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First Look: Chace Crawford in Sundance premiere 'Twelve'
5 December 2009 12:12 PM, PST
Chace Crawford and Emma Roberts are just two of the young stars who fill Joel Schumacher's comeback flick "Twelve" which premieres at next months' 2010 Sundance Film Festival. The scandalous new photos from the drama find some of your favorite pretty actors "pretending" to engage in all sorts of shocking activity including pot smoking and other drug use. Oh, my. Check out the gallery of depravity for yourself, but don't say we didn't warn you. »
- Gregory Ellwood
TV's Best of the Decade: No. 27 -- 'Weeds'
5 December 2009 11:54 AM, PST
TV fans. We're a fickle lot. Sure, we say we want our shows to change and evolve and grow, to reflect the lives the characters actually might be living. But when we say that, which we really mean is that we want them to get occasional haircuts, to keep up with reasonably priced fashions and sometimes to have cute sitcom babies we rarely see. We want a simulacrum of change, not actual Change. Because actual Change is messy. It reflects that when a group of five high school chums go to college, they don't all decide, at the last... »
- Daniel Fienberg
Box Office: Bullock's 'Blind Side' a touchdown ahead of Pattinson's 'New Moon'
5 December 2009 11:28 AM, PST
The Christmas shopping gods didn't have much patience for industry tracking that showed Sandra Bullock's "The Blind Side" having a bigger third weekend than any of its two previous frames. This weekend is traditionally the busiest shopping weekend of the year, so perhaps Hollywood's loss is the economy's gain? We'll know more on Monday, but the early evidence is that the small town phenomenon fell 58% from a week ago to gross $6.8 in what should be an $18-20 million weekend. After Friday, the surprise hit's total gross now stands at an amazing $115.6 million. In second place was "The Twilight... »
- Gregory Ellwood
TV ratings: Two-hour 'Dollhouse' block sluggish for Fox Friday
5 December 2009 8:38 AM, PST
Fast National ratings for Friday, December 4, 2009. The already-cancelled "Dollhouse" returned to Fox on Friday night with a two-hour block of episodes and the results were fairly predictable. While the first hour was up very slightly from the show's last airing, by the second hour, "Dollhouse" had fallen under 2 million viewers. Fan reaction may have been extremely positive, but in the 9 p.m. hour, "Dollhouse" drew fewer viewers than The CW's encore of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." We assume we don't need a paint a picture of how that looks. Of course, "Dollhouse"... »
- Daniel Fienberg
What's wrong and what's right with 'Nine'
5 December 2009 3:31 AM, PST
Here's the lowdown on the highly anticipated movie musical "Nine": Rob Marshall's latest 'should' still get nominated for Best Picture, but that's only because there are ten nominations and the competition is weak. A blunt assessment to be sure, but the truth hurts. Starpower will also help get it in and if The Weinstein Company and Relativity Media are lucky, the once-in-a-lifetime appeal of Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench, Fergie, Sophia Loren, Kate Hudson and Daniel Day-Lewis in a movie together should lead to pleasant financial returns, but this doesn't rank among the highly respected musicals of the... »
Recap: 'Dollhouse' - 'The Left Hand'
4 December 2009 10:55 PM, PST
"The Left Hand" pays off nearly every moment set up by "The Public Eye" in spades. It ups both the political commentary (Daniel Perrin's brain scan is revealed to show himself to be "very ambitious for a junior senator" - a comment that could have been taken from a right wing blog in the thick of the presidential race last year, but he's also revealed to be a dupe running only on his family name, which, again, George W. Bush) and the action, but it's mainly an episode about the ways we can never really know the people we love the... »
- Todd VanDerWerff
Recap: 'Dollhouse' - 'The Public Eye'
4 December 2009 6:57 PM, PST
"I think her bad guys are badder than my bad guys." - Echo "The Public Eye" is like the "Dollhouse" version of one of those Daily Kos diaries where the diarist rants about how the Obama administration's incremental pragmatism has crushed said diarist's greatest hopes and sold out the political left. Though it was produced quite a while ago, it's on a Joss Whedon show, Whedon's a renowned lefty, and there are just too many parallels throughout to think that it's not a bit of "be careful what you wish for" storycraft. Also, like any good Daily Kos diary, there's a... »
- Todd VanDerWerff
Adam Lambert heads to 'The View'
4 December 2009 6:50 PM, PST
After a week of swirling allegations, accusations and cancellations, Adam Lambert and ABC appear to have made nice. In a late-breaking news release on Friday (Dec. 4) afternoon, ABC announced that the "American Idol" runner-up will appear on the Thursday, Dec. 10 episode of "The View." Lambert's appearance will include an interview and a performance, but it will be a taped interview and performance. Lambert's "View" episode will come the morning after Barbara Walters' primetime "Most Fascinating People" special featuring... Adam Lambert. So is everybody happy again? The announcement followed a tumultuous series of events after Lambert's... »
- Daniel Fienberg
Oscar Watch: Sandra Bullock's awards chances heat up with 'Blind Side' box office
4 December 2009 4:13 PM, PST
An extremely rare box office feat is expected to occur this weekend. The word of mouth phenomenon "The Blind Side" should make more money in wide release in its third frame than it did in its first or second. This comes off the melodrama's dramatic upturn already over "Thanksgiving." With $108 million in the bank, the $35 million budgeted film is going to be a substantial profit center for Alcorn Entertainment and distributor Warner Bros. When all is said and done another big winner may be none other than the film's star, Sandra Bullock. Already coming off the massive summer hit... »
The M/C Review: Rob Marshall takes on Fellini in 'Nine' with an all-star cast
4 December 2009 2:26 PM, PST
"Nine" is the movie that the detractors of "Chicago" accused it of being. Like "Chicago," Rob Marshall is working from a major Broadway show. He's made a very specific stylistic choice, dictated in no small part by the work of a very strong screenwriter. On "Chicago," it was braniac Bill Condon, whose cellular-level understanding of musicals, even in casual conversation, is amazing. And he cracked that film's conceit in the script. Here, Anthony Minghella was the guy who really did the heavy lifting. Michael Tolkin did some early work on the film, adapting the stage production written by Arthur Kopit and... »
The M/C Review: Jeff Bridges hits every note right in 'Crazy Heart'
4 December 2009 12:45 PM, PST
I'll say it. We're all itching to say it. This movie gives us yet another in a long line of opportunities to say it. Jeff Bridges is one of the all-time hall-of-fame no-debate greats. Watching his body of work unfold is a pleasure. That's the long and short of it. There are certain actors whose careers result from the undeniable truth that watching them perform is a pure honey pleasure. Always. Predictably. Jeff Bridges has always been at the very least good, but in the last twenty years or so, he's evolved into something so pure and joyous to behold that... »
TV's Best of the Decade: No. 28 -- 'The Amazing Race'
4 December 2009 12:20 PM, PST
In the fall of 2001, TV viewers were given the choice between two shows with difficult-to-distinguish race-around-the-world formats. One of them was Bertram van Munster's "The Amazing Race." The second, as I like to periodically mention, was NBC's "Lost." At the time, it seemed as if you needed to choose between the two, to pick which format was most appealing to you. Naturally, I chose "Lost." And I'd do it again. In case you've forgotten, "Lost" felt like the edgier, least "produced" of the two shows. Two-member teams, previously unacquainted with each other, were dumped in the... »
- Daniel Fienberg
Listen: Leona Lewis's 'Avatar' theme, 'I See You'
4 December 2009 11:51 AM, PST
So will “I See You,” the theme song to “Avatar” be Leona Lewis’s equivalent of Celine Dion’s “Titanic” hit, “My Heart Will Go On?” The song has all the right ingredients: it’s the theme song to “Titanic” director James Cameron’s “Avatar,” which is slated to be the holiday season’s major blockbuster, it was co-written by James Horner, who penned “My Heart Will Go On” and it’s delivered in a beautifully nuanced performance by Leona Lewis that builds to a satisfying crescendo. Think Celine Dion crossed with Enya. Hear it here. Or listen to the embed below. “I See You” even... »
Christmas comes early for Andrea Bocelli on next week's chart
4 December 2009 11:08 AM, PST
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas: Andrea Bocelli’s “My Christmas” is the breakout holiday title of the year. Four weeks after its release, the title is poised to climb to No. 1 on next week’s album chart, leap frogging over Susan Boyle’s “I Dreamed a Dream”… maybe. It’s too soon to tell if Bocelli’s CD, which got a huge boost from a Nov. 30 “Oprah” appearance, will evolve into the monster that Josh Groban’s “Noel” became. The title has sold close to five million copies since its release a few years ago. Bocelli is already closing in on the million mark: this... »
TV Ratings: CBS' 'Survivor' is Thursday's best, 'FlashForward' drops
4 December 2009 8:45 AM, PST
Fast National ratings for Thursday, December 3, 2009. Even though CBS was the only one of the four major networks airing mostly repeats on Thursday night, The Eye's one new show, "Survivor: Samoa," ranked as the evening's most-watched. In other ratings generalities, "The Office" stood out as Thursday's top show in the 18-49 demo, while ABC's "FlashForward" went off into a prolonged hiatus with a series-low audience. Among adults 18-49, CBS and ABC split the night with a 2.9 rating, while Fox's 2.7 rating and the 2.4 rating for NBC were close behind in the key demo. The... »
- Daniel Fienberg
First Look: Sarah Jessica Parker returns in 'Sex and the City 2'
3 December 2009 10:39 PM, PST
Not much that needs to be said about this. Nothing more than the one and only Sarah Jessica Parker in the first official shot from the highly anticipated sequel "Sex and the City 2." Wearing a summer friendly white dress, Carrie (Parker) certainly hasn't lost her fashion sense after marrying Mr. Big (Chris North). Of course, rumors are flying about the super-secretive production that the franchise's second big screen installment finds Big tempted by another lady played by none other than Penelope Cruz. What's really going on? We're anxiously awaiting the first trailer to find out ourselves. "Sex and the City... »
- HitFix Staff
Spielberg just can't see 'Harvey'
3 December 2009 9:47 PM, PST
Can't say I'm exactly heartbroken to hear this. According to Michael Fleming, Steven Spielberg has notified 20th Century Fox that he won't be using the soundstages they've had reserved for him in the spring of 2010, as he is no longer interested in making "Harvey," based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Mary Chase. The play was famously filmed once before with Jimmy Stewart in the lead role of Elwood P. Dowd, a small-town laughing stock who carries on conversations with a six-foot-tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. And while I admire the play and the earlier film, I sincerely hope... »
ABC sets 'V,' 'FlashForward' returns for March
3 December 2009 7:25 PM, PST
Fans are going to have a mighty long wait for original episodes of ABC's two new serialized dramas. ABC has set returns for "V" and "FlashForward," with both shows holding back new hours until March. "V" had always been scheduled for an first-run pod airing, with a creative hiatus and a showrunner swap only making the long break inevitable. The series aired four episodes in November, with the second and third losing viewers precipitously from the premiere and the fourth episode stabilizing. As had been widely speculated, in its spring return, "V" will take the Tuesday night 10... »
- Daniel Fienberg
First Look: Jonah Hill, John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei head to Sundance
3 December 2009 6:45 PM, PST
One of last year's big success stories at Sundance was "Humpday," starring Mark Duplass. He's also one-half of the filmmaking team who made the micro-budget charmer "The Puffy Chair" and the sly mumblecore/horror riff called "Baghead" along with his brother Jay. I'm not much for the films that are loosely described as "mumblecore." I think the truth is, though, that a label like that is often something that's created to try and tie together filmmakers who actually have nothing in common. I think calling the work of the Duplass Brothers mumblecore is reductive and confining. I think they're making low-budget independent... »
Recap: 'Survivor: Samoa' - 'Off with Their Heads'
3 December 2009 6:07 PM, PST
Pre-credit sequence. There's a crab slinking across the camp. It seems to be threatening the Aiga chicken. Oh no! Oh wait. That's just editing. So maybe it's just symbolic. Huh? Explain yourself, nature-obsessed "Survivor" editor! "Medusa has been dethroned," gloats Shambo, returning to camp after the elimination of Laura. Shambo's grasp on Greek mythology has been suspect from Day One. John is still explaining why he decided to abandon his Galu alliance at the last tribal council, depriving viewers of the chance to watch both teams draw stones for elimination. He feels like he has Russell's assurance that a Foa Foa... »
- Daniel Fienberg
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