Assignment X - The Pop Culture Entertainment Magazine for Movies, TV, DVD, Blu-ray, Video Games, Books, Comics and Technology

CD Review: ANOTHER EARTH original soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER | 08/30/2011

ANOTHER EARTH soundtrack | ©2011 Milan Records

Nothing says “sci fi” like the bleeping weirdness of electronics, whether it’s Louis and Bebe Baron’s bizarre, futuristic frequencies in FORBIDDEN PLANET, the pulsing, eerie sterility that Gil Melle brought to THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, or the sinister, metallically grinding synths that Brad Fiedel constructed THE TERMINATOR’s killer robot with. With the dance vibes of rave and hip-hop finding their way into film scoring, courtesy of such performers-turned-composers as B.T. (GO) and The Chemical Brothers (HANNA), let alone Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ Oscar win for THE SOCIAL NETWORK, electro sci-fi scoring has somehow become a warmer, more energetic place, if […]Read On »

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TV Review: LEVERAGE – Season 4 – “The Queen’s Gambit Job”

By DON E. PETERSON | 08/29/2011

Timothy Hutton in LEVERAGE - Season 4 - "The Queen's Gambit Job" | ©2011 TNT/Erik Heinila

Stars: Timothy Hutton, Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, Beth Riesgraf, Aldis Hodge Writer: M. Scott Veach, Rebecca Kirsch Director: Jonathan Frakes Network: TNT, Sunday nights Original Telecast: August 25, 2011 There’s nothing like finding an old friend on a series like LEVERAGE and as “The Queen’s Gambit Job” wraps up the Season 4 summer finale (more episodes air in November), the series brings back the team’s constant nemesis Jim Sterling (Mark Sheppard). Most of the time Sterling is there to thwart the team’s various jobs, but this time, he needs to enlist them for reasons that we later learn are far […]Read On »

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TV Review: DOCTOR WHO – Series 6 – “Let’s Kill Hitler” – Review #1

By ARNOLD T. BLUMBERG |

Albert Welling in DOCTOR WHO - Series 6 - Episode 8 | ©2011 BBC

Stars: Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill, Alex Kingston, Nina Toussaint-White, Caitlin Blackwood, Maya Glace-Green, Ezekiel Wigglesworth, Philip Rham, Richard Dillane, Amy Cudden, Davood Ghadami, Ella Kenion, Albert Welling, Mark Kileen, Paul Bentley, Eva Alexander, Tor Clark Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Richard Senior Network: BBC America, airs Saturday nights Original Telecast: August 27, 2011 In the return of DOCTOR WHO for the second half of Series 6, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” the rather casual chase to recover Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory’s (Arthur Darvill) kidnapped baby leads them to 1938 Berlin, where they once again run into River Song (Alex Kingston), […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: LEVERAGE guest star Mark Sheppard on the return of Jim Sterling

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN | 08/28/2011

Mark Sheppard in LEVERAGE - Season 4 - "The Queen's Gambit Job" | ©2011 TNT/Erik Heinila

On TNT’s LEVERAGE, airing its summer finale tonight at 9 PM, Timothy Hutton’s former insurance investigator Nathan Ford rides herd on a small team of con artists who pool their various skills in the service of doing the right thing. Not much rattles Ford, but we can see his spine stiffen whenever a male British voice utters the words, “Hello, Nate.” The voice belongs to Ford’s former colleague and frenemy Jim Sterling, played by English actor Mark Sheppard, who recurs on LEVERAGE to alternately thwart, aid and aggravate Nate and Company .Sterling appears in “The Queen’s Gambit Job,” which serves […]Read On »

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CD Review: FINAL DESTINATION 5 soundtrack

By DANIEL SCHWEIGER |

FINAL DESTINATION 5 soundtrack | ©2011 Varese Sarabande Records

Death wasn’t proud when it took Shirley Walker after her three, mordantly thrilling scores to the FINAL DESTINATION saga. And though its fifth verse is the same as the first, Walker’s black-humored approach has been continued with telltale, twisted finesse by Brian Tyler, who joined the franchise with entry four. Even with all those numbers, the series has arguable found its best footing since the original with five, buoyed on by Tyler’s bombastic approach that plays each ghastly Rube-Goldberg gore wind-up with the freshness of the series’ first death. Beginning with a rock guitar and orchestral head banger that throws […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: Aldis Hodge gets LEVERAGE for Season 4

By CARL CORTEZ | 08/27/2011

Aldis Hodge in LEVERAGE - Season 4 - "The Van Gogh Job" | ©2011 TNT/ Erik Heinila

As LEVERAGE wraps up the summer portion of Season 4 (with a return of regular antagonist Jim Sterling played by Mark Sheppard), ASSIGNMENT X chatted with star Aldis Hodge who plays hacker Hardison on the series. Throughout the course of the TNT series, Hardison has went from wise-cracking loner to someone who is finally accepting that he’s part of a team. He also has feelings for the somewhat closes off Parker (Beth Riesgraf) which has been gaining some traction the past couple of seasons. Here’s what Hodge had to say about the latest developments. ASSIGNMENT X: So Sterling is finally […]Read On »

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TV Review: WILFRED – Season 1 – “Doubt”

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN |

Dwight Yoakam in WILFRED - Season 1 - "Doubt" | ©2011 FX/Ray Mickshaw

Stars: Elijah Wood, Jason Gann, Fiona Gubelmann, Dorian Brown, Dwight Yoakam Writers: Reed Agnew & Eli Jorne, series created by Jason Gann & Adam Zwar, adapted for American television by David Zuckerman Director: Randall Einhorn. Network: FX, Thursdays @ 10 PM Airdate: August 25, 2011 WILFRED viewers may have questions along the lines of, “What the hell is really going on here?” For awhile, “Doubt” seems like it’s going to answer some of these, but it turns out, like so many other things about Wilfred the character (Jason Gann), to be simply a gotcha. However, as it’s a smart, funny […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: DOCTOR WHO showrunner Steven Moffat on the rest of the new season

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN |

DOCTOR WHO - Series 6 poster | ©2011 BBC

For those who don’t know – in the whole universe, how many can there be? – DOCTOR WHO is a BBC science fiction series that began in 1963, about the titular Time Lord who travels the cosmos in his Tardis with a variety of companions. Whenever the Doctor is fatally injured, he regenerates into a new body, played by a new actor. The series and the Doctor had lain dormant for some years when Russell T. Davies revived DOCTOR WHO in 2005, with Christopher Eccleston in the lead. After one season, Eccleston’s Doctor regenerated into a new iteration played by […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: CASTLE Season 4 scoop from executive producer Laurie Zaks

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN | 08/26/2011

Nathan Fillion in CASTLE - Season 4 | ©2011 ABC/Bob D'Amico

Over three seasons of ABC’s CASTLE – which returns for its fourth season on Monday, September 19 – we’ve seen Nathan Fillion’s wealthy, best-selling mystery novelist Rick Castle fall for Stana Katic’s Kate Beckett, the dedicated NYPD homicide detective Castle follows around. Initially, Castle’s ride-alongs were for research, but by now everybody recognizes there’s a greater investment there than just getting the facts right. In Season Three, Beckett got a lead on the cold case murder of her own mother, which unveiled a conspiracy involving Beckett’s police captain, Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Roy Montgomery.Montgomery died heroically, protecting Beckett, but at his funeral, […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: Working in WAREHOUSE 13 with Aaron Ashmore

By SEAN ELLIOTT |

Aaron Ashmore in WAREHOUSE 13 - Season 3 - "The New Guy" | ©2011 Syfy/Steve Wilkie

Aaron Ashmore is no stranger to genre television. A lot of fans of science fiction television will recognize him from his days on SMALLVILE, but now he’s got a whole new gig as an agent of WAREHOUSE 13. His character Steve Jinks joined this season, and is the Warehouse’s first openly gay character, which also has the uncanny ability to tell when a person is lying. ASSIGNMENT X was lucky enough to get the chance to talk to Ashmore about joining the series, and chatted with him about the experience of joining a cast partway through the run of a […]Read On »