DAVID BIANCULLI

Founder / Editor

ERIC GOULD

Associate Editor

LINDA DONOVAN

Assistant Editor

Contributors

ALEX STRACHAN

MIKE HUGHES

KIM AKASS

MONIQUE NAZARETH

ROGER CATLIN

GARY EDGERTON

TOM BRINKMOELLER

GERALD JORDAN

NOEL HOLSTON

 
 
2016
Feb
19
 
 
This 2015 movie is a really bad comedy based on a really fun idea: Hostile aliens, intercepting our videogame culture from the 1980s, generate giant pixellated conquerors based on old videogame villains. Our planet’s only hope? Old gamers from that era, who know just how to evade and best the likes of Donkey Kong. Adam Sandler, Josh Gad and Kevin James star, but the premise, like each of the main characters, is mostly wasted.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
The 21st century makeover of the rom-com continues with Love, a new Netflix series whose first 10 episodes drop Friday morning (2/19). Love stars Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs as Gus and Mickey, a potential couple...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
Last night’s solo performances were, on average, average. Five of the 12 contestants singing last night will be voted off tonight – but not before getting the chance to sing duets with former American Idol contestants, including Kellie Pickler (sixth season contestant, seen here), Jordin Sparks, and David Cook. Unfortunately, last week’s duets, with the other 12 Idol singers still in this final year’s mix, were, on average, below average. To stay alive past tonight, this
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
How much have these characters grown during this sitcom’s nine seasons? Howard (Simon Helberg) not only got a girlfriend, Bernadette (Melissa Rauch), and eventually married her, but now they’re expecting a child. I know, that’s the normal plot trajectory for sitcoms that last so many years on the air, but the four geeks at the center of The Big Bang Theory started out so stunted emotionally, it’s an especially impressive evolutionary achievement in this case. And they sta
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
Two fantastic, visually opulent movie musicals are shown in prime time tonight by TCM. Leading things off: Gene Kelly in 1951’s An American in Paris, with an extended dance climax, set to the George Gershwin suite, that not only brings painted masterpieces on canvas to life, but is a masterpiece in itself.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
The second fabulous movie musical shown tonight is 1953’s The Band Wagon, in which Fred Astaire plays an over-the-hill dancing star who tries to mount a comeback in a new musical based on the story of Faust. His dance with Cyd Charisse is as beautiful as she is, which is saying a lot. Both this film and the one shown before it on TCM, An American in Paris, are directed by Vincent Minnelli.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
SERIES PREMIERE: For some reason, History didn’t send a DVD preview copy or press website link of this new series to me, and I didn’t notice that until it was too late to ask. So I’m recommending, and diving into, this new series sight unseen. That’s because its host is Craig Ferguson, whose conversational gifts and intellectual interests are sufficiently impressive and varied to make him a well-chosen host for a show that talks about, and has fun with, history. So let&rs
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
18
 
 
Kanye West is apparently $53 million in debt so he’s looking for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to not only get him out of debt, but to also pony up $1 billion to back West’s startup, called Donda... Stephen Colbert runs down the whole story for you...
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
17
 
 
Last week, 12 of the remaining 24 contestants had to sing solo, then were paired with returning Idol alumni, such as Fantasia, to sing duets – after which the judges voted several of them off (the current contestants, not the returnees). The same thing happens tonight and tomorrow night, but with a different set of returning Idol players.
 
 
 
  
 
 
2016
Feb
17
 
 
CYCLE PREMIERE: Instead of castaways squaring off as usual, this time it’s more of a triangle. There are three tribes competing to survive in Kaoh Rong: brains, brawn, and beauty. Sight unseen, I’d bet on the beauties – but with three different approaches to each problem, and each challenge, a lot could go Rong.