August 28th, 2009 admin
Writer/Director: Peter Chinn
Network: The History Channel
Airtime: Tuesday, 10:00pm EST
An absolute must for any geology buff, and certainly worth a look for anyone with a passing interest in physical science, How The Earth Was Made offers a sprawling, detailed survey of our planet’s most enigmatic features in an attempt to understand their part in Earth’s natural evolution and speculate upon the role they might play in our ultimate fate.
Natural history in every sense of the term, the series each week focuses on a unique geological phenomenon and dissects its origins, formation, evolution, and tracks its cycles in an attempt to determine what it will do next. From asteroids arriving from space to the deepest part of our planet’s oceans, no stone is left unturned, so-to-speak, as skilled experts and simple graphics are employed to explain and to illustrate the almost incalculable energy that is built up, transferred, and exchanged every second beneath the Earth’s crust.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
August 26th, 2009 admin
Starring: Adam Richman
Executive Producer: Matt Sharp
Network: Travel Channel
Airtime: Wednesday, 10:00pm EST
With Obama on the defensive over the healthcare debate his administration can only pray that conservatives don’t cotton on to the deliciously irresponsible antics of Travel Channel’s Adam Richman, as one look at him will likely kill any chance of universal healthcare in this country for good. Now airing its second season, the eponymous battle is waged weekly as Richman scours the country for the best and most infamous pig-out spots, and in doing so ably illustrates that there is nothing on this Earth that cannot be exponentially improved by the simple application of melted cheese.
The notion that everything is bigger in America is a cliché, but one that is well founded. On Richman’s menu are monstrous portions of the most delectable, delicious delicacies born out of the minds of culinary maniacs and available to those long on courage and short on sense. A Brooklyn native with a background in acting, Richman embarks each week to a different destination and hones in on famed eateries, boasting unique, bizarre, and, above all, BIG signature dishes.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | No Comments »
August 25th, 2009 admin
2005
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, Nicholas Lea, Justine Waddell, Jessica Steen
Director: Tony Giglio
Runtime: 106 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate
Rating: R
While the big names above the title might suggest an action-packed cops and robbers caper with intelligent plotting and pounding action, you would do well not be fooled. Shot on the downslope of Snipe’s career, prior to the upswing of Statham’s, and well into the wilderness of Ryan Phillippe’s, this shockingly lackluster thriller from writer/director Tony Giglio (the man who brought us Soccer Dog) is plodding, predictable, and oh so very boring.
The timing of this project is likely crucial to its blundering inability to resonate on pretty much any level as an engaging thriller. Snipe’s was neck deep is a legal dispute with New Line (The IRS was still to come) over the debacle that was Blade: Trinity, Phillippe’s marriage to Reece Witherspoon was imploding (the couple would file for divorce a year later), and Statham, who had yet to break big with Transporter 2 was spinning his career wheels (seen guy Ritchie’s Revolver?). The result is three guys (one too many for a maverick cop vs master crook showdown) with absolutely zero chemistry who, for one reason or another, look like they would rather be absolutely anywhere else.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in Action/Adventure, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »
August 24th, 2009 admin
Check out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
Click here to listen to the podcast version.
Posted in Opening This Week | No Comments »
August 24th, 2009 admin
Starring: Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Michael Fielding, Rich Fulcher, Dave Brown
Created By: Julian Barratt & Noel Fielding
Network: Comedy Central
Original Air Date: 11/15/2007 – 12/20/2007
Transforming from cult favorite to international sensation, surrealist comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh offer up a third season, employing the familiar blend of anarchic fantasy and bizarre musical numbers to once more wreak their own singular brand of havoc on the unsuspecting laws of time, space, and good taste. Continuing to follow the adventures and mishaps of hapless duo Howard Moon (Barratt) and Vince Noir, still desperately trying to raise the profile of their shambolic musical act (the titular Mighty Boosh), season three ushers in yet another change of venue.
Still sponging off the swiftly evaporating goodwill of super-cool shaman Naboo the Enigma, and his ape familiar Bollo, Boosh v3.0 takes place predominantly in the newly opened “Nabootique,” a second hand thrift store in Dalston. The banter is still comically banal, the stories still silly, and the costumes and make-up of the loony characters utterly irresistible. Yet there is something oddly muted about season three, brought abut the the tight-fisted BBC clashing the budget on this third season. Where as previous seasons took in such trippy locales as the desert, the Arctic Tundra, and the Planet Xooberon, much of this season is contained within the confines of the store, which all too often begs to be blown open and for things to really cut loose.
Click here to read the full review at JustPressPlay.net.
Posted in British Television, Reviews | No Comments »
August 19th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Sharlto Copley, Vanessa Haywood, William Allen Young,
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Runtime: 112 Minutes
Distributor: TriStar Pictures
Rating: R
While we find it hard to believe, these words are being typed by our own fingers and of free will – thank God Peter Jackson’s Halo project crashed and burned. For if it hadn’t this towering, tumultuous science-fiction satire from South African effects-wizard-turned-director Neill Blomkamp, adapted from his own impressive short, might never have been realized. Cleverly using Jackson’s name over the title to get people’s attention, this one has slowly crept into our consciousness via a fiendishly inventive, perfectly pitched viral marketing campaign the likes of Cloverfield and The Blair Witch. Buying up ad space on billboards and bus stops with provocative posters proclaiming “No Non-Humans” they screamed high-concept while keeping you guessing as to the film’s overall nature. This worked hand-in-hand with an expertly judged teaser trailer made to resemble the kind of geo-political issue-of-the-week fodder theaters typically run as part of their pre-movie magazine package. All this combines to elicit a tantalizing lure and curious sense of anticipation, and boy does Blomkamp deliver, heralding himself as a major cinematic talent.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Feature Films, Reviews, Sci-Fi | No Comments »
August 18th, 2009 admin
Check out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
Click here to listen to the podcast version.
Posted in Opening This Week | No Comments »
August 18th, 2009 admin
Starring: Eddie McClintock, Joanne Kelly, Saul Rubinek, Genelle Williams, C.C.H Pounder, Alison Scagliotti, Simon Reynolds
Created By: Jane Espenson, D. Brent Mote
Network: SyFy Channel
Airtime: Tuesdays, 9:00pm EST
One of the great unsung heroes of science fiction/fantasy, writer and producer Jane Espenson has toiled tirelessly behind the scenes on such epic television odysseys as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Battlestar Galactica. Now assigned the duties of showrunner on the forthcoming Galactica prequel Caprica, Espenson cuts her boss lady teeth as part of the re-branding efforts on the new Syfy original series alongside co-creator Brent D. Mote.
Espenson has handily demonstrated that she has both the smarts and the scripts to make just about any idea fly. In spite of that, Warehouse 13 gives off an oddly familiar aroma of ingredients made up of former SyFy flavor-of-the-month projects that the network saw fit to either cancel or simply not renew. The comically mundane objects possessed of magical properties brings to mind the 2006 mini-series The Lost Room (excellent, by the way), while the melding of detective stories with elements of the supernatural was a staple of 2007’s The Dresden Files.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in American Television, Reviews | 1 Comment »
August 10th, 2009 admin
Check out what’s new in theaters with my weekly column at IFC.com.
Click here to listen to the podcast version.
Posted in Opening This Week | No Comments »
August 10th, 2009 admin
2009
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Director: Nora Ephron
Runtime: 123 Minutes
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Rating: PG-13
A prestigious triangle of heavyweight female talent combine to realize this impossible sounding screen amalgamation of two separate books, penned by two different women, spanning two continents, and separated by more than forty odd years. In addition to her directing duties, three-time Oscar nominated screenwriter Nora Ephron slices through the rich, flavorful prose with a carving knife, reducing the material to its very essence as the story of one woman greatly inspired who went on to inspire others. With a dash of Julie Powell’s titular 2004 book detailing her kitchen-based odyssey through Julia Child’s seminal cookbook and a healthy seasoning of Child’s own posthumously completed 2006 autobiography My Life in France, the result is a multi-generational comedy of spirit and determination that’s both hearty and heartfelt.
Superbly structured across the two contrasting eras, Ephron unfolds the modern day chapters with Amy Adams as Julia Powell, the mousey, put upon cubicle dweller manning a service helpline for Lower Manhattan Development Corporation in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Up to her eyes in human misery, patronized by her so-called girlfriends, and wholly adrift in her life, Powell’s only respite is cooking in her cramped Long Island City kitchen. Meanwhile, in early 1950’s Paris we find Julia Child (Meryl Streep) as the effervescent, somewhat bored wife of her Foreign Service officer husband Paul (Stanley Tucci). There her great love of food fuels the decision to enroll in culinary school and learn the secrets of French cuisine that she would later impart to an entire generation of American women through her landmark publication Mastering The Art of French Cooking.
Click here to read the full review at Uinterview.com.
Posted in Comedy/Romance, Feature Films, Reviews | No Comments »