trailer break: ‘Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead’

Take a break from work: watch a TV trailer… Woo-hoo! New Doctor Who! Ummm, I’m getting a strong vibe of “Midnight” off this: stuck on a bus with a bunch of strangers in the middle of nowhere, with a deadly environment outside? I hope it’s gonna be more than that. But anyway: more Doctor Who! … more…

dream cast: hypothetical ‘Buckaroo Banzai’ sequel

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time to remake an 80s classic TV show or movie with an all-new cast. This week we’re fantasizing about the once-promised, soon forgotten sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension — Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League. (If you have a suggestion for an … more…

U.K. box office: ‘Knowing’ knows how to win

The end of the world is always good for box-office business: 1. Knowing: £2.5 million (NEW) 2. Marley & Me: £1.7 million (3rd week; drops 2%) 3. The Haunting in Connecticut: £1.1 million (NEW) 4. Paul Blart: Mall Cop: £1 million (2nd week; drops 21%) 5. The Damned United: £.6 million (NEW) (actual numbers, not … more…

TV ads I hate: “talk to your credit card companies”

I think this “TV ads I hate” could be a regular feature — certainly, there are so many awful TV ads that there’d be an endless supply of them even if They stopped making them today. Which They won’t. Today’s installment: the ad from a consortiuum of credit card companies about a woman who had … more…

trailer break: ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ teaser

Take a break from work: watch a trailer… This must be one of the great trailers of all time. Just that tease in the beginning, showing us mere glimpses of the monster, the shadow and the silhouette of his horned head. And then it speaks! I didn’t have any idea what the monsters should sound … more…

question of the day: Is the end of ‘ER’ the end of an era?

NBC’s long-running doctor drama ER wraps up forever tonight, and a recent article in Los Angeles Times suggests that when the series goes, so goes with it our former ideas about what constitutes network television, or perhaps simply “television” itself: With its technical innovations and reliance on realism, “ER” changed dramatic television. And when NBC … more…