One of Mel Brooks’ unqualified masterpieces. This 1974 satire of Universal Studios’ monster movies is brilliant not only because of its hilarious script and riotously funny performances, but because, visually and even tonally, it is so impressively faithful to the original Frankenstein films. Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr all are a riot – and Peter Boyle as the Creature, singing and dancing a duet with Wilder’s mad doctor, is at the center of one

2013

Jul

THE PRODUCERS By David Bianculli

Another unqualified Mel Brooks cinematic masterpiece. This one is from 1968, and stars Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder as Bialystock and Bloom, the Broadway producer and meek accountant who team up to try, on purpose, to create the biggest flop in Broadway history, as part of a complex get-rich scheme. What an idea – and what a musical they come up with! Dick Shawn, Kenneth Mars, Christopher Hewett and Lee Meredith co-star, in this movie that, decades later, inspired one of the biggest hits in

2013

Jul

WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? By David Bianculli

Did this series, which CW revived last week after several years of dormancy after its ABC run, continue to delight, even with new host Aisha Tyler? Yes. Try it – you’ll like it. I promise.

2013

Jul

CASINO ROYALE By David Bianculli

With this 2006 movie, the James Bond franchise was rebooted yet again, introducing Daniel Craig as the actor who still plays Bond today. This film recycles the title of the one Ian Fleming novel whose rights were sold elsewhere prior to the establishment of the “official” cinematic Bond franchise, starting with the inimitable Sean Connery. That’s why, on the CBS anthology drama series Climax! in 1954, Barry Nelson got to play American spy “Jimmy Bond” in a TV adapta

2013

Jul

DRUNK HISTORY By David Bianculli

Tonight’s edition of Drunk History focuses on the city of Atlanta, and one of its inebriatedly told stories has to do with the invention of Coca-Cola, and features a familiar face, even under the tacky beard, from Saturday Night Live.

2013

Jul

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS By David Bianculli

This 1944 movie has a plot which should be seen by all fans of Lost. It’s about a ship, during wartime, housing a small group of passengers with an even smaller crew. Where are they headed? How did they get there? And when and how do they disembark? I’d tell you more about this allegorical mystery, but I don’t want to risk offending the Spoiler Alert Police – a mere 69 years after this film, starring Eleanor Parker, Sydney Greenstreet and John Garfield, was made.

2013

Jul

WEB THERAPY By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Lisa Kudrow is back with another season of her comedy series, one of the earliest good comedies to originate on the Internet. And this season, while her fabulous core cast is back (including Victor Garber and Alan Cumming), we also get such new guest stars as Steve Carell, Billy Crystal and Matt LeBlanc.

2013

Jul

GOING INSIDE THE "GREAT FIREWALL" OF CHINA By Eric Gould

In many ways, High Tech, Low Life is a tale of what happens when old-guard, centralized government collides with the individualism of 21st-century technology...

2013

Jul

FIRESTARTER By David Bianculli

With Stephen King’s Under the Dome established as one of TV’s few hits of the summer, Encore tonight presents a Stephen King prime-time double feature, showing film adaptations from early in King’s career. The Dead Zone, from 1983, is televised at 10 p.m. ET – but before that, 1984’s Firestarter, starring Drew Barrymore as a child with a (literally) fiery temper, is shown at 8 p.m. ET. By the way: Also in this nearly 30-year-old movie, which co-stars George C. Scott

2013

Jul

WONDER BOYS By David Bianculli

This 2000 Curtis Hanson film, based on the novel by Michael Chabon, is worth revisiting for so many reasons. Its story of a college professor with writer’s block stars Michael Douglas (one of his career bests), with strong co-starring support Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Jr., Frances McDormand, Rip Torn and, holding her own, Katie Holmes. Wonder Boys also features a superb musical soundtrack. There are four songs by Bob Dylan (including “Things Have Changed,” written expressly

Posts 1001-1010 of 2272

100 101 102 103 104

New From TVWW

PBS' 'Frontline’ Examines Pension Promises and — Spoiler Alert — Finds the Math Doesn’t Add Up

The Decadence of ‘Versailles’ Comes to Ovation

Prescribing Mamie Gummer in 'Emily Owens, M.D.'

Looking for a Free Ride? HBO Can Deliver

'Pass the Biscuits' Part of the Hatfield-McCoy Pop-Culture Legacy

Dispatches From TVWW

'Extinction: The Facts' is a Sobering Call to Action

How 'Mayans' Has Been Influenced by the Show's Creator Elgin James

For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Take on Ernest Hemingway, the Man and the Myth

In the Final Season, Sutton Foster's Liza is Now the Genuine Version of Her 'Younger' Self

Season 2 of 'City on a Hill' Returns with Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, and Boston Corruption