Twenty years ago, Cuba Gooding, Jr. won a best supporting actor Oscar as pro football receiver Rod “Show me the money” Tidwell in Jerry Maguire. He followed that up with another hit feature film, 1997’s As Good As It Gets...

2016

Feb

NETFLIX MAKES ROOM FOR 'FULLER HOUSE' (AND WELL, WHY NOT?) By Ed Bark

It’s safe to say -- boy, is it ever -- that the revival of Full House is not being greeted by the TV critic community with the same bow-down reverence reserved for Arrested Development’s sacred second coming...

2016

Feb

GETTING HIS DUE: FATS DOMINO MAKES HIS 'AMERICAN MASTERS' DEBUT By Ed Bark

Given contemporary sensibilities, he might have first made the scene today as “Plus-Sized” Domino. But Antoine “Fats” Domino, Jr. embraced his nickname from the start and has never tried to shed it with any Weight Watchers commercials...

2016

Feb

'LOVE' HURTS IN JUDD APATOW'S NEW NETFLIX SERIES By Ed Bark

It’s been standard TV sitcom procedure for the loud, plus-sized guy -- OK, the blustering fatso -- to get the slimmer, pretty girl. This time it’s a thin, plain-faced, bespectacled, soft-spoken nebbish who eventually becomes alluring to a messed-up beauty...

2016

Feb

HULU MINISERIES IS A TIME TRIP TO SAVE JFK By Ed Bark

A handsome, divorced high school English teacher seeks to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by time-traveling through a mysterious, secret portal in a retro Lisbon, Maine diner...

2016

Feb

'BETTER CALL SAUL' AGAIN SLOWLY UNPEELS THE ORIGIN STORY By Ed Bark

Two very verbal, slow-cooked episodes open Season 2 of AMC’s Better Call Saul. Depending on your tolerance for extended dialogues, they’re either deliciously chewy or perhaps in need of a little pick-me-up...

2016

Feb

HBO'S 'VINYL' ADDS A SCORSESE GANGSTER VIBE TO '70S MUSIC SCENE By Ed Bark

Mobsters and Martin Scorsese go together like cake and ice cream, chips and dips, Donald Trump and egomania. So the maestro behind Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Casino, Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire invests HBO’s Vinyl with a strong gangster vibe...

2016

Feb

TWO NEW BOOKS ABOUT TELEVISION, ONE AN INSTANT CLASSIC By Ed Bark

People either keep asking me -- “When are you going to write a book?” -- or telling me, “You need to write a book." Maybe someday. In the here and now, though, two standout TV critic colleagues have put their names to volumes that are well worth owning...

2016

Feb

RICHARD DREYFUSS, BLYTHE DANNER MAKE THE MADOFFS GO 'ROUND IN ABC MINISERIES By Ed Bark

A notably fleshy Richard Dreyfuss, now 68, has let himself grow into the role of the world’s most notorious, pear-shaped Ponzi schemer. Very ably assisted by Blythe Danner as his wife, Ruth, Dreyfuss inhabits Bernie Madoff...

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