"Red" had every advantage an action comedy could hope for: a jaw−dropping cast — including Oscar−winners Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, and action legend Bruce Willis — lots of stuff blowing up, and the untapped gold mine of humor found in the retirement lives of secret agents. Yet for all it was handed, "Red" drops the ball.
TLC's latest foray into the story of a family living seemingly normal lives despite some oddity — see "Jon and Kate Plus Eight" and "19 Kids and Counting" — goes beyond the trials and tribulations of just living with multiple children. "Sister Wives" features the Brown family, made up of a man living in Utah with three wives, 13 children and a girlfriend with three children of her own.
For those of you who have been living under a rock, please take note that "Family Guy" is quite simply the greatest show on television.
Who's interviewing whom? Nothing is straightforward in Jean−Claude van Itallie's play, "Interview." Every word, action and thought is crucial, while the characters — interviewers and interviewees alike — all struggle to find and maintain their sense of individual identity.
Cancellations continued this week as NBC's "Outlaw" became the third new series to get the ax this season. The legal drama, starring Jimmy Smits as a playboy Supreme Court Justice−turned−justice−seeking defense attorney, was lambasted by critics for its ridiculous premise, and after three low−rated episodes, the network placed the series on production hiatus. An even poorer showing for the fourth episode sealed the deal, and NBC moved the remaining episodes to the Saturday night burn−off slot.
Comedy isn't easy. Anyone who's ever told a joke that has fallen flat can attest to this fact. There are so many elements that have to come together to make something truly funny that it's astounding when any TV program manages to have a thoroughly humorous episode — let alone a whole season of hilarity.
Don't expect the unexpected from "Life as We Know It," Greg Berlanti's run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. Featuring elements of cheesy and predictable slapstick humor, this movie isn't awful, but it just screams "typical."
Part of being in college means loving Wikipedia. No, you can't use it in a paper or as a reference point when talking to a professor, but, in reality, it's nearly always the first source we go to if we want some quick information.
Fans of ABC's "Desperate Housewives" can usually count on a major mystery to keep them guessing all season. Last week's seventh season premiere did not disappoint. This year, creator and writer Marc Cherry will keep us wondering: Where did Carlos Solis' goatee go?
"Hands All Over," the latest album from Maroon 5, is like that rusty bicycle sitting in your garage: It still works, but it no longer has that allure it did in the store window. Maroon 5's most recent endeavor is agreeable yet simultaneously stale; it's nothing we haven't heard before. The band seems to have found a solid niche but is continuously unwilling to experiment with their sound. The tracks on "Hands All Over," although enjoyable, meld together into an indistinguishable soup of similarity.
Dysfunctional families are nothing new to television and "Raising Hope" adds another one to the canon. "Raising Hope," created by Greg Garcia, the man behind the hit "My Name is Earl," features a basically unknown cast of actors, which portrays the Chance family, a family of low income and even lower class.
Harvard. A haven of culture, a paradise of academia and the alma mater of a certain Internet mogul currently getting a lot of press. With an entire campus full of neoclassical buildings and references to America's ancestors across the pond, what better place is there to look at that stalwart fortress of Western culture that was 19th century England? Nineteenth-century England was chock-full of admirers of bygone ages. Artists like William Blake turned to classical motifs and themes to explore their own world.
Showtime's award-winning drama "Dexter," which follows Dexter Morgan (Michael C. Hall), blood-spatter analyst by day, serial killer by night, recently kicked off its fifth season.
A friend of mine approached me last week after my column about Jay Sean's "Down" ran: "Hey Mitch," she said. "I liked what you did with ‘Down,' but I bet you can't do that with just any song — what about something crunk?"
Oscar season kicked off last week with the first major contender presenting itself: David Fincher's "The Social Network." Gone are the days of sweeping epics taking home the gold — unless, of course, you pander to the Disney mode of filmmaking.
Activist street bands from all over the country this weekend performed in locations across Davis and Harvard Squares as part of the annual Honk! outdoors music festival. Honk! performers all share a common goal, which is to take a stand against injustice and oppression through the act of creating music. Visit Jumbo Slice at blogs.tuftsdaily.com for more Honk! photos.
After a harrowing week of torrential rain and midterm exams, a good laugh is exactly what the doctor ordered for gloomy Tufts students. The Institute, Tufts' live and filmed sketch comedy group, is ready with that antidote.
Imagine the horror a doting wife experiences when, while laundering her husband's clothing, she discovers a foreign streak of pink lipstick on his dress−shirt collar. Now prolong that traumatic moment of disillusionment by two decades, amplify the exquisite shock tenfold and substitute run−of−the−mill adultery with lesbianism and a very messy mother−daughter relationship.
Having established himself as being familiar with the aerial world in "Legends of the Guardian: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" (2010), director Zach Snyder has evidently proven himself worthy of directing the next Superman film. We decided to simultaneously pay homage to his most recent accomplishment and celebrate his future flick. Here's a list of highly qualified owls we think Snyder should consider for the role of the Man of Steel.
