Review: The Town
The Town demonstrates how exemplary direction and a keen sense of storytelling can raise even the most ordinary material to new heights.
Chapter Two
It’s less than 48 hours away from the fall equinox as I start typing this, and I am happy to say that it has been a fairly fulfilling summer 'vacation' here at Chapter Two headquarters.
Review: Easy A
One of the best things about being completely shameless is that I have no problem going by myself to see a movie targeted specifically at teen girls.
A-List
Twitter is the next natural cinematic property, and today’s A-List discusses five potential, big-budget smash hits. Let’s get to the list.
How Well Do You Know: Let The Right One In
With an American remake looming, one is always wary of what will change about one of their favorite films.
This tale featuring a daring narrative about a boy who has a new neighbor that happens to be
a vampire is certainly one of them. Will they age the characters? Will they gloss over unique story lines?
Worse, will they make the vampire sparkle? While we still have yet to find out what will be included in
"Let Me In," we certainly can look back and ask How Well Do You Know the original, "Let The Right One In?"
Comics Weekly
You're terminated if you don't buy comics this week.
Watching Instantly
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store.
Make an Argument
Sure, theater’s entertainment, but I don’t think a project’s cast should be the driving force to go out and see a show.
Director's Spotlight
My father is a dentist. I have no real interest in dentistry and am long past the point in my life where pursuing dentistry as a career was a viable option.
Classic Movie Review
The best word I can think of when considering the science-fiction film Forbidden Planet, from 1956, is “quaint”.
How to Spend $20
This week: Party Down caters its last event, Zach Braff hands off narrating duties to Kerry Bishé and Iron Man 2 preps for The Avengers.
Viking Night
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a movie that came into being at the hind end of the period when just about every budget ensemble crime caper reminded you in some way of Pulp Fiction.
Overpaid Jerks: 9/20/10-9/26/10
This week: The importance of mastering your kicking game, division clinchers, a gentle takedown and really old game tape. Check your radar gun often as you work your way through our weekly sports quiz.
Survivor Recap
Over at the Espada (old people tribe), we’re realizing that Survivor has packed this group full of Type-A personalities.
TiVoPlex
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex!
Amazing Race Recap
It is time to get Season 17 of the Amazing Race and my third go-around recapping probably my favorite of the 156 reality shows on TV.
Monday Morning Quarterback
Wall Street gets a sequel, and a bunch of owls fight and fly. We guess we can take a few moments out of our jam-packed schedule to chat about the results.
How Well Do You Know: Futurama, Season 1 Episode 07: My Three Suns
Does anyone think it's odd that a shiftless 25-year-old delivery boy could drop out of the sky, kill an emperor and be rewarded instead of punished? Not Philip J. Fry! He’s too busy selecting an imperial consort and emperoring it up in his royal unisex robe. How Well Do You Know Futurama: My Three Suns? Presented In Doublevision (Where Drunk)
Weekend Wrap-Up
If it's odd, it must be September. This is one of those weekends where the box office could go either way.
How Well Do You Know: Futurama, Season 1 Episode 05: Fear of a Bot Planet
The Planet Express crew have to deliver a package to a robot planet where humans (and possibly humanoid aliens) are killed on sight. Fry and Leela aren’t thrilled, but Bender loves it – he gets wealth, fame and access to sleaze that those things bring. How Well Do You Know Futurama: Fear of a Bot Planet? Featuring Gratuitous Alien Nudity!
This is So Last Week: 9/17/10-9/23/10
This week: Two assaults on paparazzi, inappropriate cleavage, a girl-on-girl kiss and TV premiere news. Let us guide you through the alligator-infested swamp that was the last seven days in entertainment and celebrity news.
How Well Do You Know: SNL Digital Shorts II
Saturday Night Live maintains its relevancy around the water cooler mostly because of its Digital Shorts. The pre-taped sketches, which started in 2005, became instantly successful thanks to "Lazy Sunday," which had Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about cupcakes and The Chronicles of Narnia. You may know your "Motherlovers" from your "Cherry Battles," but how well do you know SNL Digital Shorts II?
This Weekend, Watch This
New movies are released into theaters every weekend. How do you decide which movie to watch?
Weekend Forecast
Ten, or maybe just five, years ago if you'd heard the title Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, you'd probably assume you were watching Saturday Night Live.
How Well Do You Know: Wild Things
Overly simplistic, it was not. The 1998 thriller Wild Things contained enough twists and double/triple crosses to fill 10 minutes of screen time following the closing credits. Throw in a threesome and great Bill Murray comic relief, and you've got one of the great guilty pleasures of the 1990s. You never know when extracting your own teeth will come in handy, but how well do you know Wild Things?
How Well Do You Know: Seinfeld: The Cheever Letters
In "The Bubble Boy," Kramer burns down Susan's family cabin. So in "The Cheever Letters," George deals with the consequences. Meanwhile, Jerry upsets Elaine's assistant. How well do you know The Cheever Letters?
Are You With Us?
The jock. The family man. The slut. The brainiac. The beauty. The man who acts like a boy. The girl who acts like a woman
Watching Instantly
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store.
A-List
For a long while, time was kind to Michael Douglas. He turns 66 on September 25th, but if it weren’t for the recent cancer diagnosis, you’d never know it.
How Well Do You Know: Wall Street
Oliver Stone's film Wall Street was a look at the seamy underbelly of the the stock market boom of the 1980s. Michael Douglas won an Academy Award for his career-defining role of Gordon Gekko. You may have just bagged the elephant, but how well do you know Wall Street?
Comics Weekly
The comic is better than the movie. Might as well buy it now.
Book vs. Movie
If his biography is to be believed (and, really, why not?) Chuck Hogan was a clerk in a video store in the mid 1990s when his first novel was published
Drawn That Way
In the last ten years, Batman has certainly won the "Mine’s bigger than yours" argument with fellow superhero, Superman.
How Well Do You Know: Friends, Season 1 Episode 01: Pilot
In September 1994, NBC aired the pilot of Friends. The series would run for 10 years and become a pop culture milestone. In the pilot, Rachel meets the gang, Monica goes on a date, and we learn how love is like a giant pigeon. How well do you know Friends: The Pilot?
Overpaid Jerks: 9/13/10-9/19/10
This week: A female reporter/NFL scandal, another late season Rockies surge, an unusual allegation against Shaq and the return of Anna Kournikova. Keep pretending you were hit by the pitch and take your base as you work your way through our weekly sports quiz.
What Are We Watching?
With the 2010-11 TV season beginning, we once again polled the BOP staff about their intentions toward the new shows. Here are the results.
TiVoPlex
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex!
Top Chef Finale
If last year’s finale was unpredictable because every chef was insanely amazing, this finale is unpredictable because everyone is pretty good.
Monday Morning Quarterback
Lots of new releases hit theaters this weekend, and some of them did quite well (no, not you Alpha and Omega). Read part one of our roundtable discussion.
How Well Do You Know: Ultimate NCIS Character Trivia
So, you've seen a few NCIS marathons on USA. You know how Gibbs takes his coffee, what affectionate nicknames Abby gives to her lab equipment, why DiNozzo hates the Civil War, and that under no circumstances should you ever let Ziva drive the van. But how well do you really know your favorite NCIS characters? Take this quiz and find out!
How Well Do You Know: Futurama, Season 1 Episode 04: Loves Labours Lost in Space
Fry gets lucky with a girl from the 21st century, Leela tries to save some frisky little doomed animals and Zapp Brannigan makes it with a hot alien babe. And in the end is that not what man has dreamt of since first he looked up at the stars? How Well Do You Know Futurama: Love’s Labours Lost in Space? Presented in Brain Control.
How Well Do You Know: Futurama, Season 1 Episode 02: The Series Has Landed
Fry and the Planet Express crew head off on their first mission - pow! Straight to the moon! One small step for mankind, and one giant line for admission. It may be the happiest place orbiting Earth, but don’t go a-touching any beautiful robot daughters. How Well Do You Know Futurama: The Series Has Landed? In Hypno-Vision!
Survivor Recap
Hello, Survivor fans, and welcome back to the 21st season of the show, which will take the contestants to Nicaragua.
Weekend Wrap-Up
Thank goodness that's over. After a weekend where we had the lowest top 12 box office total in two years, four new films – none of them close to blockbusters – have awakened the box office this weekend.
How Well Do You Know: Futurama, Season 1 Episode 01: Space Pilot 3000
Loser delivery boy Philip J. Fry is cryogenically frozen, and sent 1000 years into the future. There may be aliens and spaceships and lasers in the future, but he’s still going to be a delivery boy. Here’s to another lousy millennium! How Well Do You Know Futurama: Space Pilot 3000? In Color!
This is So Last Week: 9/10/10-9/16/10
This week: Kanye is erudite, Spencer is arrested, a leg is broken and Justin Bieber is history's greatest monster. Plus: a see-through dress, a new video game and the significance of the number 800, all in our weekly entertainment and celebrity quiz.
Weekend Forecast
Only three weekends into September, and this month’s releases have been chewed up and spit out already, at least for the most part.
This Weekend, Watch This
I'll save you the hassle of researching every movie, by comparing the new releases for each weekend in this column. Then, I'll tell you which movie to watch.
Big Brother Recap
When in the mood for watching something anti-climatic, look no further than the Big Brother finale.
Review: Cemetery Junction
Few writers can lay to claim to as meteoric a rise and as seismic an impact as Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.
How Well Do You Know: My Girl
My Girl, the 1991 coming of age story, shone a new light at our comedic hero Macuaulay Culkin. Besides the drama of a young child dying, there's great comedy with the most adorable 11 year old girl. From first kisses to first heart breaks, you'll smile, laugh and cry (you know you totally cried at the end of this movie). How well do you know My Girl?
How Well Do You Know: Top Chef D.C. Recap
Washington, DC served as the backdrop for the seventh iteration of Top Chef. While it took a while for this season to emerge from the shadow of its predecessor, the competition grew increasingly intriguing as the finale approached. You may dearly hope that you never hear the phrase "pea puree" again in your life, but how well do you know Top Chef DC?
How Well Do You Know: Big Brother, Season 12 Recap
What was once believed by me to be a so-so season of Big Brother really turned itself around about midway through. Drama set in. People made the game personal. And it was spectacular. You may know your hippitards from your penguin suits, but how well do you know Big Brother 12?
Movie Review: Machete
Robert Rodriguez is a filmmaker with a bold and energetic style, and that’s what we like about him.
Guilty Pleasures
If you’ve only ever seen Mitch Pileggi as Skinner in The X Files, then you’re in for a real treat!
A-List
In lieu of talking more about Emma Stone and Easy A, let’s talk about five of the big film festival finds of the past 25 years.
How Well Do You Know: Summer 2010 Box Office Trivia
This summer saw box office revenue flatline. Yes, this is probably due to the perceived quality of some of the major action releases such as Robin Hood, The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, and The A-Team. Despite these large scale failures, some titles managed to tear it up at the box office, while others did well enough. We've dialed down the difficulty this time to boost your self-esteem. So, go nuts. How well do you know summer box office 2010?
How Well Do You Know: Covert Affairs, Season 1 Recap
A mysterious incident from her past propels young CIA trainee Annie Walker headlong into some serious spying in the freshman season of Covert Affairs. Annie has to use her instincts, as well has help from tech support maven Auggie Anderson to avoid treachery both in the field and within the company. You may secretly covet Auggie's sweet green light-emitting cane, but how well do you know Covert Affairs, Season 1?
How Well Do You Know: True Blood: Season 3 Recap
Werewolves entered the mix in season three of True Blood. As did a pregnant belly for Arlene and love interest for Lafayette. Oh, and Sookie and Bill fight like bulldogs, but what's really new about that picture? How well do you know True Blood: Season Three?
Comics Weekly
Comics! Fresh, tasty comics!
Make an Argument
Dexter is poised to have a fantastic fifth year. Here’s why.
Review: Winter's Bone
Whilst watching Winter's Bone, Debra Gronik's blistering adaptation of the novel by Daniel Woodrell, I kept comparing it to David Lynch's Blue Velvet.
Survivor Roundtable
As the newest season of Survivor begins, we explore the ins and outs of what has worked and what hasn't.
How Well Do You Know: Lilo & Stitch
Ohana means "Family" and Lilo & Stitch explores what it means to be a family. Lilo and her sister Nani are struggling to hold their little family together when Stitch enters the picture. Stitch has no family and nearly destroys what Lilo and Nani have together. In the end Ohana is embraced and a stronger family emerges.
How Well Do You Know: The Closer, Season 6 Recap
The sixth season of The Closer was anything but business as usual for Brenda Leigh Johnson and her Major Crimes squad. Sanchez adopted a boy (sort of), Flynn and Provenza dated stewardesses (sort of), and Brenda had aspirations to become Chief of Police (sort of). You may know Ruben Hernandez from Tommy Delk, but how well do you know The Closer, Season 6?
Monday Morning Quarterback
It was a super exciting weekend at the box office! All of the movies did so well and there were records set and...oh, wait. At least there was football.
Watching Instantly
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store.
How to Spend $20
This week: Glee sings a high note, E.T. gets an unintentionally hilarious copycat and Jason Schwartzman admits to knowing nothing about solving crimes.
Viking Night
Sometimes a film attains legendary status because it manages to present an unconventional or uncommon point of view on a controversial subject.
Overpaid Jerks: 9/6/10-9/12/10
This week: Odd NFL endings, a baseball milestone, woes for the Hokies and NCAA basketball infractions. Make sure you get both feet down and maintain possession of the ball as you work your way through our weekly sports quiz.
How Well Do You Know: Survivor Seasons by Cast
Upon its debut in 2000, Survivor set the bar for competition reality shows. After 20 seasons, the show still remains an entertaining diversion, though the enjoyability of a given season is largely reducible to the quality of its cast. Given the names of four participants, can you identify the edition of Survivor on which they appeared? You may know the Pearl Island Survivors from those of Cook Islands, but how well do you know Survivor Seasons by Cast?
Big Brother Recap
Big Brother dug into its Christian roots when the week opened on a Head of Household competition centered around Christmas.
TiVoPlex
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or underappreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex!
Top Chef Recap
The finale is finally here, and you can color me excited.
How Well Do You Know: The Simpsons: Bart the Lover
Bart makes his first foray into the world of love. Unfortunately, it’s with his fourth-grade teacher. Even less fortunately, love letters are Homer’s specialty. How Well Do You Know The Simpsons: Bart the Lover?
Weekend Wrap-Up
The post Labor Day frame at the box office is always anemic, but this week we are really seeing bottom.
How Well Do You Know: The Simpsons: $pringfield
After a new casino opens in Springfield, Marge develops a gambling problem leaving Homer to fend for himself with pie-crust, cloves and Tom Collins mix. How Well Do You Know The Simpsons: $pringfield?
Friday Box Office Analysis
The fourth movie in the Resident Evil franchise, Afterlife earned $10.9 million on Friday. This is a new high for the franchise, as the previous best was Resident Evil: Extinction's $9.6 million in September 2007.
This is So Last Week: 9/3/10-9/9/10
This week: A strange rant, stranger career choices and a death that is even stranger still. Plus: the new TV season, a celeb out of makeup and watermelon: the most dangerous fruit of all. Enjoy our romp through the past week in entertainment and celebrity news.
Weekend Forecast
Over the years, the Resident Evil franchise grew to become a videogame monolith, eventually earning the dubious honor of big screen adaptation.
This Weekend, Watch This
The only new movie in wide release is Resident Evil: Afterlife (in 3D). Since there is no movie to compare it to, I will compare it to another resident evil: my college roommate.
How Well Do You Know: Corey Haim and/or Corey Feldman Movies
The Two Coreys - Haim and Feldman - were *the* teen dynamic duo of 1980s movies. Well, maybe not so dynamic, but made quite the name for themselves. Drugs, ill-advised career moves and the inability to cope with fame derailed their careers and brought Haim's life to an end all too early. Six months after Haim's death, let's look back on the brief, meteoric careers of these two. How well do you know Corey Haim and/or Feldman Movies?
How Well Do You Know: Psych: Season 5 Part 1
The summer brings warmer weather and original USA Network programming to save us from network 'reality' banality. With it, we kicked off another season of Psych, the reliably silly but always entertaining adventures of fake psychic detective Shawn and his partner/best friend Gus. You may know all the words to the theme song because it is your cell's ringtone but how well do you know the first half of Psych Season 5, with guest stars like Apollo Creed, the ageless Richard Alpert and Mr. Sarah Michelle Gellar?
Review: The American
While watching The American, I was reminded of another great film about an assassin, 1973’s The Day of the Jackal.
Are You With Us?
The Royal Tenenbaums, one of BOP's favorite films of the 2000s, is Ryan's assignment for today.
A-List
This week brings the unexciting release of yet another Resident Evil film.
How Well Do You Know: The Movie That Killed Me 2
It's the rare actor who doesn't die on screen at some point in their career. Given the name of an actor/actress, can you pick out the film in which his/her character died? Think of this as the flip side to our Who Died series of quizzes. How well do you know The Movie That Killed Me?
Comics Weekly
Buy comics (geeks).
Movie Review: Takers
Takers couldn’t be a more appropriate title for this slick but ultimately derivative heist picture.
Mythology
The idea of mythologies is by no means limited to stories about vampires, aliens and smoke monsters.
How Well Do You Know: Honeymoon in Vegas
On her deathbed, Jack Singer's (Nicolas Cage) mother makes him promise he will never get married - and dies immediately after he refuses to agree to her last request. This causes problems years later, when his girlfriend Betsy (Sarah Jessica Parker) wants to get married. Will a trip to Vegas lead to happy endings for Jack and Betsy? How well do you know Honeymoon in Vegas?
Top Chef Recap
It’s hard to believe that there are only five chefs left. Usually, I know we’re getting to the end of the season because all of the remaining chefs are AMAZING.
Big Brother Recap
I think the most exciting thing about Big Brother this week didn’t even take place in the Big Brother house.
Watching Instantly
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store.
How to Spend $20
This week: The Office keeps on truckin’, Kate Hudson opens a door she probably shouldn’t have and MacGruber leaps to the big screen.
How Well Do You Know: Leverage, Season 3 Recap
Season 3 of Leverage saw Sophie back in the fold, and Nate Ford's team of avenging do-gooders was firing on all cylinders. From classical music halls to coal mines, from back-woods militia camps to auction houses, the Leveragists worked in all sorts of venues to make sure wrongs were righted. You may know The Jailhouse Job from The King George Job, but how well do you know Leverage, Season 3?
Overpaid Jerks: 8/30/10-9/5/10
This week: Baseball's new Mr. Furious, college football conference shenanigans, a costly hit, a costly divorce and bizarre MLB endings. Enjoy our recap of the past week in sports, presented in a pleasing quiz format.
TiVoPlex
From the obscure to the obscurest to the merely overlooked or under-appreciated; they all have a home in the TiVoPlex!
Review: The Last Exorcism
The Last Exorcism starts off with an intriguing concept but steadily descends into horror mediocrity.
How Well Do You Know: The Simpsons: The Last Temptation of Homer
Homer has impure thoughts about a sultry, beautiful woman who isn’t Marge. Okay, that’s pretty normal. What isn’t normal is his feelings are reciprocated! But cartoons don’t have to make sense. And did anybody pray for giant shoes? How Well Do You Know The Simpsons: The Last Temptation of Homer?
How Well Do You Know: The Simpsons: Lisa's Wedding
Lisa takes a magical journey to learn about what her life will be like in 2010, and it turns out she’s no longer eight years old. How about that! Unfortunately, she only learns about the relationships where she gets jerked around. How Well Do You Know The Simpsons: Lisa’s Wedding?
Weekend Wrap-Up
Well, it's the Labor Day Weekend, a frame that has brought us highly questionable past new releases like All About Steve, Babylon A.D., Disaster Movie, Balls of Fury, and The Wicker Man.
Friday Box Office Analysis
Labor Day brings a few new films to theaters, but it's obvious that people are ready for other things, like college football.
This is So Last Week: 8/27/10-9/2/10
This week: A stripper wearing reading glasses (huh?), a strange eyeball injury (ouch!), a large donation(nice!) and a supermodel in 3-D (sweet!). Add your own exclamation to our weekly entertainment and celebrity quiz.
This Weekend, Watch This
I'll save you the hassle of studying each movie by comparing the new releases for each weekend.
Weekend Forecast
Labor Day movie audiences will see something entirely uncharacteristic at theaters this weekend, on what's typically the worst time of year for them.
How Well Do You Know: Movie Posters by Director
For this quiz, we're combining two of our most popular quiz series - Movie Posters and That's Not My Movie (Directors). We'll present you with a set of movie posters, and ask you how they pertain to a certain director. Be sure to pay attention to the wording of the question. Strap on your thinking caps and see how well you know Movie Posters by Director.
Make an Argument
Why should you be watching Sons of Anarchy? Find out here.
Guilty Pleasures
When it comes to the Resident Evil films, any one of them in the franchise would be deserving of being a guilty pleasure.
Mythology
It only took 11 years, four direct-to-DVD movies, and a Family Guy style return from cancellation on a different network, but, at long last, Futurama finally hits the 100-episode mark.
A-List
Though I could easily write a bit about Machete, it may be a bit easier and safer to talk a bit about offscreen couples.
How Well Do You Know: Labor Day: Working in the Movies
In 1894, Congress passed a law designating the first Monday in September each year as a holiday for businesses to promote sales and release lousy movies to theaters across the country. In honor of Labor Day, let's see how well you know Working in the Movies.
Classic Movie Review
In the annals of film history, there are great couples and there are great couples.
Comics Weekly
You have money. Here are comics on which to spend it.
Mythology
One type of mythology I haven’t really touched upon over the course of this column is that of gender role mythology.
September Forecast
September 2010 is a bit of a middle-of-the-road month, with the two unexpected sequels probably lording it over the ever-present CGI animations. But watch out for Betty White.