What the #$%&@ does F/X have to do to have a successful show?

What in the world does F/X have to do get people to watch its shows? In the past year, the network has aired easily the two best new shows in my book, "Terriers" (R.I.P) and "Lights Out," and in each case they've been rewarded with one-season wonders.

Not that that's all that odd, or even surprising. Many of the best TV shows of the last 15 years or so, "Freaks and Geeks" and "Firefly" in particular, have failed to catch on with enough people to please the bean-counters. That doesn't, however, make it any less maddening.

In the case of "Terriers," I could at least understand it. That show was a true oddity, a P.I. comedy-drama of sorts that ambled at its own pace and just had a skewed sense of humor that was never going to be everyone's viewing choice. But with "Lights Out," which officially got its cancellation order last night, I just don't get it.

Not only is it easily one of TV's best dramas on the air right now, but what else has even been on until this week or so with new episodes at all? I was hooked on the show from the start because I'm just a sucker for good boxing stories, and this was certainly one. Starting out with the tale of a former champ trying to make an unlikely (mi hermano says impossibly unrealistic given the age of star Holt McCallany) comeback against the fighter who knocked him out five years earlier, the show added to that a seedy family saga that somehow manages to make even the real world of boxing seem honest and upright by comparison.

And it contained the two best short-run performances I've seen on TV dramas in the past year. First up came Eamonn Walker (who it took me a long time to remember played Howling Wolf in the truly great little flick "Cadillac Records"), who completely took over two episodes as the mystic trainer Ed Romeo. And just this week, the always-welcome David Morse took a tragic turn as a truly punch-drunk former champ.

I don't think "Lights Out" will have the cult following of the one-season wonders mentioned earlier, but I'll certainly miss it, and will buy it when it comes to DVD. Looking at the numbers, however, it's really hard to get too mad at all at F/X. Here, courtesy of AICN, are the numbers for Tuesday nights from Jan. 11-March 22 (this week):

3.8 (2.2) (2.3) (3.8) (4.4) (3.6) (4.2) (4.6) (2.3) (4.1) (4.5) NCIS
3.2 (2.2) (2.6) (3.2) (3.9) (3.3) (3.5) (3.8) (---) (3.3) (3.7) NCIS LA
3.0 (2.7) (2.9) (2.4) (2.7) (2.7) (3.0) (3.3) (3.2) (2.9) (3.2) Biggest Loser
2.5 (2.5) (2.0) (1.9) (2.2) (2.1) (1.8) (2.1) (2.3) (2.1) (1.9) Teen Mom
2.1 (1.2) (1.3) (2.2) (2.0) (2.0) (2.2) (2.2) (---) (2.1) (2.3) Good Wife
2.0 (4.2) (4.6) (---) (4.4) (4.2) (4.6)(11.1) (1.5) (1.5) (1.7) Glee
1.8 (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) Best In Film
1.7 (1.7) (2.2) (1.8) (1.9) (2.4) (2.2) (2.4) (2.3) (2.8) (3.6) The Game
1.5 (0.9) (1.0) (1.2) (1.4) (1.5) (1.5) (1.1) (1.1) (1.8) (1.5) No Ordinary Family
1.4 (2.2) (2.7) (3.3) (2.4) (2.2) (2.7) (---) (---) (---) (---) Raising Hope
1.4 (---) (1.5) (1.1) (1.2) (1.0) (2.2) (---) (1.3) (1.6) (---) Let’s Stay Together
1.0 (---) (1.2) (1.9) (2.1) (1.9) (1.9) (2.2) (---) (2.1) (2.2) Parenthood
1.0 (1.5) (1.5) (---) (1.6) (1.4) (1.9) (---) (---) (---) (---) Traffic Light
1.0 (0.8) (1.0) (---) (0.8) (---) (1.0) (---) (---) (---) (---) Top Shot
1.0 (---) (0.8) (0.7) (0.8) (1.0) (0.9) (0.8) (0.8) (0.9) (1.1) Hardcore Pawn
0.9 (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) NBA Basketball
0.6 (0.5) (0.7) (0.6) (0.6) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) Real Housewives Miami
0.5 (0.4) (0.5) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) Million Dollar Listing
0.3 (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) Destination Truth
0.3 (0.2) (0.5) (0.6) (0.6) (0.7) (0.7) (0.8) (0.9) (0.3) (0.4) Hellcats
0.3 (0.3) (0.4) (0.4) (0.3) (0.3) (0.4) (0.4) (0.4) (0.4) (0.6) Lights Out
0.3 (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) (---) Marcel’s Quantum Kitchen
0.3 (0.3) (0.4) (0.7) (0.9) (0.8) (0.7) (1.2) (0.9) (---) (0.4) One Tree Hill

Yes, you really did have to dig pretty far to find "Lights Out," and by the way, what in the heck is "Marcel's Quantum Kitchen"? So, R.I.P., "Lights Out," and if you like the show as much as I did and do, tune in for the final two episodes to see if Lights finally gets his rematch with Death Row.

OK, enough of that depressing stuff. Starting this Sunday (of course) for you folks like me who get HBO is "Mildred Pierce," and you can certainly count me as psyched for it. A five-part miniseries based on the novel by James M. Cain and directed by Todd Haynes, it stars one Kate Winslet in the titular role. The story, already made into a 1945 movie I haven't seen, is about a working mother who separates from her cheating husband during the Great Depression (0r at least, the first one) and tries to keep her family together as she eventually goes on to open three restaurants and a pie-selling business. It's most certainly a whole lot more epic and just better than I'm making it sound here. Keep an eye out for Guy Pearce as Mildred's wealthy playboy lover Monty Beragon, and enjoy these two clips to whet your appetite, the first an episode one preview and the second a 30-minute making-of special. As for me, I'm off to work and then to see Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch" this weekend, and frankly hoping it doesn't just make my eyeballs melt. Peace out.

Preview Part 1

Making Of

The first extended look at what should be the craziest movie of 2011

Though plenty of people I know heaped scorn on Zack Snyder for what he did with "Watchmen," considering his options with what should have probably remained an "unfilmable" funny book, I thought he did a first-rate job, even without a giant squid.

So I've been looking forward to "Sucker Punch" quite a bit. Coming in March 2011, it will be Snyder's first original idea turned into a movie. Well, as you'll see from the first full trailer below, not entirely original. The story of a teen girl who uses her imagination to escape from a mental institution owes a heck of a lot to both Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland" and Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth."

That said, however, it still seems that what our heroine (Emily Browning) dreams up will be a rather amazing trip, all thankfully made in glorious 2D and somehow co-starring both Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino and Jon Hamm, so enjoy the trailer (which looks great full screen) and stick around for a couple more clips just silly enough to be perfect for a Thursday morning.



Of all the things that happened with Tuesday's election, none of them terribly encouraging to me, the single oddest would have to be that Californians voted for the return of Gov. Moonbeam while simultaneously rejecting Prop 19, which dealt with legalizing some marijuana use. Having used the stuff only once (on a side trip from the 2006 World Cup to Amsterdam with mi hermano) in the last 10 years or so, I really don't have any opinion either way, but I do know that this clip of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara discussing "marihuana" is nothing but funny. Enjoy.



And finally today, given how protective George Lucas is of his creations, I suspect this clip won't be around for long, but you've got to appreciate the effort that Bryan Theiss put into this mashup of Lando Calrissian and R. Kelly's "Real Talk." Nothing but awesome, and with that, I'm off to the job that somehow still pays my bills. Peace out.

Harry Potter and the turning point in the fight against unnecessary 3D?

Actually, the photo above, of course, has nothing at all to do with the main topic at hand, but it's so epicly good that I really couldn't think of anywhere else to start today.

In case you can't tell, it's the great Michelle Williams (easily one of my favorite young actresses) as Marilyn Monroe, and the resemblance is strong enough that it almost borders on creepy. It's from a film, shooting now, titled "My Week With Marilyn" and directed by Simon Curtis. Using the diaries of Colin Clark, an assistant on the set of the 1956 film "The Prince and the Showgirl," it tells the story of the production, which teamed Monroe with Laurence Olivier. Definitely something to keep an eye out for.

But the main event here today is what I sincerely hope will indeed be a turning point in the battle against 3D, or at least against the kind of crappy 3D conversion that's simply tacked onto too many movies after they've already been shot.

The news: The first half of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," set to come out Nov. 19, will only be released in traditional 2D and IMAX, rather than being converted into craptastic 3D.

A victory against one of the most ridiculous film gimmicks of all time? Not quite. Warner Bros. is hardly making some kind of artistic stand here - according to the studio's news release on this, they simply ran out of time.

And, making this news even more of a mixed bag, the studio still plans to convert the second chapter, set for release July 15, 2011, into 3D, which just makes the whole situation very strange.

Still and all, any time a major release (and does it get much more major than Harry Potter?) backs away from the 3D madness, I have to smile at least a little bit, no matter what the reason.

The only case of I know of in which a big-time director has so far just said no to 3D for reasons beyond simple timing is Zack Snyder's upcoming "Sucker Punch," set for release in March 2011. Last I had heard, at least, he was resisting all entreaties to mess with the mostly or perhaps now completely finished film, so here's hoping he and wife/producer Deborah keep up the good fight.

OK, enough of that. Just one more bit of good news today and then an epicly awesome trailer, because I have a full day of errands ahead of me. My wallet clearly tells me I should drop HBO, but every time I'm about to, they come up with something strong enough to keep me hooked.

Currently, "Boardwalk Empire" is even better than all the critical hype built it up to be, and though they're clearly acquired tastes, I really dig the comedies "Bored to Death" and "Eastbound and Down" too.

And now comes word of an HBO movie pairing that sounds just about perfect. I normally can only take Al Pacino in small doses, because his usual habit of simply yelling all his lines just gives me a throbbing headache, but if you re-pair him with David Mamet to tell the crazy story Phil Spector? That should indeed be a wall of awesome once it all comes together.

Finally today is the first trailer I know of for Peter Weir's "The Way Back," and you can tell already from this short footage that the movie starring Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan (hah, I spelled that right without cheating) and Mark Strong will be on the scale we should expect from the director of "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" (and oddly enough, nothing else between that 2003 film and now.) As you'll see from the clip below, the movie, set to come out soon hopefully everywhere, tells the story of a band of prisoners who escape from the Russian Gulag and then go on an epic journey back to the rest of the world. Enjoy the trailer and have a great weekend. Peace out.

Does the anti-3-D movement finally have a champion in Zack Snyder?

I certainly hope so, because when you hear news as crazy as this, it really just drives home how much we need one.

And I suppose that when you're James Cameron, you've certainly earned the right to a little crazy, but really, can't he find anything better to with all his pull than a 3-D Black Eyed Peas concert movie? Apparently not.

According to will.i.am (and I have no idea nor care if I'm writing that right), the now-confirmed-as-evil genius is indeed using his 3-D magic for a big-screen concert flick that will follow the band around the globe. Here's what he had to say to Vibe:

“We have the biggest director because we are the biggest group on the planet. The Peas are filming it in South America. People will be able to see us in the theater with the 3-D glasses and everything. There will be a storyline that [Cameron] came up with, which will be dope.It’s a full-length film and it's based around our tour activities. We’ve toured from America and Europe, to the Middle East, South America, Asia and Africa."

Oh, there will be a storyline? Thanks for clearing that up. Sheesh.

But what is the real remedy to all this madness? It will have to be movies that make tons of money without ever touching the gimmick, and that starts, I suppose, with "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" having possibly already made a billion bucks. Not my cup of blood, but bully.

It also needs directors who, when asked to ruin their films with the simply wretched "3-D conversion," have the nards to just say no, and Zack Snyder is hopefully the man to do it.

I've always liked Snyder's movies. "300" was just a big ball of fun, and unlike most "Watchmen" fans, I had no problem at all with what he did with that funnybook masterpiece. He has a 3-D animated owl (yes, owl) flick, "Legends of the Guardians" (at least I think that's what it's called), coming out Sept. 24. But it's what come next that should be really fun.

After making two adaptations, "Sucker Punch" will be his first original live-action flick, and it will star Vanessa Hudgens as a young lady who must escape from a mental hospital to which she's been sent by her evil stepfather. And just in case that's not enough to get you hooked, this will also star Reel Fanatic fave Carla Gugino, Mad man Jon Hamm and even "Black Dynamite" himself, Michael Jai White (if you haven't seen that comic gem, take it as my rental recommendation for the day.)

And that's where his hopefully firm 3-D stance comes in. Having shot the entire movie in glorious 2-D, he's apparently under studio pressure to now "convert" it to 3-D, but as you can see from this MTV clip, he's rightly hesitant. After a little hemming and hawing about time, it's his wife and professional partner, Deb, who gives the real reason: It's just so unnecessary. Amen to that. Enjoy the clip and expect to see "Sucker Punch," hopefully only in 2-D, on March 25, 2011. Peace out.

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Zombie attack? They're on it ... plus Quentin Tarantino's favorite movies

I've often wondered what would really happen if the world were attacked by zombies, especially when it helps me to avoid doing some truly thankless task at work, but I had no idea people could get paid for such flights of fancy. I'm in entirely the wrong business.

Some researchers in Canada, according to the BBC, have actually carried out a "mathematical exercise" to conclude that, as any zombie movie fan knows well, "If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively."

Well, I'm glad we cleared that up. There's so many things to like about this, but I think my favorite might be that for their book, "Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress" (get thee to Amazon right now), they gave the living a chance by only using "classic, slow-moving zombies as our opponents rather than the nimble, intelligent creatures portrayed in some recent films."

Whew! So, what's their conclusion? Humanity's only hope is to "hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often. It's imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else ... we are all in a great deal of trouble."

I really wish I had the ability to make this stuff up, but just in case it all has you actually worried, they finished with this reassuring thought well reinforced by zombie movies of all kinds: "My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days."

OK, as fun as that was, enough, because there's some actual movie news out there today, plus a couple of fun videos at the finish.

First up is word of a remake that doesn't immediately make me want to vomit, at least partly because I've never seen the original it will be based on.

If you haven't seen director Michael Davis' "Shoot 'Em Up," you've missed one of the most fun movies I've seen in the past five years or so. Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti star in the bullet ballet that most often plays out like a Looney Tunes cartoon, and there are very few rentals I can recommend higher.

Now it seems that Davis has set his sights on a remake of "Outland," a 1981 sci-fi movie starring Sean Connery that, like I said, I've never seen. Every description I've seen says it's essentially "High Noon" in space, with Connery's character sent to investigate the mysterious deaths of laborers at a mining colony on one of Jupiter's moons.

With "Moon" already one of my favorites this year, and "District 9" (which I'll be seeing this weekend, along with QT's "Inglourious Basterds") getting nothing but raves, it seems we're really in a good place for big-screen sci-fi right now, and to this new addition I can only say bring it on.

Beyond that today, there are just a couple of casting nuggets out there that make projects I was sure to tune in for anyway just that much cooler.

When "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" veteran Jane Espenson was named an executive producer of Syfy (queer, queer, queer!) network's upcoming "Battlestar Galactica" prequel "Caprica," I suppose it was inevitable that she would bring some old friends along with her.

According to Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello, the first "Buffy" player to join the fold will be by far the coolest, James Marsters, aka Spike. Marsters will play a dangerous terrorist leader by the name of Barnabus Greeley in a minimum of three episodes. Here's his rather pithy character description: "Driven by desires both moralistic and carnal, Barnabus is as lethal as he is unpredictable."

That's more than enough to have me tuning in when this finally hits Syfy on Jan. 22.

In even better casting news, it seems that Don Draper himself, Jon Hamm, has joined the cast of "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder's first original work, "Sucker Punch." He joins, among others, Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish and (huzzah!) Carla Gugino in the 1950s-set tale of a girl (Browning) confined to a mental institution by her stepfather, who intends to have her lobotomized in five days. She and her friends enter an alternate reality where they begin planning an escape.

No details for Hamm's character are known except this: His name is High Roller. The movie is set to come out March 25, 2011.

And speaking of "Mad Men," which I hadn't yet, I thought the season three premiere was just sensational. The Ken vs. Pete storyline should be great, and that "Can I ask you a question?" moment between Don and poor Sal was just priceless.

OK, after all that, all I have left is two videos, the first of which is just the perfect cure for any kind of workaday blues. I'm an ardent fan of cursing, probably too much so in my own vocabulary, but especially in the movies, and no character has done it better in many years than Peter Capaldi as Malcolm Tucker in "In the Loop." Definitely see Armando Ianucci's razor-sharp satire as soon as you can, but in the meantime, enjoy this highlight reel of some of Tucker's choicest barbs, courtesy of Empire.



And finally today, in honor of "Inglourious Basterds," here's Quentin Tarantino offering his 20 favorite movies that have come out since he started making movies in 1992. I don't want to spoil it for you, but two definite highlights are his passionate defense of Jan de Bont's "Speed" and the inclusion of the seriously funny "Friday." Enjoy, and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.

R.I.P. Andy Hallett, a bit of news, and the DVD pick of the week

Now this is just amazingly sad. When I saw this name, I have to confess it didn't mean anything to me at first, but if you watched "Angel" during it's five-season run, you're certainly familiar with Andy Hallett.

Hallett played Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan, a k a Lorne, "The Host" who specialized in reading people's auras as he induced them to sing karaoke (yes, I know that sounds incredibly silly, but awfully entertaining too.) Hallett, who had apparently been battling heart disease pretty much since the show ended in 2004, died Monday night of heart failure at only age 33. Just amazingly sad.

In much better news, any doubts that Sacha Baron Cohen was going to push the envelope as far as possible in "Bruno" have been removed as the MPAA has given the flick an NC-17 rating in its first pass.

I have little doubt that Cohen and crew will be able to tame it down enough to get this one into theaters even in my rather safe little corner of the world, but - not having seen it, of course - it does make you wonder how much of that rating comes from the fact that it deals with a touchy issue, homophobia, rather than from any truly offensive content (though I'm willing to bet there's plenty of that too.) How much violence is allowed into movies rated PG-13 and below while the smallest whiff of sex - gay, straight or otherwise - just sets censors crazy is grist for a whole post in itself, but not one I have the time or energy to get into this morning.

Bottom line: "Bruno" should be a heck of a lot of fun in theaters, and way better on DVD.

There's a lot of good stuff out there this morning - the day after "Friday Night Lights" got renewed for two more seasons, huzzah! - so if you'll bear with me, I'm just gonna plow right through it.

David Cronenberg, who has until now balked at sequels of any kind, is seriously considering making an exception to that rule to continue the "Eastern Promises" saga, which I have to say would only be a good thing.

As you may remember from the end of the movie (AND IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, FOR GOD'S SAKE, PLEASE JUST SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH), the big twist is that Viggo Mortensen's Russian gangster is actually a British intelligence agent. In the right hands, a k a those of Cronenberg, screenwriter Steven Knight and Mortensen, all of whom are in talks to return, this could not only make another great flick but perhaps even a series, if they're so inclined. Here's what Cronenberg had to say about the project to the surprisingly informative MTV Movies Blog:

“We are going to have a meeting very soon between me, Steve Knight and Paul Webster to discuss what the script would be. I have some very strong ideas about what I would like to see, but I would like to hear what they have to say as well. And then after that, if all goes well, Steve goes away and writes a great script. If we all like it, we make it.”

Here's hoping, and in other casting news for flicks I'd certainly like to see, "Watchmen" director Zack Snyder has lost one waif and quickly picked up another to play the lead in his next flick, "Sucker Punch."

Amanda Seyfried was forced to drop out because HBO wouldn't let her out of her "Big Love" contract, so Aussie Emily Browning has stepped into the lead role. Though she starred this year in "The Uninvited" (which, rather amazingly, was still playing in one multiplex in my hood as recently as last week), you'll probably best remember her as Violet in "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events."

Seems like a lateral move to me, but Browning should be a lot of fun in the lead role of a young woman forced into an insane asylum by her stepfather, who then uses the power of her imagination and the help of her fellow inmates (most likely Evan Rachel Wood, Vanessa Hudgens, Abbie Cornish and Emma Stone) to escape.

No matter how this all works out, however, the best thing is that Snyder is finally cooking up something from his own mind instead of making another comic book flick.

And speaking of HBO, I'm rather psyched for the second season of "True Blood," which may even be enough to induce me to pay for the channel when the vampire series returns for season 2 on June 14.

I spent a good portion of my recent trip through the Southeast reading the source material for the second installment, Charlaine Harris' "Living Dead in Dallas," and can happily report that it has plenty of crazy stuff in store for the series (not exactly high art, I know, but it was just the perfect book to read while getting too much sun lazing on the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala.) Not to spoil too much, but the novel starts with the death of Lafayette (which ended season one of the show) and somehow ends up at an orgy.

The photo below, featuring Macon native Carrie Preston (left) as the Merlotte's waitress Arlene, and plenty more are on display at HitFix, and you can view them all here.


DVD pick of the week:

The big name this week is certainly Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire," and that one indeed did nothing but make me smile from start to finish each of the two times I've seen it already. But my pick this week is one of the only other movies I bothered to see twice in theaters in 2008 (along with "The Dark Knight"), the French thriller "Tell No One."

Not surprisingly at all given just how maddeningly entertaining it is, this mindbender based on a Harlan Coben novel is already being remade for American audiences, but please believe me that you should see it in its original French form from director Guillaume Canet. What he's cooked up here combines the best elements of the French psychological thriller genre with a genuine potboiler mystery tale, and put it all together with tons of style. I also promise that the "reveal," easily my favorite movie scene from last year, will stick with you for a long time. Rent it already.

And on that note I'll close with this rather awesome poster for Sam Raimi's "Drag Me to Hell," set to hit theaters May 29. We've all had days like this, if not quite as bad as poor Alison Lohman's, so enjoy and have a perfectly passable Tuesday. Peace out.