Category: Entertainment (Page 203 of 277)

Coming Soon: A Moviegoer’s Guide to October

September 30, 2012 / Jason Zingale

Much like the month before it, October isn’t exactly overflowing with quality, but what it lacks in that area it more than makes up for with plenty of variety. Though there aren’t many films worth getting genuinely excited about, the schedule does provide some audience-friendly fare as well as an early look at a few potential awards contenders.

“TAKEN 2”

Who: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace and Rade Serbedzija
What: In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.
When: October 5th
Why: Though it’s one of those sequels that doesn’t really need to exist, the original film was so much fun (not to mention made a decent bit of coin at the box office) that it’s not surprising Fox was so quick to greenlight another installment. After playing the helpless victim in the first movie, it’ll be refreshing to see Maggie Grace get in on the action this time around, even if all people care about is watching Liam Neeson kick ass and take names. Granted, the setup is ridiculous, as it’s hard to imagine the villains would have the resources to track down Neeson’s character, let alone know when he’s in a different country (a U.S.-based story would have been much more exciting), but it’s one of those details you just have to ignore in order to enjoy the movie for the action fantasy that it is.

“THE PAPERBOY”

Who: Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron and John Cusack
What: A reporter returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate.
When: October 5th
Why: Unlike most of Hollywood, Lee Daniel’s “Precious” failed to convince me that it was anything more than a well-made afterschool special, so I’m curious to see what he’s able to do with his latest film, a pulpy erotic thriller featuring a trio of dependable actors. Though it’s been awhile since Nicole Kidman or John Cusack did anything of note, you can never count them out, while Matthew McConaughey has been on a bit of hot streak recently. The wild card of the cast is undoubtedly Zac Efron, because despite the actor’s dogged determination to shed his “High School Musical” image with more adult roles, he’s yet to really prove that he has the talent to back it up. Reaction was pretty mixed when the movie debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (not terribly surprising considering the material), so you would be wise to approach it with caution.

“BUTTER”

Who: Jennifer Garner, Yara Shahidi, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde and Rob Corddry
What: An adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their small town’s annual contest.
When: October 5th
Why: A black comedy that takes place in the offbeat and seemingly trivial world of butter carving competitions? What’s not to love? The concept sounds like something that Alexander Payne might make (it’s especially reminiscent of his 1999 cult hit “Election”), but while that may speak well of the movie’s potential, it’s a little worrying that it’s take so long to get a theatrical release. Directed by Jim Field Smith, who also made the underrated rom-com “She’s Out of My League,” “Butter” played the festival circuit at the end of last year, but the Weinstein Co. hasn’t shown a lot of confidence in the movie by dumping it in October. With that said, however, the cast is awesome (Jennifer Garner is great at playing the uptight socialite), and the script by newbie Jason A. Micallef landed a spot on the 2008 Black List. That doesn’t guarantee it will be any good, but it helps.

Entertainment, Movies

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App of the Week: UHF Horror Movie Collection

September 30, 2012 / Matt Byrd

Developer:
3DCGFX COMICS COMPANY

Compatible with:
Android Devices

Requires:
Android 1.6 or up

Price:
$0.99

Available here

So I’m jumping the gun with this one, but with October approaching rapidly, I can’t help but get excited for Halloween a little early.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the horror genre, no matter what the medium, even though I’m not entirely sure why. There’s something about a good (or even not that good) scary story that appeals to me more than just about any other kind. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a genre that has been graced with some diabolically creative minds over the years, whose visions of scares and atrocities that most would rather never hope to have cross their minds, manifest themselves into tales of terror that all celebrate, and contribute to, the undeniable human quality that we just like to be scared.

If you have an Android device, you can help re-live some of film’s greatest horror stories with the UHF Horror Film app. A collection of public domain works, this app yields no less than a 130 movies of macabe that are available to watch in their full feature release versions. That does mean you can find a lot of these titles for free, but its very nice to find them all in one convenient location that’s always available. Also, while some of the titles available are understandably less than classic, even a lot of the bad ones are bad in the enjoyable way (which is a unique trait that horror movies, and maybe comedies, enjoy).

What really shocked me when reviewing the list of movies available on this app, though, is how many of these titles are worth full retail price. Movies like “Night of the Living Dead,” “Nosferatu,” “Carnival of Souls,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Haxan” and “Dementia 13” are included in the bundle, and are all essential horror viewing for one reason or another. But still, the real joy comes in taking a shot on random movies like “I Eat Your Skin,” “Driller Killer,” or “Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory” and seeing if you can’t accidentally unearth a new cult classic (Hint: In the cases of those movies mentioned, it’s not likely).

With additions like plot summaries, cast and crew information, reviews, and 65 episodes of the TV series “One Step Beyond” and “Tales of Tomorrow” thrown in for good measure, there’s an absurd amount of content available. You may never get around to seeing everything on this app, but since we’re talking about a cost per movie of $0.0076 , then there’s little reason to not give it a go, even if it is just to quell your Halloween jonesing on the go.

While Apple Maps may be the scariest app currently available, it doesn’t come close to having the sheer entertainment value of the UHF horror film collection, my app of the week.

Entertainment

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Weekly Web Series Review: Horrifying Planet

September 27, 2012 / Ezra Stead

Much like public access talk shows, nature programs on the likes of PBS and TLC are fertile ground for parody, as evidenced by the popularity of “The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger.” The Onion‘s web series, “Horrifying Planet,” takes it even further by employing a distinguished-sounding, British narrator (though I suspect the British accent may be fake) similar to the ones actually used in real nature programs. The twist is that “Horrifying Planet” is filled not with the reverence for nature usually found in the real programs it spoofs, but rather a bitter, scornful disdain for nearly every aspect of the natural world.

According to the narrator of “Horrifying Planet,” zebras are “Nature’s Ultimate Prey,” evolved over the course of millennia to be the perfect victims of brutal murder. “With no purpose other than to feed monsters,” the narrator richly intones, “the zebra spends its entire life standing around, awaiting a violent death.” Meanwhile, the American robin is posited as nature’s “Perfect Murder Machine,” which seems silly until the point is made that “worms are capable of regeneration, so robins could satiate themselves on fractions of individual worms, and leave the rest. But it does not. Unequivocal evidence of the robin’s bloodlust.” Not given quite the credit that either robins or zebras get, chimpanzees are described as “Still Dumber Than the Dumbest Human,” in perhaps the series’ funniest episode. Asserting the superiority of humanity over the lowly chimp, the narrator says, “Indeed, not only are humans capable of wiping out chimps with inventions like bulldozers and dynamite, they have even developed a system of ethics that justifies it.”

The narrator’s smooth delivery falters when he is forced to discuss the vile spider, in an episode that is little more than an amalgam of audible cringing, and the tone of the series itself makes an abrupt shift in episode 6, which blends the usual nature show parody with that of an infomercial. With all the incessant negativity of “Horrifying Planet,” one would assume an episode entitled “Deer Are Fine” might be lightening up a bit, but in fact, “fine” in this context merely means “mediocre,” with the narrator advising the more unique relatives of the common deer to “Scale it back, buddy. You’re just going to end up dead like the rest of us, on our horrifying planet.”

Entertainment, Humor, Videos

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The Light from the TV Shows: It’s Time to Meet “The Neighbors”

September 26, 2012 / Will Harris

Unto each generation, there must come at least one sitcom about aliens coming to Earth and trying to learn the ins and outs of humanity. It’s a trend which began in the 1960s with “My Favorite Martian,” and it has continued through the ‘70s (“Mork and Mindy”), ‘80s (“ALF”), ‘90s (“3^rd Rock from the Sun”), and even the ‘00s (“My Hero”), and rather than leave us sitting on the edge of our seat for the better part of the decade, ABC has jumped into the fray early and provided us with the requisite entry for the ‘10s: “The Neighbors,” which premieres tonight at 9:30 PM.

Here’s the premise, straight from the ABC press release:

Marty Weaver (Lenny Venito) just wants the best for his wife, Debbie (Jami Gertz), and their three kids. That’s why he’s moving them to Hidden Hills, New Jersey, a gated community complete with its own golf course. Marty is certain that their new home will be a dream come true. And then, they meet the neighbors.

The residents of Hidden Hills are a little… different. The Weavers have barely unpacked when 20 of their new neighbors show up in the driveway, standing in a triangle formation, each holding an identical cherry pie. Larry Bird (Simon Templeman) introduces himself as the “leader” of the community. Then he presents his wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Toks Olagundoye), and their two sons (yes, they’re named after famous athletes – Dick Butkus and Reggie Jackson). As Debbie and Marty frantically try to make sense of the weird neighbors – European? A cult? Amish athletes? – they discover that the entire Hidden Hills community is comprised of aliens from the planet Zabvron. ‘Turns out the Zabvronians have been holed up in Hidden Hills for the past 10 years, awaiting instructions from back home, and the Weavers are the first humans who have ever lived amongst them.

At first the Weavers are ready to cut and run. But the aliens seem harmless enough. And there is a lot of closet space… So they decide to stay and help their new neighbors adapt to life on this confusing planet we call home. But as the Weavers and the aliens face the struggles of everyday life together, they discover that some things – the ups and downs of marriage, the desire to be a good parent and raise a happy family – are universal, intergalactic even. And the Weavers realize they’ve found an ally in the family next door… even if they do cry out of their ears.

When people have asked me to cite my favorite new shows of the season, I won’t pretend that “The Neighbors” has been at the top of my list, but I have found that I can rarely finish such a conversation without at least bringing it up. Not because I like it, although I do, but because my seven-year-old daughter absolutely freaking loves it…like, to the point where she has watched my advance DVD of the pilot three times now, almost lost her mind when I told her that ABC had provided me with an online screener of the second episode, and demanded that I add it to the TiVo queue immediately.

Entertainment, News, Television

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Blu Tuesday: Superheroes and Ghosts

September 25, 2012 / Jason Zingale

It may not look like it based on the small selection of titles below, but this is a great week for Blu-ray fans. Not only does it mark the debut of Joss Whedon’s awesome Marvel superhero team-up movie, but Fox is releasing “Bond 50,” a box set containing all 22 James Bond films in celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary. And if that’s not enough to get you excited, there are a few other titles worth checking out as well.

“The Avengers”

Not many people would have been willing to wager before the start of the summer season that “The Avengers” would emerge as the year’s best superhero film, but Marvel’s big gamble proved everyone wrong. In addition to making beaucoup bucks at the box office (earning a spot as the third highest grossing movie of all-time), it was also better than “The Dark Knight Rises” and “The Amazing Spider-Man.” Director Joss Whedon deserves a lot of credit for not only balancing the film’s many tones, but the large cast as well, and although some actors fare better than others (namely Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo), the ensemble works together so well that you’d think it was part of the plan all along. And in that respect, the movie’s real MVP is Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige, the brains behind the cinematic tapestry known as Phase One, which is comprised of everything leading up to and including “The Avengers.” But more than anything else, the film is just a really entertaining superhero flick that deserves a place in anyone’s collection.

Blu-ray Highlight: Disney didn’t provide me a review copy, but there’s plenty of bonus material that I’m looking forward to checking out, including the director commentary by the always amusing Joss Whedon and the newest Marvel short film, “Item 47,” which supposedly played like gangbusters for the crowd at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

“Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Part One”

After the release of “Batman: Year One,” it was only inevitable that Warner Bros. would follow it up with an animated version of Frank Miller’s other popular Batman story, “The Dark Knight Returns,” even going so far as to split the four-issue miniseries into two movies. Though the forthcoming Part Two will no doubt be the better of the pair as it features the return of The Joker, Part One is still a really solid adaptation that sticks close to the source material while also laying the groundwork for the darker and more twisted second half of the story. The idea of revisiting Bruce Wayne/Batman decades after he’s passed his crime-fighting prime (as well as introducing yet another Robin, this time female) provides so many great character moments that it’s surprising Hollywood hasn’t tried adapting the series into a live-action film. Though bits from Millar’s comic have shown up in Christopher Nolan’s Bat trilogy, it’s cool that Warner Bros. found another way to showcase the fan favorite story, even if that meant doing it in animated form.

Blu-ray Highlight: The bonus material isn’t very good, but those that can’t wait for Part Two will at least want to check out the included sneak peek, which offers your first look at Michael Emerson in action as The Joker and Mark Valley as Clark Kent/Superman.

“American Horror Story: The Complete First Season”

Though I’ve never been a very big fan of the horror genre, there was so much positive buzz heading in to the first season of “American Horror Story” that it was simply too enticing to pass up. But despite a somewhat creepy pilot, there was never anything particularly scary about the show apart from its opening credit sequence, and believe it or not, that’s the least of its problems. Between the melodramatic, soap opera-like subplots, the nonsensical twists, and the habit of certain stories and characters falling by the wayside, “American Horror Story” is such a muddled mess of half-baked ideas that it’s never able to achieve the potential of its intriguing setup. Connie Britton at least makes some of those shortcomings worth suffering through, and if there’s anyone in the cast that deserves praise, it’s Britton and not Jessica Lange’s over-the-top performance as the duplicitous nosey neighbor. In the end, however, it’s probably best that creator Ryan Murphy decided to essentially reboot the show every season with a brand new story, because after 13 episodes of this much crazy, it’s hard to imagine many viewers sticking around for another helping.

Blu-ray Highlight: A review copy didn’t arrive in time, but the audio commentary by Ryan Murphy on the pilot episode should be worth listening to if you’re a fan of the series.

Entertainment, Movies, Television

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