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

 
 
2013
Feb
28
 
 
Anne Bancroft, in Mike Nichols’ groundbreaking 1967 comedy film, delivers a performance every bit as funny, and memorable, as that of leading man Dustin Hoffman. In real life, she was only six years older than Hoffman when she played the older seductress to his naïve college grad – but Mrs. Robinson became iconic for the way Bancroft played and embodied her, as well as for Paul Simon’s titular song salute. As Mrs. Robinson, she even dressed like a cougar.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
28
 
 
CONCLUSION. In more than one sense, this HBO miniseries is mostly foreplay – dramatically as well as sexually. But in tonight’s conclusion, after four installments of teasing, Christopher (Benedict Cumberbatch) finally finds himself reassigned to the front. And once he’s in the trenches, and Parade’s End nears its end, the tension that’s been building all this time finally snaps.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
28
 
 
The broadcast networks are getting big into prime-time repurposing of late-night shows these days. NBC is repeating edited-down episodes of Saturday Night Live the following Fridays, and tonight ABC presents a prime-time repeat of Jimmy Kimmel’s After the Oscars special, including a showing of its action-packed, star-cameo packed sequel to its “trailer” for Movie: The Movie. Included: Bryan Cranston as “a brilliant, armless piano savant.”
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
28
 
 
Consider this a cartoon crossover: Anthony Bourdain, a fan of this show, somehow talked his way into an episode. And “talked his way into” is literal, because he provides the voice for a “bastard chef” in tonight’s new episode, which has Archer going undercover in the kitchen, and Bourdain’s character eager to serve Lana. So to speak.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
28
 
 
Mel Brooks wrote and directed this 1968 comic masterpiece, which he turned, eventually, into a Broadway musical masterpiece. But even without the rest of the songs added for the stage, the music and comedy in this version of The Producers are super-high on the hilarity meter. Zero Moster and Gene Wilder are brilliant as the scheming producers in question, and the intentionally awful musical they mount – Springtime for Hitler – is so good at being so bad, maybe it, too, should be spun
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
27
 
 
From the outset, the new series isn't just a rehash of the Cops-style antics, but a worthwhile look at the job of law and order...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
27
 
 
The first of Daniel Day-Lewis’ record three Best Actor Oscars was won for his stirring, difficult performance in this 1989 biographical docudrama. He plays Christy Brown, an Irish spastic quadriplegic who eventually achieved acclaim as a poet, using his one controllable limb to write down his thoughts. Brenda Fricker also won as Oscar, as Best Supporting Actor, portraying Christy Brown’s dedicated mother.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
27
 
 
Mitch and Cam re-encounter an old friend, Sal (Elizabeth Banks), who returns to visit, and with big news. She’s getting married: like, imminently.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
27
 
 
Tonight’s episode spins off a controversial series of headlines: the brutality-tinged romance of Rihanna and Chris Brown. And eventually, it ends up in court, where one of the feisty defense attorneys is played by Arrested Development star Jeffrey Tambor.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2013
Feb
27
 
 
PARTS 3 AND 4: In these two parts of this new HBO miniseries, the three primary characters – Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher, Rebecca Hall as his unfaithful wife Sylvia, and Adelaide Clemens as Christopher’s apparent true love – circle one another like planets in orbit. They rarely touch, but when they do, it’s incendiary.