At a recent visit to New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, I came across an exhibit that was a total surprise: the illuminated, highly intricate scale model for the towering, looming, dystopian building featured in Blade Runner. It reminded me of how bold, and visually influential, this 1982 Ridney Scott movie was, and remains. Harrison Ford stars – and Rutger Hauer, as the replicant he ends up chasing and facing, makes for a wonderful, unforgettable villain. Ditto for Daryl Hannah,

2013

Aug

BREAKING BAD By David Bianculli

MIDSEASON RETURN: When was the last time I was this excited about the return of a TV series? Let’s just say it’s been a while. And while I’ve previewed tonight’s returning hour, the forthcoming final seven episodes are as unknown to me as they are to you – and boy, I cannot wait. For a full review, see Bianculli’s Blog. To hear or read my review on NPR, go to the Fresh Air with Terry Gross website. To read about recent coverage of the Breaking Bad New Yo

2013

Aug

DEXTER By David Bianculli

The Dexter writers certainly have focused on episode-ending cliffhangers this season: Dr. Vogel knows about Dexter’s code. Debra drives into a lake with Dexter as a passenger. And, last week, both Deb and Dexter pass out after drinking wine, laced with a knockout drug by the unexpectedly reappearing Hannah (Yvonne) Strahovski, the poisonous yet alluring serial killer with whom Dexter has shared a torrid affair: on-again, off-again, maybe-I’ll-off-her, maybe-I’ll-off-him.

2013

Aug

FAIL SAFE By David Bianculli

It’s Henry Fonda Day on TCM, which means good movies almost any time you tune in. That includes, in the evening hours, 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath at 8 p.m. ET, and 1955’s much lighter Mister Roberts at 12:30 a.m. ET. But between those movies, it also means this 1964 thriller, the no-laughs mirror image of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. In Fail Safe, a U.S. bomber pilot heads towards Moscow with a mistakenly “approved” mission to drop a nuclear bomb –

2013

Aug

TALKING BAD By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: Chris Hardwick, who also hosts the Talking Dead post-game talk show on AMC, gets to send out the final eight episodes in style. It’s a brilliant move by AMC, and one that encourages real-time viewing of Breaking Bad rather than hoarding episodes for later viewing, like some sort of delayed-gratification squirrel, burying nuts for the winter. The only thing AMC is doing wrong here is separating the two shows, Breaking Bad and Talking Bad, with its newest series, Low Winter

2013

Aug

'LOW WINTER SUN' A CASE STUDY IN BLEAK By Ed Bark

Dark, humorless and, worst of all, dramatically dreary, AMC’s Low Winter Sun sets up shop Sunday in hopes that Breaking Bad fans will buy it wholesale...

2013

Aug

2013 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP By David Bianculli

Jason Dufner is leading the field as the PGA Championship enters its third day of play – but it’s how he’s leading it that is the most newsworthy. Yesterday, he tied the record for the lowest championship round, scoring a 63, something only some two dozen players have accomplished in championship play. And he came with a foot, on a short putt, of finishing with a 62, which would have given him an unprecedented 62. Yet today, as the action begins, he’s only two shots ahead

2013

Aug

THE WHITE QUEEN By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: This 10-part series takes on the Plantagenets, who preceded the Tudors as incendiary makers of British history. Based on the historically based novels by Philippa Gregory, this series takes great care with its sets and scenery, and looks as sumptuous as it should. Max Irons plays young Edward VI, and James Frain plays his scheming advisor Lord Warwick, but the women here have all the drama, and most of the fun. Rebecca Ferguson plays Elizabeth Woodville (pictured), who rises fro

2013

Aug

THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL By David Bianculli

Perhaps coincidentally, this 1952 Hollywood drama was released two years after Rashomon, which also looked at events through the points of view of a trio of very different participants. In this case, it’s the story of a ruthless movie producer, played by Kirk Douglas, whose memories are either supported or contradicted by a trio of his Hollywood employees: a director (Barry Sullivan), a writer (Dick Powell), and a movie star (Lana Turner). It’s a very hard-nosed look at Hollywood, di

2013

Aug

CLEAR HISTORY By David Bianculli

Larry David, in a one-shot HBO Films comedy, plays a long-haired, opinionated marketing director who inadvertently walks away from a huge fortune on principle, and still regrets it, and seeks revenge, a decade later. It’s another self-assured triumph by David, who uses the same creative template as on Curb Your Enthusiasm – intricate plots, lots of improvised dialogue – to serve up another very funny treat. And what a cast: Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Kate Hudson, Eva Mendes, Dan

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