Here at the blog this time of year, we seek out all kinds of Christmas ornaments. Most of them are tacky or silly or fun pop culture-based baubles.
Sometimes they make us hungry.
Example? The hotdog basket ornament above. The iPhone snapshot doesn’t do it justice. This is a realistic looking dog. And the little container of ketchup!
And what better to go along with it? (Just in case you didn’t get enough on the side.)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: That’s right. It’s time for iPhone photos of the best and worst and most offbeat Christmas stuff out there in retail land.
Since 1965, when “A Charlie Brown Christmas” debuted on CBS, the images from that series have been a part of our culture. Maybe now more than ever.
A few years ago, Peanuts Christmas decor started popping up, including little figures of Charlie and friends in wintertime scenes.
The ultimate Peanuts Christmas decor has to be the little tree, as seen above.
Nothing like a pathetic little tree to inject some cheer into your Christmas.
Really, though, what I want to see is a larger-than-life version. Surely somebody has turned this little twig into their Christmas tree at home?
This one puzzles me. A Charlie Brown lighted box? To hang over your bar?
New developments for the next “X-Men” movie just keep coming, it seems.
First we learned that the follow-up to the quite successful – in many senses of the word – “X-Men: First Class” would be “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and would be based on a popular 1981 storyline from the comics that found the mutant superheroes living in – and trying to prevent – an apocalyptic future in which mutants are held in concentration camps guarded by robotic Sentinels.
Then we learned that director Matthew Vaughn would not be returning, but director Bryan Singer, who helmed the first two “X-Men” movies in the 2000s, would instead.
And in the past few days we learned that in addition to returning “First Class” cast members like Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy and Jennifer Lawrence, the actors who played longtime antagonists Magneto and Xavier in the original trilogy, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, would return.
And we learned that Hugh Jackman, who had a fun, two-word cameo in “First Class,” might be returning after filming his solo film “The Wolverine.”
Of course, with a story featuring time travel and alternate realities, it’s not impossible to imagine multiple actors playing the same characters and it’s not impossible to imagine characters from widely divergent “X-Men” eras clashing and teaming up.
So with a couple of years to go until we see the movie, what do we want to see from “X-Men: Days of Future Past?” A few thoughts:
Colorful costumes. This seems silly, almost, in the wake of the true-to-the-comics costumes in “First Class” and “The Avengers.” But remember that the last time Singer directed these characters, the conventional wisdom at the time was that moviegoers would only accept the X-Men in black leather with yellow accents. We know better now. Bring on the blue and yellow spandex!
Beefy roles for various generations of X-Men. I want to see the Fassbender version of Magneto go on the equivalent of the Nazi hunt he conducted in First Class, maybe abetted this time by Jackman as Wolverine. Who wouldn’t pay to see those two in unstoppable pursuit of some villain?
A “Spock meets Spock” moment. Or several of them. We want to see the two versions of Magneto and Xavier meet each other and we want to be able to relish it, like we did when Spock met Spock Prime in “Star Trek.”
Sentinels. Sentinels. Sentinels. We’ve only been teased with the giant robots so far. Hollywood special effects are more than ready to give us these menacing figures now.
Wolverine, yes, but more than that. Who doesn’t love Wolverine and his on-screen personification, Hugh Jackman? But even if Jackman does appear in “Days of Future Past,” he shouldn’t be the focus. He’s best when he’s the wild card, going on a berserker rampage and scaring the hell out of every bad guy in sight.
Above all else, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy. It’ll be cool to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, the heart and sole of the original “X-Men” movies, together again. But Fassbender and McAvoy made the roles of Magneto and Xavier their own in “First Class.” They energized the roles. I wish the finale of the movie hadn’t so thoroughly put Xavier in a wheelchair and set him and Magneto at odds. It was the least subtle element of the movie. But there’s a lot more to told about these two characters early in their conflict and I hope that’s what drives the movie.
The first seven episodes of the third season of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” have blown past us at an alarmingly fast rate – especially when compared to the second season on Hershel’s farm.
So it’s startling that we’re already approaching the mid-season finale, this Sunday, when “Made to Suffer” airs.
I’ll be looking forward to this one for a number of reasons, including the first appearance for Tyreese, a fan favorite character from the comics who’ll be played by Chad Coleman on the series.
Above is a screen grab from a Spanish-language trailer that purports to show Tyreese and a small group of survivors walking into what appears to be a demolished facility.
Here’s some questions we want to know:
What’s up with Tyreese and the other survivors? We know from the comics that Tyreese soon becomes a staunch ally of Rick. But it almost looks like they enter the prison after it’s been demolished and deserted.
If that’s the prison, what happened to it? We can’t forget that the Governor stole some National Guard equipment from an armory earlier in the season. Does he use it to attack the prison, which he had apparently considered impossible to clear of walkers?
What happens when Michonne takes the bag off the Governor’s walker daughter?
What happens when Merle and Daryl are reunited? Will they clash? Will they make peace?
What happens in the second half of the season, which begins early next year? Is the prison rubble? Will the Governor’s town of Woodbury survive? Will our heroes find themselves on the road again?
We’ll know some of those answers, maybe, this Sunday.
I had a lot of fun last summer watching the revival of “Dallas,” and most of that was because of Larry Hagman. Sure, the plots were fun and the rest of the cast – holdovers and newcomers – were better-than-might-be-expected.
But Hagman, with his devilish smile and crazy eyebrows, was the centerpiece of the revival just as he was in the original series.
The loss to the series and to entertainment in general is enough reason to mourn the passing yesterday of Hagman, who died at 81 after a battle with cancer.
Hagman was, by most accounts, a pretty good guy and someone who knew how lucky he was. He had a big hit with “I Dream of Jeannie” in the 1960s, a long-running hit with “Dallas” in the 1970s and 1980s and the revival last year on TNT. In between, he lived a comfortable life.
The best part about Hagman’s acting and persona was that he seemed to get the joke but never treated it as one. “Dallas” could have been camp and J.R. Ewing might have been a caricature of a villain. But that didn’t happen. And Hagman seemed to know what people wanted out of their favorite TV actor.
I’ve written about the new “Dallas” – which returns in January – and Hagman a few times in recent months.
First there was a look at what we wanted to see in the new series, then a reaction to the first-rate opener, then reviews of the next-to-last and final episode of the season.
Here’s to Larry Hagman, J.R. Ewing and “Dallas.” We’ll always love you.
It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without some acknowledgement of the most awesome Thanksgiving TV episode ever.
Yes, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Cheers” had some pretty doggone good Turkey Day episodes. But none could top the 1978 Thanksgiving episode of “WKRP in Cincinnati.”
If you’ve read this far, I don’t have to tell you that “WKRP” was a short-lived but wonderfully silly TV show about a Cincinnati radio station. The show – very similar in characters and execution to the movie “FM” – is a classic of quirky comedy.
The Thanksgiving episode finds station owner Mr. Carlson (Gordon Jump) feeling a bit out of date with the new, young, trendy rock-and-roll tone and staff of the station.
So Carlson and ad sales guy Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner) arrange a turkey giveaway. Of course, this isn’t a giveaway of frozen turkeys. They’re fresh turkeys. Really fresh.
As newsman Les Nessman looks on and delivers increasingly horrified narration, turkeys are tossed out of a helicopter.
Not surprisingly, they fall like “sacks of wet cement” to the parking lot below.
“As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly,” Carlson tells the station staff.
And a TV classic was born.
Sheldon Russell has written a series of books about Hook Runyon, a hobo-turned-yard-dog – a railroad detective – in the 1940s. The latest is “Dead Man’s Tunnel,” and I think I wanted to like it more than I did.
Russell has created a very pleasant character in Runyon, a one-armed investigator working in a thankless job as a railroad dick on a remote line in Arizona. He’s guarding the titular tunnel that was crucial to moving supplies for the war effort.
I say “was” because, as the book opens, the bomb has been dropped on Japan and the war is over. So why is guarding the rail line and tunnel so crucial? Why did a soldier on duty at the tunnel seemingly kill himself by standing in front of a speeding train? And why is everyone so secretive as Runyon tries to get answers to his questions?
I like Runyon even though I found some of the scenes in the book repetitive. I could have done with a few less hostile phone conversations between Runyon and his boss in railroad security, a little less sarcastic back and forth between Runyon and the owner of the scrap yard where Runyon makes his home.
I did really enjoy the wealth of railroad trivia Russell weaves through the story. I feel like I know a lot more about the subject after reading the book.
And Runyon, with his checkered past and his railroad caboose full of old books, is a great character. I’m hoping some of his other outings are better.
For most of us growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, the words were as familiar as the title theme music of our favorite shows: “A Quinn Martin Production.”
That phrase was usually intoned, in dramatic fashion, in the opening credits of producer Quinn Martin’s series. It was a convention that made his name recognizable even to people who didn’t pay attention to the names of Hollywood producers.
The list of TV series that Martin produced includes some of the best and most popular shows of their time, including “The Fugitive,” “The FBI,” “The Invaders” and “The Streets of San Francisco.”
In the 1970s, Martin’s productions seemed to center around the offbeat detectives of the day, including “Cannon” – featuring William Conrad as a portly detective not above bouncing bad guys into submission with his belly – and “Barnaby Jones,” featuring Buddy Ebsen as a senior citizen detective.
(You might remember that the odd detectives of the day included “Longstreet,” a blind detective, and “Ironside,” the wheelchair-bound detective.)
Martin’s shows feel kind of dated now. I’ve seen episodes of “Cannon” and “The Fugitive” recently and they’re pretty notable for embracing the TV conventions of the day, including endless transitions (long shots of cars tooling along Southern California roads, anyone?) between dialogue scenes and melodramatic music.
Of all of Martin’s shows, I was most partial to “The Invaders” – in which a man stumbles upon an alien invasion and must try to convince others what’s happening – and “Streets of San Francisco,” featuring Karl Malden and Michael Douglas as a veteran cop and his young maverick partner.
One of the most memorable things about the Martin series was the dramatic titles of the episodes.
Courtesy of the List of the Day webpage on Blogspot, a few Quinn Martin episode titles:
“To Ride a Tiger”
“Death is the Punchline”
“Shadow of Fear”
“Web of Deceit”
“See Some Evil, Do Some Evil”
The titles were parodied, years later, in the “Police Squad” series that led to the “Naked Gun” movies. In that Leslie Nielsen spoof, however, the titles on screen didn’t match those read by the narrator.
Martin died in 1987 at only 65 years old. Among his many distinctions at the time was having produced a series in primetime TV for each of 21 years from 1959 to 1980.
In seeing the new James Bond adventure, “Skyfall,” today, I was struck by the thought that I don’t believe I’ve seen a movie that seemed so much like the first film in a series and so much like the last film in a series simultaneously.
I’ll tread lightly in the spoiler department here, have no fear, but let’s just say that director Sam Mendes debut in the Bond series – and Daniel Craig’s third outing as the durable British spy, marking his 50th year in movies – wraps up and reinvigorates the character at the same time.
The recent “Star Trek” remake left me with much of the same feeling. Although it featured a mostly new cast, the presence of so many familiar “Trek” elements – not to mention the presence of Leonard Nimoy as classic Spock – made the movie feel like a new beginning and a summation.
Much the same can be said of “Skyfall,” which opens with Bond and fellow agent Eve (her full name is withheld for obvious reasons by the end of the movie) in pursuit of an agent with the names of MI6 operatives working undercover in terrorist organizations.
After a chase through very familiar-to-moviegoers street markets, over rooftops and on top of a moving train, Bond is lost and presumed dead.
M (Judi Dench) mourns but has other matters to think about. There’s not only the list of agents’ names but someone seems to be targeting her for death.
It is an attempt on M’s life that brings Bond back from an island hideaway. M sends him back to work, but not before he meets British intelligence official Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) and the new quartermaster, Q (Ben Whishaw), an impossibly young tech expert.
Before long, Bond finds that M’s tormentor is Silva (Javier Bardem), a former MI6 spy who feels he was abandoned in the field by M.
That’s one of the elements of “Skyfall” that seems most interesting. While Silva has some destructive plans and a bizarre lair on an abandoned city/island, he’s no Dr. Evil-style global extortionist. This is personal between Silva and M and it quickly becomes personal for Bond too.
As much of a feel as we get for M and her life and personality in “Skyfall,” we get the most personal look at Bond we’ve had since he fell in love and married in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
We learn the circumstances that propelled Bond into the spy game. We see his childhood home. And we see a transformation in Bond during the course of the movie.
I’m not sure if Craig is continuing in the role. It would be a shame if he and Mendes don’t come back for another entry. By the end of this movie, everything is in place for a truly stirring Bond follow-up.
Some random observations:
Rumors circulated that Mendes briefly considered asking Sean Connery to take a small but pivotal supporting role in the movie. He didn’t, and wisely so, thinking it would be too distracting to have a former Bond on hand. Albert Finney does a nice job with the part.
I really enjoyed the origin of the name Skyfall.
I don’t think I’ve seen a komodo dragon menace someone so effectively since “Jonny Quest.”
The movie’s action takes place in a couple of far-flung locales, as usual, but the best scenes are in steel-gray Britain and Scotland.
No real surprise here, but ABC today canceled “Last Resort,” the serial drama about a nuclear sub and its crew – led by captain Andre Braugher – who go on the run after their defiance of orders puts them in crosshairs.
“Last Resort had some strikes against it from its first episode:
The name was awful. Really, why in the world would you call a show about the mutinous crew of a nuclear submarine, taking refuge on an Indian Ocean island after being targeted for extermination by a U.S. government conspiracy, “Last Resort.” It sounds like the subtitle to a sequel to “Weekend at Bernie’s.”
It aired at 8 p.m. Thursdays. I know there are only so many timeslots, but why would ABC air an hour-long serial drama at 8 p.m., and opposite “Big Bang Theory,” a hit comedy that would appeal to the same audience as “Last Resort?”
Its mythology and storyline were probably too complicated for many viewers. We had the government conspiracy, the various players on the island, the conflict among the crew, the intrigue involving the D.C.-based defense contractor … Too much going on for viewers who prefer “investigators investigate crimes” for their hourlong TV fare.
I enjoyed “Last Resort” but didn’t lose my heart to it. I’ve been disappointed by the cancelations of too many series, including most of the hour-long dramas introduced in recent years – “Threshold,” “Flash Forward,” “Alcatraz,” etc – to capitalize on the success of “Lost.”
Apparently producer Shawn Ryan says the first 13 episodes will be completed and there will be some kind of resolution. I’ll be checking them out.
keithroysdon 