For a show that started off being awful (its first two seasons always promised more than they ever delivered), The Killing’s third season sure is an improvement. I’ll admit that I was skeptical that the season could maintain its early momentum and keep from sputtering out into an aimless stream of red herrings. However, the…
Live-Blogging the “Real Time” Season Finale @realtime #realtime
All year long, I’ve been struggling with a case of political fatigue. I just can’t get too excited about the same issues as last year (Republican’s blocking Obama, drone attacks, the endless debate about the economy) without the stakes of an imminent election. That’s why most of the articles this year have been geared more…
Movie Review: Fruitvale Station
I think so many people are focusing on the “importance” (a tricky and subjective word) of this film that they’re really missing out on the film’s true message: the banality of racial tragedy. Obviously, that’s given added meaning in the days sense the Zimmerman trial verdict. What Works: Oscar Grant (played by Chronicle/Parenthood’s Michael B….
Movie Review: The Conjuring
The anticipation of going into this movie may be scarier than the film itself. That being said, I couldn’t help but smirk at the theatergoers saying “Well it wasn’t that scary” on their way out of the theater even as they were screaming their heads ofduring the film. It seems like unless a movie gives you a…
Movie Review: The To-Do List
It follows a formula too much and very few scenes in this movie (about a high school valedictorian trying to become more sexually experienced before she goes to college) are really funny, but in its female-version-of-Porkies way it stumbles onto some real truths about young love/sex and how different it is for boys and girls. What Works:…
Movie Review: Turbo
Ryan Reynolds (the voice star here) had double flops on the weekend of July 19th when he starred in this and R.I.P.D. although this film appears to be doing a little bit better than his fantasy-buddy-cop movie. Apparently, people would rather watch a really fast snail than a Men in Black rip-off, to each their…
Movie Review: R.I.P.D.
This thing pretty much opened and died on opening weekend, so it’s only fitting that I don’t spend too much time with it here. That being said, the grosses were dismal (a 12 million dollar opening for a film that cost well over 100 million to make), the reviews were terrible (a horrible 15 percent…
Movie Review: Red 2
A movie like this is actually really hard to grade because they’re putting so little effort into it to begin with. It’s like it’s almost making fun of itself as it goes along, so it’s a little hard to really find anything that wrong with it (or right with it) without looking like you’re taking…
Movie Review: Pacific Rim
Kicking off the first of a staggering seven new movie reviews today (and hey, a couple of them are even brand new movies) proving once again Alabama Liberal’s diversity is Pacific Rim, a new monster movie that’s either a slight disappointment or the sleeper hit of the summer depending on what article you read and who you…
The Casting of “Gone Girl” is Wrong…And Who Should Have Been Cast
I was one of the very first people to read Gillian Flynn’s masterful, genre-busting “mystery” novel last year (that’s just as much a literary portrait of a sour marriage and a very realistic exploration of the way a psychopath thinks) and I took a certain satisfaction in seeing it stay in the top 10 bestsellers…
Grading ALL Netflix Series: “House of Cards,” “Lillehammer,” “Hemlock Grove,” “AD,” “Orange is the New Black”
I’ve now seen all the original series that Netflix has produced and that’s no small feat when we’re talking about suffering through 13 hours of a real piece of garbage like Hemlock Grove. Below, the good, the bad, and the ugly of Netflix… 5. Hemlock Grove…The worst show they’ve produced and (in my opinion) their…
Why Can’t “Arrested Development” Fans Be Happy? Because Some Aren’t Real Fans
Recently, I’ve grown exhausted “defending” the new season of Arrested Development. Sure, the show has always been an acquired taste that will confuse the New Girl-crowd and fully alienate most of the people that think The Big Bang Theory is a hoot and a holler. [This is a really smart show about mostly wacky people…
Movie Review: The Way Way Back
This movie desperately wants to be the next Little Miss Sunshine but I really don’t think it is. It’s set during the summer vacation of a very lonely and introverted kid——and it is a testament to this kid’s lack of charisma or presence that I honestly cannot remember his name or the actor who played…