Category: Movie Dramas (Page 180 of 188)

Journeyman 1.1: Leap Before You Look

It’s of course easy to compare “Journeyman” to “Quantum Leap”, since both have the same apparent basic premise: A man jumping around through his own timeline, aiding those who need his help. Television has changed a lot in the nearly 20 years(!) since Scott Bakula made his first leap back in 1989 as Dr. Sam Beckett, and it’d be unfair to both shows to compare the two outside of the basic premise over the long haul. But for the purposes of discussing “Journeyman’s” pilot episode, it can’t hurt to at least talk about what makes the new show different from the old.

Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) is not a scientist; he’s a newspaper journalist. His time traveling escapades here are shrouded in much mystery. Whereas Beckett nabbed his “gig” in the name of science, Vasser isn’t yet quite sure why this is happening to him. Both men have their contact person: Sam had Al (Dean Stockwell), a fellow scientist, and Dan has Livia (Moon Bloodgood), his dead girlfriend. Or is she dead? Seems not. Dan had believed Livia to be dead, thanks to an airplane crash, but she indeed alive and shrouded in mystery. Clearly, “Journeyman” is going for a deeper arc than “Quantum Leap” was allowed.

Continue reading »

TCA Press Tour: Day 2 (well, for me, anyway), Pt. 1

Day 2 began all too early this morning…but, then, if you’ve been reading my reports, you already know that, since I was writing that HBO entry this morning at, what, 6-something?

Anyway, I eventually found my way down to the breakfast sponsored by the TV Guide Network; it was quite tasty, it wasn’t much of a presentation. In fact, short of a couple of TV screens running in the background, it wasn’t a presentation at ALL. Still, I highly recommend the French toast. Very tasty.

From there, I entered the interminable 3-hour stint that was the MTV networks panels. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – I got some pretty cool stuff out of it before all was said and done – but it was very hit or miss, especially for our readership. (As a parent, though, I found the Nick Jr. panel about their new pre-K show, “Ni Hao, Kai-Ian,” quite informative.) Fortunately, though, it started with a pretty cool panel about Spike TV’s new mini-series, “The Kill Point.” I must, however, first offer up the incredibly awful joke that Spike TV General Manager Kevin Kay opened his comments with:

“First up this morning, we’ve got ‘The Kill Point’ and ‘Murder,’ two new shows that have nothing to do with what CBS would like to do to Katie Couric right now.”

Ugh. Believe me, the crowd groaned…and rightfully so. Even Bob Hope would’ve thrown that joke back.

Anyway, on with “The Kill Point,” which stars Donnie Wahlberg and John Leguizamo. As it turns out, Leguizamo is moving from one Wahlberg straight on to another. “He’s going to go to work with Mark right now,” said Donnie, ” which will be a stressful situation in itself. I will prepare my brother for what he’s in for, having worked with John now for the second time.” (“Thank you, buddy,” said Leguizamo.)

Wahlberg says he tried to keep himself as distanced from the other scenes in his films, i.e. the scenes he’s not in, as possible. “For the most part, as the information comes into my character, it’s then funneled out into the audience, and I try to do that a little bit in my preparation, you know, to not know everything,” he said. “I didn’t want to know everything that was going on. I didn’t necessarily want to take part in the scenes that they were doing, or be around when they were shooting it.” When Leguizamo made the suggestion that it was totally personal and that he just didn’t like him, Wahlberg assured him, “No, no, it wasn’t that. It was your dog.” (“But I bathe him!” argued Leguizamo.)

Continue reading »

Box Office Roundup: “Shrek” threequel redefines cutting-edge humor as “making fun of dinner theater”

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

1) Shrek the Third: $122 million
Somewhere in Hollywood, Mel Brooks is thinking to himself, “If I set the campfire scene from ‘Blazing Saddles’ to CGI animation, I’d be rich! Rich, I tell you! Muaaaahhh ha ha ha hahahahahahaha!”
2) Spider-Man 3: $28.5 million, $281.8 million to date
Only $220 million to go before it recoups the promotional budget.
3) 28 Weeks Later: $5.1 million, $18.6 million to date
Eeek. We’re guessing there’s been a rage outbreak at Fox Atomic over the performance of this movie.
4) Disturbia: $3.6 million, $71.3 million to date
Like we said, Shia LaBeouf is about to become the Biggest Star on the Planet.
5) Georgia Rule: $3.4 million, $12.6 million to date
Wave goodbye to women in movies, everyone. You’ll see them again in the fall.

11) Next: $1.1 million, $16.5 million to date.
Look at that again. This $70 million Nic Cage movie has made $16 million to date. We can hear the conversation already. “Sure, Cage is interested, but he’s no Shia LaBeouf.”

Hero Worship: A Look at Comic Book Movies

Here’s a tip for all you struggling actors out there: If you even get the slightest whiff of a comic-book-inspired or superhero-themed script, screw the whole “reading it beforehand” thing and jump straight to the “try desperately to get an audition, no matter what” phase, because that’s where the money is these days.

Yes, friends, we said it last summer, and it still holds true today: it’s a beautiful time to be a comic book fan. Even better, it’s no longer the domain of the kind of guy who’s already pressed and folded his “My Virginity Is In Mint Condition” t-shirt for the opening day of Comic-Con 2007. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) When one of the most buzzed-about original dramas on network television centers on people with abilities beyond those of mere mortals – and if you haven’t jumped on the “Heroes” bandwagon yet, you’re really missing out – even the most macho of men can probably stop claiming that they only watched the “X-Men” flicks because they wanted to see Rebecca Romijn covered in nothing but blue body paint.

Comic books and superheroes have taken a long and winding path to get to their current position of mainstream acceptance, however, and nowhere has that been more evident than on the silver screen. In fact, when speaking of the comic book film genre, you can very easily divide cinematic history into two parts: before “Superman: The Movie,” and after “Superman: The Movie.”

To read the rest of our historical retrospective, click here.

To investigate the status of future comic book flicks, click here.

To read the first of our three roundtable discussions about various and sundry comic book film related topics, click here. (You’ll find links to the other discussions on that page as well.)

And, lastly, to check out a shopping list of graphic novels and trade paperbacks to check out after you leave the theater, click here.

Oh, yeah, and if you’ve got any feedback, feel free to leave it below…

Box Office Roundup: If you’re walking around the Sony lot, wear a helmet

Based on Sunday’s estimates, courtesy of boxofficemojo.com:

1) Spider-Man 3: $60 million, $242 million to date
Let the doomsday talk begin. Much will be made of the fact that “Spider-Man 3” dropped 60% at the box office, but remember two things: any movie that opens with a $150 million weekend is going to suffer a big drop-off, and it still made $60 million in its second week. The DreamWorks execs would slaughter their children to have “Shrek the Third” pull a stunt like that.
2) 28 Weeks Later: $10 million
Fast zombies plus a whole bunch of shit getting blow’d up? What’s not to love? Lots, to be honest, but we still expected it to do better than this.
3) Georgia Rule: $5.8 million
LiLo + Hanoi Jane = nobody cares.
4) Disturbia: $4.8 million, $66.2 million to date
From this to “Transformers,” Shia LaBeouf is now the Biggest Star on the Planet.
5) Delta Farce: $3.5 million
Last week, we received the following email from a fan of Larry the Cable Guy who apparently thought we stayed in regular contact with Larry after our email interview two years ago.

Dear Larry,

I am 13 years old and I have a new joke for you to say when you get done telling a joke about how frustrated you were. You say “I was more frustrated than Stevie Wonder playing whack-a-mole”

sincerely, (name withheld)
PS: Git-r-dun

This is your legacy, Larry. We hope you’re proud of yourself.

12) The Ex: $1.3 million
Don’t burn your TV bridges, Zach.

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Premium Hollywood

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑