Entertainment

I finally caught the first 3 episodes of Alcatraz on Fox. I have to say that it is interesting and written well enough to be a wee bit engaging. Even with its flaws.

TV Review:

Alcatraz comes to us from Elizabeth Sarnoff (Lost, Deadwood), Steven Lilien (Kyle XY), Bryan Wynbrandt (Kyle XY) and is executive produced by J.J. Abrams.

The cast includes Sarah Jones (Sons of Anarchy), Jorge Garcia (Lost), Jonny Coyne, Parminder Nagra (ER) & Sam Neill.

The premise of Alcatraz is that back on March 20th, 1963, everyone on the island disappeared. Now, here in 2012, the folks who disappeared seem to be returning. And that’s not good.

The interesting thing is that there’s an organization that has already been set up and expecting the inmates to be returning. Their advanced office of equipment is set up under the prison and is run by Emerson Hauser (Neill). Lucy Banerjee (Nagra) is his partner and Jones plays detective Madsen who gets herself recruited to their team. She tags a comic book writer to help her, who also happens to be an expert on Alcatraz history (Garcia).

So each case of the week has them hunting down the newest perp who has reappeared and doing what they do best, is evil stuff. We watch the perp do his deed here in the present, but we also get flashbacks to their lives back in the 60′s. It’s some filler, background material giving us their motivation, if there’s motivation to be understood.

Here’s the gang at Comic-Con 2011, meeting, greeting and signing things fans brought by…

And once they do catch their man, Hauser transports them to a new version of Alcatraz, somewhere off in the woods. This is where they’re putting all the inmates they reclaim.

Swamp Volcano on Syfy; A Quick TV Review

by Bruce Simmons on January 28, 2012

This is a TV review of Swamp Volcano (AKA Miami Magma) Original Saturday Night movie on Syfy. It stars ex-model Rachel Hunter (Gravity), Melissa Ordway (In Time, Escapee), Cleavant Derricks (Sliders) and acting veteran Brad Dourif (Catch .44, Priest; on TV: Deadwood).

Swamp Volcano (AKA Miami Magma) was produced by Activity Film Services and directed by Todor Chapkanov (Monsterwolf). It was written by Declan O’Brien (Wrong Turn 3 & 4; Sharktopus). [I keep saying aka because it's referred to in IMDb as Miami Magma.]

Swamp Volcano starts out on Syfy looking and sounding like an older TV show, my first thought was Miami Vice, but that opening was better. (I was starting to worry right away, but things settled down for me.) Then we switch to a dad video chatting with his daughter and wife on his smart phone. He’s on a Holter Energy drilling rig (called Trans Ocean Alpha) when a funky computer read out suggested they should stop drilling but of course, they argue about it until they try to shut down. But it’s too late and the rig runs into trouble. As in volcanic trouble and blows up… in a tiny CGI explosion.

(Oh dude, you’re supposed to put the life vest on, then dive in… not throw the life vest in and dive after it!)

The movie distinctly looks/feels like it was filmed on tape! It’s got that fuzzy, noisy sound.

Spartacus: Vengeance Season Premiere Episode, “Fugitivus,” A TV Review

by Bruce Simmons on January 28, 2012

The 2nd season of Starz’ Spartacus, Spartacus: Vengeance, kicked it in gear tonight, January 27th, 2012. (It’s been on VoD, as a free preview, since the 20th) Spartacus: Vengeance stars Liam McIntyre, Manu Bennett, Viva Bianca, Peter Mensah and more cast from last season, with a few new characters.

Last season ended with Spartacus leading a revolt and escape of slaves from the house of Batiatus.

The second season premiere starts with Spartacus (McIntyre) running from several horsemen in pursuit, hell-bent on skewering Spartacus. Yet this is but a trap as the Roman soldiers ride head-long into the awaiting swords of Spartacus‘ men.

And thus we see how the escaped slaves are existing… hidden in tunnels, foraging for supplies and needing to share amongst themselves.

Fox’s Alcatraz Is Cause For Annoyances On Alcatraz Tour

by Bruce Simmons on January 26, 2012

I just heard on my local TV news program that Fox’s new hit show, Alcatraz, is starting to cause a stir at the real Alcatraz, here in the Bay Area.

Now even though I have yet to watch the new TV series season premiere of Alcatraz, I’m already writing about it, and I guess, to some degree, I’ve just been spoiled! Do’h! The show is from J.J. Abrams, and starring Sam Neill, Sarah Jones and Jorge Garcia, the series is about time-displaced crooks that disappeared way back when, and are now starting to mysteriously reappear today.

And for some reason, folks are thinking the real prison has clues and secret rooms for them to find, in relation to the TV series.

Willows Exit from CSI & How The Tension Was Spoiled with Previews

by Bruce Simmons on January 26, 2012

This is a dual purpose piece here on Cinema Static on Brusimm. I touch on the 2nd of the 2-part farewell episode, saying farewell to Marg Helgenberger who plays Catherine Willows on CSI, it’s also about how networks really need look at how they need to more carefully preview their shows.

First up, the two-parter CSI story was the culmination of several episodes over a period of time, setting up the exit story for Helgenberger. It also brings to fruition the story of tackling Mark Gabriel (played by Titus Welliver) and his professional hit squad.

But this farewell episode seemed like it was missing something. There were a lot of convenient pieces falling into place and then there were some quick twists that brought in some unforeseen resolutions. It was a nice but quickly paced episode to close this story out.

In the first part of this two-part story, the episode ended with Willows being shot. As the second part of this story started, Catherine Willows was bleeding out and on the run from the professional hit squad.

And I did not care one bit about all the blood and gunmen in pursuit.

Terminator 5 Rated R & Amazing Spider-Man Movie Synopsis

by Bruce Simmons on January 26, 2012

in Entertainment, movies

I was cruising the web and noticed a few pieces over on one of my favorite sites… Killer Film. I spied a piece on the movie rating for the upcoming Terminator 5 movie, and a bit on the story that will unfold in The Amazing Spider-Man…

First one up was that they spotted a bit of movie news about the next, upcoming Terminator franchise film and that they are looking to make the next chapter of the franchise, Terminator 5, that it will be rated R.

And that’s a bold and daring move in this ever shaky market these days, but it is something that hard-core movie-goers can appreciate.

PG-13 makes movies more marketable to the section of the consumers that have the most time, a chunk of money, and no bills wearing them down. But true movie fans always cringe when they see a movie getting the PG-13 stamp… it seems to cheapen them up a bit, or take some of the reality connections out of a film. Or so they say.

Touch: A TV Review of it’s Season Premiere

by Bruce Simmons on January 25, 2012

The season premiere of Touch aired on Fox and to be honest, I found myself pleasantly surprised and entertained…

Fox’s Touch, starring Kiefer Sutherland and David Mazouz, premiered tonight on Fox. It’s about a father and his autistic, mute son. That is, until dad learns that his son in reality, is in touch with life like no other human is, and can predict events and hence, prevent bad things from happening.

The series is from Heroes showrunner Tim Kring. But unlike Heroes, there’s only one special person and many character stories in this series premiere of Touch. Danny Glover was also part of the cast.

Though Touch never really caught my attention through the months of marketing up to tonight, It was, I felt, a fortuitous bit of timing that nothing else was on TV so I tuned in.

I’m glad I did.

Premiere Dates For Walking Dead, Mad Men, The Killing; AMC Rocks Cable

by Bruce Simmons on January 25, 2012

The other night I was watching yet one of many of the high quality shows that has come out of the AMC cable network… it’s amazing what they’ve put out over the last few years and it got me to thinking about this network. You see, the AMC TV of today is a very different beast from what it used to be.

In (many) years past, AMC used to be a commercial free network and air, well, movies. Since AMC stands for American Movie Classics. Technically, it still does, but now it’s the company LLc name, of ‘American Movie Classics Company LLC.’

During this era, I could dependably tune into AMC and watch an older movie and the only interruption was a mid-way break where a host would pipe in with some trivia about the movie and/or cast we were watching.

Now, AMC is something totally different and they’ve pulled some real winners out of the hat these last few years. But alas, there are also TV ads, but hey, it’s barely unavoidable these days.

The Walking Dead returns on February 12th, 2012. It stars Andrew Lincoln and is created for TV by Frank Darabont (The Mist), based off of a graphic novel series by Robert Kirkman.

With The Walking Dead, in some fashion, they’ve taken a single point event like a global zombie apocalypse and have turned it into a wonderfully told story about a group of people that are trying to survive this plague of hungry, dead things. I’m amazed what they pull out of the collective of characters in this show.

Teaser Trailer for season 2.5 of The Walking Dead

Mad Men returns on March 25th, 2012. Starring Jon Hamm and from Matthew Weiner (The Sopranos).

Mad Men is the only show I haven’t watched, but like Breaking Bad, I’ve heard great things about it and I presume that some day soon, I’ll be catching this TV show.

2012 Academy Award Nominations, Listed By Category & By Movie Title

by Bruce Simmons on January 24, 2012

in Entertainment, movies

On Tuesday, January 24th, the nominations for the 84th Annual Academy Awards were announced.

Below are the lists, first, taking note of which movie got how many noms… First by category and then I sort the Academy Award nominations by movie title.

Presented below are the nominations for this year’s Oscars, the 84th Annual Academy Awards…

Movie Nomination Tally:

11	“Hugo”
10	“The Artist”
6	“Moneyball”
6	“War Horse”
5	“The Descendants”
5	“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
4	“Midnight in Paris”
4	“The Help”
3	“Albert Nobbs”
3	“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″
3	“The Tree of Life”
3	“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
3	“Transformers: Dark of the Moon”
2	“Bridesmaids”
2	“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
2	“My Week with Marilyn”
2	“The Iron Lady”

The nominations seemed a little light on the original song & makeup below. The number of nods are not surprising for a few of these films, but I would have thought that if a movie had nominations for writing, or best picture, or directing, that those same nods would have potentially garnered some actors getting their own nods off that work. But that’s just me wondering out-loud about the celebrated processes at work behind the scenes of Hollywood.

Nominations by Category

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
George Clooney in “The Descendants”
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
Viola Davis in “The Help”
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Is Fox’s Terra Nova Going Away? & A Bit on HBO’s To Appomattox

by Bruce Simmons on January 24, 2012

I was doing a little research the other day and something caught my eye that led me to think that maybe Terra Nova is getting canceled. That, and by virtue of some of that same research, I learned a little bit about a new HBO series called To Appomattox.

Stephen Lang and Jason O'Mara in Terra Nova

"Stephen, is that our new show over there? I don't know, let's go look Jason!"

The last I saw, the jury is still out on whether Fox’s Terra Nova, the sci-fi series with Steven Spielberg‘s name attached, is going to get a second season or not.

Fox has hem-hawed about renewals for Terra Nova, House & Fringe. But a Fox exec noted that Terra Nova “was hunting for itself creatively through the season.” and reports say that the show didn’t meet audience expectations, with its TV ratings putting it outside the coveted range of shows for the network.

Terra Nova first had a very long production delay because of some creative issues with the production effects, or so they said. And then the show started off incredibly predictable and thus not that engaging. Yet as the show developed, so too did the story and I was watching on Twitter where it did start to engage some fans. But the engagement may have taken too long to take hold!

And another reason we haven’t heard about any renewal is that I think Fox is waiting to see who Alcatraz and Touch will do. If these two shows become ratings hits, I think Terra Nova is doomed.

But then again, there’s other writing on the wall that isn’t being spoken of on other websites…

I think Terra Nova Is Getting Canceled!