There have been so many upsets at this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament, if today’s men’s quarterfinals don’t produce another upset, it would be… upsetting. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, from Serbia, plays No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic. Also of major interest this morning: No. 2 seed Andy Murray (pictured), still trying for his first win on his home-kingdom Wimbledon court, plays unseeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain.

2012

Jul

2013 WIMBLEDON MEN'S TENNIS By David Bianculli

here have been so many upsets at this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament, if today’s men’s quarterfinals don’t produce another upset, it would be… upsetting. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, from Serbia, plays No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych from the Czech Republic. Also of major interest this morning: No. 2 seed Andy Murray (pictured), still trying for his first win on his home-kingdom Wimbledon court, plays unseeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain.

2012

Jul

1955: THE LAWRENCE WELK SHOW PREMIERES ON ABC By Christy Slewinski

On this day in 1955, ABC added a local Los Angeles musical variety show to its prime-time schedule as a summer replacement series. That show — The Lawrence Welk Show — went on to air on ABC for 16 years. (At one point, from 1956 to 1959, the network gave Welk a second one-hour time slot for a second show, Lawrence Welk's Top Tunes and New Talent.) The show featured big band leader Lawrence Welk and a host of singers and musicians performing a range of standards. At times,

2012

Jul

HELL'S KITCHEN By David Bianculli

Part 1 of 2. In this week’s two-parter (concluding tomorrow night), the wannabe chefs compete in Las Vegas, and have to concoct a recipe whose ingredients are determined by a slot machine. Hmm. If they’re playing the one I’m thinking of, and with similar luck to mine, they’ll be making a smoothie: two oranges, one cherry.

2012

Jul

INDEPENDENCE DAY By David Bianculli

May as well start early. Tonight and tomorrow, AMC is presenting the same 1996 action film it plans to present on Independence Day: Independence Day, starring Will Smith (pictured) and Bill Pullman. No matter when AMC shows this movie, I’ll have the same complaint: In the scenes where everyone is fleeing Washington, D.C. at the presumed end of the world, the outgoing highways are jammed, but the incoming ones are empty. What’s to prevent drivers from shifting to the wrong side for an

2012

Jul

MOGAMBO By David Bianculli

Alfred Hitchcock once remade one of his old movies with a new cast, but this 1953 film is just as much of a revisited rarity. Mogambo is a John Ford remake of 1932’s Red Dust, a Victor Fleming film about a rubber plantation owner torn between two newly arrived women: an opportunistic showgirl seductress, and the alluring wife of a visiting surveyor. In Red Dust, the two women were played, respectively, by Jean Harlow and Mary Astor. In Mogambo, the women are played, instead, by Ava G

2012

Jul

MARINA ABRAMOVIC: THE ARTIST IS PRESENT By David Bianculli

Marina Abramovic is called, by some, the “grandmother of performance art,” and this documentary traces the path that led her from a standard course of study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade to using her body, and her images, to entice, inflame and outrage the art world. For a full review, see Eric Gould’s Cold Light Reader column HERE.

2012

Jul

WEB THERAPY By David Bianculli

SEASON PREMIERE: It pays to have fans. When Lisa Kudrow ran into Meryl Streep last year, the latter raved about the former’s Web Therapy comedy series. Kudrow offered Streep a guest-star role, Streep said yes, and tonight’s Season 2 premiere is the result. Streep plays a therapist whose area of expertise is “gay conversion,” seeking to scare her patients straight.

2012

Jul

MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: "ENDEAVOUR" By David Bianculli

The title character of the long-running PBS import Inspector Morse was dispatched to his final resting place a dozen years ago – but now comes a prequel, the pilot for a forthcoming new series. Replacing John Thaw as Endeavour Morse, and playing him as a younger man, is Shaun Evans. He doesn’t nail the younger incarnation as, say, Josh Brolin channels a younger Tommy Lee Jones in the newest Men in Black sequel, but doesn’t really try. By the way, this isn’t the first time

2012

Jul

TRUE BLOOD By David Bianculli

This is the last of this season’s episodes that were provided for preview, and I’m already impatient to see what comes next. But I’ll tell you, without telling too much, that the way Eric and Bill are controlled in this episode is technologically and creatively ingenious – and makes ankle bracelets look like candy necklaces. And yes, hilariously, there’s an app for that.

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