DVD Tuesday Severance demonstrates that corporate team-building retreats arent just wastes of time and an excuse to squander money on high-priced consultants theyre honest-to-God murderHalloween is almost over and how could I let it pass without recommending just one more scary movie But non-horror buffs take heart Severance like three other recent favorites of mine Shaun of the Dead 2004 Slither 2006 and Black Sheep 2006 is both genuinely funny and genuinely scary Contrary to what many filmmakers seem to think its a tough mix to pull off but when you get it right its magic The setup is a horror-movie standard Strand a squabbling cross-section of humanity in the middle of nowhere old dark house uncharted island lost space scow desert shack unmapped cave complex et al and unleash hell on them And who better to unleash hell on than a pack of slick sales-and-marketing types say the seven-person team responsible for putting a kinder gentler
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Angela was great tonight. Maybe even the best guest star of the season so far. She was a nice addition to the show because she actually made me see the hostage norms that I have come to take for granted in the last several weeks in a different light. Now I think I’ve written “Poor hostage taker” nearly every week, but it was new to hear it coming from the negotiation end. I suppose it’s a necessity for negotiators to keep some amount of emotion distance from the HTs, though. They can’t sympathize to the levels that Angela did; of course they have to choose the safety of the innocent bystander first. That said, maybe it is important to understand both the bad and the good in a criminal. Angela seemed to have a special talent for that. Even Matt and Emily pointed that out.And while her ability to empathize was touching, my jaw hit the floor at the audacity of her call to bring in an armored truck. Now I’ve been told once or twice that I’m a ...
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Question: I normally really enjoy your column, but how could you label Standoff a loser? It's clearly one of the best new shows of the season so far. Ron Livingston proved himself worthy of leading-man status long ago with Office Space and Sex and the City, and he has great chemistry with Rosemarie DeWitt, who has already been labeled "the find of the season." The show is both funny and suspenseful with strong characters and an interesting premise. What's not to love?
Answer: Let's start with the premise, which pretty much exhausted itself in the pilot episode. Wouldn't it have been more interesting if their relationship hadn't been exposed in the very first scene? Then the situations, which get more ridiculous by the week. I won't argue that Livingston is a major star waiting to happen, but I can't imagine this will be the vehicle. Fox is getting off to a pretty rocky start again this fall, and I would imagine either Standoff or Justice will be gone before the new year. I'm sorry to
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Some actors possess an Everyman quality that gives them the versatility to take on any role. Ron Livingston is that type of guy. After gaining notoriety as a member of Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn's crew of Swingers, he went on to play a conflicted World War II captain in HBO's Band of Brothers. This fall the Iowa native gets his first opportunity to play a series lead on Fox's hostage-negotiator action-drama
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This Sunday (at 7:30 pm/ET) will mark the 200th episode and 10th season finale of Fox's King of the Hill. The achievement is yet another feather in the cap of series creator Mike Judge, who turned Beavis and Butt-head into household names and directed the oft-quoted cult hit Office Space. Known as
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