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TV's Best of the Decade: No. 7 - 'American Idol'
2 hours ago
I wrote my first "American Idol" recap for Zap2it in February of 2003, reporting on the performances by the second semifinal ground of the show's second season. That semifinal group included Hadas Shalev, Jacob John Smalley and a couple other singers doomed to only be remembered by "American Idol" obsessives. Then again, the top three performers that night were Kimberley Locke, Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, who would go on to spend a lot of time on America's television sets that spring. That was before everybody and their cat was recapping "American Idol" and it was one of my first »
- Daniel Fienberg
Seven new clips before you investigate 'Sherlock Holmes'
15 hours ago
There are a lot of choices for your moviegoing dollar this holiday season from James Cameron's amazing "Avatar" to singing chipmunks to romantic farces that are oh, so "Complicated" for old-er audiences to a slew of potential Academy Award contenders that might leave you "Up in the Air," but it's hard not to recommend Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law in the highly-entertaining reboot of "Sherlock Holmes." And shoot, the nation's critics agree with a close to 70% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. HitFix's own Moriarty, er, Drew McWeeny made his own recommendations here, but we've got another seven reasons to make »
- HitFix Staff
Box Office: 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' squeaks by 'Avatar' with $18.7 million
24 December 2009 12:30 PM, PST
America loves their talking Chipmunks. In somewhat of a surprise, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" snuck by "Avatar" on Wednesday to take the pre-Christmas box office with an impressive $18.7 million. That's a nice jump from the original's 2007 mid-December opening day of $13.3 million. This has to be incredibly encouraging for 20th Century Fox which probably didn't expect the film to win any days of the its opening frame until Saturday when families are most free over the holiday break The original "Alvin" made $279 million domestically. Fox's "Avatar," meanwhile, did more than Ok with $16.4 million for second »
- Gregory Ellwood
TV's Best of the Decade: No. 8 - 'Friday Night Lights'
24 December 2009 11:56 AM, PST
The shows that made it into the Top 10 of my list of TV's Best of the Decade are all great. There's not a "very good" show in the group. In placing them and distinguishing between them, that means that sometimes I have to turn the actual ranking over to different parts of my anatomy. Yesterday's pick, the unparalleled puzzlement of "Lost," was a decision made by my head. Today's nod, which was so totally neck-and-neck with "Lost" that their places might be switched tomorrow and then back again on Saturday if this list weren't set in stone, was driven by »
- Daniel Fienberg
TV Ratings: 'Criminal Minds,' 'CSI: NY' repeats carry CBS Wednesday
24 December 2009 8:42 AM, PST
Fast National ratings for Wednesday, December 23, 2009. With the Holidays getting closer, it was another slow night for broadcast TV on Wednesday, with CBS' repeats of "Criminal Minds" and "CSI: NY" dominating their hours. Among adults 18-49, CBS averaged a 1.7 rating to nip the 1.6 rating for ABC in the key demographic. Fox's 1.3 rating and the 0.9 rating for NBC followed, leaving The CW in last with a 0.3 rating. Overall, CBS averaged an estimated 8.95 million viewers to go with a 5.7 rating/10 share, comfortably ahead of the 3.0/5 for ABC. NBC and Fox »
- Daniel Fienberg
The M/C Decade List #40 - #31: Russell Crowe, forgotten children, and Spike Lee
24 December 2009 5:00 AM, PST
For a full description of the purpose and the parameters of this list, read the introduction. You can read #50 - #41 here. #40 / "Gladiator" I was indeed entertained. Ridley Scott has made better films than "Gladiator," but he's rarely made more entertaining ones. This film is a confident, well-armored machine, cutting down each and every potential objection to it with sheer brute charisma and visual panache, and the script's big mechanics click into place with precision, paying off every set-up just right. This is not a film with the same sort of expansive soul as "Lawrence of Arabia," and I »
The M/C Decade List: #50 - #41: Forgotten fantasy, fractured time, and Will Ferrell
24 December 2009 3:30 AM, PST
For a full description of the purpose and the parameters of this list, read the introduction. All lists must start somewhere, and after sorting through almost 1000 titles, I ended up with 260 serious finalists. Those finalists were weighed, considered, and finally boiled down to only 50 titles, with no ties and no cheating. And the first title on that list is... #50 / "À l'intérieur" aka "Inside" Yep. I'm starting the countdown with an unapologetic horror film, one of the most upsetting I've seen in my 30-or-so years as a bloodthirsty horror fan. A pregnant woman (Alysson Paradis) and her »
Contender Countdown: 'Avatar' jumps to the front of the Best Picture line
24 December 2009 3:03 AM, PST
A funny thing happened on the way to the Academy Awards nominations and it's just happens to be a little movie called "Avatar." Jim Cameron's lauded Sci-Fi epic was supposed to be a mess, but the final result had many critics and pundits (including this one) eating crow. Now, the 3-D phenomenon is poised to take the Christmas box office crown after becoming the "must see" movie for the holiday season. Who knew the Oscar for Best Picture was also in its future? It was apparent to many Oscar prognosticators after finally seeing "Avatar" that it could win it all, but »
The M/C Decade List: The 50 Best Films Of The 00's
24 December 2009 2:00 AM, PST
Okay... making a ten best list was fun, especially since I got to technically cram in 25 films. That was all for one year, 2009, which was a darn fine year of film overall, if not one for the record books. That list, though, was just a warm-up for the big list, in which we break down the 50 best films of the past ten years. Yes, calendar nerds. I know. In your reality, all decades refer to something starting a year that ends in a 1. But I am not talking about an astronomically-calculated decade. I'm talking about the period »
No 'Tears' for Bryce Dallas Howard with 'Eclipse' on the way
24 December 2009 1:18 AM, PST
It's no exaggeration to say that Bryce Dallas Howard has had quite a strange road to "stardom." Especially considering she's the daughter of Oscar-winning director Ron Howard. Her big break came in M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" and she followed that up by starring in Lars Von Trier's "Manderlay." She then reunited with Shyamalan for "Lady in the Water" which was "supposed" to take her to the A-list. Unfortunately, it was the biggest critical and commercial bomb of the filmmaker's career. She recovered bit with raves for her work in Kenneth Branagh's HBO adaptation of William Shakespeare's "As You Like it," »
The M/C Interview, Part II: Joe Letteri, FX Supervisor on 'Avatar,' talks 'TinTin'
23 December 2009 11:42 PM, PST
The conversation continues here exactly where it left off in part one of this interview. Dm: Wow. Just throwing one of these technical challenges at you would make this a wildly difficult film, so I really can’t get my head around how you guys broke everything down. One of the thing I’ve always hardest to pull off in effects is flight. I think flight... there’s just something inherently fake about it on film. Jl: Yeah. Dm: I would say Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil” got flight right, and for me Miyazaki in animation is one of the few guys who really gets it. Jl: Sure, yeah. Dm: I »
The M/C Interview: Joe Letteri, FX Supervisor on 'Avatar,' takes you inside the tech
23 December 2009 11:35 PM, PST
Last Friday, I got up incredibly early to go watch a bunch of four-year-olds in bathrobes sing some Christmas songs and carry around a rubber doll they called Jesus. And as low-tech as it was, it was absolutely thrilling to each and every parent in the room. Toshi may not have remembered all the words to "Away In A Manger," but he bellowed every one he did remember with all the heart any parent could ask. As soon as that was done, I was out the door and in my car and on my way to Burbank, where I sat down »
Previewing HitFix's Top 20 TV Shows of 2009: Near-misses and honorable mentions
23 December 2009 10:22 PM, PST
As you may have noticed, I'd been spending a lot of time concentrating on my Best of the Decade listing when it became clear that just because I was celebrating the end of the Aughts didn't mean that I was allowed to ignore the end of 2009. So I got out a piece of paper (a blank .txt document) and a pencil (my fingers and a keyboard) and began writing down shows that I would want to put into my Top 10 for the year. My list developed in tiers. I knew what was going to be at the »
- Daniel Fienberg
Omnibus Top 10 Albums of 2009: Rolling Stone, MySpace, Amazon
23 December 2009 5:05 PM, PST
HitFix's Melinda Newman and Katie Hasty weren't the only music critics making lists and checking 'em twice at the end of this year. Don't let us alone sway you! Other major barometers of the industry have listed their top 10, 20, 25, 50 or more albums of 2009. Check out the top 10 albums of 2009 from Amazon, Billboard, MySpace, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and others, for your ease of use. »
Oscar Watch: Jennifer Aniston and Julia Roberts go Golden Globe-ing
23 December 2009 1:27 PM, PST
With the 67th Annual Golden Globes less than four weeks away, the Hfpa have announced the initial presenters for this years show and, as expected, star power is a prominent consideration. Globe nominee this year for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical Julia Roberts (eh, don't get us started) will join last year's Best Actor in a Drama winner Mickey Rourke and perennial Hfpa favorite Jennifer Aniston in helping to drive even higher ratings for the show. And if you haven't noticed that seems to be a priority for both the Hfpa and NBC. The organization made two very smart »
TV's Best of the Decade: No. 9 - 'Lost'
23 December 2009 11:54 AM, PST
You can spot the good ones coming from a-ways off. Because I do news coverage in addition to writing reviews and features, I spend most of the spring writing casting notices on pilots and it's hard not to get invested in some of the shows without seeing a second of footage. Sometimes it's a writer you trust. With "Chuck," I was ready for that show months early because I was ready to see how Josh Schwartz would follow up "The O.C." Sometimes it's a premise that intrigues you. When "Wonderfalls" was being mentioned in the trades, one of »
- Daniel Fienberg
Susan Boyle keeps Alicia Keys from No. 1 on Billboard 200
23 December 2009 10:36 AM, PST
The debut of Alicia Keys' "Element of Freedom" wasn't nearly strong enough to stop the Susan Boyle train from chugging at the top of The Billboard 200. "I Dreamed a dream had a 14% increase in sales to 661,000 a week before Christmas. "Element" moved 417,00 copies for a No. 2 entry, comparatively slower to the 742,000 start that her 2007 album "As I Am" had during Thanksgiving week that year. "I Dreamed a Dream" is the second best-selling album this year so far with 2,465,000 units sold. Taylor Swift's "Fearless" is in first, with 2,933,000. There are two weeks left in »
- Katie Hasty
Aerosmith's Steven Tyler checks into rehab
23 December 2009 9:40 AM, PST
Following several tumultuous weeks, Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler has checked into rehab for addiction to prescription painkillers. In a statement released to People, Tyler puts to rest that he is still fronting Aerosmith, which is getting ready to celebrate its 40th anniversary. For the last few months, the band has been in limbo with Tyler announcing he’s focusing on a solo career, while the other four members in a quandary whether to wait for Tyler’s return or select a new lead singer. He also denied he had fallen back into his addiction, despite his band members’ belief to the contrary. »
- Melinda Newman
TV Ratings: 'NCIS' dominates repeat-filled Tuesday
23 December 2009 8:30 AM, PST
Fast National ratings for Tuesday, December 22, 2009. We know that CBS' "NCIS" has solidified its place as TV's most watched show this fall, but we still can't help but be amazed when "NCIS" repeats draw more than 15 million viewers on an otherwise dead Tuesday night. Only ABC showcased a limited amount of new programming and the absence of alternatives did nothing to help "Scrubs" and "Better Off Ted." Among adults 18-49, CBS won the night with a 2.4 rating. NBC's 1.5 rating was second in the key demographic, followed closely by the 1.2 rating for ABC and »
- Daniel Fienberg
An 'Awards-worthy look at the top 25 films of the decade
23 December 2009 2:46 AM, PST
It's a daunting task to come up with a list of best films for a year let alone a decade. And strangely, unlike the 90's, the past 10 years has just whizzed by with so many movies that were good, but not great that many years seem like a blur. You try to think of movies that stand out only to discover they came out in 1999 or within the past two years. That can't be an accurate look at the decade, can it? The first part of the 21st Century in film is marked by two events: 9/11 and the »
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