Spring Movie Preview

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?