Over the several days before he was fatally shot – 40 years ago, believe it or not – John Lennon had recorded an extensive interview with British journalist Andy Peebles...

2020

Dec

THE GODFATHER CODA: THE DEATH OF MICHAEL CORLEONE By David Bianculli

MOVIE PREMIERE: Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas have something in common besides their lifelong friendship, their huge impact on filmmaking in the 1970s and beyond, and their appetite for telling epic stories that stretch over several films. They also both like to go back and revisit, re-edit, and reframe some of their older works – Lucas by adding new special effects and other elements to old Star Wars entries, and Coppola by fiddling with his Godfather movies. B

2020

Dec

BROADCAST NEWS & AS GOOD AS IT GETS By David Bianculli

Two of writer-director James L. Brooks’ classic comedies are shown tonight as an Epix double feature, and they show both the consistency and maturation of an artist who made these films a decade apart. Broadcast News was made in 1987, and showcased Holly Hunter (pictured, with Albert Brooks and William Hurt); As Good As It Gets was made in 1997, and won a Best Actress Oscar for Helen Hunt. Oh, and Jack Nicholson won a Best Actor Oscar for As Good As It Gets as

2020

Dec

A CHRISTMAS CAROL By David Bianculli

The first screen adaptation of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic story, A Christmas Carol, was a silent British film short in 1901, titled Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost. American filmmakers first got to it in 1908, with a brief silent Chicago-based version called A Christmas Carol, and the Edison Studios produced its own silent short version in 1910. Another silent British version, this one called Scrooge, was released in England in 1913. The firs

2020

Dec

40 YEARS A PRISONER By David Bianculli

DOCUMENTARY PREMIERE: Writer-director Tommy Oliver profiles another Philadelphian, Mike Africa Jr, whose parents were part of the revolutionary MOVE movement that led to an explosive showdown with city police in 1985. And when I say explosive, I mean that literally – and I was a TV critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer at the time, watching incredulously as the Philly police dropped “incendiary devices” on a row house in which MOVE members and their families, including

2020

Dec

LAUREL AND HARDY DOUBLE FEATURE By David Bianculli

I have a special affection, right now, for anything on TV that can make me laugh – so I’m especially pleased to point out that tonight, TCM presents a double feature of movies by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. Both of these comic actors started out as supporting players in silent short films for the Hal Roach Studio, working independently in the 1910s, then teaming together to become stars of the silent era in the 1920s. Then then became one of the few acts of that era to make the tra

2020

Dec

NURSES By David Bianculli

SERIES PREMIERE: One way to fill a network schedule during a pandemic is to import TV series that already have been shown in other countries. Another way is to import programming filmed in countries that have a better record of handling and containing the virus than the U.S. – which means just about anywhere. Tonight, NBC pulls both tricks at once, by beginning to televise a Canadian series, Nurses, that is set and filmed in Toronto. Season 1 was broadcast in Canada earlier this

2020

Dec

'NURSES' – NEW U.S. PROGRAMMING THANKS TO CANADA By David Hinckley

It's fitting that one of the few new dramas struggling to the surface on a broadcast network this fall is a medical show...

2020

Dec

FROM FILMMAKING VETERANS COMES 'A SUITABLE BOY,' A BEAUTIFUL PERIOD DRAMA SET IN 1950S INDIA By Mike Hughes

Sprawling across the emotional landscape, A Suitable Boy seems to be many things...

Posts 101-110 of 2007

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