December 29th, 2018
Night School struggled with critics, but did quite well with over $100 million worldwide. Were critics right? Or was there a reason audiences seemed to connect to the film?
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August 1st, 2014
July was... well... let's just pretend it didn't happen. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes did well, but week after week 2014 fell further behind 2013 in the year-to-date comparison. At the moment, we are roughly $400 million behind last year's pace and while I don't think August will continue the losing streak, there's really no chance August will put a dent in that number. It looks more and more likely that Guardians of the Galaxy will be a hit, especially given its early reviews, but it could be the last $100 million hit till October, if the bad buzz surrounding Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turns into bad ticket sales. Last August there were two films that reached $100 million, plus two others that came close. This August might match that, while the biggest film this year should top the biggest film from last year. I think the slump 2014 is suffering through will end the first weekend and overall I think it will cut the deficit a little bit. That said, summer 2014 will still end as one of the worst recent summers at the box office.
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October 17th, 2013
New Girl debuted in 2011 and even before it first aired, it had a lot of buzz. In fact, it was one of eight shows the Critics' Choice Television Award declared as Most Exciting New Series. Of those eight, six have since been canceled. Part of the reason there was so much buzz was that it was the first time Zooey Deschanel starred in a TV series. Does the show have more to than that?
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October 12th, 2013
Recently, Modern Family won its fourth Outstanding Comedy Series at the Prime Time Emmys. This puts it just one behind Frasier for the all-time lead in that category. It has three Emmys for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series, putting it one behind M*A*S*H* in that category. It "only" has two nominations for Emmys for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series, but it won both times. It has also earned nearly two dozen nominations for various acting categories, including five wins. It is easily the most acclaimed comedy series on TV at the moment, and despite being on the air for just four season so far, it is one of the most acclaimed comedy series of all time. This creates incredibly high expectations. Is it possible to live up to these expectations? Or will the show start to disappoint?
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July 5th, 2013
Wilfred is a high concept show, which is both good and bad. On the positive side, it makes the show more interesting than 90% of the shows on TV. On the negative side, a high concept usually means a really short shelf life. These shows tend to run out of things to do with the concept and have to either end early, or live long enough to become just a standard TV show. Are there any signs that the show is suffering from this problem? Or will fans be eager to check out season two, and season three?
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November 14th, 2012
I previously reviewed the original Prep and Landing TV special. I had rather low expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, my only real complaint was its running time. The second special came out last year and was released on DVD and Blu-ray a couple of weeks ago. Is it as good as the first one? And is the DVD and / or Blu-ray Combo Pack worth picking up?
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