With the WGA strike on this year, midseason has never felt weirder. Normally, new shows and shows returning midseason would be competing with regular shows that are already chugging hard towards a season-ending climax. Instead, with most shows having exhausted their supply of pre-strike episodes, the field of competition is pretty clear. On the other…
Author: alving4
Whistle Down The Wind – Theatre Review
Did you know that there are many more Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals than just Cats, Phantom, Evita, and Joseph? One of the better second-tier ones (IMHO) is Whistle Down The Wind. It’s based on an old movie (which was itself based on a book) set in a southern American town in the late 50s. Three…
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – Movie Review
OK. Larval aliens bursting out of the chest? Check. Heat vision and night vision scenes of innocent victims? Check. Drippy saliva on long, long teeth? Check. Pointless teen melodrama and token cute kid to make viewers care about characters who probably won’t all survive the film? Check and check. Aliens vs Predator: Requiem is absolutely…
I Am Legend – Movie Review
What would you do if you were the last man on Earth? Apparently, Will Smith would drive around in sports cars, hunting deer in the middle of Manhattan. Despite this pretty heavy premise (and somewhat weighty title), I Am Legend still has all the earmarks of a Hollywood holiday blockbuster. Fun set pieces like the…
2007: The Year on Screen
Pardon the grandiose title of this post, but as the year comes to a close, I like to take a look back at high points (and maybe a few lows) at the movies and on TV. The Silver Screen This year was a pretty average year for me at the movies. I watched about 30…
Hobbit’s in good hands
Jackson to Produce The Hobbit After the legal issues between New Line Cinema and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson cast a Sauron-worthy darkness over the possibility of his involvement in the prequel story of Bilbo Baggins’s Ring quest, I am relieved to read that not only have the two sides settled their differences,…
The Golden Compass – Movie Review
I first picked up Philip Pullman’s novel, The Golden Compass, for the typical reason: I was looking for something to fill the void between Harry Potter books. This movie adaptation was likely made with similar motives, but I think viewers expecting a Potter-esque fun-ride might be a bit disappointed or confused by Compass’s extra complexity….
Battlestar Galactica: Razor + a funny post for BSG fans
So, I watched the 2-hour morsel of BSG (aka Battlestar Galactica: Razor) to keep us hungry until whenever season 4 finally airs. It was a pretty good extended-episode, flashing back to the story of what happened on board the Pegasus after the Cylons attacked, as well as a separate story of a rescue mission during…
Enchanted – Movie Review
When you see how easily an animated fairy tale morphs into a contemporary romantic comedy, you’ll wonder why it’s taken so long for Disney to come up with this movie. Most romantic comedies are essentially tales of storybook love dressed in modern clothing anyway. Enchanted is just a whimsically literal take on that connection. Animated…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 