Jeff Goldblum reprises his role, though Will Smith does not, in this 2016 sequel to the massive 1996 action film Independence Day, about aliens attacking the U.S. Twenty years later, this was the sequel…

2017

Mar

THE PINK PANTHER By David Bianculli

This 1963 movie, starring Peter Sellers as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, was a film that still makes me laugh, a lot. But it also makes me a little wistful these days, because it was one of my late father’s favorite movies, and I remember the joy we had watching it together, first in the drive-in, then on TV. So I’m wondering: Are there movies whose personal impact and import, to you, are enhanced because of someone you saw, or associate, them with? If you don’t mind sharing

2017

Mar

PLANET EARTH II: "CITIES" By David Bianculli

MINISERIES FINALE: Two episodes are shown tonight, back-to-back, to conclude BBC America’s powerful presentation of Planet Earth II. First up is this final installment in the series proper, called Cities, which looks at how untamed creatures have responded, and adapted, to their proximity with human civilization. I loved this episode – perhaps, in part, because I live in a New Jersey suburb with just enough woods and nearby woodland to have families of deer treating my yard as a comb

2017

Mar

PLANET EARTH II: "THE MAKING OF" By David Bianculli

MINISERIES FINALE: And finally, there’s this stand-alone episode of Planet Earth II, explaining how the nature documentary film crew captured some of its magnificent images. It’s a jaw-dropping episode on its own, but, to me, it adds to a very storied and tenure sub-genre of TV nature documentaries. The fabulous series NOVA, which is still on PBS, began its run with an episode I still remember fondly, and clearly: The Making of a Natural History Film, one of the first nature document

2017

Mar

‘TO WALK INVISIBLE: THE BRONTË SISTERS’ ON PBS EXPLORES THE REMARKABLE YET ROUGH LIFE OF THE AUTHORS By David Hinckley

The three Brontë sisters had a dark secret. They wrote stories. In early Victorian England, this was considered unladylike and downright unseemly...

2017

Mar

THE BEST WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED By David Bianculli

Theater director Lonny Price, an original cast member of Stephen Sondheim’s 1981 musical Merrily We Roll Along, directs this documentary looking back at why that particular musical, with its tale told in chronologically reverse order, became a famous flop from Broadway’s reigning musical genius – and what has happened to the show, and the players, since. Price is seen here, along with original castmates Ann Morrison and Jim Walton. This slipped past me when Netflix added it to

2017

Mar

GRACE AND FRANKIE By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin return, respectively, in the title roles, launching all of Season 3 today on Netflix. Season 1 began when their husbands, Sam Waterston’s Sol and Martin Sheen’s Robert, admitted they were gay – and in love with one another. In the cliffhanger to end last season, Frankie slept with Sol, which might complicate things. Maybe this season, the show will take on an even more liberated Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice vibe (a famously &

2017

Mar

THE MOST HATED WOMAN IN AMERICA By David Bianculli

The title is taken from the headline of a 1964 Life magazine profile of its, and this film’s subject: famous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, whose achievements included pressing for a successfully argued U.S. Supreme Court case banning mandatory Bible readings in public schools. Writer-director Tommy O’Haver focuses this film biography on the last bit of O’Hair’s life, which certainly has its dramatic elements – but, even with flashbacks, may leave behind some

2017

Mar

2017 NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT By David Bianculli

Ken, a longtime, loyal TVWW reader, posted a question yesterday, asking politely, in essence, why I didn’t just keep my basketball-related Best Bets to myself – arguing that anyone who is interested in watching this year’s NCAA college games, or any others, knows where and when to find them, and other readers simply don’t care. And while, in one respect, I appreciate that argument, I’ll beg to persist, giving two reasons of my own. One is that Bianculli’s Best

2017

Mar

TANGLED: THE SERIES By David Bianculli

First came Tangled the animated Disney film, based on the Rapunzel fairy tale and starring Mandy Moore. That was in 2010. Then, earlier this year, came Tangled Before Ever After, a Disney Channel original made-for-TV movie prequel, also starring Moore. And now, beginning today, comes Disney Channel’s Tangled: The Series, an animated series also starring Mandy Moore – who’s also starring, in the flesh, in NBC’s This Is Us, playing Rebecca. I guess it’s true what they

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