2020 Emmy Nominations

Outstanding Drama Series
Better Call Saul
The Crown
The Handmaid's Tale
Killing Eve
The Mandalorian
Ozark
Stranger Things
Succession

Outstanding Comedy Series
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Dead to Me
Insecure
Schitt's Creek
The Good Place
The Kominsky Method
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
What We Do in the Shadows

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me
Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek
Issa Rae, Insecure
Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series
Anthony Anderson, black-ish
Don Cheadle, Black Monday
Ted Danson, The Good Place
Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method
Eugene Levy, Schitt's Creek
Ramy Youssef, Ramy

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show
Olivia Colman, The Crown
Jodie Comer, Killing Eve
Laura Linney, Ozark
Sandra Oh, Killing Eve
Zendaya, Euphoria

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Steve Carell, The Morning Show
Brian Cox, Succession
Billy Porter, Pose
Jeremy Strong, Succession

Outstanding Reality-Competition Program
The Masked Singer
Nailed It!
RuPaul's Drag Race
Top Chef
The Voice

Outstanding Limited Series
Little Fires Everywhere
Mrs. America
Unbelievable
Unorthodox
Watchmen

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
Jeremy Irons, Watchmen
Hugh Jackman, Bad Education
Paul Mescal, Normal People
Jeremy Pope, Hollywood
Mark Ruffalo, I Know This Much Is True

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Cate Blanchett, Mrs. America
Shira Haas, Unorthodox
Regina King, Watchmen
Octavia Spencer, Self Made
Kerry Washington, Little Fires Everywhere

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Giancarlo Esposito, Better Call Saul
Nicholas Braun, Succession
Kieran Culkin, Succession
Matthew Macfadyen, Succession
Bradley Whitford, The Handmaid's Tale
Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
Mark Duplass, The Morning Show
Jeffrey Wright, Westworld

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Meryl Streep, Big Little Lies
Fiona Shaw, Killing Eve
Julia Garner, Ozark
Sarah Snook, Succession
Helena Bonham Carter, The Crown
Samira Wiley, The Handmaid's Tale
Thandie Newton, Westworld

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Andre Braugher, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Mahershala Ali, Ramy
Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live
Daniel Levy, Schitt's Creek
William Jackson Harper, The Good Place
Alan Arkin, The Kominsky Method
Sterling K. Brown, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Tony Shalhoub, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Betty Gilpin, GLOW
Yvonne Orji, Insecure
Kate McKinnon, Saturday Night Live
Cecily Strong, Saturday Night Live
Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek
D'Arcy Carden, The Good Place
Alex Borstein, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Marin Hinkle, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
Dylan McDermott, Hollywood
Jim Parsons, Hollywood
Tituss Burgess, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Watchmen
Jovan Adepo, Watchmen
Louis Gossett Jr., Watchmen

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie
Holland Taylor, Hollywood
Uzo Aduba, Mrs. America
Margo Martindale, Mrs. America
Tracey Ullman, Mrs. America
Toni Collette, Unbelievable
Jean Smart, Watchmen

Outstanding Variety Talk Series
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Outstanding Variety Sketch Series
A Black Lady Sketch Show
Drunk History
Saturday Night Live

Outstanding Host for a Reality or Reality-Competition Program
Amy Poehler, Making It
Nicole Byer, Nailed It!
Bobby Berk, Queer Eye
RuPaul, RuPaul's Drag Race
Barbara Corcoran, Shark Tank
Padma Lakshmi, Top Chef

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
Andrew Scott, Black Mirror
James Cromwell, Succession
Giancarlo Esposito, The Mandalorian
Martin Short, The Morning Show
Jason Bateman, The Outsider
Ron Cephas Jones, This Is Us

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series
Cicely Tyson, How to Get Away With Murder
Laverne Cox, Orange Is the New Black
Cherry Jones, Succession
Harriet Walter, Succession
Alexis Bledel, The Handmaid's Tale
Phylicia Rashad, This Is Us

Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
Fred Willard, Modern Family
Dev Patel, Modern Love
Brad Pitt, Saturday Night Live
Adam Driver, Saturday Night Live
Eddie Murphy, Saturday Night Live
Luke Kirby, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series
Angela Bassett, A Black Lady Sketch Show
Maya Rudolph, Saturday Night Live
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Saturday Night Live
Maya Rudolph, The Good Place
Wanda Sykes, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Bette Midler, The Politician

Logan - Movie Review

Starring Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Boyd Holbrook, Dafne Keen, Stephen Merchant, Richard E. Grant, Eriq La Salle, Elise Neal and Elizabeth Rodriguez.
Written by Scott Frank, James Mangold & Michael Green.
Directed by James Mangold.

★★★½

This is Hugh Jackman's seventh and final time to play Logan, the Wolverine, (nine if you count his uncredited cameos) and I don't think the actor could have asked for a better swan song for the character that made him famous.

It's 2029. Almost all of the mutants are dead. Logan is working under his alias James Howlett as a limo driver, scrimping and saving for a boat that he and the 90-year-old Professor X (Patrick Stewart) can buy. It's rated R so these X-Men have fouler mouths than we've heard, and we see Wolvy's claws kill quite a few people.

It turns out there's a little girl named Laura (Dafne Keen) who has similar abilities to Logan, and mean men with guns want to find her. Logan would love nothing more than to send her away, but Professor X urges him to help her. They're just south of the border from El Paso but they need to get her to a safe haven in North Dakota.

The main hunter of Laura is named Pierce, played with evil drawling glee by Narcos's Boyd Holbrook. He has an army of Reavers to help him catch Laura, but after Laura or Logan killed the twentieth guy, I can't help but think if any of the Reavers questioned if they're in the right line of work.

There's a gritty sadness to this film. Logan's a tragic character. His quick healing and slow aging means he has outlived all of his friends. I honestly would support acting nominations for Jackman and Stewart for their work here. The script gives them a lot to tap into.

Jared Hess to direct third Shanghai Noon movie

- Jared Hess (Masterminds, Napoleon Dynamite) will direct Shanghai Dawn, the third film in the Shanghai series that stars Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. The first two were 2000's Shanghai Noon and 2003's Shanghai Knights.

- Rebecca Ferguson (Mission Impossible 5) has joined The Greatest Showman on Earth, a musical about P.T. Barnum. It stars Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle WIlliams, and Zendaya.

- Gary Oldman is set to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, all about the Prime Minster when things weren't going so well for Great Britain during WWII. Lily James (Cinderella), Ben Mendelsohn, John Hurt and Kristen Scott Thomas co-star.

The Wolverine - DVD Review

Starring Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Will Yun Lee, Rila Fukushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Brian Tee and Famke Janssen.
Directed by James Mangold.

★★★

It's the sequel no one really wanted, but I'm glad it happened anyway. The "Origins" movie wasn't great, but here we get a stripped-down side adventure for everyone's favorite X-Man. Wolverine goes to Japan to visit an old friend, a friend who can give him the gift of mortality. But from there, he gets betrayed, and we get to see Wolverine take on some ninjas. What has stuck with me is the fight sequence on the bullet train, one of the best action scenes of the year.

Prisoners - Movie Review

Starring Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano and Melissa Leo.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve.

★★★½

This slow-burn thriller may be two-and-a-half hours long, but I was never bored nor concerned with the running time.

It features two families (Hugh Jackman & Maria Bello and Viola Davis & Terrence Howard) spending Thanksgiving together.  When a daughter from each disappears, they start to search the neighborhood, but then the teenage son remembers they were playing by a suspicious RV parked down the street, and it's now gone.

It isn't long before the investigative officer Detective Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) locates the RV, and the driver Alex (Paul Dano).  Alex exhibits the mental acumen of a 10-year-old and the police are unable to find enough evidence to keep him. Loki (really wish they'd named him something else) pursues other avenues, but Keller (Jackman) is convinced that Alex knows something, and with each passing day, it means there's less likelihood their girls will be found alive. So he kidnaps Alex and questions him in ways that get more and more medieval.

The movie has a lot to say about vigilante justice, but it's more about the mystery, and while I was able to figure out most of it fairly early (had to wait about half an hour for Loki to notice a clue I noticed right away), it was suspenseful to watch unfold. I can only imagine what David Fincher (Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) might have done with this material.

The acting's good all around, but this is career-best work from Jackman, getting that primal, vicious paternal instinct that would give Taken's Bryan Mills pause. (If your brain just hit a speed-bump, that is Liam Neeson's character's name.) I was also really impressed with Gyllenhaal, a man clearly struggling with his own demons that have affected him in odd ways. (He has a very distinct blink, and one where I didn't feel I needed to know why.)

It could have been tighter. I think it could have trimmed minutes here and there but the makers wanted to hang some lanterns on clues to make sure the audience didn't miss them.

Random Movie News - 9/30/13

- Hugh Jackman has joined the cast of Chappie, the next film from Neill Blomkamp (Elysium, District 9). It's about two gangsters who steal a robot to help them commit crimes. Sharlto Copley will provide the voice of the robot. Jackman is mulling over a return to Broadway for the Houdini musical.

- Mark Wahlberg is looking to team with director Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) for a remake of The Gambler, the 1974 movie that starred James Caan as a college professor whose gambling addiction gets him in trouble with the wrong people.

- J.K. Rowling will make her screenwriting debut with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter but won't be considered a prequel. The events in the film will take place 70 years before the Harry Potter films.

- Christoph Waltz is in talks to play the villain opposite Alexander Skarsgard in a new Tarzan movie.

Wolverine wins weekend

1. The Wolverine - $55 million - 1 wk (Fox)
 . . . 3924 screens / $14,016 per screen
2. The Conjuring - $22.13 ($83.87) - 2 wks (WB) -47.1%
 . . . 3022 / $7323
3. Despicable Me 2 - $16.02 ($306.41) - 4 wks (U) -35.7%
 . . . 3476 / $4610
4. Turbo - $13.33 ($55.77) - 2 wks (Fox) -37.5%
 . . . 3809 / $3498
5. Grown Ups 2 - $11.5 ($101.66) - 3 wks (Sony) -42.1%
 . . . 3258 / $3530
6. Red 2 - $9.4 ($35.07) - 2 wks (LG) -47.9%
 . . . 3016 / $3117
7. Pacific Rim - $7.54 ($84.03) - 3 wks (WB) -52.9%
 . . . 2602 / $2898
8. The Heat - $6.85 ($141.25) - 5 wks (Fox) -26.4%
 . . . 2384 / $2873
9. R.I.P.D. - $5.86 ($24.35) - 2 wks (U) -53.9%
 . . . 2850 / $2055
10. Fruitvale Station - $4.66 ($6.34) - 3 wks (Wein) +529%
 . . . 1064 / $4377
11. The Way Way Back - $3.3 ($8.93) - 4 wks (FS) +50%
 . . . 886 / $3725
12. World War Z - $2.76 ($192.62) - 6 wks (Par) -46.8%
 . . . 1440 / $1917

The Wolverine is off to a nice start, showing there's still life in those adamantium-boned legs of his.  Meanwhile some of last week's releases (Turbo, Red 2, RIPD) are sinking fast and will be hard-pressed to be profitable.

Cinematically Speaking - 2/14/13

- Michael Mann (Heat) will direct Chris Hemsworth (Thor) in an untitled cyber-security thriller. Hemsworth's schedule freed up after Steven Spielberg put Robopocalypse on hold.

- Director Bryan Singer has cast Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) in an unspecified role in X-Men: Days of Future Past, starring Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Lawrence, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Ellen Page and Shawn Ashmore.

- Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad) is set to direct the long-delayed project Spy Hunter, based on the 1980's video game about a government agent whose job is to eliminate rogue spies when they become government liabilities.  A few years ago, John Woo and Paul WS Anderson looked at directing with Dwayne Johnson attached to star. Fleischer views it as his chance to direct an American James Bond type movie.

- John Cusack is attached to star in Cell, based on the Stephen King novel about a Pulse that makes everyone who was on their cellphones at the time turn into bloodthirsty zombies.

- In TV news, Mike Vogel (ABC's Pan Am) has been cast in the CBS series Under the Dome. Based on the Stephen King novel, it's about a New England community that finds itself trapped one day under a mysterious forcefield.  He joins Aisha Hinds (ABC's Detroit 187), Colin Ford (We Bought a Zoo), Natalie Martinez (End of Watch) and Brittany Robertson (CW's The Secret Circle).

Les Miserables - Movie Review

Starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Daniel Huttlestone, Colm Wilkinson, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen.  Directed by Tom Hooper.

★★★½

This didn't feel like its own movie. It's an enhancement, part of a package to the Les Miserables experience.  It's another way to live through the material.  Les Miz the play is still the way to see this, but the film allows more acting to move to the fore.

Tom Hooper's decision to do lots of close-ups pays off more often than it doesn't. It also means the actors are singing live for the camera without the benefit of being dubbed in a studio. It means that the acting matters more than the singing.  Russell Crowe, for instance, gives a very good physical performance as Javert, but singing-wise most of his songs are beyond what he's capable of nailing. He'd go in and out of nasal quality and strain for those higher pitches, which is a good two-thirds of Javert's lines.  More than once I felt bad for him.

The majority of the cast comes off quite well.  Hugh Jackman, I thought, was tremendous. Vocally he's there (even if he isn't Alfie Boe), and we really feel the pain behind songs like "Who Am I" and "Bring Him Home."  It'd be a crime if he weren't nominated for this.  Anne Hathaway is as good as you've heard. Her "I Dreamed A Dream" is heartbreaking, and by my eye, done in one take.

Eddie Redmayne (My Week with Marilyn) is also the first time I kind of liked Marius.  It's easy not to like him when he falls in love so easily with Cosette and ignores Eponine, but I credit Redmayne's performance. The first tear the movie got from me was when Marius sings his final note in his "Little Fall of Rain" duet with Eponine. (Eponine is played by Samantha Barks, who also played the role in Les Miserables in Concert 25th Anniversary.)

Faring the worst were the Thenardiers. I expected Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter to be over the top, but all the close-ups for them ruined the humor of "Master of the House." It actually reminded me of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a hilarious musical that made for a bad movie under Richard Lester's direction in 1966.

This movie is an experience. It's flawed, but it leaves an impact, and it let me see Les Miz in a new light. That must count for something.

Rise of the Guardians - Movie Review

Starring the voices of Chris Pine, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, Jude Law and Isla Fisher.
Directed by Peter Ramsey.

★★★

With childhood heroes like these, who needs the Avengers?

Okay, Avengers was a better movie, but this is a decent entry into the animated Christmas movie sub-genre.  I liked it about as much as Polar Express.

Santa Claus (Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (Fisher) and the silent Sandman have been defending the children of the Earth for hundreds of years.  They answer to the Man in the Moon, who somehow telepathically communicates to them.  When the Boogeyman (Law) regains some of his long-dormant strength, a new Guardian is selected to join them: Jack Frost (Pine).

Frost is more about mischief than protection, and he has to learn to play nice with others and find his inner strength, believe in himself, etc. (Ever notice how many kids' movies have the message "Believe in yourself?")

It's missing a lot of the pop-culture references and cynicism that's marked so many DreamWorks Animation's efforts.  There's some amusing stuff there for adults, but it's mainly aimed at kids.  I found it a bit strange to have Santa be this tattooed Russian sword-fighter, and the Easter Bunny's a bit of an Aussie thug. I'm guessing one of his inspirations was Rabbit from Winnie-the-Pooh.  The Tooth Fairy's more bird than Tinkerbell, and Jack Frost is just your regular teenage boy.

Random Movie Stuff - 10/19/12

- Warner Bros. plans to release a Justice League movie in Summer 2015. No director have been announced. Christopher Nolan passed on the offer to produce it.  Will Beall has a written a script.  No word if Henry Cavill (Superman), Christian Bale (Batman) and Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern) will be attached, but it's said to use those characters as well as Wonder Woman and the Flash.  The Avengers 2 is also scheduled to open Summer 2015.

- Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters has been moved back to January 25.  It stars Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the famous gingerbread-house-visiting siblings, grown up and determined to fight all witches.

- Jason Statham will star in Homefront, about a DEA agent who retires to a small town only to find out the town has its own drug underbelly.  Sylvester Stallone wrote the screenplay.  It co-stars James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth, Frank Grillo (The Grey) and Rachelle LeFevre (Twilight).

- Liam Neeson, James Franco, Kim Basinger, Adrien Brody, Mila Kunis, Maria Bello and Olivia Wilde will star in Paul Haggis's next drama Third Person, which will weave together three storylines, one in Paris, one in New York, and one in Rome.

- Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) has joined the cast of Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman (Swordfish) as a man who takes the law into his own hands after his wife and child are kidnapped.  Jake Gyllenhaal (End of Watch) and Melissa Leo (The Fighter) co-star.

- Watched some trailers recently.  This has been my lowest movie-attending season in about ten years so I watch them online.  The most moving one for me was The Impossible, based on the true story of a family separated during the 2004 tsunami. It stars Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor.  We have yet another Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake too.  Once again, five kids go into a big house they shouldn't.  Silver Linings Playbook looks good.  Jennifer Lawrence's presense is always a plus, but Bradley Cooper's character looks like it could be his most interesting work to date.

- Saw MIRROR MIRROR (★★) on DVD and it's just far less interesting than Snow White & the Huntsman.  It's more comical, more aimed at kids.  I liked Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and the dwarves fine. I was embarrassed for Armie Hammer as the prince; this did not do him any favors and doesn't give me much hope for The Lone Ranger.

Movie Release Date Changes

- Some release-date updates: 

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3D has been pulled from Lionsgate's release schedule. In repsonse, Summit has moved their horror flick Sinister, starring Ethan Hawke, to October 5.

Les Miserables will now open December 14 opposite The Hobbit.   Based on the Broadway smash, Les Miz will star Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert, Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, Eddie Redmaybe as Marius, and Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter as the Thenardiers.

Identity Thief, starring Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy, will open May 10, 2013.

The RoboCop reboot will open August 9, 2013. It stars Joel Kinnaman (The Killing).

Cloudy 2: Revenge of the Leftovers (sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs) will open December 20, 2013.

Real Steel - Movie Review

***

Starring Hugh Jackman, Dakota Goyo, Evangeline Lilly, Anthony Mackie, Kevin Durand, Hope Davis and James Rebhorn. Directed by Shawn Levy.

Take a Wallace Beery movie, mix it in with some Stallone (primarily Rocky and Over the Top), and add fighting robots, and you've got Real Steel.

This movie works better than maybe it deserves to, but there's good reason for that. While, yes, it's ultimately about fighting robots, movies needs to have characters we care about, and the center of this movie is really about a father reconnecting with the son he abandoned as a baby.

Hugh Jackman plays Charlie Kenton, a former pro-boxer who turned to robot-boxing after the human sport died off. He's a hustler though, a man at the end of his rope due to mounting debt and an inability to win. Then he learns his former girlfriend is dead, and their son, whom he hadn't seen since he was a baby, is about to get adopted by his girlfriend's sister. Charlie sees an opportunity. The uncle involved is rich, so Charlie gets a payoff. In return, he'll watch the boy for the summer while the aunt and uncle vacation in Italy for two months.

Charlie's not quick to grow sentimental, nor is the boy Max (played impressively by Dakota Goyo) willing to grant immediate forgiveness for Charlie's eleven years of absense. One day while scavenging through a junkyard they find Atom, a sparring robot that is still in decent shape. The kid believes he can fix him up to be a good fighter, and there may or may not be a little advanced A.I. in there. The movie's coy about it, and that's fine.

The father/son story shifts to an underdog story, as the little robot manages to beat better, newer models thanks to his toughness and programming. The movie carried me along and made me care, even if the third act hits all the emotional buttons like a programmer. Its old-fashioned corniness still won me over.

X-Men News

As far as the X-Men universe goes, plans are still in the works for The Wolverine, a more stand-alone movie than X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Producer Lauren Shuler Donner said a lot of it depends on Hugh Jackman's schedule. They also still plan to do a Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds, and she acknowledged that X-Men Origins: Wolverine did wrong by his character but they'd fix that for his own movie. Also, they plan on a sequel to X-Men: First Class and hope to get Matthew Vaughn back as director.