The Back-Up Plan; PG-13, 98 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

The premise alone might induce morning sickness: Jennifer Lopez plays a single Manhattanite who wants to get pregnant without waiting any longer to meet Mr. Right. So she gets pregnant. Then she meets Mr. Right. Uh oh!  Conception precedes romance—but not in the usual way—for Jennifer Lopez in The Back-Up Plan, a romantic comedy from […]

“The Hills,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Happy Town”

“The Hills”  Tuesday 10pm, MTV Since ratings have plummeted and its original star has left the series, MTV is pulling the plug on this once hugely influential “reality” show at the end of this sixth season, which begins tonight. The cast has been doing its damnedest to ratchet up drama. Dim Audrina has been nabbing […]

“Deadliest Warrior,” “Gravity,” “nto the Universe with Stephen Hawking”

“Deadliest Warrior”  Tuesday 10pm, Spike I can’t decide if this is brilliant or goofy. “Deadliest Warrior,” which begins its second season tonight, uses computer-animated and live-actor dramatizations, as well as forensics investigations, to determine what fighting forces are the fiercest. Each episode features a specific showdown; say, viking vs. samurai, or yakuza vs. mafia, and […]

Checking in with Katharine Birdsall

What were you doing when we called? I’d just finished my morning sitting practice. I’ve been trying to meditate regularly for the past year. It doesn’t always happen, so I was happy to be able to do it this morning.   Local dancer Katharine Birdsall, a founding member of the Zen Monkey Project, lives on a […]

Date Night; PG-13, 88 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

They are, as she puts it, “just a boring married couple from New Jersey.” She first says it in a fit of agitation during one tense moment about midway through, then again, more calmly, and with some irony, as the action ebbs toward denouement. And of course there was evidence supporting her claim from the […]

“Glee,” “High Society,” “Romantically Challenged”

 “Glee”  Tuesday 9:28pm, Fox When we left the musical rejects of McKinley High last December, everything had been wrapped up nicely. The glee club won sectionals. Mr. Schuester discovered that his wife was a lying sociopath and hooked up with the adorable guidance counselor. Finn realized he didn’t knock up his girlfriend. And Sue Sylvester […]

Clash of the Titans; PG-13, 110 minutes; Regal Downtown Mall 6

When Ray Harryhausen first heard in 2006 that Clash of the Titans, the 1981 film that he stop-motion animated, was being remade, he had one thing to say: “Oh. I hope not.”  Harryhausen’s contributions to the 1981 film, although impressive for being a more memorable performance than Laurence Olivier as Zeus, also had a way […]

Tiger by the tail

“Chopped”  Tuesday 10pm, Food Network While we patiently wait for a new season of “Top Chef” (the next will be set in Washington, D.C.; in the meantime “Top Chef Masters” returns this week), we have “Chopped,” which is essentially “TC” for the ADD set. Each episode of “Chopped” features four different chefs, who are given […]