Blankets to hide under. Check. Cell phone to call for help. Check. Flashlight just in case the power happens to go out. Check. Pillow to muffle your screams. Check. Now you're ready to watch ABC's The River.
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If the notion of getting "Lost in the Amazon" and finding yourself in a weekly horror movie has any appeal, then by all means set your compass for ABC's The River, the most exciting thing to happen to TV's midseason since, well, Monday's premiere of Smash on NBC. If Smash is a show-stopper, The River is a terrifying heart-stopper, a cleverly cinematic supernatural adventure that takes us on a wild ride into an exotic heart of darkness. (It opens with back-to-back episodes Tuesday at 9/8c, and the second hour is even scarier than the first.)
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The next live-action Batman movie is still in limbo, but the Caped Crusader is back on screen this week in a gritty new animated adventure. In Batman: Under the Red Hood — the latest in Warner Home Videos' series of movies based on DC Comics stories — a mysterious and ruthless vigilante has shown up in Gotham City, and not even the Dark Knight is able stop him.
This violent newcomer, named for the red hood that covers his face, quickly stirs up trouble...
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He's come a long way from Firehouse Dog. Bruce Greenwood has landed the role of Captain Kirk's predecessor, Christopher Pike, in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek prequel.... Saw slasher Shawnee Smith, Texas Chainsaw Massacre babe Erica Leerhsen and Day of the Dead's AnnaLynne McCord have been cast in Slaughter, as actresses unwittingly hired to be in a Japanese snuff film.... Billy Bob Thornton has been tapped to play a good-guy G-man in Eagle Eye, a thriller in which Shia LaBeouf (of all people) is accused of being a terrorist. — Ben Katner
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Made sense that in the last moments of HBO's misbegotten John from Cincinnati, Ed O’Neill was finally reunited with his AWOL avian friend Zippy. If ever there was a show that was for the birds, it was this birdbrained mishmash of half-baked, foulmouthed, anti-dramatic allegorical nonsense.Over the last week, I attempted to catch up with last month’s episodes, hoping against hope that I’d at last see what I was supposed to be seeing in this smugly opaque world of cryptic utterances from annoyingly mannered characters. (And I thought, maybe like other HBO series, in particular the superior Wire, this could be one of those shows that plays better if you watch several hours back-to-back.) The result: torture. I made it maybe halfway through each hour before zoning out in a state of utter boredom and contempt. Forget confusion — that part of the equation left the station long ago. I was merely hoping to be entertained a little. In vain, as it turned out.At least the ...
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