What’s truly amazing about Watchmen, the much-anticipated film version of writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons’ much-adored graphic novel, is how forcefully the movie negates the book’s two most basic, strangely symbiotic intentions. Instead of subverting superhero tropes and satirizing Cold War endgames, it blandly and reflexively endorses them. Human after all: The […]
What’s truly amazing about Watchmen, the much-anticipated film version of writer Alan Moore and illustrator Dave Gibbons’ much-adored graphic novel, is how forcefully the movie negates the book’s two most basic, strangely symbiotic intentions. Instead of subverting superhero tropes and satirizing Cold War endgames, it blandly and reflexively endorses them. Human after all: The […]
“The Chopping Block” Wednesday 8pm, NBC This cooking competition is essentially a pastiche of several previously existing reality shows. From “The Restaurant,” we get the premise of examining what goes into opening a restaurant in New York City, but in this case it’s two competing, neighboring restaurants. From “Hell’s Kitchen,” we get the overbearing British […]
Confessions of a Shopaholic (PG, 112 minutes) When used in moderation, shopahol can enhance the joy of life. But for Isla Fisher, as a young, suddenly popular advice columnist in New York City, moderation might not be an option. Who knows, maybe debt-reduction rom-com based on Sophie Kinsella’s chick-lit bestseller is just what’s called for […]
Some of us really did expect sentimental favorite Mickey Rourke to take that Oscar, but maybe it’s better that he didn’t. This way, Rourke’s almost but not quite Academy-blessed performance in The Wrestler may forever maintain its underdog integrity. Besides, we already got the highly anticipated spectacle of a Rourke acceptance speech, for his Best […]
“Make Me a Supermodel” Wednesday 10pm, Bravo Season 2 of Bravo’s “Top Model” knockoff debuts, with massive changes to the panel. Only co-host/mentor Tyson Beckford remains, joined by Australian model Nicole Trunfio as the girls’ mentor, plus the judges: designer Catherine Malandrino, model Jenny Shimizu, photographer Perou, and model scout Marlon. I’m not sure that’s […]
Confessions of a Shopaholic (PG, 112 minutes) When used in moderation, shopahol can enhance the joy of life. But for Isla Fisher, as a young, suddenly popular advice columnist in New York City, moderation might not be an option. Who knows, maybe debt-reduction rom-com based on Sophie Kinsella’s chick-lit bestseller is just what’s called for […]
Welcome to The International. Please sit forward and don’t relax. You will be, as one character puts it, “more comfortable tense.” Clive Owen stars as a bedraggled Interpol agent who, along with Naomi Watts as a more kempt but less interesting New York City assistant district attorney, plays a globetrotting game of cat-and-mouse with an […]
“Dark Days in Monkey City” Tuesday 10pm & 10:30pm, Animal Planet One of the most terrifying things I’ve ever seen on TV was an episode of the amazing “Planet Earth” documentary miniseries in which a pack of monkeys declared war on a rival gang of monkeys and snuck up on them military style—signals and everything—and […]
Confessions of a Shopaholic (PG, 112 minutes) When used in moderation, shopahol can enhance the joy of life. But for Isla Fisher, as a young, suddenly popular advice columnist in New York City, moderation might not be an option. Who knows, maybe debt-reduction rom-com based on Sophie Kinsella’s chick-lit bestseller is just what’s called for […]
If he’d given us only that goofy pre-election Obama endorsement, reprising the characters he grew up playing on TV, director Ron Howard would be well advised to avoid political filmmaking. But here’s Frost/Nixon—which, although timely with the departure of the often-Nixon-equated George W. Bush, has a prognosis for America that’s more to do with growing […]