Fall TV Preview - Monday

ABC
Dancing with the Stars
Castle

CBS
How I Met Your Mother
2 Broke Girls
Two and a Half Men
Mike & Molly
Hawaii Five-0

NBC
The Sing-Off
The Playboy Club

FOX
Terra Nova
House

CW
Gossip Girl
Hart of Dixie

New Shows:
2 BROKE GIRLS (CBS) - Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs are two mismatched friends trying to make it in New York.

THE PLAYBOY CLUB (NBC) - Soapy 60's set drama about a lawyer (Eddie Cibrian) who hooks up with a bunny (Amber Heard) who accidentally killed a mob boss.

TERRA NOVA (FOX) - Colonists from 2149 go back in time 85 million years to start over on Earth. Features Jason O'Mara (Life on Mars) and Stephen Lang (Avatar). There will be dinosaurs.

HART OF DIXIE (CW) - The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson stars as a New York doctor who relocates to Alabama.

Outlook:

If it's remotely good, 2 Broke Girls should succeed; Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide named it one of the five best new shows of the fall. NBC's had trouble with Monday night for a while, and I don't see The Playboy Club turning it around, hype notwithstanding. My hunch is Dancing with the Stars beats The Sing-Off, and therefore Castle (and Hawaii Five-0) will win in 10/9. Terra Nova's a risk, but by making it the lead-in for House, Fox is giving it every opportunity to find viewers. Hart of Dixie is D.O.A.

Friday's Box Office

For Friday September 9.

1. Contagion - $8.03 million - 1 day
2. The Help - $2.67 ($131.07) - 31 days
3. Warrior - $1.8 - 1 day
4. The Debt - $1.45 ($18.54) - 10 days
5. Colombiana - $1.17 ($26.94) - 15 days
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $1.1 ($165.06) - 36 days
7. Shark Night - $1 ($12.27) - 8 days
8. Apollo 18 - $.88 ($12.96) - 8 days
9. Our Idiot Brother - $.84 ($19.49) - 15 days
10. Crazy Stupid Love - $.7 ($76.95) - 43 days
11. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - $.68 ($19.51) - 15 days
12. Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star - $.54 - 1 day

Steven Soderbergh's all-star Contagion looks like a hit (for September). Should get about $22 million for the weekend. Despite glowing reviews, Warrior's tanked, and Bucky Larson, co-written by Adam Sandler, is best left forgotten.

Of Gods and Men - DVD Review

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Starring Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Jean-Marie Frin and Loic Pichon.
Directed by Xavier Beauvois.

This movie takes the time to appreciate the quiet reflections in a monastery. It gives the subject matter the reverance and respect it deserves, and in the cold, clear air out in North Africa, it's quite refreshing.

Inspired by a true story, this is about a handful of monks who react with pacifism when Islamic extremists take over their town. Lambert Wilson, who's played some cartoonish villaisn in American movies, is their leader, and you can see the responsibility and conflict all over his face.

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.

AMC's Breaking Bad - 'Hermanos'

I've been impressed with the way this series has let the supporting characters expand and grow. While Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) has been a menacing yet level-headed drug lord, we've never been able to learn about what makes this man tick. 'Hermanos' gave us a lengthy flashback to a less confident Gus, a budding drug dealer looking to bring in the Mexican cartel so he and his partner could expand their business.

So while Walt keeps wondering when Gus is going to kill him, Gus has similar wonders about when the cartel is going to come after him. Oh, Gus enjoys visiting and rubbing it in the face of the now-incapacitated Hector, but Hector still has some powerful connections.

I like that Hank is becoming a real cop again. He's looked foolish swallowing everythign that Walt feeds him, but when it comes to everyone else, Hank displays great instincts.

AMC has announced that next season will be the last, and that's a good thing. Yes, it's a great show, but the DEA and the cartel seem like they're on a collision course, and I'm pretty sure at least one opening credit regular is going to meet their demise, and then next year, we'll get the final repercussions. I can't help but wonder: between Gus and cancer, how can Walter White possibly survive?

The Beaver - DVD Review

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Starring Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence and Cherry Jones. Directed by Jodie Foster.

This film looks at the effects of deep depression, and it does so in a way that you'd think it would be a comedy. It takes its subject matter more seriously than that.

Mel Gibson is Walter Black, the CEO of a toy company. (Oh, great. Another rich-people-with-problems movie.) But Walter is suicidal. One day he sees a discarded beaver puppet in the trash, and he picks it up and puts it on his hand. He starts talking to himself through it.

His estranged wife (Jodie Foster) and angry son (Anton Yelchin) don't know what to make of it. I really liked the family dynamic and the tension. I also liked the subplot where the son develops a relationship with the popular girl who's secretly hurting. She's played by Jennifer Lawrence, pre Winter's Bone/X-Men: First Class/Hunger Games fame.

What made my thumb go from up to sidways was the third act where Walter becomes a national sensation, turning his toy company around and landing on the cover of every magazine in America one week. Really? Really?

The four main performers are good. I just wish it hadn't gone there.

The Debt - Movie Review

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Starring Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington, Marton Csokas, Tom Wilkinson, Jesper Christensen and Ciaran Hinds. Directed by John Madden.

There are three Mossad agents in 1965 known as Rachel (Jessica Chastain), David (Sam Worthington), and Stephen (Marton Csokas). Their mission is to capture a Nazi war criminal named Fogel (Jesper Christensen), now posing in East Germany as a harmless gynecologist. They plan to take him to Israel and try him for his crimes.

Flash-forward to 1997. Rachel (Helen Mirren), David (Ciaran Hinds), and Stephen (Tom Wilkinson) are still dealing with the repercussions of that mission, and new light is shed that may have a dramatic impact on them.

(Although I have to pause here and say I thought that Hinds looked more like an older Csokas than Wilkinson did; it threw me off a bit. Anyway...)

This is a tense thriller than jumps back and forth between the time periods with ease, and Mirren and Chastain do remarkable jobs as Rachel. Chastain especially demonstrates that she has a bright future ahead of her.

This was at 3-1/2 stars for me until the last five minutes. I'll leave it there.

Friday's Box Office

For Friday September 2.

1. The Help - $3.63 million ($108.03) - 24 days
2. Apollo 18 - $2.84 - 1 day
3. Shark Night - $2.83 - 1 day
4. The Debt - $2.61 ($4.51) - 3 days
5. Colombiana - $2 ($16.56) - 8 days
6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $1.85 ($154.08) - 29 days
7. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - $1.45 ($12.89) - 8 days
8. Our Idiot Brother - $1.42 ($11.66) - 8 days
9. Spy Kids 4 - $1.04 ($25.44) - 15 days

Labor Day weekend is notorious for weak box office, and so The Help is the beneficiary of uninteresting competition.

Priest - DVD Review

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Starring Paul Bettany, Karl Urban, Maggie Q, Cam Gigandet, Lily Collins, Stephen Moyer, Christopher Plummer, Brad Dourif, Alan Dale and Madchen Amick. Directed by Scott Stewart.

I like dystopian adventures as much as the next guy. I also recognize this mishmash is far from a good movie, but it's not without its guilty pleasures.

Take, for instance, Karl Urban. In a world where vampires are eyeless sabretooth goblins, he becomes the first human vampire, and the man likes his powers. He also gets to do a few slow glances back over his shoulder, from under the brim of his hat. That is a man who knows he's playing a mean s.o.b. and having fun with it.

Like most movies, it kept reminding me of other movies. Here's a little Judge Dredd, there's a little Matrix, throw in some Doom, a pinch of Blade Runner, a whiff of The Searchers, a hint of Wild Wild West, a dash of any steampunk flick that had Jack Palance, and voila, we get Priest.

This is a world where the church controls the humans, and naturally the church is led by a council of robe-wearing smirkers who sit in a semi-circle and just wait for people to enter their hall and genuflect. The High Monsignor of Smirk is Christopher Plummer, who can only go the way of ham with his cliched dialogue. The church believes the vampire menace has been eradicated, but when one Priest's niece gets kidnapped by them, that Priest (Paul Bettany) must defy the church to save her.

I think this puts the wooden stake in the undead heart of the idea that Bettany can be an action star. The movie's mercifully short at 80 minutes, so we don't get bogged down by too much plot; it's more of a series of action sequences. And yet, it leaves things open for a sequel. Based on its box office, that notion may have its last rites read.

Die Hard 5, Sin City 2, Megan Fox, etc.

- Don't cry for Megan Fox. She may have been fired from Transformers 3, but she has plenty of projects lined up. She just finished filming Friends with Kids with Kristen Wiig and Jon Hamm, then she has The Dictator with Sasha Baron Cohen (Borat), and then she'll be in Judd Apatow's next film This Is Forty, with Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Leslie Mann and Albert Brooks.

- John Moore (Max Payne) will direct Die Hard 5, to be set in Russia. Bruce Willis will indeed reprise his role as John McClane. Willis will then do the sequel to Red.

- William Monahan (The Departed) has been hired to polish the script for Sin City 2, to be co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.

- The Coen brothers' next directorial effort will be Inside Llewyn Davis, about a folk singer in the 1960's. They wrote but did not direct the remake of Gambit, opening next year. Gambit stars Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz, Alan Rickman and Stanley Tucci and is directed by Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, The Emperor's Club, The Last Station).

Nothing to Fear in the 'Dark'

DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

l 1/2

Starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Bailee Madison and Jack Thompson.
Directed by Troy Nixey.

"Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" says the title. Oh don't worry. I won't be.

I did not like it. I thought there'd be some suspense somewhere. Never felt it. And the deeper I got into the movie, the less forgiving I was of its flaws.

I like to feel goosebumps in movies. I liked Paranormal Activity. I liked Insidious. I was expecting a PG-13 horror flick. This one never drew me in, and clumsy plot mechanics kept me at bay.

I have to do SPOILERS to really explain where I started to lose it...

....

First of all, the scene in the library, she takes several pictures that capture the creatures. There are polaroids everywhere laying on the ground when the adults rush in, not to mention she smashed the arm off of one of the creatures, and yet the adults don't look around, and suddenly we're in the next scene?! Wait a minute. She took a dozen picture of the things, and there's an arm on the ground of one of the beasties? And they just ignore it?

The librarian scene was terrible. The dialogue was exposition-city, but on top of that, if Katie Holmes's character is a big fan of Blackwood, shouldn't she already know basic biographical details about him, like that he had a son or that he disappeared and was never seen again?

Then the ending. If I am Guy Pearce, and I see Katie Holmes get sucked down a tunnel, I call the cops and send a rescue team DOWN THE FREAKING TUNNEL! I don't just give up. "Oh well. They got her. Let's foreclose this place."

But its biggest sin is the complete lack of tension.

The Warrior's Way - DVD Review

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Starring Jang Dong Gun, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush, Danny Huston, Tony Cox and Ti Lung. Directed by Sngmoo Lee.

I don't know what I expected but it wasn't a low-budget mixture of Leone, Fellini, and Chow. It's a movie that breaks down viewers' resistance and says "Come with me on this wild ride." It's one of those worlds where expert shooters are deadly accurate from impossible distances, and if you draw your sword, gravity will temporarily forget you. It's a martial-arts Western hybrid with mustache-twirling villains, a sad clown, and the scrappy young woman out to avenge her pa. Step right up.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Movie Review

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Starring James Franco, Andy Serkis, Frieda Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, Tom Felton, David Oleyowo and Tyler Labine.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.

There is a universal theme that keeps surfacing in movies - the oppressed fighting back against the powerful. Sometimes it's a native who rises (Braveheart), sometimes it's someone who crosses over (Dances with Wolves, Avatar), but there's usually a central leader who inspires his masses to rise.

The tale may be as old as Pharaoah's adopted son Moses leading the slaves out of Israel, but when it's done right, it can be very powerful. So here we have a prequel no one was really clamoring for, but it's now the best in the series.

I mean, I like the Charlton Heston original, and I grinned at the plethora of in-jokes sprinkled throughout, but this for me was a landmark achievement in what we're calling motion-capture technology.

I can't praise Andy Serkis and the WETA team enough. There are still several spots where you can tell it's computer animation or not a real ape, but it's the best CGI performance on film to date. Serkis has been the motion-capture guy for Gollum and King Kong in Peter Jackson films past, but he is the star here as Caesar. James Franco may get top-billing, but it's The Serkis Show.

Franco plays Will Rodman, a scientist working on a cure for Alzheimer's. He cuts some corners in his desperation for a cure, as his father (John Lithgow) has Alzheimer's and is degenerating quickly. (Hooray for corner-cutting scientists! Imagine how many movies we wouldn't have if corner-cutting never happened.) One unexpected result from his drug testing is Caesar.

Caesar is a smart chimp that Will takes home to raise himself. Caesar knows he's not human, but he never really appreciates what it means to be an ape until he's forced to live among them.

The movie is largely character-based, and it builds nicely to a third-act showdown on the Golden Gate bridge. Director Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist) demonstrates his skill with acting, special effects, and action, and I'm stunned he doesn't already have his next job lined up. (My guess: the next Apes movie.) It's a concise, well-balanced movie, and just another good entry in what's been a surprisingly high-quality summer.

Limitless - DVD Review

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Starring Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel, Johnny Whitworth and Robert Burke. Directed by Neil Burger.

When a movie has such a good idea, I'm really rooting for them to be creative with it and take me places I didn't anticipate. While it never surprised me, other than one dumb move, this character handled his new powers pretty much the same way I'd like to think I would.

Bradley Cooper plays Eddie, a would-be novelist who's in a funk. He just can't seem to get his wheels spinning in life. But he's offered a chance. He's given an experimental pill that'll let him access 100% of his brain capacity. He takes it, and he's suddenly a genius.

The movie deals slickly with the boost of intelligence, and with the subtext of addiction. The science... meh, who cares, let's enjoy the ride. It's a great "what if" premise that ventures down some dangerous roads when some deadly people hunt him down to get their hands on his drug.

Friday's Box Office

For Friday August 26:

1. The Help - $4.4 million ($86.7) - 17 days
2. Colombiana - $3.75 - 1 day
3. Don't Be Afraid of the Dark - $3.63 - 1 day
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $2.59 ($142.39) - 22 days
5. Our Idiot Brother - $2.37 - 1 day
6. Spy Kids 4 - $1.59 ($17.57) - 8 days
7. The Smurfs - 41.25 ($122.44) - 29 days
8. Crazy Stupid Love - $1 ($67.62) - 29 days
9. Fright Night - $.97 ($12.15) - 8 days
10. Conan the Barbarian - $.93 ($14.41) - 8 days

Weak competition is going to allow The Help to be #1 for the second week in a row, in its third week of release. The end of August/beginning of September is usually a dumping ground for studios, so it wouldn't surprise me if The Help is still in the top three next week.

Opening next week: Apollo 18, Shark Night, and The Debt.

ABC's Take the Money and Run - TV Review

I recorded an episode a month ago and just got around to watching it. It's a surprisingly addicting show. The premise is a duo has one hour to hide a briefcase containing $100,000. Then a pair of cops have 48 hours to find that briefcase. If they do, they get the money. The episode I saw, it was two brothers who hid the money, but one brother was weaker than the other, and he actually told the interrogators where they'd hid it about 30 hours in. It was jaw-dropping.

It's from Bertram van Munster, best known for producing The Amazing Race.

Talking of which, I tried watching Expedition Impossible, but it was way too much of an Amazing Race rip-off. Every time the host popped up, I'd think "I miss Phil Koeghan."

The Conspirator - DVD Review

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Starring James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Danny Huston, Justin Long, Colm Meaney, Alexis Bledel, James Badge Dale, Toby Kebbell, Norman Reedus and Stephen Root. Directed by Robert Redford.

As a portrayal of historical events, this film is a valuable document. As its own entertainment, it never really comes to life.

The Civil War is finally over, and Pres. Abraham Lincoln has cause to celebrate, but before the nation can even exhale, he is shot in the back of the head. Quickly, John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators are chased down. Booth was killed, but the rest are on trial.

Only one on trial is Mary Surratt (Robin Wright), and as her reluctant lawyer Frederick Aiken (James McAvoy) quickly learns, she may be innocent after all. The movie is seen through Aiken's eyes, and the more convinced he becomes of Mary's innocence, the more the chips are frighteningly stacked against her.

If The Crucible was a response to the McCarthy hearings, then The Conspirator is a response to Guantanamo Bay. The parallels are too juicy. The nation is in fear, prisoners' right are ignored, a military tribunal judges instead of a civilian court, and the movie all but argues that Dick Cheney was War Secretary Edwin Stanton in a previous life.

One choice I wish Redford hadn't made: all the interior shots are done with realistic lighting, so that beams of light coming through the windows puts half of any room in shadow. Another is to keep Mary Surratt a cypher. Oh, Robin Wright makes you think more will be revealed about Mary, but it's never allowed to surface. It's all about the lawyer.

I support this being shown in high-school classrooms, but it is about at the level of your average Masterpiece Theater.

Weekend Box Office

Source: Box Office Mojo

1. The Help - $20.48 million ($71.8) - 2 wks (BV) -21.4%
. . . 2690 screens / $7613 per screen
2. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - $16.3 ($133.76) - 3 wks (Fox) -41.4%
. . . 3471 / $4696
3. Spy Kids 4 - $12.02 - 1 wk (Dim)
. . . 3295 / $3648
4. Conan the Barbarian - $10 - 1 wk (LG)
. . . 3015 / $3317
5. The Smurfs - $8 ($117.75) - 4 wks (Sony) -41.7%
. . . 3057 / $2617
6. Fright Night - $7.9 - 1 wk (BV)
. . . 3114 / $2537
7. Final Destination 5 - $7.71 ($32.33) - 2 wks (NL) -57.3%
. . . 3155 / $2442
8. 30 Minutes or Less - $6.3 ($25.76) - 2 wks (Sony) -52.7%
. . . 2888 / $2181
9. One Day - $5.13 - 1 wk (Foc)
. . . 1719 / $2983
10. Crazy Stupid Love - $4.95 ($64.42) - 4 wks (WB) -29.8%
. . . 1940 / $2552
11. Harry Potter 7 Pt. 2 - $4.41 ($365.9) - 6 wks (WB) -39.3%
. . . 1738 / $2535
12. Cowboys & Aliens - $4.19 ($89.48) - 4 wks (U) -46.3%
. . . 2213 / $1895
13. Captain America - $4.1 ($164.73) - 5 wks (Par) -43.1%
. . . 1988 / $2062
14. The Change-Up - $2.87 ($32.02) - 3 wks (U) -54.4%
. . . 1633 / $1760
15. Glee The 3D Concert Movie - $1.83 ($10.46) - 2 wks (Fox) -69%
. . . 1982 / $921
16. Horrible Bosses - $1.32 ($112.62) - 7 wks (NL) -45.9%
. . . 755 / $1748
17. Sarah's Key - $.78 ($3.09) - 5 wks (Wein) +61.1%
. . . 201 / $3896
18. Midnight in Paris - $.59 ($50.65) - 14 wks (SPC) - 16.4%
. . . 258 / $2279
19. Transformers 3 - $.58 ($348.52) - 8 wks (Par) -57.8%
. . . 484 / $1209
20. Friends with Benefits - $.55 ($54.73) - 5 wks (SG) -70.2%
. . . 413 / $1332