Category Archives: Humor

Sep 27 2024
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The Entertainment Forecast

Sept. 27 – Oct. 3

Johnny Cash gives the finger to Nashville, Will Ferrell explores America in a new light and dinosaurs roar all day!

All times Eastern.

FRIDAY, Sept. 27
Apartment 7A
A prequel to the events of Rosemary’s Baby, this horror film with Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, Jim Sturgess and Kevin McNally focuses on a young dancer in New York City who finds out there’s something disturbing going on in her apartment building (Paramount+).

Social Studies
What’s it like to be raised on social media? Documentary filmed over a school year follows a group of LA teens to explore how their phones have shaped—and reshaped—their childhoods (10 p.m., FX).

Will & Harper
Will Ferrell and Harper Steele (above), an SNL writer he met on his first day of the TV show three decades ago, trek across the country in this documentary full of fun and feels as they explore America exploring Harper’s new life after “coming out” as a trans woman (Netflix).

SATURDAY, Sept. 28
Jurassic Park Trilogy
Cue the dinos! Start the Jeep! And get ready to rip-roar with the original Jurassic Park, followed by its two movie sequels (12:15 p.m., TBS).

Saturday Night Live
Live, from New York…. It’s the iconic late-night comedy series kicking off its landmark 50th season, with host Jean (Hacks) Smart and musical guest Jelly Roll (11:30 p.m., NBC).

SUNDAY, Sept. 29
The Summit
Get a sneak peek tonight of the 90-minute premiere episode of new reality series as 16 strangers trek through the treacherous New Zealand Alps attempting to reach the peak of a distant mountain…and be rewarded by taking home $1 million (9 p.m., CBS).

Outrageous Pumpkins
Just in time for Halloween, tune into this annual competition series to watch America’s best carvers create jack-o-lantern masterpieces (10 p.m., Food Network).

MONDAY, Sept. 30
Patrice: The Movie
Documentary about a disabled couple navigating their relationship and planning for their future in an uncertain world. It’s sometimes funny, but always real (Hulu).

Rock Legends
Series returns tonight with a spotlight on Outlaw Country, when a handful of country trailblazers (like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash) started shaking up and breaking Nashville’s rules (8 p.m., AXS).

TUESDAY, Oct. 1
Accused
More stories in the new season dramatizing crime and punishment, told through the defendants’ points of view and showing how ordinary people can be caught up in extraordinary circumstances Watch for guest appearances by William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman and Michael Chiklis (8 p.m., Fox).

The American Vice President
With a current VP on the ticket to possibly become the next U.S. president, this timely doc examines the role of the vice president in American politics and how it was forever transformed one fateful day in the 1960s (8 p.m., PBS).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 2
Where’s Wanda?
German-language series (don’t worry, just turn on your subtitles) about a set of parents (above) who make surprising discoveries about their neighbors after their teenage daughter goes missing (Apple TV+).

Big Freedia Means Business
What does it take for a gay female entrepreneur and New Orleans-born rapper, to branch out into even more business ventures, plus record a gospel album and write a childrens’ book? Find out in season two of this unscripted docuseries about the colorful cat known as Big Freedia (Fuse). 

Joan
Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner stars in this new drama series (below) as the notorious British jewel thief Joan Harrington, who was well known in London’s criminal underbelly of the ‘80s (8 p.m., The CW).

THURSDAY, Oct. 3
Law and Order
Producer Dick Wolf’s police procedural—the second longest-running drama in the history of TV—returns with new episodes and more crime investigation and prosecution. Starring Reid Scott, Mehcad Brooks and Hugh Dancy (NBC).

House of Spoils
Ariana Debose stars in this suspense-horror thriller as an ambitious chef whose restaurant kitchen is overrun by pests of the supernatural kind (Prime).

Salem’s Lot
Remake of the 1970s flick, based on Stephen King’s 1975 New England vampire tale, gets a streaming re-do with Lewis Pullman, Alfre Woodward, Bill Camp and others (Max).

BRING IT HOME

Now you can own a new slate of classic films with the Columbia Classics 4k Ultra HD Collection Volume 5, a deluxe roundup of All the King’s Men, On the Waterfront, A Man for All Seasons, Tootsie, The Age of Innocence and Little Women. Packaged with 20 hours of special features and an 80-page book on the history and impact of the movies, it’s a film lover’s feast.

One of TV’s most acclaimed political dramas comes to Blu-ray with The West Wing: The Complete Series (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment). Timed to coincide with the show’s 25th anniversary, it includes all 156 episodes of the Emmy-winning series with an all-star cast including Rob Lowe, Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford, and which began on NBC in 1999. Hours of bonus features include commentary, gags and goofs, unused scenes and more. 

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Girl power flows off every page of How Women Made Music (Harper One), a spotlight on groundbreaking female artists including Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Joan Jett and Dolly Parton. It’s drawn from half a century of NPR’s music coverage, with contributions from female music critics, essays, photos, illustrations and lists. It’s not just about women making music, it’s about women making musical history. 

You may not be familiar with her name, but she’s regarded as one of the most influential visual pioneers of the 20th century, especially noted as one of the first to produce artistic and environmental portraits of Black Americans—along with her striking chronicle of the social issues of her time, including urban poverty, workers’ rights, segregation and inequality. Find out all about her—and see many of her remarkable images in Consuelo Kanaga: Catch the Spirit (Thames & Hudson).

Saddle up with The Paranormal Ranger (William Morrow), author Stanley’s Milford’s sometimes chilling memoir about his illustrious career of serving the Navajo Nation, patrolling and protecting the 27,000-square-mile reservation spanning portions of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. In the course of settling mundane disputes and other day-to-day routines, he also encountered all sorts of eerie supernatural activity—including UFOs, “skinwalkers,” livestock mutilations and hauntings—which altered his view of the world…and our place in it. 

Pet lovers will love Faithful Unto Death (Thames & Hudson), in which author Paul Koudaunaris presents a fascinating history of pet burial sites and memorials with remarkable stories of people whose bonds with their companion animals extend into the hereafter. Your heart will be warmed with tales of Elvis’ dog, the puppy who played Toto,  Hollywood’s favorite lion, heroic pets and much more!

Jun 07 2024
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Books, DVDs, Humor, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

June 7 – June 13

Kelly Clarkson’s a contender, Jake Gyllenhaal’s ‘Presumed Innocent,’ & the Brat Pack is back!

Will Kelly Clarkson reign for daytime show queen at this year’s Daytime Emmys?

All times Eastern.

FRIDAY, June 7
Queenie
Dionne Brown stars in this new drama series as a young Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and not feeling like she belongs in either. Based on a best-selling novel by Candice Carty-Williams (Hulu).

The Daytime Emmy Awards
It’ll be more than soap suds at tonight’s 51st annual awarding of honors to all kinds of programming—daytime dramas, talk shows, instructional programming, hosting, culinary and legal/courtroom programs—that air during daylight hours. But the show’s at night. Go figure (8 p.m., CBS). 

Hit Man
Confusion and comedy ensue when a straight-laced professor pretends to be a professional assassin (above). Starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona, and directed by Richard Linklater (Netflix).

SATURDAY, June 8
Snowpiercer
The final season of the post-apocalyptic thriller series begins tonight, with Jennifer Connelly, Sean Bean and others returning to the remnants of humanity on a perpetually moving train across a frozen wasteland (9 p.m., AMC).  

SUNDAY, June 9
Gaslit By My Husband: The Morgan Metzer Story
Based on a true story, this lurid tale stars Jana Kramer and Austin Nichols as former childhood sweethearts whose marriage goes on the rocks when his circumstances take a suspicious turn (9 p.m., Lifetime).

MONDAY, June 10
Six Schizophrenic Brothers
An all-American family in Colorado is torn apart in this new docuseries when six of 12 siblings develop schizophrenia. It’s a heart-wrenching true story that made medical history (8 p.m., Discovery).

TUESDAY, June 11
How Music Got Free
Remember how you used to have to buy music? This docuseries shows how tech-driven disruption and file sharing created the means and the motive for a new generation of young people to participate in outright theft…and be celebrated for it (Paramount+).

Love Island
TV personality Ariana Madix from Vanderpump Rules hosts the new season of this hedonistic competition with sexy singles giving off pheromones on a tropical island oasis (Peacock).

Deadliest Catch
It ain’t exactly Spongebob stuff as the new season of the docuseries about risk-taking crab fisherman on the Bering Sea begins tonight (8 p.m., Discovery).

WEDNESDAY, June 12
Presumed Innocent
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this eight-episode sexy thriller (above), a remake of the 1990 movie starring Harrison Ford about a legal-eagle attorney accused of killing his mistress. Remember, he’s presumed innocent… With Ruth Negga, Bill Camp, Peter Sarsgaard and Elizabeth Marvel (Apple TV+).

Can’t Cancel Pride
Ben Platt, Billy Porter, Melissa Etheridge and others join forces to recognize the impact of music and the contributions of LGBTQ+ organizations and artists in the entertainment community (Hulu).

THURSDAY, June 13
Alone
In tonight’s beginning of its new season, this high-stakes competition puts ten seasoned survivalists in the freezing northlands of Canada, equipped with only basic tools to face bone-chilling cold, ice all around and an assortment of predators, including bears, wolves and moose. At the end: A half a million dollars to the last person standing (9:30 p.m., History).

Brats
New documentary feature about the iconic, generation-defining “brat pack” movies of the 1980s was directed by Andrew McCarthy, who should know—he starred in many of them, including St. Elmo’s Fire, Pretty in Pink, Less Than Zero and Weekend at Bernies (Hulu).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

How does Darth Vader keep his Death Star warm? With a space heater! Why do Wookies have so much hair? Fur protection! These and many, many more galactically funny ha-has can be found in Stars Wars Dad Jokes (Chronicle Books), a perfect Father’s Day gift for the pop who has everything…except a ready arsenal of so-bad-they’re good Stars Wars jokes! 

BRING IT HOME

Its a classic combo in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) as the two former foes unite against a formidable threat to monsters as well as men. Starring Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry and Dan Stevens.

May 31 2024
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Books, DVDs, History, Humor, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Television

The Entertainment Forecast

May 31 – June 6

The woman behind the girls who just wanna have fun, what really happened to OJ’s wife & Disney reclaims Sunday nights

New documentary spotlights the life, career and cultural impact of Cyndi Lauper.

All times Eastern

FRIDAY, May 31
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 80th Anniversary
Concert event honors the duo who wrote some of Broadway and Hollywood’s most memorable showtunes, such as “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “Edelweiss” and “June is Bustin’ Out All Over,” from iconic musicals including Oklahoma!, State Fair, The King and I, Carousel and The Sound of Music (9 p.m., PBS).

Couples Therapy
The award-winning docuseries returns for another season of Dr. Orna Guralnik guiding couples through conflicts (streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime).

SATURDAY, June 1
The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson
The courtroom drama of O.J. Simpson murder charge became the crime of the century in 1995. This new doc pulls back the curtain on the victim, O.J.’s wife, and features interviews with more than 50 participants, including those who were closet to her. And it’s done in partnership with the Domestic Abuse Hotline (8 p.m., Lifetime) 

The Price is Right
In honor of Game Show Day (in case you didn’t know that was a thing!), you can watch the late, great Bob Barker hosting old episodes (1984-1985) of the classic daytime come-on-down competition (3 p.m., Buzzr).

SUNDAY, June 2

The Mayor of Kingston
In season three of the gritty crime thriller (above), Kingston “mayor” Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner, returning after his debilitating snowblowing accident) faces an infiltrating Russian mob, a drug war and his own past as an inmate in the local prison (Paramount+)

Billy the Kid
Want shootouts and wild horse chases? Well, saddle up with the notorious young-looking outlaw (Tom Blythe) as he gets into more Old West trouble in season two (9 p.m., MGM+).

The Wonderful World of Disney
The show that was one a staple of Sunday night returns with Inside Out (above), the animated 2015 flick about childhood emotions voiced by Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling and Lewis Black (8 p.m., ABC).

MONDAY, June 3
Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Color
Idris Elba narrates this four-part series about soldiers of color, shedding new light on the contributions of some 8 million individuals who fought valiantly for the Allied forces (8 p.m, NatGeo).

Gypsy Rose: Life After Lockup
New docuseries picks up on the post-prison life of the woman convicted of murder in Missouri for hiring a hitman to kill her mother, who had falsely claimed her daughter was suffering from a variety of illnesses—some of which the mom had induced (9 p.m., Lifetime).

TUESDAY, June 4
Clipped
Laurence Fishburn and Ed O’Neill star in this new series based on a true story—a notorious NBA owner’s racist remarks captured on a tape heard around the world…and the fallout that followed (Hulu).

Let the Canary Sing
Documentary explores the cultural impact of Cyndi Lauper and the long-lasting legacy of the “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” ‘80s singer (Paramount+).

WEDNESDAY, June 5
An Audience with Kylie
Global superstar Kylie Minouge performs her hits and invites special guests to join her onstage in this musical extravaganza at London’s legendary Royal Albert Hall (Hulu).

THURSDAY, June 6
Criminal Minds: Evolution
The hit franchise returns for a new season with Joe Mantegna, A.J. Cook and Kirsten Vangsness leading the cast as the FBI profiles investigate a conspiracy with an unexpected complication (Paramount+)

Queer Planet
Actor Andrew Rannells narrates this playfully insightful documentary about nature’s hidden LGBTQ community and its spectrum of “unconventional” behaviors. It’s a Gay Pride parade marching across the animal kingdom! (Hulu).

BRING IT HOME

The story of the first Black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War gets a new shine in the 4K Ultra HD new “steelbook” release of Glory (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment). Released theatrically in 1989, it stars Denzel Washington (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick and Cary Elwes, and comes with commentary, behind-the-scenes documentaries and featurettes.

READ ALL ABOUT IT

If you think Washington is a mess now, wait until you read The Hidden History of the White House (Willliam Morrow). Author Cory Mead deep dives into the populist mob than ransacked the place (sound familiar?) after Andrew Jackson’s disastrous 1829 inauguration; how Woodrow Wilson’s wife became a “shadow” president; when Sir Winston Churchill came on a covert mission to huddle with FDR about how the Allies could win WWII…and many more dramatic events, power struggles, world-altering decisions and shocking scandals that all happened inside the walls of America’s most famous residence.

The 1977 WWII film A Bridge Too Far featured an all-star cast, some of the most intense battle scenes ever filmed and a level of gritty combat “authenticity” that has stood the test of time. In Making a Bridge Too Far (GoodKnight Books), author/filmmaker Simon Lewis transports readers back to the production of the film, shot on location in the Netherlands (where its events took place), with insights from many of the cast (which included Sean Connery, Anthony Hopkins, Robert Redford, Elliot Gould, Michael Caine and Lawrence Oliver) and immersive details and insights about making a war movie believable in an era decades before Saving Private Ryan and today’s slam-bang special effects.

If your eyes were glued to the coverage of the recent Met Gala, you’ll really dig Fashion Faux Parr (Phaidon), a collection of British fashion photographer Martin Parr’s eye-popping coverage of fashion for high-end magazines and behind the scenes at major fashion events. With some 250 color images, it’s a swirling look inside a world where looks reign supreme.

Feb 02 2024
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Books, Humor, Movies, Pop Culture, Television, Uncategorized

The Entertainment Forecast

Feb. 2 – Feb. 8

Spy shenanigans, dummies on stage, and big South American blockheads

All times Eastern.

They’re spies deep undercover—as a married couple!

FRIDAY, Feb. 2
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
New series stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine (above) as two employees of a mysterious spy agency that offers them a glorious life of sexy espionage, world travel and a home in a dreamy Manhattan brownstone. The catch: They have to change their names and get married (Prime).

The Tiger’s Apprentice
Based on this best-selling novel, this animated family film—about a Chinese American teenager and mythical tiger—features the voices of Soo Hoo, Henry Golding, Sandra Oh and Michelle Yeoh (Paramount +).

Love & WWE: Bianca and Montez
Go beyond the ring and into the lives of pro wrestling’s hottest couple, Bianca Belair and Montez Ford (above), in this new docuseries (Hulu).

SATURDAY, Feb. 3
Jeff Dunham: I’m With Cupid
Get ready for Valentine’s Day with this comedy special filmed in Tampa, Fla., featuring the ventriloquist and his dummy cohorts Walter, Bubba J, Peanu, Jose Jalapeno and more (8 p.m., Comedy Central).

SUNDAY, Feb. 4
The Grammy Awards
SZA, Phoebe Bridgers, Jon Batiste, Brandy Clark, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish are among the top contenders for this years’ live industry-voted ceremony honoring the best in all genres of music (9 p.m., CBS).

The Harlem Hellfighters
Hour-long documentary produced by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts examines the predominately Black military unit fought nearly impossible odds to become an extraordinary fighting force in World War II (9 p.m., History).

Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Emmy Award-winning series begins its twelfth and final ten-episode season tonight, with Larry David wrapping it up as an over-the-top version of himself (Max).

MONDAY, Feb. 5
Sister Una Lived a Good Life
Touching documentary chronicles the inspring journey of a Boston-born, California-raised Irish Catholic nun, who lived a life full of bawdy humor, fun and good deeds, eventually succumbing to cancer and planning her own funeral (8 p.m., PBS). 

TUESDAY, Feb. 6
Cybersleuths: The Idaho Murders
True-crime fans will want to tune into this three-part docuseries which looks at the surging world of self-appointed online sleuths who sifting through clues to the savage slaying of four University of Idaho students in 2022 (Paramount+).

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 7
The Connors
John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert head into season six of the prime-time comedy series, grappling with more financial pressures, parenting issues, marriage ups and downs and aging (8 p.m., ABC).

Easter Island Origins
Those enigmatic oversized stone heads facing the ocean on a South American island? Now new research reveals intriguing evidence of their origins and the ancient people who created them (9 p.m., PBS).

THURSDAY, Feb. 8
Tokyo Vice
Ten-episode second season of the dramatic series starring Ansel Elgort (above) goes even deeper into the Japanese criminal underworld (Max).

Impractical Jokers
The master pranksters (above) return for a tenth season of hidden camera hijinks featuring a host of celebrities in cameos (10 p.m., truTV).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

I’ve known the guys in Sawyer Brown since their earliest days, just after they won TV’s Star Search and got signed in the mid-80s to Nashville’s Capitol Records. In The Boys and Me (Forefront, Feb. 6), front man Mark Miller recounts his four decades in the hit-making, hard-touring band, which became a radio mainstay with “Step That Step,” “Thank God for You” and some 50 other hits. Find out how a kid from Ohio found went from stunt skiing at Disney World to leading a country music supergroup to the top of the charts.  

Oct 20 2023
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Books, DVDs, Humor, Movies, Pop Culture, Television, TV

The Entertainment Forecast

Oct. 20 – Oct. 26

Funny ‘Dads,’ serious ‘Bosch’ & a Wonder Woman two-fer

Bokeem Woodbine, Bobby Cannavale and Bill Burr are “Old Dads.”

FRIDAY, Oct. 20
Everyone Else Burns
Simon Bird and Kate O’Flynn star in this new British-based sitcom series about a puritanical family preparing for a big move—away from the woes of Earth, avoiding the fires of hell and basking in blissful eternity. Can they “save” themselves, and anyone else who’ll listen? (9:30 p.m., The CW).

Old Dads
Bill Burr, Bobby Canavale and Bookeem Woodbine star in this new comedy flick as a trio of guys who become fathers later in life and have a steep learning curve with school principals, millennial CEOs and a world that’s changed a bit since the 1980s (Netflix).

Bosch: Legacy
Titus Welliver returns (above) to the role of the former homicide detective, based on the lead character of crime novels by Michael Connelly, in season two of the hit procedural series as he seeks out a killer before he finds him first. With Mimi Rogers (Freevee).

SATURDAY, Oct. 21
NFL Icons
Season three of the pigskin docuseries profiles Pro Football Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Charles Woodson, Bill Cowher and Mike Singletary (MGM+).

Wonder Woman Day
Stretch out with your golden lasso and enjoy Gal Godot (above) in her two standalone films as the warrior princess, back to back in Wonder Woman and its sequel, Wonder Woman 1984 (12:45 p.m., TBS).

SUNDAY, Oct. 22
Fear the Walking Dead
In season eight, Madison (Kim Dickens) goes about making the old Stadium a safe haven, but it attracts some unwanted attention—of the walking dead kind! (9 p.m., AMC).

WB 100th Anniversary Movie Monster Marathon
Pick yous favorite monster and watch ‘em go in this all-day slate of three Godzillas, a Kong, one Meg and Dwayne Johnson’s Rampage (10:45 a.m., TNT)

Godzilla roars in three movies this Sunday.

AKA Mr. Chow
Find out how a lad from Shanghai would eventually triumph over childhood trauma, personal loss and systemic prejudice to forge a new identity and open the first of what would become his franchise of iconic Chinese restaurants (9 p.m., HBO)

MONDAY, Oct. 23
The Royals: A New Era
New documentary examines the state and future of the monarchy in the modern world a year after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, featuring interviews with palace confidants and royal experts (9 p.m, The CW).

Rembember Milli Vanilli (above)? Find out what happened to the lip-synching pop duo in a new documentary.

TUESDAY, Oct. 24
Milli Vanilli
Girl, you know it’s true. This documentary tells the story of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, two childhood friends who became superstars in the late-‘80s duo Milli Vanilli—before a career-ending lip-synching incident led to their downfall (Paramount+).

Help! I’m in a Secret Relationship!
Well, it won’t be secret much longer now that you’re disclosing it on season two of this reality show, in which people who think they’ve found the loves of their lives discover it’s really only a pack of lies (9 p.m., MTV).

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 25
Spy in the Ocean, A Nature Miniseries
Go deep into the seas and discover what it’s like to dive with sharks, leap high above the water with a dolphin or swim like an octopus in this new series, which uses high-tech cameras designed and disguised to look like marine animals (8 p.m., PBS).

Life on Our Planet
New documentary series shows the battle for adaptability and survival that has shaped our planet since the beginning of time (Netflix). 

THURSDAY, Oct. 26
American Horror Story
The bloody-good horror anthology returns for the fall with a four-episode “Huluween” event (Hulu). 

The Vanishing Triangle
New original psychological thriller series (above) is inspired by true events that shook Ireland in the 1990s, when several women disappeared, never to be seen again. With India Mullen and Allen Leech (Sundance Now).

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Fans of ‘80s rock will groove to Police Diaries (Rocket88), drummer Stewart Copeland’s firsthand account of the early days of The Police, the British trio that took over the charts with “Every Breath You Take,” “Roxanne,” “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and many more hits. Packed with photos from Copeland’s deep personal archive, “it’s a big, noisy book about one heckuva ride.”

It’s the fuel that keeps us going, but some of our food is disappearing. In Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods (WW Norton), food historian author Sarah Lohman points out the growing list of local comestibles in danger of extinction and the urgent efforts by farmers, shepherds and fishers to save them.

Afterlife is big business and a deep-set cultural touchstone, and author Greg Melville unearths the details in Over My Dead Body (Abrams), a colorful history of cemeteries, interment customs and other practices of saying our final goodbyes.

BRING IT HOME

You’re gonna need a MUCH bigger boat for Meg 2: The Trench (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) in which Jason Statham returns to face an even bigger fin foe—and other monstrous creatures—from the deepest depths of the ocean.

Dracula hitches a ride on a merchant ship and makes his way from the Old World toward England in The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment), the latest bloody adventure of novelist Bram Stoker’s iconic blood-sucker. Features include an alternate opening, commentary, and a look in the filmmaking process of conjuring up a nautical nightmare for the screen.

Nov 14 2017
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Humor, Movie Reviews

Christmas Dad-o-Rama

Wahlberg & Farrell double down on the doofus dad jokes in sequel

DADDY'S HOME 2

Daddy’s Home 2
Starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Mel Gibson & John Lithgow
Directed by Sean Anders
PG-13

If two feuding fathers are funny, four’s gotta be even funnier…right?

That’s the movie math behind the holiday hijinks of this sequel to the 2015 comedy, which starred Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as a stepfather and a biological dad battling for the attention of their kids.

At the end of the first movie, sweet, sensitive Brad (Ferrell) had rubbed off some of the rough, raw edges of brusque, macho Dusty (Wahlberg) and they had made their peace with each other as “co-dads.” Daddy’s Home 2 opens with a warm, fuzzy scene of the two of them sharing carpooling duties, happily swapping off their kids at the park and chatting about the school’s upcoming Christmas pageant.

Ah, Christmas!

The kids, it seems, love all the presents they get from two sets of parents. But they’re not so happy about being so split apart, shuttled between homes and houses, at the one time of year when families are supposed to be together. So Brad and Rusty come up with an idea: one big “together Christmas” with all the kids and all the parents and stepparents in one house, at one time!

Brilliant! Then both Dusty’s dad and Brad’s dad (Mel Gibson and John Lithgow) show up for last-minute Christmas visits, which really makes it a together Christmas—and kick the movie into high comedy gear.

DADDY'S HOME 2

John Lithgow plays Don, the father of Brad (Will Ferrell).

Both old pros, Gibson—famed for starring in the original Mad Max franchise, three Lethal Weapon flicks, The Patriot and Braveheart, and for his directing as well—and Lithgow—whose 100-plus acting credits include the acclaimed current Netflix series The Crown, in which he stars as Winston Churchill—are hoots and almost steal the show from the top-billed franchise stars. Gibson’s character, Kurt, is an old-school, sarcastic, alpha-male-bulldog Lothario, a former astronaut who tries to warm up to his grandkids with a joke about dead hookers. And you can certainly see where Brad got all his warmth and thoughtfulness: Don (Lithgow) is yappy, ever-happy optimistic, super-sentimental, always ready with hugs, kisses, corny jokes and a pocket full of homemade cookies.

DADDY'S HOME 2

Scarlett Estevez, Owen Vacarro and Didi Costine

This holiday cocktail of a mismatched family—as dads, stepdads, granddads and step-granddads all learn to get along—also features kids from the first film. Young Scarlett Estevez, Owen Vacarro and Didi Costine have their own little step-sib subplot that involves young love, getting into forbidden eggnog and switching up traditional gender roles.

Writer-director Sean Anders also directed the first film (along with Horrible Bosses 2) and wrote screenplays for We’re The Millers, Hot Tub Time Machine, Dumb and Dumber To and Mr. Popper’s Penguins. He knows funny, and Daddy’s Home 2 has a lot of it. An inventive sequence with a snow blower and Christmas lights ends with a comedic thud that will have a familiar ring to anyone who saw the first movie. Appropriately enough for a comedy about dads jockeying for attention, position and pecking order, a scene with the whole “together” family in a live-nativity manager riffs on who’s going to play Joseph, and how he wasn’t Jesus’ real father.

DADDY'S HOME 2

John Cena

John Cena, who made a surprise appearance at the end of the original film, makes a reappearance as Randy, another stepdad—the uber-cool, muscle-bound, truck-driving hunk Randy. And stay until the very end for another surprise stepdad!

There’s also some commentary about learning to compromise, a surprising venture into gun control and a poignant scene—in a comedy club—in which we find out something heavy, and heartbreaking, about Brad’s dad. And there’s a running joke, with a funny flashback, to the 1984 Band Aid song “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and its all-star cast of international singers, each getting a line.

The wives/moms, Linda Cardellini (of TV’s Bloodline) and Brazilian-born former Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio, don’t really have much to do, except look pretty and deliver an occasional quip—and Ambrosio doesn’t even get many of those. The movie is just too crowded with guys and cute kids.

And in a bit of a Hollywood in-joke, everyone ends up snowstorm-stranded in a movie theater. The big holiday release is an action-family holiday hybrid about Liam Neeson and a bunch of adorable kids traveling with a nuclear warhead cross-country to keep it out of the hands of terrorists. It’s called Missile Tow.

After strings of edgier, R-rated fare for both Ferrell and Wahlberg, the Daddy’s Home flicks let both actors settle into a more-or-less family-friendly, PG-13 groove, and still find a very festive comedic mojo.

This cheery, comical, dads-travaganza of a Christmas carol won’t win any major holiday awards. But it will certainly keep Scrooge at bay—at least until those Christmas bills start to roll in! Then you’ll know it’s Christmas, for sure.

In theaters Nov. 10, 2017

Apr 15 2016
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Humor, Movie Reviews

Laughing All the Way to the Bank

Melissa McCarthy stars in raunchy rags-to-riches tale

The Boss

Starring Melissa McCarthy & Kristen Bell

Directed by Ben Falcone

Rated R

Steeled and shaped by a childhood of rejection in an orphanage, Michelle Darnell grew up to become a she-wolf of self-made business savvy. Now she’s a superstar investment titan and motivational-mojo guru who descends to the stage of frenzied fan events atop a giant golden phoenix in a spray of dollar bills, celebrating her brazen, competition-crushing excess like a carrot-topped combination of Donald Trump, Suze Orman and Richie Rich.

But the bigger they come, the harder they fall. And Michelle (Melissa McCarthy) tumbles with a titanic thud when she’s arrested for insider trading, loses her company and her home and has to serve a stint of white-collar jail time. When she’s released, with no friends and no family to call on, she bullies her way back to her former assistant, Claire (Kristen Bell), and her young daughter, Rachel (Ella Anderson).

Since making her film breakthrough as part of the ensemble in Bridesmaids (2011), McCarthy moved confidently into the lead for Identity Thief, Tammy, The Heat and Spy, proving her comedic bravura and her raucous adaptability for broad physical humor. She’s a cherub-faced spark plug who’ll go to just about any lengths for a laugh. The Boss is the second of her movies directed by her husband, actor-comedian Ben Falcone, who also makes a brief appearance (as he’s done in several of her films).

Film Title: The Boss

Claire (Kristen Bell) gets some unwanted fashion advice from Michelle (Melissa McCarthy).

Hollywood has always loved a good rags-to-riches tale, and McCarthy and Falcone (who also collaborated on the screenplay, along with Steve Mallory) wring this one for raunchy, R-rated guffaws and give it some crisp contemporary pops that seem deliberately, satirically timed and tuned for the Age of Trump. But it’s also a bit of a flopping mess, a hammy hodgepodge of crude jokes, awkward slapstick gags and sometimes mean-spirited, vulgar humor that just isn’t funny.

As Michelle plots her comeback, she poaches Rachel’s Dandelions scout troop to spin off her own group, Darwin’s Darlings, and creates a bustling new enterprise—built on Claire’s homemade brownies—to compete with the Dandelions’ cookie sales.

Forget Batman v Superman. When it’s Dandelions v Darlings, things get really ugly. If you ever wondered what a Quentin Tarantino-inspired, Kill Bill-esque tween cookie-brownie street brawl might look like, well, The Boss has it.

Film Title: The Boss

Peter Dinklage (from TV’s Game of Thrones) gets chuckles as Michelle’s spurned lover, now himself a preen-y mini-mogul obsessed with samurais. Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong plays Claire’s quirky supervisor at her depressing new office job. Kathy Bates has a scene as a wealthy mentor from Michelle’s past.

There are underlying themes about family and belonging, about rebuilding and reconnecting, about trust and ethics. But mostly The Boss is about laughing—all the way to the bank.

—Neil Pond, Parade Magazine

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Feb 16 2016
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Humor, Movie Reviews

Hooray for Hollywood

Coen Brothers deliver a splendid spoof of movies’ golden era

Hail, Caesar!

Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson & Alden Ehrenreich

Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

PG-13

“People don’t want facts—they want to believe!” says Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a 1950s Hollywood studio “fixer” in the new Coen Brothers comedy Hail Caesar!, a sprawling, star-studded spoof of the golden age of moviemaking.

Josh Brolin

Josh Brolin

What people believe, and what they make-believe, are the building blocks of Hollywood itself. And they’re certainly the cornerstones of the Coens’ lavish, multi-tiered parody that takes satirical shape around the production of a fictional studio’s major new movie, Hail, Caesar!, A Tale of the Christ, a Bible-based saga a la Ben-Hur, Spartacus and The Robe.

When the film’s lunkheaded leading man, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), is kidnapped, Mannix has to find him and get the money-train movie back on track.

But in the meantime, he’s also got his hands full with other problems, and other films. His job is keeping the machinery of Capitol Pictures Studios whirling, keeping its numerous stars in line and out of trouble, and keeping the whiff of scandal away from prying gossip columnists, particularly twin sisters Thora and Thessily Thacker (Tilda Swinton).

Scarlett Johansson

The studio’s twice-divorced “innocent” aqua-starlet (Scarlett Johansson) is pregnant with an out-of-wedlock child. Capitol’s prissy British prestige-picture director (Ralph Fiennes) is at wit’s end trying to wrangle the company’s riding, roping singing cowboy (Alden Ehrenreich) into more refined roles. And a tap-dancing song-and-dance hotshot (Channing Tatum) glides across the set of a new musical, but his light-on-his-feet moves may be hiding heavier secrets.

Look: There’s Jonah Hill, Frances McDormand and the guy (Wayne Knight) who played Newman in Seinfeld! Even if you don’t know anything about Hollywood’s “Red Scare,” you’ll still get a chuckle out of a boatload of Commies bobbing off the California coastline. And Alden Ehrenreich’s young sodbuster charming his studio-arranged dinner date (Veronica Osorio) by twirling a strand of spaghetti like a lariat will rope your heart, too.

Channing Tatum

Channing Tatum

For many viewers, the quirky movies of writer-director Joel and Ethan Coen have always been a bit of an acquired taste. Sure, most everybody now falls in line to applaud the genius of Fargo, No Country For Old Men, True Grit, The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou. But where was the box-office love for The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink, The Man Who Wasn’t There and Inside Llewyn Davis?

There may be more commercially successful filmmakers, more mainstream filmmakers or filmmakers who win more awards. But you’d be hard-pressed to find many filmmakers who love movies, and making movies, more than the Coens. And that love is evident in every carefully crafted frame of this gloriously goofy homage to the glory days of big studios, big stars and the big wheels that churned out the spectacles of Hollywood’s dream factory from a bygone era.

While Hail, Caesar! is looking backward with such comedic affection, however, it’s also making a sly, playfully subversive statement about our “need” for entertainment, the importance of escapism and how movies have always been—and hopefully will always be—a “potion of balm for the ache of all mankind.”

“What a waste of talent,” a woman behind me groused as the credits rolled, somehow disappointed. Not me, and not a chance. Strike up another win for the Coens, I say. I’m a believer. Hooray for Hollywood, and “Hail, Caesar!”

—Neil Pond, Parade Magazine

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Feb 09 2015
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Humor, Movie Reviews, Movies

Saints Alive

Bill Murray shines as a grumpy-golden coot-next-door

ST. VINCENT

St. Vincent

Starring Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts and Jaeden Lieberher

Directed by Theodore Melfi

PG-13

Bill Murray has carved out a comfortable three-decade movie niche playing sweet-natured troublemakers, loveable oafs and world-weary wiseasses. So the grumpy old coot-next-door he now portrays, at age 64, in St. Vincent seems like a perfect fit, a natural progression.

Murray’s character, Vincent, becomes the caretaker of a 10-year-old boy, Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher), after Oliver and his stressed-out single mom, Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) become his new neighbors—Vincent is strapped for cash and Maggie’s in a bind. Not knowing anyone else, she enlists Vincent to watch Oliver after school and evenings while she works.

“He’s sort of cool, in a grouchy sort of way,” Oliver tells his mother after a few afternoons in Vincent’s care. “Too old to be dangerous, but not too old to be too dangerous.”

ST. VINCENT

Melissa McCarthy, Jaeden Lieberher & Naomi Watts

Vincent is hardly any mom’s dream babysitter; he drinks, he smokes, he gambles, and he takes Oliver along to the bar and the racetrack. He teaches Oliver to fight and to stand up to the bully at school. It’s no real surprise when Vincent becomes a surrogate father figure to the scrawny, sensitive lad, whose own dad, we learn, is contesting his mother for Oliver’s custody.

It’s a familiar, often sitcom-ish setup, one that most viewers will recognize from a long parade of TV and movie characters who’ve marched before, from W.C. Fields to Uncle Buck. But Murray and his fellow cast members elevate the material far above the basics, giving the story a rich, lived-in texture with grit, laughter, warmth and an easygoing dramatic groove that cuts through the script’s clichés.

We learn why Vincent seems to have given up on almost everything, why he’s out of money, and why he’s willing to gamble away what little he has left. We watch Oliver emerge from his shell, moreST. VINCENT enabled and emboldened to take on the world. And we understand the connection between Oliver’s school assignment about saints, the title of the movie, and a school assembly where everything comes together.

Murray is a gem, the scruffy, gruff-y glue that holds it all together and keeps it from flecking off into granules of sugary-sweet cuteness. It’s a treat to see McCarthy in a role where she gets to play it straight, freed from comedic slapstick and shenanigans. Watts is a hoot—and seems to be having one, too—as Vincent’s pregnant Russian stripper girlfriend. And Lieberher, as Oliver, is a natural in front of the camera who can hold his own, even when sharing the frame with the formidable funnyman.

St. Vincent, in limited release but gaining in popularity, may not be playing “in a theater near you.” But it’s well worth going the extra mile if you have to seek it out; you’ve probably heard Bill Murray’s name cropping up for some awards at the end of this movie year. And by all means, stay until the end—the very end. The extended sequence that plays under the credits, with Murray (as Vincent) singing along to Bob Dylan’s “Shelter From the Storm”—the whole song—as he blithely waters a forlorn-looking potted plant with an uncooperative garden hose, is a sublime bit of blissed-out backyard karaoke that is itself almost worth the price of your ticket.

—Neil Pond, Parade Magazine

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Jul 29 2014
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Books, Humor, Pop Culture

Shakespeare in Space

Another masterful mashup of the Bard and ‘Star Wars’

William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return

William Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return

By Ian Doescher

Hardcover, 168 pages $14.95 / $8.52 Kindle edition (Quirk Books)

 

Continuing the ultimate literary arc of geek-speak high homage, this third installment of author Ian Doescher’s parody of the entire Star Wars movie canon, re-told in the florid iambic pentameter “signature” of William Shakespeare, continues the interstellar adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and other familiar characters from “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”—all to a masterful mashup of English lit and pop culture that’s hilarious, dramatic and downright mesmerizing.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

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