What’s good, bad and happening, from pop culture to high culture | Page 4

RIP Jon Stewart's Glenn Beck Impression, 2009-2011

It was too soon. Dammit, they took him from us too soon. So it was that, with the announcement that Glenn Beck would be leaving his Fox News show, Jon Stewart and his Daily Show writers took what they must have assumed would be the years’ worth of Beck material they would have in the [...]

+Uncategorized | 294 days ago

Idol Watch: Lost for Life

By James Poniewozik

Spoilers for last night’s elimination round of American Idol: A few thoughts about last night’s promised “shocking” American Idol results episode, which turned out, shockingly, actually to be shocking. But first: is it possible that Iggy Pop’s performance was the most weird/incongruous/awesome thing ever to happen on Idol’s stage? Granted Pop is the guy’s last [...]

+Movies | 295 days ago

Top 10 Sloppiest Movie Drunks

By Alexandra Silver

From Arthur to Withnail, TIME has picked the drunkest in a long line of film alcoholics.

+Review Movies | 295 days ago

Your Highness: The Ultimate in Lowness

By Richard Corliss

Your Highness’ isn’t just a bad movie, it’s ‘the’ bad movie — a work of ur-awfulness, counterbrilliance and antigenius

+Review Movies | 295 days ago

Home-Schooling an Assassin: A Hit-or-Miss Hanna

By Mary Pols

Over-eager in almost every way, Joe Wright’s thriller keeps pressing scenes of deliberate, off-putting weirdness

+Uncategorized | 295 days ago

The Morning After: One Bad Mama

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for last night’s Justified coming up: I wish I had more time to give “Brother’s Keeper,” the best episode of Justified this season (following on last week’s, which was the best to that point). But simply because attention must be paid, a quick hail of bullets on this explosive installment:

+News Media | 295 days ago

Presidential Apprentice: Donald Trump's Birtherism, Sponsored By NBC

By James Poniewozik

Donald Trump‘s appearance on the Today Show this morning was a trifecta of self-promotion for NBC Universal. It gave a platform to the star of Celebrity Apprentice, one of NBC’s few minor hits. It gave Today a buzzed-about interview (MSNBC’s Morning Joe also had The Donald on this morning). And it helped publicize an new [...]

+296 days ago

Judging American Idol: The Final 9

By James Poniewozik

This week’s American Idol performance night was themed on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which, coincidentally, is where Steven Tyler is stored in a plexiglass vacuum chamber in between episodes. The nine contestants had a long range of rock history to choose from, so who made the hall of fame and who made [...]

+Uncategorized | 296 days ago

Apocalypse Now: Glenn Beck to "Transition Off" Fox Show

By James Poniewozik

After a week of big-if-they-actually-happen TV career moves comes a big-and-actually-happening announcement: Glenn Beck and Fox News announced today that Beck will leave his daily TV show by the end of the year. According to the statement, Beck’s production company will develop new programming for Fox: Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts, Glenn Beck’s production [...]

+Uncategorized | 296 days ago

Today in Possibly-True TV Stories: Vieira, 30 Rock Departing?

By James Poniewozik

We’re suddenly up to our armpits in stories of TV stars possibly, reportedly, according to insiders, leaning toward leaving their jobs. First, there was Katie Couric. Then yesterday came a report that Meredith Vieira is favoring leaving the Today Show later in the year when her contract runs out. And now we have Alec Baldwin [...]

+Uncategorized | 296 days ago

Lights Out Watch: The Final Countdown

By James Poniewozik

Quick spoilers for the season finale of Lights Out: FX sent out the entire 13-episode season of Lights Out before it premiered, and I watched the entire thing over Christmas break. Back when I reviewed it in January, I obliquely noted the ending: “it all builds toward a stunning final few minutes which … would [...]

+Uncategorized | 297 days ago

Geek Fight! Lost, Thrones Camps Square Off Over GRRM's Dis of Finale

By James Poniewozik

In yesterday’s New Yorker, Laura Miller (a former colleague of mine from Salon) published an excellent profile of George R. R. Martin—author of the novels on which HBO’s Game of Thrones is based—which focused on the increased demands by fans on creators in an era of ever-more online kibitzing and access. GRRM, for years, has [...]

+Uncategorized | 297 days ago

Ratings Report: Everybody Wins!

By James Poniewozik

While I was a big fan of the debut of The Killing, I’ll admit I had my doubts about the ratings: the show was compelling, but also moody and deliberate, and that made me worry it might end up being Cop Rubicon. Instead, The Killing had the second-best debut ever for an AMC series, behind [...]

+Uncategorized | 297 days ago

The Morning After: Brick City

By James Poniewozik

Last night, the Connecticut Huskies beat the Butler Bulldogs 53-41, in what I believe was the final score of a basketball game. Butler, dominated by an aggressive UConn defense, was held to the lowest score in an NCAA final since 1949, concluding an amazing run for the Huskies, who—all right, that’s about all the sports [...]

+Movies | 298 days ago

The Family-Friendly Version of The King's Speech: No F Words Allowed

By Richard Corliss

Reader alert: This story quotes quite a few four-letter words, all of them spoken by a future King of England. Some readers may wish to skip the dialogue section after the next boldfaced advisory. His elocution teacher worked with George VI to clarify the King’s speech, to unlock his ability to talk to his subjects [...]

+Uncategorized | 298 days ago

So It Begins: The First 14 Minutes of Game of Thrones

By James Poniewozik

HBO aired the opening scenes of fantasy saga Game of Thrones last night (minus the highly impressive opening credits). I’ve now seen the first six episodes, and while I don’t want to review the show in dribs and drabs—a full writeup is coming next week—it looks stunning and does a great job fitting 10 pounds [...]

+News Media | 298 days ago

Katie Couric Reportedly Leaving; Can Anyone Get You to Watch CBS News?

By James Poniewozik

An Associated Press press report cites an unnamed CBS network executive as saying that Katie Couric, as long rumored, is leaving the CBS Evening News as anchor to launch a talk show. The departure—which official network reps and Couric’s people met with non-denial no-comments—would be at an undetermined date; her contract is up in June. [...]

+Uncategorized | 298 days ago

Detroit Breakdown: Charlie Sheen's Truth Torpedo Bombs in Motown

By James Poniewozik

I have never been so proud of my native metro area. Detroit’s Fox Theater was the first stop on Charlie Sheen‘s Violent Torpedo of Truth Tour (or as I prefer, a la Conan, the Constitutionally Unable to Stop Being Insane on Television Tour), and it got off to a disastrous start by all accounts. Much [...]