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Archive: September 2011 (291-300 of 316)

Sep 5 2011 10:20 PM ET

'Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' premiere: What did you think?

by Lanford Beard

Categories: Real Housewives, Reality TV, Television

Image Credit: Evans Vestal Ward/Bravo

Well, Popwatchers, the much anticipated, re-edited premiere of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills just wrapped up. Kyle was strangely unsympathetic toward Russell during the round table at the opening of the episode, no? But no one was more unsympathetic (in every sense of the word) than Mr. Ken Vanderpump. Ken essentially called Taylor weak for entering couples therapy with Russell, then had the nerve to be offended when Kyle used the word “offended” in describing Taylor’s response to his callous, tone deaf remarks. I don’t know about you guys, but I consider a person weak if they start micromanaging other people’s word choice. Apparently he would have preferred “upset” because “offended” is too offensive for his delicate composition. Weak. Mrs. V didn’t do anything to help her hubby as she clacked her stilettos all over Taylor’s emotions by claiming they were merely a ruse to get Kyle on her side. Wow. Speaking of inflated egos and the word police, Camille launched a last-minute volley to make the evening about her, precisely because… it wasn’t about her. Glad to see some people never change. (Also file under that category: Adrienne and Paul, a.k.a. The Bickersons.) I’ll go into all of this in more detail in my recap later tonight. (UPDATE: Click to see Lanford’s full Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season premiere recap.) In the meanwhile, consider this: How stiff a competition will it be to be this season’s most hateful character? There are some pretty strong contenders already, no? How much mileage will Camille get off of Kelsey despite his absence? A momentarily sober Kim stayed relatively quiet tonight, but she had some real zingers in the promo reel (“Taylor’s in a suitcase!” “You’re a slut-pig,” which happens to be 2011′s “prostitution whore”) — are you pumped? And, poor, poor Taylor. Are you already feeling dirty watching this all go down? What did you think?

More Real Housewives of Beverly Hills from EW:
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season premiere: Ken Tucker’s take

Sep 5 2011 10:03 PM ET

'Bachelor Pad' episode 5: 'I brought some, like, very sexy lingerie'

by Kristen Baldwin

Categories: 100% Pure Cheese, Bachelor Pad, Reality TV

You’ve got to hand it to Erica — the girl’s got a lot of confidence. If you’ve seen tonight’s episode of Bachelor Pad (and SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t) then you know what I’m talking about. I find her near-delusional level of faith in herself endearing, and I, for one, would totally watch her as the Bachelorette. (Can you imagine? Dare to dream.) Anyhow, tonight’s episode had its share of choice moments, including Erica’s extremely awkward attempt at seducing Blake, and Kasey and Vienna’s fight about his extremely awkward attempt at seducing her. (Oh, the horrors that night vision camera has seen!) And we’re just one week away from the finale — will the other contestants finally rise up and overthrow King Kasey, or will he and his low-libidoed queen continue their stampede to the finish line? Make your predictions below (team Ella for the win!), and stay tuned for my full TV recap later tonight. (UPDATE: Click here for Kristen’s full Bachelor Pad recap, and don’t miss Chris Harrison’s Bachelor Pad blog.)

Sep 5 2011 12:00 PM ET

The 2011 EWwy Awards: Winners announced Friday

by Annie Barrett

Categories: EWwys, Television

There’s still time to vote for the shows and actors EW.com readers think got snubbed by Emmy this year. Flip through our photo galleries of the Comedy nominees and the Drama nominees, then head to to our Facebook page to give your faves a better shot at a jewel only slightly less rare than victory over Ron Swanson. A trophy in the shape of a ewe! That is what these deserving actors and actresses and showrunners really want.

EWwy winners will be announced this Friday. Stay tuned…

Sep 4 2011 03:00 PM ET

The 25 most addictive Labor Day TV marathons

by Mandi Bierly

Categories: Happy Holidays, News You Can Use, Reality TV, Television

Another holiday, another chance to get sucked into a TV marathon. Here are the 25 that stand the best chance of hooking you. Times are when the first and last episodes begin.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Chiller, 12 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET): This includes “Helpless” (2 a.m. ET), “I Only Have Eyes for You” (1 p.m. ET), “Band Candy” (4 p.m. ET), “The Prom” (5 p.m. ET), and “Graduation Day, Part 1 and 2″ (6 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET).

• NCIS (USA, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET): This includes the two-part season 5 finale “Judgment Day” (noon and 1 p.m. ET), the season 6 finale “Aliyah” (5 p.m. ET), the Tiva episode “Jetlag” (6 p.m. ET), the Abby and McGee in Mexico hour “Borderland” (7 p.m. ET), and the season 7 finale “Rule Fifty-One” (8 p.m. ET). READ FULL STORY »

Sep 3 2011 05:42 PM ET

Is 'Citizen Kane' REALLY the greatest American movie of all time?

by Chris Nashawaty

Categories: Burning Questions, DVDs & Downloads

Christmas came early last week. That’s when I finally received my advance copy of Citizen Kane on Blu-ray in the mail. For months, I’ve had its September 13th release date circled in red ink on my calendar. What can I say? Some folks have to be the first person they know with Madden 2012. Some camp out in sleeping bags to be the first to see the latest Harry Potter movie. Me, I’m a mouth-breathing drooler when it comes to Orson Welles’ 1941 classic. And if that doesn’t sound nerdy enough, then there’s this: I couldn’t wait to check it out in all of its 1080-p/hi-definition glory.

Hold on a sec while I wipe the spittle from my chin…

Now, I realize that declaring one’s undying love for Citizen Kane is pretty much the most obvious, least daring thing you could do. It’s the cinematic equivalent of rooting for the New York Yankees to win the world series or pulling for the latest Pixar confection to win Best Animated Film at the Oscars. Over the years, I’ve probably seen Kane twenty or thirty times. But before this new Blu-ray showed up, it had been a while. And I wanted to know if it would hold up…or if it even could hold up. After all, no other movie as hyped up and overpraised as this one.

It wasn’t always that way, of course. Welles’ dizzying, ground-breaking, totally brilliant faux biopic about a William Randolph Hearst-esque media magnate (made when Welles was twentyfrigginfive!) was actually snubbed by the Hollywood establishment when it came out. Yes, it was nominated for nine Oscars including Best Picture, but amazingly it won only one, for its screenplay. Since then, of course, it’s been hailed and hyped to the heavens. People just accept its greatness as gospel. So when the American Film Institute polled a jury of 1,500 filmmakers, critics, and historians to rank the 100 Greatest American Movies of All Time a while back, no one batted an eye when Kane landed at the top of the list. They just hit the snooze button and moved on to the rest of the Top 10.

For the record, here it is:

10. The Wizard of Oz (1939)

9. Vertigo (1958)

8. Schindler’s List (1993)

7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

6. Gone With the Wind (1939)

5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

4. Raging Bull (1980)

3. Casablanca (1942)

2. The Godfather (1972)

And, of course, No. 1…

All in all, it’s a solid, if predictably vanilla, list. These sorts of things usually are. You can quibble with a few of the Top 10 — but nothing you’d go and start a bar fight over. There are plenty of movies I’d watch any day over Singin’ in the Rain or Schindler’s List. Like, for example, Jaws, The Maltese Falcon, Pulp Fiction, A Clockwork Orange, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Psycho, The Empire Strikes Back, Double Indemnity, Chinatown, All About Eve, Annie Hall, His Girl Friday, All the Presidents Men, Dog Day Afternoon, Unforgiven, Blade Runner, hell, even John Carpenter’s The Thing. I could go on.

But, as uncontroversial as it is to say it, Citizen Kane at No. 1 just feels right to me. It felt even more right after I popped in the Blu-ray a couple of days ago and got those familiar goosebumps as Welles’ scratchy, “News on the March” faux-newsreel came on at the beginning. It’s probably the greatest ten minutes anyone’s ever put on celluloid. Mainly because you can feel Welles, the boy wonder director, having a frickin’ blast experimenting and breaking rules. Every time I watch the film, I see new things in it. Is it the greatest American movie of all time? Yeah, I think so.

But enough about me. What do you think is the greatest American movie ever made?

Sep 3 2011 10:00 AM ET

Admit it, Nickelodeon! Lori Beth Denberg always knew the answer on 'Figure It Out', didn't she?

by Grady Smith

Categories: Guilty Pleasure, Nickelodeon, Nostalgia, Television

PopWatch readers, see if you can guess what I’m thinking.

____ ____ ____ ____ ____.

Hopefully you guessed, “I loved Figure It Out.” Or else you’re getting slimed!

This goofy game show ran on Nickelodeon from 1997-1999, and during my childhood, I was a big fan. Hosted by Olympic swimmer Summer Sanders (who, in a very inside-Nickelodeon move, was lampooned on All That as a character named Winter Wonders), Figure It Out featured a panel of four TV stars who would try to guess an unknown phrase describing some extraordinary contestant. Over the course of three rounds, the stars would ask the contestant questions about his/her special talent. Each time that one of the stars said a word contained in the hidden phrase, the word would be revealed.

The stars (and mind you, when I say stars, I mean Nickelodeon personalities like Amanda Bynes and Pete and Pete‘s Danny Tamberelli, and other random pop culture figures like WWE performer Chris Jericho) would receive clues in between rounds about unanswered words, but if the phrase remained unsolved after three rounds, the contestant would receive a prize vacation and the panel would get slimed. Then the contestant would show off his/her talent — which were sometimes cool (“I have a pet squirrel that can water ski!”) and sometimes completely unimpressive (“I can bite cheese into the shape of any state!”). READ FULL STORY »

Sep 2 2011 04:00 PM ET

Fall TV Math: A look at four of this season's new shows. How do they add up?

by Sandra Gonzalez

Categories: Fall TV, Sci-Fi, Television

Image Credit: Michael Tackett/The CW

Preparing for fall TV is a truly confusing time. Finding a balance between the shows you love and the shows you’d like to try to love, filling holes in your TV schedule with new offerings, and giving advanced notice to friends that you will be cutting off all in-person communication with the world for the next 9 months is all very exhausting. (Click here to see how you can prepare for a TV season that threatens your social life.) What makes it harder to plan is that you have no idea what to expect from new shows. That’s where I come in.

Now, I’m not claiming to be a know-it-all, more like a know-some. After viewing hours and hours of pilots, I want to help sort the madness. So here are four shows that I was curious about going into the new season and some info that I hope helps you decide whether or not it’s your cup of tea.

Hart of Dixie (CW, Sept. 26) = [Everwood appeal x the south] + O.C.-style love entanglements + Rachel effing Bilson
The pilot for this CW show is so much of what we’ve seen before… in the best possible way. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 2 2011 01:00 PM ET

Fall TV survival guide: How to navigate life with your newly jam-packed schedule

by Aly Semigran

Categories: American Horror Story, Boardwalk Empire, Bones, Fall TV, Fringe, Hawaii Five-0, House, How I Met Your Mother, News You Can Use, Parks and Recreation, Survivor, Television, The Good Wife, The Office, The Simpsons, The Walking Dead, The X Factor

Image Credit: Brook Rushton/Fox

Now that you’re armed with our Fall TV Preview double issue, it’s time to hit the ground running. And by hit the ground running, we of course mean settling in for a lot of television viewing from the comfort of your couch. Still, we realize this can all be pretty overwhelming. After all, for as much television as we consumed over the summer — from Big Brother to True Blood — the viewing schedule wasn’t nearly as jam-packed as it soon will be. (Plus, we even went outside from time to time!) With the premieres of all the new and returning programs just days away, now is the time to get ready. (If you’re far behind on a series, like say, The Good Wife or Community or The Vampire Diaries, you’d better start watching those DVDs to catch up riiiiight… NOW!) But, don’t fret, dear PopWatchers, we’re here to help. After all, you’ll need to outwit, outplay, and outlast all of life’s distractions so you don’t miss a moment of Survivor. Here now, a fall television survival guide:

Find a buddy: Why do we watch TV? To talk about it the next day, of course! Like in college when you’d take classes with a pal and take turns attending so you could exchange notes (which this writer totally never engaged in, just knew people who did), you’ll need a partner through the fall TV season. Shack up with your quirky pals to watch New Girl together or have weekly gatherings to discuss who your favorite contestant is on X Factor. Either way, you can’t do this alone. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 2 2011 11:30 AM ET

'Apollo 18' blasts off into theaters this weekend: What's your favorite scared-in-space movie?

by Aly Semigran

Categories: Burning Questions, Horror, Movies, Sci-Fi

You remember the old tag line, courtesy of the classic 1979 sci-fi thriller Alien, “In space, no one can hear you scream”? While that may be true (I’ve never been to space, but I can say with the utmost certainty, I would freak out to deaf ears the entire time), people can most definitely hear you scream when you’re in a movie theater watching a freaky flick set in the infinite galaxy.

With Apollo 18 arriving this weekend, moviegoers will feel as trapped in their theaters as the unfortunate fellows aboard that secret space mission. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 2 2011 11:00 AM ET

Did, did, did, did you have it? 'GUTS', that is! And if so, which challenge could you have dominated?

by Aly Semigran

Categories: Burning Questions, I Remember When It Used To Cost A Nickel, Nickelodeon, Nostalgia, Skarsgard Your Loins, Sports, Television, Things That Are Awesome!, Those Crazy Kids!, Who Else Remembers This?

When I found out I’d be writing about GUTS for our ongoing 90′s retrospectives series, the first question I asked my peers was “Would you have rather been on GUTS or Legends of the Hidden Temple?” While there was still a fondness for Nickelodeon’s other sporting competition series, not to mention the ongoing heated debates about which team was best (It was the Purple Parrots, duh!), the answer was still, almost unanimously: GUTS!

The reasoning behind this is quite simple, really. For as much fun as Legends looked, it was a game based solely on chance, rather than skill. No matter how good you were in Legends, you could randomly be attacked by the Guards at any given moment, bringing a swift, and arguably, very unfair end to your game. When it came to GUTS, however, it really came down to your physical capabilities in some trying obstacle courses. It was, as many will point out, a kiddie version of American Gladiators, only this didn’t have anyone running around in a hamster ball, nor did it have anyone named Laser or Nitro or Zap. (Advantage: Gladiators.) READ FULL STORY »