Californication’s latest entry, “Dicks,” relies on the show’s ensemble, specifically its newcomers, to carry the episode. You know the show really hit it right when you pair Hank with a female that doesn’t have to take her clothes off to gain attention. Heather Graham is able to accomplish just that as Julia lets loose and takes the town, and the dentist’s office, by storm. Then we have Levon (Oliver Cooper) and his “surprisingly big dick....
As the fictional show is one road bump away from veering off the beaten path, Californication is quickly approaching the end of its run with some of its sharpest comedic writing in some time. Tonight’s episode, “Kickoff,” further shows us that Hank Moody and Co. may not have the most interesting story left to tell, but their wild nights and filthy exploits are still outrageously entertaining. Working with Hank Moody should come with a warning label....
Calvary is a film that, when leaving the cinema, I heard someone describe as ‘Ireland: the movie’. I have never been to Ireland, by the way, and Calvary isn’t solely rewarding if you have, but certainly the impression I was left with was of ‘This is Ireland – at this time – in microcosm’. It addresses the priesthood and the growing distrust of it, the financial situation, and presents you with a spate of bereft characters....
Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card Episode 6 With the relaxed pacing of these Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card episodes I can’t help but start reading into these characters little reactions to things. This week Tomoyo’s actions really caught my eye. Did you see how she reacted when Sakura mentioned she’d been hanging out with Akiho? Tomoyo was like, “excuse me, you were hanging out with WHO?!” Now we could of course read that as Tomoyo being jealous (since she’s a truly iconic lesbian) but I’m fairly certain she’s over Sakura....
This review contains spoilers if you haven’t yet seen the episode. Then, immediately, we get to see Castle at home with his mother and daughter. And Martha Rodgers comes in sporting a huge diamond ring, the result of a proposal from her boyfriend, Chet (whom we’ve never met). Castle and Alexis are very excited, of course, but Martha says she has to think about it. She claims the spark has gone out of their relationship, so she would probably say “No....
8.9 Tone Death This week, Castle returned from a long midseason hiatus with episode Tone Death. I’d love to say that the showrunners used this long break in order to fix the series after what was a disastrous first half of season eight. Instead, I am forced to report that, while this week’s mystery was fine—about average for the show—when it comes to what has been truly wrong about Castle, the new dynamic between Rick and Kate, this week’s Castle episode, Tone Death should more appropriately have been titled “Tone Deaf....
In many ways, it’s a wonder that Gremlins stood out at all in a bumper year for the film industry. Ghostbusters, Beverly Hills Cop, The Terminator and The Muppets Takes Manhattan all came out in 1984 and there was another horror movie in direct competition for the title of frightener of the year. Nightmare on Elm Street brought a new menace to teenagers in old steel fingers and a new icon for horror fans the world over....
After an exceptional start to Chuck last week, I’ll admit to some nerves about the second in this season. Would they be able to keep the standard so high? About halfway through Chuck Versus The Suitcase I realised that, while it didn’t quite have the firing on all cylinders panache of the season opener, it wasn’t chopped liver either. In the first third this introduced plenty of angst and whining from both Chuck and Captain Awesome, to the point where I was becoming annoyed with both characters....
This review contains spoilers. Class Season 1, Episode 1 “Where are all the teachers?” screams a girl running into a packed school prom to warn her classmates of their impending death. Thus Class obeys the first rule of any young adult adventure: adults should be absent, useless or evil; the kids are the ones who save the world. With one exception in this case. As a Doctor Who spin-off, a certain Gallifreyan has licence to pop in and wave his Sonic Screwdriver about from time to time, as he does in For Tonight We May Die....
Attempting to summarise Cloud Atlas in a paragraph is nigh on impossible, with the opening half hour skipping along with the dizzying momentum of a haunted television – the channel keeps changing, and you can only guess what you’ll end up seeing next. The story begins in the far-flung future, with a campfire tale recounted by Tom Hanks, scowling beneath a considerable amount of old man makeup. From there, we’re introduced to Ben Whishaw’s well-spoken Robert Frobisher, a musician in 1930s England, who works as an amanuensis for a noted composer played by Jim Broadbent....
Colony Season 2 Episode 3 Colony might be one of the most brutal shows on television right now. It also might be one of the bleakest. But even if its atmosphere is as suffocating as it is magnetic, even if it leaves you feeling slightly oppressed and more than a little violated after you watch each episode – and even if it is hard to sit through and it’s hard to explain why – Colony just might be one of the most life-affirming series that has ever aired on cable or network TV....
1.1 Surviving Death Copper is the first original series to air on BBC America, the station that brings U.S. viewers Doctor Who, Top Gear, some comedy that mostly goes over our heads….and that’s about it, really. The network recently rose from relative obscurity buoyed by an increased North American interest in British drama and sci-fi, led by the explosion of the Doctor Who fandom. It seems strange that such an anglophilic station would choose as its first original programme a show situated squarely in U....
2.11 Good Heart And Willing Hand The main thrust of the episode is Corky, Francis, and O’Brien’s search for a way to take on Donovan for the murder of the Bartletts, Lansing, and Theresa. It’s great to see this trio of vigilante crime fighters together again to take on injustice. (For the sake of enjoyment of the moment, we’ll pretend Francis isn’t still acting like a serial killer.) It’s also a treat to spend so much time with Corcoran; he seems to get pushed to the wayside by the other characters a lot this season....
Damnation Episode 8 Bessie was an impetus in tonight’s episode, but she wasn’t crucial to the overall success. No one’s good in the virginal or biblical sense of the word, and I’d think the writers would’ve better addressed this discrepancy. Up close and from a distance, the locals aren’t without sin, and once again the title, “The Goodness of Men,” was lost on me. What happens in Holden that doesn’t occur anywhere else?...
Dark Matter Season 3 Episode 12 The penultimate episode of any series in any season typically sets up the finale with plenty of revelations that have been lurking in the background, and this week’s Dark Matter is no exception. The big difference is that the secrets that Ryo shares throughout this episode are used both as leverage and as the “gift” referred to in the episode title, and it leaves us wondering what to think of the deposed emperor....
The splitting of Grindhouse into two features has been discussed to death, so I can skip over that now. Suffice it to say, once upon a time this was supposed to be a much shorter film, played back to back with a Robert Rodriguez film with some fake trailers in between. However, thanks to unfavourable audience reactions it was re-edited and released into the wild by itself. Without seeing Planet Terror, the other half of the double bill, I can’t definitely say whether this was a smart move or not, but Death Proof has definitely lost some of its cool as a result....
Never, in all the years of covering Doctor Who at Den Of Geek, have I sat at screening where Steven Moffat sat half way between two major figures in the British government. On one side, the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls. Meanwhile, the Chancellor Of The Exchequer, George Osborne, was a few seats to the other. Given that we were all invited to suggest who our scariest monsters were before the screening, it was a wonder so many resisted such an easy opportunity....
But I liked it. And I liked it for a simple reason: it was bursting with ambition. Blatantly loaded with the kind of budget that Doctor Who single episodes aren’t supposed to get, Russell T Davies’ script had the feel of a kid in a candy store, pulling in elements such as Douglas Adams’ Starship Titanic (note the overt ‘42’ in the script!), a monstrous amount of special effects, some quite effective robotic baddies in the form of the Host, and a star cast....
2.24 The Grand Experiment As we saw in Sherlock’s response to Alistair’s death in No Lack Of Void, Miller’s character isn’t demonstrative with emotions, but corseted by awkwardness and traditional British reserve. That Miller manages to convey a depth of feeling while straight-jacketed by his character’s stiff outer shell is testament to his strength as an actor. The scene in which Sherlock pledged to fix his brother’s predicament, having learned of the sacrifice Mycroft made for him despite – in his words – owing him nothing, was masterfully and affectingly played....
