Author: Will Harris (Page 213 of 261)

Will is a member of the Television Critics Association and has written for Decider.com, the Onion A.V. Club, The Dissolve, Indiewire, Rhino.com, TV Week Magazine, The Virginian-Pilot, Popdose.com, and EW.com along with writing for Bullz-Eye.com and Premium Hollywood.

Beauty and the Beast: Monsters and their Molls

October 20, 2006 /

Every year, when October rolls around, we here at Bullz-Eye start scrambling to come up with a Halloween-themed feature. Last year, we put together a list of our top-15 horror movies, and, sure, we could’ve done that again, but what would’ve been the point? Were there really any releases within the last year that would’ve changed our list? Granted, “The Descent” was creepy…but not top-15-of-all-time creepy. So we started thinking of other aspects of Halloween, and we kept coming back to the idea of doing something on monsters. But as we looked at our list of monsters, we – and by “we,” I mean the wife of one of our editors (hi, Jenn!) – noticed an interesting trend: Behind every good monster is a woman. Sometimes she loves him, sometimes she doesn’t…but if she doesn’t, well, hey, he’s a monster; that’s not going to stop him from loving her. So with that premise in mind, we’re presenting a list of our favorite monstrous men (and beasts) and their lovely ladies.

Here’s a sample…

Jason Voorhees and his Mother: The first love of a man’s life is invariably his mother, and unless you develop an Oedipus complex, that’s pretty normal. Too bad “normal” is about the last adjective you’d use to describe either Jason Voorhees or his mother, Pamela. If you’re a dedicated viewer of the “Friday the 13th” film series, you already know that Mrs. Voorhees had her problems; she was already suffering from schizophrenia before she gave birth to a hydrocephalic child…and when she thought he’d drowned off the shores of Camp Crystal Lake, well, that really sent her over the edge. Nine murders later — each done in Jason’s name, of course — Pamela got her just desserts in the form of decapitation; to be fair, though, it came courtesy of the machete she’d been wielding against an innocent girl only moments before. Jason – who, funnily enough, wasn’t actually dead after all (whoopsie!) – paid tribute to his late mother by taking both her head and her body to his shack in the woods, where he built a very lovely shrine/corpse storage area in her memory. It’s just what Pamela would have wanted. – WH

You can check out the entire list here.

Actors, Actresses, External Movies, External TV, Horror Movies, Movies, TV

J.J. Abrams has much to live up to

October 20, 2006 /

While all the Trekkies or Trekkers or whatever the politically-correct term is are experiencing simultaneous excitement and apprehension at what the next “Star Trek” film is going to be like (and writer J.J. Abrams is offering virtually nothing in the way of information about what to expect, which isn’t helping any), several fans are basically saying, “Ah, screw that,” and taking things into their own hands. Even more impressively, they’ve scored the assistance of Walter Koenig (Chekov), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), and Alan Ruck (Captain Harriman in “Star Trek: Generations,” but you probably know him better as Cameron from “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”). Check out the trailer for the upcoming flick; I have to say, while I know the budget can’t be but so much – and most of it almost certainly went to secure the cast – it really looks pretty good.

Action Movies, Movies, News, Trailers

Jericho, Episode 5: You Fought Hard And You Saved And You Earned…

October 19, 2006 /

…but all of it’s going to burn.

Episode 5 begins with a rapid-fire back-and-forth conversation between several people at the bar that feels like a desperate attempt at capturing a “casual dialogue” feel. It flops miserably. Hopefully, they won’t attempt it again; seriously, it was bad enough to turn anyone away from the show.

There are several interesting developments this episode, though we get some cliches as well. The power’s back, and so are the phones…although the first voice anyone hears is from the director of Homeland Security, basically just saying, “Sit tight, don’t panic, we’re on the case.” There’s also a TV signal, but it doesn’t offer much, except to move from an emergency broadcast screen to that of the Presidential seal at the end of the episode; presumably, next episode will begin with a message from the President himself…or whoever’s running the country. The drama between Eric, his wife, and the bartender…I dunno, I’m just not all that caught up in it. Same with the New York accountant and the bankrupt farmer; enough with the flirtation already. It doesn’t ring true…much like the cliche of making the New York businesswoman be a complete bitch who complains about the small-town yokels. (Expect the follow-up cliche where she warms up to everyone due to the mutual distress they’re all in.) The fact that so many fires occurred around town at approximately the same time seems too coincidental – sure, it might just be because of the power spikes, but I’m skeptical – but, really, did we really need the obligatory child-runs-back-into-the-burning-building plot line? We get more teen angst, and there’s no real development on Robert’s mysterious history, except to see that he has the equipment to access the internet when no-one else can. (I have to say, I cringed when Jake was looking through the telescope at Robert and, though he clearly didn’t know he was being watched, Robert started looking around.) There’s further dancing around why Jake left town and where he went, but we don’t get any resolution on that…well, except for Jake’s passport photo on Robert’s laptop, which does, admittedly, raise my curiosity.

There are a couple of legitimately funny moments in the episode, starting with the power coming back on in “Jericho” and BTO’s “Taking Care of Business” playing loudly. You’re almost certain it’s going to be the soundtrack to a montage of people running through the town…until someone walks over and turns off the jukebox. It’s also smirk-worthy when, after Jake continues his ongoing false claims about what how he learned his various skills (when he knows how to turn on the water pressure to save a burning house, he explains, “I was a pool guy”), he’s called on it by Robert (he provides emergency power with the line, “I was a pool guy, too”). The best, though, is the teasing reference to another new series, which occurs when Emily gets zapped by a power line and is knocked unconscious.

Boy: Is she going to wake up?
Doctor: Yes.
Boy: (Hesitates) With super powers?
Doctor: Probably not.

All in all, though, we spend the entire episode waiting to find out what the government is going to say during their broadcast…and it ends without us ever finding out, which is a little annoying. Then again, it also ends with missles flying through the air, so there’s little question that I’ll be tuning in next week, anyway.

Jericho, TV, TV Dramas

Heroes, Week 4: When Peter Met Mohinder

October 16, 2006 /

…and Nathan Met Niki…and Peter Met Hiro…and…well, you get the idea. Lots of meetings going on.

So Matt wakes up on an examining table, looking into the eyes of Claire’s dad, who assures Matt that they’re just testing him and that he just needs to relax. Of course, he’s lying, so it’s uncertain as to whether we can trust his claim that he’s not FBI or CIA. He assures Cop Boy that he’s very special…just as special as his buddy, who then proceeds to not only wipe out Matt’s memories but also apparently prevent him from appearing at any other point during the episode.

Claire manages to put herself back together – so to speak – after waking up on the autopsy table and more or less makes it home in one piece. She manages to endure a few stern comments from her father, along with a grilling from her buddy about the events of the previous evening, before discovering that the football player who raped her has done it to other girls. She quickly extracts her harsh revenge on him…not that he doesn’t deserve punishment, but, damn, that kind of crash could kill a guy!

Mohinder tries to warn Nathan about a possible attempt on his life, but he doesn’t buy it, saying, “Can you be more specific? 12 percent of the populace doesn’t approve of me.” Nathan then proceeds to go yell at Peter, certain that he’s the one who told Mohinder where to find him…and, although he didn’t, it leads Peter to go hunt down Mohinder. After bitching at Peter, Nathan then promptly flies off to Las Vegas where…what’s this?…he meets up with Niki. And, boy, does he meet up with Niki; she’s been asked to roger him roundly in order to even things up with Mr. Linderman. As it happens, though, she really digs him…and although she begs off at first, her better (?) half thinks better of it. Then again, you work up a sexual appetite after kicking a guy’s ass. By the way, there are a lot of great lines in the episode, but the best has to be, “Niki’s not here right now.”

It’s weird that, when Peter meets Mohinder, for someone whose dad has done nothing but go on about the untapped human potential, Mohinder’s pretty damned skeptical of Peter’s claims. Still, he listens…and, during a subway ride together, Mohinder starts to warm up to Peter. Meanwhile, Isaac and his woman have a decidedly tense one-on-one about his powers and her evening with Peter…but, for the first time, Isaac’s finally stopped whining and started taking control of his abilities. “I’m going to save the world,” he says to himself…and you damned well believe him, particularly after he discovers how to access his future visions without shooting heroin. When he sees and subsequently paints Claire, it’s the second time in the episode one of the other heroes has referenced her in some capacity – Matt asks “who’s Claire” immediately before getting his memories wiped by Claire’s dad’s buddy. Not that it’s any secret that Claire is clearly the tie that binds the heroes together; the “coming next week” segments have been spoiling that for the past few weeks. Why ruin it for us, you bastards?!?

The moment when Hiro looks skyward and offers a look of apology right before he stops time and allows Ando to win is brilliant…not quite as brilliant as Ando preying on Hiro’s knowledge of super-hero mythos to convince him to continue cheating, but almost on par with the expression on the face of Ando’s cowboy-hat-sporting poker opponent when he watches his full house turn into junk before his eyes. Nice “Rain Man” moment when the pair of them come down the escalator wearing matching grey suits…right before they get thrown out of the casino and into the path of the now very angry cowboy-hat-sporting poker opponent. I can only presume the scene of Ando shitting himself will appear on the “Heroes: Season 1” DVD set as a special feature…

So the two big mysteries at the episode are…

1) Why did Claire’s dad only want one member of the post-coital couple in Vegas?
2) From how far in the future did Hiro come to speak to Peter? Because there ain’t no trace of an accent in his English…

Did I mention how much I love this show…?

External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Dramas

“Heroes”: 3 questions, 3 answers

October 16, 2006 /

Due to the phenomenal success of “Heroes,” NBC kindly put together a teleconference with the show’s creator, Tim Kring, and two of the shows stars; their names are Ali Larter and Santiago Cabrera, but you may know them better as Stripper with the Crazy Reflection and Artist Who’s The New Nostradamus. It was a packed call, so we only had the chance to ask one question per person, but here’s what we got out of them…

Bullz-Eye: Ali, in a series that has its fair share of disconcerting moments, yours is definitely the story that’s playing out the most like a horror film.

Ali Larter (“Niki Sanders”): (Laughs)

BE: Given your history with “Final Destination,” did you slip into the role pretty easily…?

AL: You know what? I’m in a bit of fear and distress right now, but if you hold on for just one more episode, we’re gonna get a little romance, you get a little bit of cheekiness in it, and, actually, what’s amazing about this writing is that it really pushes me and makes me kind of find all different tones within our show, so…you’re getting there. That’s just the first couple of episodes. It definitely opens up to a whole new world.

BE: Oh, please let the romance be with Hiro’s buddy…

AL: (Cheekily) Maybeeeeeee…!

BE: Santiago, I’ve been blogging about the show for our site, and I have to wonder: if you had the ability to see the future, do you think maybe you’d spend maybe a little more time trying to change the events you were seeing and less, uh, kind of…whining about it?

Santiago Cabrera (“Isaac Mendez”): Well, I think it’s, uh…I think it depends whether you’re in control of it or not. I think that’s the interesting thing about the surprises that this character can have. It’s that, at the moment, he’s not conscious of what he’s doing, so it’s a pretty freaky thing, and there’s maybe that nature of, “Am I evil, is this coming from inside of me?” Or, “Why is this all happening?” But obviously, if you’re in control of it and you can put it to good use, you can do what you want with it, and that’s a different story. And I think that’s the great thing about this show: that it starts from the beginning of everyone discovering these things for the first time, and, obviously, it’ll be a process of going through each character, and it’ll take people to different places.

BE: And Tim, when I did our fall preview, I opened my comments about “Heroes” by observing, “Whoever had ‘21 years’ in the pool on when NBC would finally decide TV critics had forgotten about ‘Misfits of Science,’ you’re a winner.”

Tim Kring (creator): (Laughs)

BE: And then I proceeded to laugh out loud when I saw on your IMDB entry that you were actually a writer for that show.

TK: Oh, is that right? So that was just a lucky guess…?

BE: It was. Have you been hoarding ideas for 21 years?

TK: Actually, “Misfits of Science” is so long ago that I barely – literally – barely cannot remember what I wrote. But, y’know, I’ve had a long and varied career, so when you look back at it, there’ve been many various genres that I’ve been involved in.

BE: So it hasn’t been haunting you ever since?

TK: No, not really; I’ve just been going where the road takes me. As a writer, if you look back at your career, it’s hard to make any sense of it. It just goes where it wants to go.

External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, Interviews, TV, TV Dramas

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑