DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2012
Jul
15
 
 
The Kennedys have been lionized and scandalized in virtually every way imaginable at this point. So why not take the Clintons for a small-screen spin?
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
14
 
 
Two fanciful movies from different portions of Johnny Depp’s career can be enjoyed tonight, in an unintentional but illuminating look at two of his signature roles, filmed more than 20 years apart. First, from 1990, comes this visually imaginative Tim Burton fable, in which plays a misfit with razor-sharp appendages at the end of his fingers. Then, on Starz at 9 p.m. ET, comes Depp in his latest Pirates of the Caribbean film, last year’s On Stranger Tides.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
14
 
 
Tom Hanks plays a widower with a supportive kid who phones in a radio call-in show, and attracts the interest of a sweet woman, played by Meg Ryan. This 1993 movie was directed by Nora Ephron (who also wrote the screenplay), who died last month. It’s a lovely movie – but I’ve been talking on the radio for more than 25 years, and no one approaching Meg Ryan has contacted me yet. I’m just saying. Signed, Sleepy in Cherry Hill.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
14
 
 
On a slow Saturday night, it’s worth pointing out a cable movie premiere, even for a movie that came and went in theaters so quickly, and with so little impact, as this 2011 futuristic fantasy. Justin Timberlake stars as a young man who finds the secret of staying that way – a key to immortality – and Amanda Seyfried plays a young woman who goes on the run with him, though not necessarily willingly.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
14
 
 
What does this 2011 installment of Pirates have that previous installments do not? Penelope Cruz, playing a very effective siren – who gives a whole new meaning to the term “pirate booty.” Johnny Depp stars.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
14
 
 
This is the second time this particular installment has been repeated, but it’s worth it: Melissa McCarthy is the guest host, and throws herself into each sketch with an abandon not seen since the days and antics of Chris Farley. The musical guest is Lady Antebellum, but it’s Lady McCarthy that makes this worth seeing – more than once.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
13
 
 
This day in 1998 marked the series finale of the CBS comedy, Cybill, which starred Moonlighting's Cybill Shepherd as an aging, twice-divorced forty-something actress struggling with her professional and personal lives..
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
13
 
 
In tonight’s new edition, Bill Moyers explores the seed of a great idea. Specifically, he interviews Vandana Shiva, a scientist and philosopher who both explains and questions the spread of generically modified plants and seeds – and the long-term ramifications, health-wise and otherwise, for all of us. And that’s only one of Moyers’ guests on this week’s show. It airs from Friday to Sunday on local public TV stations; to find it in your local area, click HERE.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
13
 
 
In 2007, Brad Pitt starred in the fact-based Western titled, clunkily but accurately, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Pitt played Jesse James, and Casey Affleck played his assassin, Robert Ford. Almost 60 years earlier, though, Samuel Fuller directed and co-wrote this 1949 Western, which told the same story. John Ireland stars as Ford in this one, and Reed Hadley plays James.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2012
Jul
13
 
 
SERIES FINALE: It saddens me to say this, especially about a comedy that has made me laugh so loudly and so often, but this 39th episode is the final fresh installment of the HBO animated series based on the raucously informal and freewheeling podcasts featuring Karl Pilkington, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. My, I’ll miss this show – especially Gervais’ laughter and Pilkington’s deadpan observations. Tonight, for example, he’s trying to prove to Gervais and Me