Sometimes more of a good thing is just great, which is the case with the Coen Brothers’ (Ethan & Joel) remake of TRUE GRIT. The 1969 original, based on Charles Portis’ novel, won an Oscar for John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed, alcoholic U.S. marshal who reluctantly takes up the quest of tracking down the man who murdered the father of fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross (Kim Darby in that version) – with Mattie doggedly accompanying him.
On Fox’s action drama HUMAN TARGET, now going into its second season, Mark Valley plays Christopher Chance, a bodyguard who takes crazy risks to protect his clients. His backup team consists of fixer Guerrero, played by Jackie Earle Haley, and businessman Winston, portrayed by Chi McBride. McBride, known to TV viewers for his regular roles in BOSTON PUBLIC, THE NINE and the still-lamented PUSHING DAISIES, gives us his take on Winston (who dons a Santa Claus costume in tonight’s Christmas-themed edition “The Other Side of the Mall”), plus his thoughts on the end of DAISIES and why its creator, Bryan […]Read On »
Amber Benson creatively does everything – and very successfully, too. Benson originally came to the public’s attention as an actress (Tara on BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, an award-winning turn in RACE YOU TO THE BOTTOM), but she’s branched out as a filmmaker (writer/director/producer of CHANCE and LOVERS, LIARS AND LUNATICS), a novelist (DEATH’S DAUGHTER as a solo writer, THE GHOSTS OF ALBION books in collaboration with Christopher Golden), a radio play writer and a comic book author. Right now, as a film director, Benson has DRONES, which she co-directed with Adam Busch, awaiting release. As an author, she’s got two […]Read On »
TRON: LEGACY opens with a very cool, TRON-ized rendition of the traditional Walt Disney Pictures logo, with the fairytale castle rendered in black, white and silver. This suggests that we’re in for a film of mild subversion that makes what we’ll see just that more wonderful. Actually, what we’re in for is a surprisingly faithful follow-up to the original 1982 TRON. Will we see an alternate universe where anthropomorphic computer programs are rendered primarily in shades of black, white and gray? We will. Will the light cycles of the first film have been updated to be more exciting and dynamic? Yes, they will. Will TRON: LEGACY have the same issue as its predecessor when it comes to thin characterizations and talk about changing the world so grand, broad and vague that it could mean practically anything? Yes, it will.
Sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up. Most Americans have heard of Jack Abramoff, if only because he wound up going to jail. Exactly what he did to land in prison is addressed in CASINO JACK, a pitch-black comedy of greed, crime, politics and the intersection of all three.
On DEXTER (which airs its season finale on Sunday night), Michael C. Hall’s serial killer protagonist has lots of problems. One of these would be Miami police detective Joey Quinn, played by Desmond Harrington. Quinn is the partner and sometimes lover of Dexter’s sister Debra (Jennifer Carpenter) – and he’s also the one person at the station who thinks there’s something not quite right about the newly-widowed blood spatter expert. Harrington takes five with ASSIGNMENT X regarding his suspicious character, his appearance on GOSSIP GIRL and playing a cop. TAKE 1: Season Four of DEXTER was pretty traumatic for a […]Read On »
For those who take the pace, wit and generally immersive atmosphere of the HARRY POTTER films for granted, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is the latest example of the fact that making family-friendly fantasy is not as easy as it looks. The third of the films based on C.S. Lewis’ CHRONICLES OF NARNIA follows characters introduced in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and its sequel, PRINCE CASPIAN. Siblings Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley), now in their teens, are waiting out WWII at the home of their aunt and uncle; older siblings Peter and Susan are in America with their parents. Edmund and Lucy miss their days of adventure in Narnia and are coping with annoying, resentful younger cousin Eustace (Will Poulter), who can’t understand why they keep nattering on about an imaginary country. Then a painting on the wall comes to life and Edmund, Lucy and Eustace are all transported to a Narnian ocean, where they are rescued by a vessel captained by now-King Caspian (Ben Barnes). Caspian is happy to see his old friends again – he and his crew are off to find what became of seven missing lords. There’s an evil mist, a dark island, temptations and some deus ex machina up ahead.
John Wells is rightly a television legend, having executive-produced and run the writers rooms for E.R., THE WEST WING and CHINA BEACH, all intelligent, articulate dramas that focus on people dealing with life and death issues.
Ever wonder what might be going through Gary Oldman’s mind if he directed a Jewish hip-hop music video? You can find out at the DVD release party for director Juliet Landau’s TAKE FLIGHT, a twenty-five-minute documentary chronicling Oldman’s work with the band Chutzpah. The documentary will be screened and available for purchase Sunday night, Dec. 12, 6 PM at Meltdown Comics, 7522 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood 90069. There will be a musical performance by Amy Kuney and the band Common Rotation (which features Adam Busch, who appeared with Landau in BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, as well as Eric Kufs and […]Read On »
On CW’s LIFE UNEXPECTED, now wrapping out its second and (most likely) final season on Tuesdays, former high school sweethearts Cate (Shiri Appleby) and Nate (Kristoffer Polaha) are brought back together when their now sixteen-year-old daughter Lux (Brittany Robertson) – given up for adoption by Cate at birth – comes back into their lives. Cate’s now-husband Ryan, played by Kerr Smith, does his best to be the grown-up in the situation, since Lux is chronologically a teenager and Cate and Nate both still sometimes act like they are. Smith spoke with ASSIGNMENT X about playing it relatively straight on the […]Read On »
Loading ...
COPYRIGHT © 2010 - 2026, MIDNIGHT PRODUCTIONS, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRIVACY POLICY & TERMS OF USE
