get to play the "what if?" game, and enjoy all the interactions between these now-strangers. Especially enjoyable was Boone telling Locke he'd stick with him if the plane ever went down (guess some things never change). But if this parallel world is to last all season, and it seems like it will, it will need to tie in to the real story on the island or it will just feel like a distraction with so few hours remaining.

Heading back to the beginning, we get to watch Juliet hit the bomb for a second time, making us all wonder why the previously clips are repeating. But this time the white-out led not to flight 815 but to Kate's eye, as she wakes up by the site of what was once the Hatch (before Desmond blew it up). At first I wondered if she and Jack landed in different universes, but no, the gang is all there, even Juliet. Some suspense was definitely lost knowing Juliet wouldn't likely be surviving the episode. And her "I have something really really important to tell you" before dying is the kind of frustrating tease Lost is infamous for. Thankfully Miles is onhand to go all Pushing Daisies on her grave. So how does Juliet know about the alternate timeline? Seems like the strongest evidence that the two will indeed merge somehow.

The other ghostly encounter here is Jacob's visit to Hurley, instructing him to bring Sayid to the Temple, that much-discussed but never-seen place that clearly plays a central role in the mythology. And once we saw it, the world of Lost got even more confusing. There's a whole other group of people on the island, run by an Asian guy who knows English but doesn't like its taste on his mouth, so he has a hippie translate for him. Ben had told the Others we know to go to the Temple when he moved the island (if I'm remembering that right), which could explain Cindy and the kids' presence there, but beyond that we don't know if they are the same Others. We just know they're on Team Jacob.

And they have mystical healing water that may be somewhat on the fritz. After noting its different color, they still drown Sayid in it. But the water must do its job, cause rise from the dead he does in the final moments, as they begin fortifying themselves against the Man in Locke. These new Others seem like a big new addition for the final season when so much is already in play, but since they're more likely to have the answers than anyone outside of the island's two deities, I'm sure they have their role. And last bit on this group - just as becoming LaFleur made Sawyer a different and more interesting character last season, Juliet's death seems to be bringing him into a darker side that should be fun to see play out this year.

Finally, third subplot is same universe, other side of the island with Ben, the Man in Locke, and the Ajira-ites. One of the episode's biggest answers comes when we find out the Man in Black is the Smoke Monster. I've figured the Smoke Monster for a shapeshifter ever since Eko was visited by the ghost of his brother immediately before his death-by-monster. However, I can't imagine the ghost of Jacob is also a manifestation of his archrival, so clearly the Monster does not make up all the ghosts on the island. In fact, it seems more likely that the ghosts are Team Jacob, as Christian was willing to speak on Jacob's behalf. This also doesn't explain how the Temple seemed to be the Smoke Monster's home when it attacked the French team, but now clearly the Temple dwellers want nothing to do with him. Maybe they switched sides?

In the same scene, we learn that the Ajira-ites seem to have an even shorter shelf-life than the Tailies did. The Tailies at least got a full season, but Caesar was gunned down by Ben the second he landed on the island, and the other guy whose name we must have known at some point gets stabbed by Smokey this week. That just leaves Ilana, who had very little to do despite being upped to regular status. We still don't know what lies in the shadow of the statue (unless the answer is Jacob), but we do know that this crew came to protect him. Seems like Jacob could do better.

Another reveal came when the Locke Monster confirmed what many of us suspected from last year's finale - that Richard Alpert did indeed arrive on the Black Rock (unless Alpert was in chains for some other reason). More interesting than the confirmation though was that Lockester said that was the last time he saw him. Makes you wonder all the more about what happened that day after Jacob and the Man in Black's fateful talk, and how Jacob made Alpert ageless.

Anyway, that's all I've got for now. From these two hours, it's clear the writers plan to keep going strong until the final frame, finding new and inventive ways to surprise and confuse us. As after Lost's best hours, I don't understand everything I just saw, but I can't wait to see more. So do you think the premiere was worth the wait? What did you think of the alternate reality - fun, intriguing, or time-wasting? What answers do you want to get before the series ends (I still think we're owed an explanation of why Walt is special)? Let me know in the comments, and keep on watching.

And if you want more on the Lost premiere, click here for an interview with Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

WTF The Blind Side

2010-02-02T08:47:00.004-05:00

This morning I watched Anne Hathaway and Tom Sherak read off the major Oscar nominations while I had breakfast (which I would certainly not be doing if I lived on the West Coast). For the most part, the Oscar bloggers had it right. I was most often wrong in my predictions when I tried to do something bold and different. The Last Station got the two acting nominees it was expected, Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz got in despite the weaknesses in their movies, and Lee Daniels did indeed get in for best director to show what the real best picture nominees were.

That's not to say there weren't some surprises. Maggie Gyllenhaal was able to ride the Jeff Bridges wave to a best supporting actress nod over Julianne Moore and the Inglourious Basterds ladies. Screenplay saw a surprise in each category, with The Messenger beating out (500) Days of Summer and (thankfully) Avatar, and In the Loop getting in for adapted. Perhaps the biggest non-best picture surprise came in animation, in which a movie I've never heard of got the fifth slot over more mainstream fare like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or Ponyo. Does anyone know what The Secret of Kells is? Is it Irish? Did it actually release in America this year?

But of course, the surprise that most people will be talking about today is the unexpected and unfortunate inclusion of The Blind Side in best picture. Now, to be fair, I haven't seen it, and it's in fact the only best picture nominee I haven't seen. But since everytime I watch the trailers I gag a little, I have a hard time believing it's really best picture material. So now I, like most Oscar-watching men in the country, am left with a dilemma. I haven't not seen a best picture nominee since Erin Brockovitch, and that was ten years ago. So do I suck it up and see The Blind Side, or do I agree to go 9 for 10 this year?

Finally, just saw the unannounced nominees, of which the category I care most about is Best Song. Thankfully "I See You" from Avatar and "Cinema Italiano" from Nine were left out, though the other new song from Nine still made it in. I'm still predicting and rooting for "The Weary Kind" from Crazy Heart for the win.

Now here's the nominees announced this morning:

Best Picture

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

A Serious Man

Up in the Air

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

James Cameron, Avatar

Lee Daniels, Precious

Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Helen Mirren, The Last Station

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best Supporting Actor

Matt Damon, Invictus

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz, Nine

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Mo'nique, Precious

Best Original Screenplay

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The Messenger

A Serious Man

Best Adapted Screenplay

District 9

An Education

In the Loop

Precious

Up in the Air

Best Animated Film

Coraline

Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Princess and the Frog

The Secret of Kells

Best Foreign Film

Argentinian Movie

Israeli Movie

Peruvian Movie

The Prophet

The White Ribbon

Oscar Nomination Predictions

2010-01-31T21:56:00.002-05:00

On Tuesday, early in the morning, the Oscar nods will finally be announced, following what feels like 500 other award ceremonies. We'll get to see if ten nominees for best picture leads to some wacky mainstream picks, or just an expansion of typical Academy fare. So, while I fully admit to letting my personal preferences get in the way of serious conjecture, here are my predictions for how the top races will look, from most likely to least:

Best Picture

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Up in the Air

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

An Education

District 9

A Serious Man

(500) Days of Summer

I'm probably the only one thinking Summer could be nominated, but I figure there's got to be one out of left field pick, and Invictus feels like the most vulnerable of the expected nominees. That said, it's way more likely to be A Serious Man falling out and The Blind Side or Star Trek coming in.

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker

James Cameron, Avatar

Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Neil Blomkamp, District 9

The first four are pretty much locks, so it's only the last slot that may surprise. It could go to Lee Daniels to recognize what the best picture nominees would have been in a normal year, or to Clint Eastwood for who knows why. But I think they'll want to recognize Blomkamp.

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Colin Firth, A Single Man

I feel pretty safe predicting these five, since the biggest challenger is Viggo Mortenson and I'm just not seeing it for The Road.

Best Actress

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds

Again, the top four here are pretty much locks, and most expect Helen Mirren to take the fifth slot. But since I don't think many voters will watch The Last Station, general support for Inglourious Basterds could sneak Melanie Laurent in (as much as I'm tempted to put Zoe Saldana in slot #5).

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Alfred Molina, An Education

Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker

While Christoph Waltz has the win in the bag, I'm less sure who will be joining him among the nominees. I can't see Matt Damon making it in since he pretty much just did an accent and played rugby, and I'm going against Christopher Plummer in The Last Station for the same reason as Helen Mirren. Since Christian McKay may suffer the same problem of people not seeing his movie, maybe the recent guild love will carry over for Hurt Locker into a supporting actor nomination.

Best Supporting Actress

Mo'nique, Precious

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds

I refuse to predict Nine for any major nominations, and not having seen The Messenger I'm doubting Samantha Morton too. So unless they stick Melanie Laurent in supporting actress (which they quite possibly will), I'll go with Diane Kruger.

Best Original Screenplay

Inglourious Basterds

The Hurt Locker

(500) Days of Summer

A Serious Man

If the Academy goes crazy for Avatar, I suppose it could steal one of these slots (as could The Hangover), but I'm sticking with the five that deserve it.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Up in the Air

An Education

Precious

District 9

Fantastic Mr. Fox

This is one of the more competitive categories, as I could totally see Julie & Julia, The Blind Side, or Invictus sneaking in, but I'll play it safe here.

Dollhouse's Epitaph

2010-01-30T12:37:00.002-05:00

Last night, Dollhouse got to do what few cancelled shows are able to: air a series finale. And not a season finale that maybe sorta not really can function as a series finale, or a pseudo series finale that clearly leaves room for another season, but an actual end. And while, much like most of this season, the final hour felt like it could have used a whole lot more episodes to tell the story (at the very least two hours would have been nice), it still gave closure for all of us fans still watching.

Picking up where the DVD-only Epitaph One ended, Epitaph Two began in 2020 with Epitaph One survivors Felicia Day, Zone, and little-girl-imprinted-as-Caroline making their way to Safe Haven in a postapocalyptic world where tech has gotten so out of control that most of the world has either been imprinted or lives in the blankslate mode of unimprinted dolls (if you can follow that sentence, you're definitely a fan). Thankfully, they quickly meet up with the rest of the gang, so unlike Epitaph One we get to experience the finale through all of our main characters (well, minus Boyd and Whiskey).

So where are they ten years in the future? Well, it seems Boyd's vaccine survived even if Rossum headquarters didn't, and they were able to protect themselves from imprint-palooza. Echo and Ballard roam the world shooting down various incarnations of Harding and Clyde (guess Boyd was the only Rossum bigshot not to back himself up), Priya/Sierra had a kid, and Tony/Victor got so obsessed with mental upgrades Priya wouldn't even tell the kid Tony's his dad. Topher got the darkest future, driven crazy while forced to work for the Rossum survivors on a way to imprint the rest of the world.

I'm still not sure I understand why Rossum wanted to create an apocalypse in the first place. I think Boyd thought it was inevitable so just wanted to survive it, but that doesn't explain the rest. Anyway, the plot begins when Echo and Ballard find Topher, who believes he can make the world right again, as long as he can return to the Dollhouse. So return to LA they do, where the zombie-like Butchers stand guarding the entrance and holy shit shoot Ballard in the head. And Echo doesn't even react, just moves on. Crazy.

More surprises await inside the Dollhouse, where Alpha is waiting....to greet them? Yes, somewhere in the past ten years he became a good guy, and sane. This was one of the places where we really did miss seeing what happened in those ten years, since Alpha as a good guy just isn't as fun as bad Alpha. And forgive me if I'm forgetting, but wasn't Whiskey still in the Dollhouse when Felicia Day left at the end of Epitaph One? How come she couldn't show up in the finale (other than a commitment to an ABC show that may never actually air)?

Thanks to a video of Bennett (nice touch), Topher figured out how to make his pulse bomb, but had to be there to release it himself, giving the typically heroic death to a complicated character. While the rest of the world woke up (did they fall asleep?), our gang was forced to remain in the Dollhouse so they wouldn't forget the past ten years, except for De Witt, who was assigned to lead the new world order. It was a little like the Buffy finale, when all the Potential Slayers were awoken and Giles restarted the Watchers Council to teach them what to do. And with a year to reconnect with Ballard, now imprinted into her increasingly crowded brain, Echo lay down in the pod to rest.

All in all, it was a satisfying finale that tied up most loose ends and left everyone in a secure place. But I wouldn't say it was a great series finale in the level that Buffy's was. With that ten year gap standing in the way, I couldn't help but feel that I didn't really know the characters as well (even if they certainly didn't look ten years older). Since they barely figured into Epitaph One, there's a lot of missing pieces in this story. And with so much plot happening so fast, it definitely felt a bit rushed (after ten years, Topher saves the world in like 30 seconds). Plus, after hiding it well all season, Dollhouse's low budget showed itself pretty clearly in the unconvincing apocalyptic world.

Still, the rush that was the second half of this season, filling each episode with so many crazy reveals and so much character growth, will surely help cement this as a cult classic-to-be on DVD. You can't fault Fox too much, as most networks wouldn't have granted the second season in the first place, and certainly not allowed it to air all its episodes without too long a break (remember what ABC did with Pushing Daisies' final 3 pisodes?). Dollhouse had plenty of flaws and was never going to be a mass-audience success, but it was surely one of the most original shows to ever make it on TV. I'm certainly glad I stuck with it, and if you didn't, check it out sometime.

Totally Re-Hooked on Damages

2010-01-28T22:14:00.002-05:00

Well, we can add Damages to the list of shows I really shouldn't delay watching. At the very least, I should never ever read Entertainment Weekly's spoiler column unless I am 100% caught-up on every single show I watch. You'd think I'd learn by now. But just because the final twist was somewhat spoiled for me (and I'll delay discussing it until later in case you missed this SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T SEEN THE DAMAGES SEASON 3 PREMIERE) doesn't mean I wasn't able to enjoy an exciting premiere that got me immediately as hooked as I was in season 1.

In fact, there was a lot about the premiere that harked back to the original pilot. There was a Patty and Ellen face-off in a public bathroom. There was a successful attempt to get a witness to cooperate by harming what they love pretending to be the other side (thankfully this time the target was a motorcycle instead of a dog). And, of course, an ending revealing something not so nice 6 months in the future.

But unlike in Damages' first season, Arthur Frobisher was nowhere to be seen, as a whole new case is beginning. And unlike last year, where it took the writers awhile to get the case going, this week's episode put us right into it. Louis Tobin (Len Cariou) is a Bernie Madoff-like figure who screwed over a whole bunch of people in a Ponzi scheme. His family - wife Marilyn (Lily Tomlin), son Joe (Campbell Scott), and daughter-in-law Rachel (Reiko Aylesworth) - seem to be left with nothing, but Patty's not so sure. And this year she's pitted against Martin Short's Lenny, a Tom Hagen-like lawyer who's known the family forever.

A plot based on Bernie Madoff seems more like something for Law & Order than Damages (and L&O has already done it), but even one episode in it's clear this is just a starting point. In fact, Louis has the least screen time of all of the Tobins, as it's the question of how much the rest of the family knew that drives the season. So far, Joe seems legitimately clean. The good husband and father, trying to do the right thing. Which is how William Hurt seemed this time last season too. This is Damages; you know he's gonna turn out to be bad. We don't have to wait too long to see how, as by episode's end Louis reveals the hidden money exists. Think Joe will turn over the info to Patty? Not a chance.

Damages is known for its against-type casting - Ted Danson as a bad guy, Darrell Hammond doing drama - but this season goes a lot further by putting Tomlin and Short in dramatic roles. How are they doing? Too soon to tell. Neither is yet entirely convincing in their parts, but we don't know much about them yet. Short's been able to show some menace in his taking down of the reporter, so Lenny may very well be Patty's most formidable foe since Ray Fiske. And if Marilyn thinks Patty's "not too sharp," well, she's bound to be disappointed. As for Scott, he seems to be underplaying his part a la William Hurt last season. It didn't work out too well for him, but I think Scott will pull it off. And I'm always happy to see 24's Michelle Dessler back onscreen.

It's strange that I've gone this far and have barely mentioned Ellen, the clear main character for the first 2 seasons. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the "6 months later" flashforwards are for the first time all about Patty, not Ellen. This year Rose Byrne may actually belong in the supporting actress category she is continually nominated in, because Patty has emerged as the protagonist this year. Having left Hewes & Associates (now Hewes Shayes Associates) to work in the DA's office (for Angels in America's Ben Shenkman), Ellen's a bit out of the action so far. We know it won't last.

Lots of other intriguing developments. Keith Carradine pops up (following roles on Dexter and Dollhouse) as a potential romantic interest for Patty, but again, this is Damages, so he's got to be up to something shifty. The phone number Louis called on that fateful Thanksgiving night belonged a homeless man...who also appears in the flashforward....with the purse Patty gave Ellen.....what?

Finally, the ending, which perfectly mirrored the pilot in revealing the death of a major character, in this case Tom Shayes. I know this should seem like a shocking and daring decision, but it just feels like 24 syndrome to me. Ever since 24 killed Terri Bauer, seasonal character deaths have become almost mandatory for suspense shows. And as happened to 24 after it killed off its entire supporting cast in season 5, I worry it could hurt this show later on. Damages only has three continuous characters, with the rest of the cast changing every year. So without Tom, we're really just down to Patty and Ellen providing the show with any continuity.

On the other hand, this is an even bigger deal than David's death, and raises the stakes for the season all the higher. Knowing the case will ultimately take Tom's life (and apparently turn him into Howard Hughes?) makes this more than just a Wall Street thing, but the kind of high-suspense, high-risk case that Damages does best. And Tom finally has a big story and, presumably, more screentime for it. Last year the show took too long to get the case going and got bogged down in way too many characters and plot lines. This year there's a single main storyline and the stakes have already been made abundantly clear. All signs point to an addictive and unmissable season ahead.

FX Swim

2010-01-18T13:02:00.002-05:00

Grade: B-

Well, we're only a few weeks into TV midseason, and already I'm behind. Having chosen the Golden Globes over 24 last night, I'll soon be 4 hours behind in one show alone, in addition to the pilot of Human Target, last week's doubleshot of 30 Rock, and the penultimate Dollhouse. Speaking of Dollhouse, the series finale has been preempted by the Haiti telethon, so it will now air on January 29th at 8 PM.

But one thing I have cleared off my DVR is Archer, FX's first animated comedy. FX has had a number of successful dramas, between The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, and Damages, but hasn't been quite so lucky on comedies. Sure, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has turned into quite the cult hit, but FX is still seeking a companion show to fill the hour.

Archer, created by writers for various Adult Swim programs, feels like it would have been more at home wedged between Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021. It's about a spy organization called Isis, run by the titular antihero's mother, voiced by Jessica Walter. Joining Walter in the impressive voice cast is her former Arrested Development costar Judy Greer, SNL's Chris Parnell, and ex-Nip/Tucker Aisha Tyler. In the pilot, Archer's tasked with training his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend in spycraft. In the second episode, he invents a mole to doctor his expense accounts, only to discover a real mole.

The show seems to want to be The Tick, but so far it hasn't reached that level. Like most of Adult Swim, Archer is amusing enough, but would probably be funnier if viewed in a crowded dorm late at night while in the midst of some kind of high. The second episode's better than the first, as it puts the focus on Archer instead of viewing him through the other guy. But for a show making fun of spy stories, these first two episodes have been completely tied down in the office. There's plenty of other shows doing a better job with office culture, so why not let Archer be a spy?

It looks like next week will already be more mission-focused, and the show will probably get funnier over time. But like Adult Swim, this seems like the kind of thing that might be fun to get caught in while channel surfing, but not worth setting to your DVR.

The Ricky Gervais and James Cameron Show

2010-01-17T23:53:00.006-05:00

When it comes to the Golden Globes, we watch more for the show than the awards. After all, it's supposed to be the more fun, wacky version of the Oscars, with alcohol actually served and everyone taking their wins a little less seriously. In that respect, tonight's entertainment factor was, as usual, less than might be hoped for. Sure, there was some incoherence (Felicity Huffman) and clearly under the influence of something speeches (Kevin Bacon), but generally it was the same old same old of awards shows.

Which is why it was nice to have Ricky Gervais there to keep things a little more interesting. Usually hosts are expected to follow the Billy Crystal or, more recently, Neil Patrick Harris model, keeping things positive and fun. Anyone who gets a little too snarky (Jon Stewart or Chris Rock, for example) get called a bad choice. So I fully expect most of the media to dismiss Gervais for either being too insulting, or, more likely, not going far enough.

But Gervais' "I don't give a shit" attitude, whether sincere or feigned, was refreshing for a job usually suited by those eager to please, and gave the show a different kind of energy. Whether making jokes at Mel Gibson's expense or bringing up UK vs. US Office yet again, he consistently made me laugh. And in a night filled with routine and unmemorable speeches (except for Robert Downey Jr., obviously), somebody had to. Although what is entertaining is seeing whose speeches they cut off and whose they don't. Meryl Streep? Can talk as long as she wants. Drew Barrymore? Martin Scorsese? Same deal. Everyone else? No such luck.

As for the awards themselves, they brought the usual mix of the expected and the unusual. I was fairly satisfied with the TV awards. Very happy with the well-deserved Dexter double dip for John Lithgow and Michael C. Hall (how is this his first win?). Probably should have taken best drama as well, but I won't complain about Mad Men's win. Also great to see Glee taking best comedy, but seriously, Chloe Sevigny over Jane Lynch for supporting actress? I realize it's hard to compare drama and comedy, and that I haven't watched Big Love since season 1 so how can I judge, but it still should have been Sue Sylvester.

In the movies things got a little more interesting. First of all, a big hooray for Nine's well-deserved shut-out in all categories. I guess the voters actually saw the movie. Or they listened to their friends and didn't. On the fully expected and deserved front, Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, and Up continued their awards sweeps that will continue through the Oscars. In toss-ups, Up in the Air stood out in a combined screenplay category cause it's really that good, Up got recognized for its great score, and Jeff Bridges got properly appreciated for Crazy Heart (though between here and on Conan, I'm starting to wonder if he's turning into Bad Blake). Crazy Heart also got recognition for having the only good song in the best song category, so suck on that "Cinema Italiano."

Moving to the odder wins, who would have expected The Hangover to take the top comedy/musical award? Certainly it wouldn't have been Nine, but I would have expected something a little more serious-seeming, like maybe (500) Days of Summer. So kudos to the Globes, then, for changing things up a little. The Hangover was just part of a streak towards more popular movies, which included Sandra Bullock winning for The Blind Side. Now, I haven't seen The Blind Side, and maybe her performance really is better than what's featured in the trailers, but this feels like the same instinct the HFPA had to give her 2 nods in the first place. Star whoring.

Of course, the biggest wins were Avatar's in drama and director. I have to admit, I'm disappointed that The Hurt Locker didn't take director, or anything for that matter. But my theory on the Globes is that their drama prize goes to whatever they think is going to take the Oscar. That explains past wins for movies that once seemed hot than faded by Oscar time, like Babel and Atonement. But since the foreigners have a less populist streak than the Oscars, if they're putting their bet on Avatar, it may really be unstoppable. Barring a surge from Hurt Locker or, looking less likely by the day, Up in the Air, this may just be a practice round for James Cameron before repeating at the Oscars.

Project Reinvigorate

2010-01-15T19:15:00.002-05:00

Last night Project Runway returned looking to make amends for its universally disdained LA season that ended what felt like 2 days ago. And there were certainly some improvements already made. Michael and Nina were both back, as they will continue to be for the rest of the season. That's already a big step up right there. The show continually drove in that it's back in New York, from returning to the Atlas Hotel to announcing the challenge in Central Park (with a little stage on the pathway. Not sure why).

But aside from those obvious fixes, the overall vibe I got from the premiere is still meh. While the new crop of contestants at least don't all look like they had intended to audition for The Real World like last year, there's not really anyone immediately jumping out yet either. Sure, there's the crazy physical therapist who likes to design for herself. At least she's something new. There's the requisite obnoxiously arrogant one, whose near-win probably just fuels his fire. And a girl who cries. All the time. Seriously.

Most promisingly, the people on the bottom this week weren't THAT bad. Though the ones on the top weren't that good either. Seems to be yet another season full of people in the middle. Of course, unlike on Top Chef, it sometimes takes awhile for the frontrunners to emerge. But I said that last season too and look what happened. Plus, Nicole Ritchie as the guest judge may actually be a step down from Lindsay Lohan last year. What happened to leaving the LA image behind? I'll stick with it for a little while, but it's looking like a change in location can't hide the fact that this Runway is just not fashionable anymore.

TOP 10 TV SHOWS OF 2009

2010-01-13T22:19:00.006-05:00

It may be 2010, but 2009, I'm not done with you yet. I've still got a few more movies to see before I can do my movie list, but here is my official list of the top 10 TV shows of 2009:

1. Glee

Not since Lost premiered in 2004 have I seen such instant devotion for a new series. From the extremely feel-good pilot last May to the immensely satisfying fall finale, Glee is easily the most enjoyable hour of TV in addition to the first successful musical program. I'd never claim it's objectively the best show on this list, with its myriad pregnancy issues and occasional cheesiness. But between the awesomeness that is Sue Sylvester and the joy of the musical numbers, I'm just having too much fun to care.

2. Dexter

It didn't seem like Dexter could ever top its first two seasons, but it at least came close this year with its most terrifying villain yet in John Lithgow's Trinity Killer. Dexter already had enough to deal with in his new marriage and newer baby while trying to remember where he stashed a recent kill. But Trinity made the drama all the sweeter, whether creating the most horrifying Thanksgiving dinner ever put to television or confronting Dexter eerily in his workplace. And in a year filled with big finales, Dexter wins for the most shocking and talked about ending.

3. Battlestar Galactica

I hope the Lost writers were taking notes, because this is how you end a show. BSG has disappointed me in the past by its regular midseason water treading, but this final season was just one big episode after another. Gaeta and Zarek's attempted coup made for two episodes of quality suspense, and the big cylon reveal episode downloaded a ton of information and answers into our brains without exploding them. But it was the pitch-perfect finale that cements its place on this list, giving the right amount of action, twists, answers, and closure we expect from a classic piece of sci-fi television. So say we all.

4. Lost

Lost's bump from the top isn't intended as a punishment, but it certainly did air its strangest season yet. The season's strongest episodes for me came at the beginning when the island jumped through time, giving glimpses of island history that put a lot of pieces together. But if the long sojourn in 1970s Dharmaville lacked the immediacy of other seasons, it did allow Sawyer to emerge as a hero and Juliet to provide him with the series' most believable romance. With the biggest clean slate of an ending the show's done yet, I don't know what the final year will bring, but I can't wait to find out.

5. Modern Family

At first glance, this so doesn't seem like a show I would watch. Why do I want to help bring back the family sitcom? Well, because it's the funniest thing on TV. With characters so instantly defined and developed, every gag's pay-off hits harder and the occasional "aww" moment works. The reason for all those Arrested Development comparisons isn't just for the dysfunctional family; it's cause that's the last time we laughed this hard.

6. Mad Men

Frustratingly and often infuriatingly, Mad Men loves the slow burn. It leaves you trudging through lame plots like Don's affair with the teacher and Betty's flirtation with the politician until you wonder why you're still watching. Then it slams you with three of the best episodes it's ever produced right at the end. From Don's emotional confession to Betty to the phenomenal JFK assassination episode to the massively entertaining caper of a finale, Mad Men earned its label as the best show on TV.

7. True Blood

I started watching True Blood over the summer, and it's easily the most fun thing to come out of HBO in a long time. Season 2 was where it went from cult fave to legitimate hit, through crazy storylines like a maenad who inspires orgies, a church that actively seeks to rid the world of vampires, and a 2000 year old vampire who looks like he's 13. The vampire craze may irritate me in almost every way imaginable, but this is one way I'm happy to indulge it.

8. Dollhouse

I'll admit upfront that Dollhouse is majorly uneven, to the point where even some hardcore Joss Whedon fans couldn't stick with it. They're missing out. Dollhouse not only has one of the coolest premises on TV, but a story that really kicked into gear with Alpha in season 1 and again with the fight against Rossum this season. With a cast that's finally starting to gel and a ridiculous amount of geek-friendly guest stars, it's a shame Dollhouse won't have the chance to become the great show it's proved more and more capable of being. But the accelerated finish sure makes these final episodes all the more riveting.

9. How I Met Your Mother

Having just hit its 100th episode in early 2010, HIMYM is showing some signs of aging, most notably with the not-so-satisfying handling of the brief Barney and Robin relationship. But the advantage of its experience is that the cast plays off each other so well that watching HIMYM really is like hanging out with your (cooler than real life) friends. I certainly wouldn't want the mother to stand in the way of my weekly trips to McLaren's.

10. Damages

In its second season, Damages got so complex that all these months later I couldn't try to tell you what happened. Something about a big company, GPS coordinates, shady FBI guys, and Darrell Hammond playing what seemed to be a gay Donald Trump. But no matter how crazy Damages gets, you can be sure of two things: Glenn Close will be fantastic, and the crazy plot twists will send your mind reeling and begging for more.

Honorable Mentions:

Better Off Ted - Which went from amusing to hilarious in its second season, and deserves a "Save This Show" campaign

30 Rock - Which may be uneven but continues to produce some very funny episodes

The Office - Which saw a huge quality comeback at the beginning of the season...only to sink back down again

Now for my TV awards:

Best Drama: Dexter

Runners-Up: Battlestar Galactica, Lost

Best Comedy: Glee

Runners-Up: Modern Family, How I Met Your Mother

Best New Show: Glee

Runners-Up: Modern Family, V

Best Actor, Drama: Michael C. Hall, Dexter

Runners-Up: Jon Hamm, Mad Men; Josh Holloway, Lost

Best Actress, Drama: Glenn Close, Damages

Runners-Up: January Jones, Mad Men; Mary McDonnell, Battlestar Galactica

Best Supporting Actor, Drama: John Lithgow, Dexter

Runners-Up: John Slattery, Mad Men; Michael Emerson, Lost

Best Supporting Actress, Drama: Jennifer Carpenter, Dexter

Runners-Up: Christina Hendricks, Mad Men; Olivia Williams, Dollhouse

Best Actor, Comedy: Matthew Morrison, Glee

Runners-Up: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Danny McBride, Eastbound and Down

Best Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Runners-Up: Toni Collette, The United States of Tara; Lea Michele, Glee

Best Supporting Actor, Comedy: Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother

Runners-Up: Ty Burrell, Modern Family; Eric Stonestreet, Modern Family

Best Supporting Actress, Comedy: Jane Lynch, Glee

Runners-Up: Portia de Rossi, Better Off Ted; Julie Bowen, Modern Family

Hurts So Good

2010-01-12T23:01:00.004-05:00

Grade: A

I know, I know, you're sick of people telling you to see The Hurt Locker. You know that every single critic thinks it's the greatest thing on the planet, but that didn't get you to see United 93 or any of those other depressing critics' picks either. Well, here's the thing: The Hurt Locker is not that movie. It is not a serious drama about the politics of Iraq. It is not moralistic and "good for you." It is a kick-ass action movie that is easily the most suspenseful thing you will see in any medium this year. And now that it's out on DVD, you've run out of excuses.

After an opening scene that puts you right into the action as an army squad's bomb defuser (Guy Pearce, in a cameo) is killed in an explosion mid-job, Sgt. William James (Jeremy Renner) is brought in as his replacement. He immediately butts heads with team leader Sgt. JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie), who's immediately put off by James' cavalier and unorthodox ways. James lives for his work, determined to work on the bomb til the last second no matter how many men with cell phones may be lurking in their perimeter.

The only real overall plot comes in the form of a counter telling how many days are left in the squad's rotation, but before they can come home there's a whole bunch of action sequences to survive. Each bomb defusion sequence is an exercise in pure suspense. Of course there's the expected suspense of which wire to cut and the wrong wire could lead to an explosion, but here the setting makes it a lot more than that. Because any cell phone can trigger the alarm, any random person could kill them all with the push of a button. So for any witness, it's always "what are they holding, what are they doing." And when Sanborn decides an area isn't safe enough to continue and James keeps on working anyway, there's drama.

A series of bomb defusing sequences sounds like it should get repetitive. And it would if that's all there was, but there's a lot more going on. No two defusion scenes are alike. In one, what seems like a single bomb turns out to be a whole lot more, and in another there's a person strapped to it. In between, there are a number of other events that occur - a desert stand-off, a friendship between James and a street urchin, the growing camaraderie between the teammates, and more.

Because although the action is topnotch, it's the characters that elevate this to something truly special. James is a classic American hero - the rugged individualist who breaks the rules to get the job done right. And Renner's performance is truly the definition of a star-making role. Handling both James' badass-ness on the job and his inner confusion over his priorities, Renner continually made me think of Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke or any other case where an actor broke onto the scene with an iconic character. We'll be seeing a lot more from him.

James' two teammates have less showy roles, but the interactions between the three of them are what make the movie. The relationship between James and Sanborn could be the conventional "clash at first but then become friends," but it's a little more complicated than that. There's always that slight distrust, and the danger that one of them might really act against the other. And despite often siding against James, Mackie makes Sanborn far more sympathetic and complex than his role might suggest. The third man in the troop is Spc. Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty), the greenest and most fearful of the three. Through him, the other two get to act the mentor and we get to experience the dangers of war.

Not enough can be said for Kathryn Bigelow's direction, as who could have guessed she would make this movie? Not only is she most known for the Keanu Reeves surfing movie Point Break, but it's hard to imagine any woman directing so masculine a movie that the big emotional bonding scene involves everyone punching each other. But she nails the macho characters, she orchestrates the action scenes to maximum suspense, and she provides some truly amazing visuals. War may be hell, but there's a lot of beauty in her shots.

In many ways, The Hurt Locker feels like one of the great Vietnam classics - Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and especially Full Metal Jacket. Which makes The Hurt Locker not just "an Iraq movie," but the first classic war movie for the Iraq War. Many have said The Hurt Locker could take place in any war, which is both true and false. Certainly the biggest components of the movie - bomb defusing suspense, trust between soldiers, fears of war, the comforts of home vs. the rush of action - have nothing to do with Iraq. But the Iraq setting does influence the movie in many positive ways, from the added suspense of the potential terrorist with the cell phone to the eery arid landscapes to the complex relationships with the locals.

So if you've delayed seeing The Hurt Locker because you think it's of the same cloth as Rendition, Lions for Lambs, or any of those other moralistic flops, set aside your fears. This is a movie for anyone who's been waiting for a great war film, who likes suspense, or just wants to see some of the best developed and well-acted characters in any movie this year. Unless you want me and the critics of America to continue to harass you, you might as well go ahead and watch it. Then you can be the annoying one telling all your friends to see it.

Suits and Dolls

2010-01-11T21:57:00.004-05:00

Tonight, How I Met Your Mother celebrated its one hundredth episode, an accomplishment all the more impressive for those of us that remember the days when the producers had to cast Britney Spears (multiple times) just to stave off cancellation. It also meant an episode that had just about everything you could want from HIMYM: Barney being awesome, a big step forward in the story of the mother, a fun cameo, and, oh yeah, NPH singing.

First up, Ted. I know he's most fans' least favorite character, but this Barney&Robin-heavy season has proved how important it is to still keep him the center of the show. A lot of us started watching the show because of episodes like "The Pineapple Incident," "Mary the Paralegal," and the wedding episodes where he met Victoria. So it's only appropriate that the 100th episode devote some time to Ted's love life. Of course it would be too obvious if Rachel Bilson turned out to be the mother, but we got a whole lot more info about her: she plays bass in a band, likes T.C. Boyle, sings songs using breakfast foods, and makes paintings with robots playing sports. Yeah, sounds like the right woman for Ted. And not to defend Future Ted too much, but every viewing of the yellow umbrella is another step in the story.

Now on to Barney. Barney faced a crisis of conscience when he found out the new "hot bartender" he wanted wouldn't go for a guy in a suit. There's a couple of obvious plotholes here. In what universe would Barney have never slept with a bartender? That's where most lotharios begin! Is McLaren's literally the only bar he goes to? And secondly, I've gotta side with Marshall here - she's definitely not hot enough to get guys lining out the door and Barney to give up his suits.

Those quibbles aside, there was tons of good Barney action tonight. We got to see him unnaturally suit-less and pawing at Marshall's jacket. The secret compartment inside the McLaren's bathroom stall where a suit was waiting. Tim Gunn as his personal tailor. And in one of my favorite bits of the night: "Wait for it...." "We know you're going to say suit." "Suit." Between that and the suits eerily telling him to "suit up," season 1 catchphrases made a big comeback.

Still, the big moment came at the end, when Barney broke out into song on the joys of suits. The other cast members may have played a minor role, but that's just fine when NPH gets to use the voice we heard and loved in Dr. Horrible and all those award shows. And the music was surprisingly good as well. Maybe not Buffy musical calibre, but pretty damn enjoyable. 100 episodes in, it's nice to see the show is still this entertaining.

On the other side of the TV longevity scale, Dollhouse won't even get a fourth as far as HIMYM already has, but its cancellation has only made the show amp up the awesomeness. For the first time I can recall, we're witnessing what would happen if a show knew it had a certain number of episodes to wrap up an entire series. As the writers are trying to condense three or four seasons into 9 episodes, every episode now feels like 6-in-1. Which explains why this past Friday's episode was such a series of escalating "oh shit" moments.

Coming out of the excellent "attic" episode from before the break, Dollhouse upped the ante by bringing back a whole bunch of MVPs, starting with Dr. Saunders, who it turns out has been living with Boyd this whole time (oh shit moment #1). Hence his coming in late and referencing "personal stuff." Those writers sure are crafty. Since my biggest problem with this season has been the lack of Whiskey, her return was a very welcome surprise.

The other big return was Summer Glau's Bennett, aka female Topher, who we learned a lot more about through flashbacks of her history with Caroline. We also learned a whole lot more about Caroline. In Caroline's season one flashback, I remember thinking, "that's it?" They had built her up as some big mysterious character, then when we saw her she was just like "I want to save animals! Woo!" Kind of a let-down. But this episode showed she was doing a little more than that. She wasn't caught after a single break-in, but after a longer campaign against Rossum that involved befriending Bennett and using her to blow up Rossum's main building. And turns out Caroline wasn't running to save herself when she left Bennett behind, but to keep Bennett's cover.

In addition to the info overload, Bennett's return meant some quality awkwardness with Topher, who managed to make his previous encounter with her seem smooth. Between the painful kissing and the constantly referencing having punched her, you'd think he was ruining his chances except she totally went for it. Which was sweet. Until Whiskey SHOT HER IN THE HEAD (oh shit moment #2)!!! Who programmed her? What's the reason? Who knows!

Well, we do by the end of the episode, when Echo as Caroline remembers meeting the two men Clyde told her were in charge. After being called up the elevator to the Director's office, she saw Clyde 2.0 (or 5.0) in the flesh. And he looked....about what you'd expect, the most benign, least threatening individual imaginable. Hardly like he was the architect of the apocalypse. Because that role was left to the real man in charge, the one who betrayed original Clyde to run Rossum single-handedly....Boyd Langton (biggest oh shit moment of the series).

Yeah, didn't see that one coming. Boyd implanted Caroline within the Dollhouse, presumably with the ability to retain multiple personalities so she could become Echo, then placed himself inside as her handler so he could protect her and keep her in place. But for what? To ensure the apocalypse, or to try to stop it? Might Boyd still be a good guy after all? Or has leading De Witt to fight against Rossum been part of some other plan we know nothing about?

Well, it would have been nice to see Dollhouse play out in a more normal and leisurely fashion, but when the speeded-up version leads to episodes this good, it's hard to complain. Final two episodes are going to be huge.

A Frog's Leap Back to Childhood

2010-01-04T23:13:00.005-05:00

Grade: B+

I don't know about you, but I've missed the traditional, hand-drawn, classic Disney musicals, the kind that ended with Mulan in 1998. Don't get me wrong - I do love Pixar and the wonderfully sophisticated movies they make, but the old Disney movies have a certain special quality to them. Maybe it's because we all grew up on them, whether it was The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin for my generation, or Snow White and Pinocchio all those decades ago.

So while The Princess and the Frog, the much-anticipated return to traditional animation form, may be kids' stuff, it's also worth grown-up viewing for anyone with a healthy sense of nostalgia. I know that when I saw the Magic Kingdom intro, I felt pulled back to Sunday night Wonderful World of Disney and all the movies of my youth. But it works because it doesn't just rehash the old, instead finding a new enough variation on the familiar story to hold up to what came before it.

Set during Jazz Age era New Orleans, Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a waitress who has always dreamed of opening her own restaurant. Instead of living her life, she's worked two jobs and saved every penny. Rich and lazy party boy Prince Naveen (Bruce Campos) arrives to New Orleans and soon ends up turned into a frog by Voodoo Man Dr. Facilier (Keith David). When froggy Naveen convinces Tiana to kiss him and turns her into a frog as well, they set off on an adventure to regain their human forms. Will they learn their life lessons and fall in love in the process? If you don't know the answers, you've never seen a Disney movie.

While the formula's still intact, the setting and characters do make this feel new beyond the obvious benchmark of "first African-American Disney princess." This older New Orleans may be Disneyfied, but it's still a fun place to visit, and Tiana makes for an immensely likable lead. It's refreshing that Disney took a turn away from the current inclination to stuff animated movies with celebrities. Sure, you may remember Rose from Dreamgirls and Campos from Nip/Tuck, but John Goodman's the most known voice here (outside of Terrence Howard and Oprah in bit parts). The actors all slip into their parts without distracting and make the movie feel all the more timeless.

Mostly though, it's the familiarity that makes Frog successful. Tiana and Naveen meet up with an assortment of colorful animal characters along the way, including an alligator who wants to play jazz and a firefly in love with the North Star, both of whom would fit in just fine in The Jungle Book. The villain is like every other Disney villain, even if the voodoo gives him a new twist. And like all Disney movies, it ends with easily digestible morals and a happily ever after. But while all of that shows how much more ambitious Pixar may be with its stories, that doesn't mean there's not a place for this simpler form, which continues to satisfy each and every time Disney does it.

I do wish the music had been stronger, as all Randy Newman songs kind of sound the same to me (plus I always think of that Family Guy bit from the Y2K episode). But while there's no "A Whole New World" or "I'll Make a Man Out of You," and you likely won't be humming any of the songs a week later, they're all perfectly serviceable and entertaining. The Princess and the Frog may not be in the same league as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, but it's a worthy addition to the canon that will hopefully inspire more to follow, proving they still can make 'em like they used to.

TV Midseason Preview 2010

2010-01-03T23:41:00.007-05:00

Hey everyone, happy New Year! I know we're already a few days into 2010, but for the first Zandervision post of the year I thought it would make sense to look ahead to all of the various TV show returns, season premieres, and new shows over the next few months. Many thanks to Entertainment Weekly for essentially already doing this, and if you're curious about a show I don't watch, go there.

Scrubs and Better Off Ted (January 5th, 8-10 PM, ABC)

These shows have been airing straight through the holidays, but starting Tuesday they begin doubling up to expedite the burning-off process. While Scrubs' likely cancellation may be for the best, Better Off Ted just keeps getting funnier. Maybe think about giving it a shot before it disappears for good?

Modern Family (January 6th, 9-9:30 PM, ABC)

The funniest new show of the season returns with Benjamin Bratt guest starring as Manny's father.

How I Met Your Mother (January 11th, 8-8:30 PM, CBS)

Not only is this the date that HIMYM returns, but it also marks its 100th episode with Rachel Bilson guest starring, the promise of actually seeing the mother, and best of all, a big musical number featuring the entire cast in suits.

30 Rock (January 14th, 9-10 PM, NBC)

30 Rock returns with two episodes in a row? I want to go to there.

Archer (January 14th, 10-10:30 PM, FX, NEW SHOW)

I missed the preview during the fall, but this animated comedy for adults from some Adult Swim writers is supposed to be well worth a look.

Project Runway (January 14th, 10-11 PM, Lifetime)

If it seems soon for another season of Project Runway, it's probably to wipe away our memories of last season's disaster. But since this time it's back in New York with all judges present, I'll give it at least a few episodes.

The Golden Globe Awards (January 17th, NBC)

The awards themselves don't mean much (if they gave Nine 5 nods they clearly don't watch the movies), but Ricky Gervais as host should make for an entertaining night.

Human Target (January 17th, 8-9 PM, Fox, NEW SHOW)

A comic book based action show starring Mark Valley, Chi McBride, and Jackie Earle Haley. Sounds cool to me.

24 (January 17th & 18th, 9-11 PM & 8-10 PM, Fox)

Yes! Bauer is back, and this time in New York with a ton of new blood including Freddie Prinze Jr., Starbuck, Indian Regis Philbin from Slumdog Millionaire, and Bubba from Forrest Gump. Plus some old blood in Chloe, Renee, and President Taylor.

Life UneXpected (January 18th, 9-10 PM, The CW, NEW SHOW)

TV Guide Magazine calls it "Gilmore Girls meets Juno." Since it's about a teenager who becomes friends with her biological parents, if you like Gilmore Girls, you'll probably like this. Not my kind of show, but at least it's not yet another remake of something from the '90s

The Office (January 21st, 9-9:30 PM, NBC)

With the sale of Dunder Mifflin, maybe The Office will find yet another way to keep itself relevant in its 6th season. Just as long as they never do something like "Scott's Tots" ever again.

Dollhouse (January 22nd, 9-10 PM, Fox)

Not a return but an ending, as Dollhouse airs its series finale. Since the episode is titled "Epitaph 2," it looks like Echo and De Witt's fight against Rossum won't stop the eventual apocalypse, but we may find out what happens to everyone after tech takes over.

Caprica (January 22nd, 9-11 PM, SyFy, NEW SHOW)

If you want to get a headstart on this prequel series to Battlestar Galactica, you can catch the two-hour pilot on DVD. Having just watched it, I can say it's nowhere up to BSG quality yet and is a lot slower paced, but I still found enough cool and intriguing stuff here to want to check out the show. Seems appropriate to be premiering the night Dollhouse ends, since I could certainly use something to fill the sci-fi void.

Spartacus (January 22nd, 9-10 PM, Starz, NEW SHOW)

This attempt to essentially turn 300 into a TV show is probably far too silly for my taste, but if the idea of Lucy Lawless doing something somewhat back in the Xena realm sounds exciting, this is the show for you.

Damages (January 25th, 10-11 PM, FX)

Heading into its third season, Damages is looking to be just as complex and crazy as ever. This time the case centers on a Bernie Madoff like figure (played by original Sweeney Todd Len Cariou) and his wacky family, including wife Lily Tomlin, son Campbell Scott, and secret keeper Martin Short, in an attempt to go serious. If nothing else, Damages always wins for creative casting.

Lost (February 2nd, 9-11 PM, ABC)

Beginning its final season, Lost is easily my most anticipated return of all of 2010. Since the writers say even a single clip would give away everything, all I can say about season 6 is that Claire's back, a bunch of dead people guest star, and it's going to be awesome.

Parenthood (March 1st, 9-10 PM, NBC)

Originally slated for the fall, Parenthood intrigued me then and still does now that Lauren Graham's starring. Though does that mean I need to see the movie?

Gossip Girl (March 8th, 8-9 PM, The CW)

Why such a long break mid-season? Hopefully the writers are taking their time to come up with something good to close the season, because Dan's threesome and Tripp's bug-eyes certainly don't count. And no, neither does bringing Chuck's mom back from the dead.

V (March 30th, 10-11 PM, ABC)

It's looking like a massive ratings drop is inevitable given ABC's idiotic decision to take a long break after airing the initial four episodes. But if you keep watching, the mistake doesn't have to be fatal.

Glee (April 13th, 9-10 PM, Fox)

Another mind-bogglingly long mid-season wait, but the promise of Sue Sylvester singing and dancing makes it worthwhile. The bigger problem will be what to watch first now that Glee and Lost share a timeslot.

Looking Ahead to the Oscars

2009-12-30T17:48:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow Entertainment Weekly will give its predictions for Oscar nominations. Although they won't be announced until February, ten nominees for best picture means even more movies to see, and more time needed to catch up. So I figured now was as good a time as any to suggest what I think the ten nominees will be (while acknowledging a lot can change in a month).

Right now it's looking like there's four movies competing for the win, four movies that look pretty safe for the nomination, and two open slots with little to fill them. I think we can all agree this was a bad year to expand to ten nominees, but it does make it a bit less predictable.

Competing for the Win:

1. Up in the Air

The probable best picture winner. It's timely, it's got top-notch acting, writing, and directing (all of which will likely be nominated), and it's got that old Best Picture feel. It would have less of a chance in a stronger year, but for 2009 it feels like a champ.

2. Avatar

With super strong reviews and huge box office, Avatar will get people to watch the Oscars and stands a legit chance of winning. The Academy's general bias against genre movies combined with some weaknesses in the story may keep this from ultimately winning, but it's certainly a top contender.

3. The Hurt Locker

This may very well be the best movie of the year, and with more viewers it might stand a chance for Best Picture too. But having made only $12 million, a best picture win would be too big an insult to the moviegoing public. Still, a directing win for Kathryn Bigelow seems likely, and it should still manage nominations for picture, actor, and writing, among others.

4. Precious

Once a top contender, Precious has lost a lot of buzz and box office since its limited release surge into theaters. And having just seen it, I don't think people want to vote for the "feel miserable" movie during a recession. Still, Mo'Nique is the probable best supporting actress winner and Gabourey Sidibe should be nominated for best actress.

Likely to be Nominated:

5. Inglourious Basterds

People really love this movie, enough so that despite all its oddities it could probably even make a list of 5. I suppose residual embarrassment over Pulp Fiction's loss could put this into the front category, but I think this will have to stick with nominations for picture, directing, and writing.

6. Up

Anti-animation bias may have kept Wall-E out of the top 5, but with ten nominees Up should be safe.

7. Invictus

I haven't seen it, but it seems like the kind of populist feel-good movie people nominate and forget about. Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon will likely score nods as well.

8. An Education

I thought the problem here would be that people liked it but didn't love it, hence leaving it vulnerable. But since it's actually dividing most of the people I know who have seen it, it may not even be able to count on the "liked it" vote. Still, Carey Mulligan for actress and Nick Hornby for screenplay seem more than safe.

The two open spots:

Originally, these spots would have gone to Nine and The Lovely Bones. But since Nine is inarguably awful, I can't imagine it getting on here unless people vote for it without watching it (which, to be honest, seems plausible). And The Lovely Bones is supposedly so bad they pushed the release date to mid-January. So what's that leave?

9. A Serious Man

This has been seriously dividing audiences, but since fans tend to be really passionate about it, enough #1-3 votes seem likely to give it slot #9.

Beyond that I'm less sure. The last slot could go to some other seriously Oscar-y movie like A Single Man, Crazy Heart, or The Messenger, but my bet is it goes to something a little more commercial. Which seems most likely?

Star Trek or District 9

Both have been mentioned as possible nominees, and both have their serious fanbases. But with Avatar likely to get most of the sci-fi love, and having to compete with each other as well, I'm skeptical either makes it through.

Julie and Julia or It's Complicated

Pretty sure It's Complicated's bad reviews cancel it out, but Julie and Julia seems like a legitimate choice, even if it may be too lightweight for the Oscars.

The Hangover

If people vote for what they love, maybe a group of younger voters could push this through, though I highly doubt it.

Where the Wild Things Are or Fantastic Mr. Fox

Both are huge critics' choices, but the former wasn't equally loved by the public, and the latter will fall into the same anti-animation bias that Up is already trying to overcome.

So what do I think will take the last slot?

10. (500) Days of Summer

Nobody's taking it too seriously as a contender, but in a weak year with ten slots to fill, why not? It mixes the comedy and drama enough that it doesn't feel lightweight, is creative enough with the storytelling to feel original, and those that like it love it.

So those are my picks. What am I leaving out? What am I overvaluing? Let me know in the comments.