Dangerous Universe http://bert.publr.com By Bert Ehrmann en-us Tue, 07 Sep 2010 02:05:20 GMT <![CDATA[ The No. 1 movie of the summer had no stars, at least on screen: “Toy Story 3” topped the North American box office with over $405 million and had [quote] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/123086/ -http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/movies/06box.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss ]]> Sun, 05 Sep 2010 18:54:10 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/123086/ <![CDATA[ Fall TV Preview [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/122617/  

The 2009-10 TV season will probably be remembered as the year the network sitcom returned to top prominence. CBS had top rated sitcoms with Two and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory while Modern Family on ABC was a hit with the coveted 18-49 age demographic. And while sitcoms on NBC didn’t do as well ratings-wise, 30 Rock, The Office and Community were all critical darlings.

While the sitcom made a grand return the network drama faltered. Most of the highly rated dramas were standard (read boring) procedural shows like NCIS and The Mentalist while not one of the interesting looking new dramas from last season including V and FlashForward fared well. V will (barely) return for a second season while FlashForward was cancelled.

Which begs the question; which network shows look interesting this upcoming season?

Continue reading this column on upcoming TV series. 

 


]]> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:37:26 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/122617/ <![CDATA[ Chris Taylor - Platoon [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/120244/ A toy based on the character of Chris Taylor from the movie Platoon is set to be released later this year for around $150 retail.

I think now, looking back, we did not fight the enemy; we fought ourselves. The enemy was in us. The war is over for me now, but it will always be there, the rest of my days. As I'm sure Elias will be, fighting with Barnes for what Rhah called "possession of my soul." There are times since, I've felt like a child, born of those two fathers. But be that as it may, those of us who did make it have an obligation to build again. To teach to others what we know, and to try with what's left of our lives to find a goodness and a meaning to this life.





]]> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 07:58:57 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/120244/ <![CDATA[ The Walking Dead [text] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/119173/ Trailer for the upcoming series that premiers Halloween night. (How perfect is that!?) 

]]> Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:21:52 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/119173/ <![CDATA[ You are not you. You are me. [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/117606/ The most talked about and critically acclaimed movie this summer is Christopher Nolan's Inception. While I greatly enjoyed that film, I was a bit disappointed that while Nolan injected the film with a lot of great ideas the overall story was none-the-less paper thin. But, regardless of what I thought of the movie, Inception is just the latest in a long line of movies to focus on dreams/dreaming.

Continue reading this columns on movies about dreams/dreaming.


]]> Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:04:29 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/117606/ <![CDATA[ Mad Men, Good or Great? [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/112772/ The fourth season of the most critically acclaimed drama on TV, Mad Men, returned to AMC a few weeks back. I've been a huge supporter of the series since it debuted and have consistently called it the one of the best series on TV. But the fourth season of any TV series is unusually important for the long-term viability of a show.

Click here to continue reading this column. 


]]> Fri, 06 Aug 2010 07:05:14 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/112772/ <![CDATA[ Untitled [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/106796/ ]]> Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:41:31 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/106796/ <![CDATA[ At last! Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez' B-movie double feature will finally be re-released in a special edition Blu-ray set this October! In [quote] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/105375/ -http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Vivendi/Disc_Announcements/Grindhouse_Special_Edition_Announced_for_Blu-ray/5069 ]]> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:53:47 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/105375/ <![CDATA[ The Walking Dead [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/105331/ Teaser poster and first image of the cast in character for the upcoming AMC series. 




]]> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:18:02 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/105331/ <![CDATA[ Movie Trailers - Did I Just See What I Think I Saw? [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/105330/

I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks back about his experience with the movie Splice (2010). He said that the trailer for the film made Splice out to be a combination of films like Alien (1979) and Frankenstein (1931) when in fact though the movie did share certain elements with those films Splice was something wholly different.

I've always felt that the mantra of the movie marketing exec is to sell whatever film they're charged with selling at all costs. Which sometimes means that these execs have to make a tough decision; should they try and sell the public a finial finished film as-is, which the exec might not think the movie-going audience is interested in, or should they try and sell the film as something different, something they THINK this audience might want to see? Here's just a few examples I found of movie trailers created by movie marketing execs aren't exactly selling the same movie as the finished film. 

Continue reading the column on movie trailers. 


]]> Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:12:04 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/105330/ <![CDATA[ If you'd asked at the end of the '90s, I suspect people would have guessed future comedies would be more in the mold of Friends or Seinfeld or even Ev [quote] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/102612/ -http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2010/07/06/freaks-and-geeks-most-influential-show-i-wouldnt-have-thought-would-be-influential/ ]]> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:38:08 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/102612/ <![CDATA[ The TV Drama Conundrum [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/101613/ Until very recently, I thought that all modern TV dramas should be in the Battlestar Galactica (BSG)/ The Shield/ Mad Men format. That is, the series is presented with one long overarching story that has a beginning, middle and end which is revealed over the run of the show. I believed that the "old" way of TV dramas, where the series has a beginning, lots and lots of meandering middle and only and ending when the ratings dictated it, was obsolete. These "old" types of shows don't follow a series long story and instead tend to rely on episodes with self contained stories that don't nearly interrelate like episodes from modern ones

However, after spending an afternoon watching episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), I'm not so sure that this "old" model is any worse/better than the modern one.

Click here to continue reading this column. 

 


]]> Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:31:15 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/101613/ <![CDATA[ Warren! ... [text] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/100906/ Warren!

]]> Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:25:44 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/100906/ <![CDATA[ Mad Men [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/98505/ Poster for the upcoming fourth season of the show. 


]]> Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:27:11 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/98505/ <![CDATA[ Tomorrow, When the War Began [text] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/98058/ Australian Red Dawn. 

]]> Fri, 18 Jun 2010 06:19:32 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/98058/ <![CDATA[ Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/98040/ This is my final column reviewing the three Mad Max movies. If the first Mad Max (1979) film was about a man lost in revenge and the second The Road Warrior (1981) was about redemption then the third Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) must've been about Tina Turner, her golden pipes and a band of roguish children.

Click to continue reading the column on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. 


]]> Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:17:11 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/98040/ <![CDATA[ The Walking Dead [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/97280/ From AMC: AMC today has released the first production photo of lead actor Andrew Lincoln portraying police officer Rick Grimes in AMC's adaptation of The Walking Dead.




]]> Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:26:07 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/97280/ <![CDATA[ Al Williamson, the youngest of the major EC Comics artists and a longtime veteran of the comic book and comic strip fields, a well-loved industry figu [quote] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/97279/ -http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/al_williamson_1931_2010/ ]]> Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:23:24 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/97279/ <![CDATA[ Untitled [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/97278/ Link. 


]]> Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:21:22 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/97278/ <![CDATA[ The Walking Dead [photo] ]]> http://alphaecho.com/post/95956/ Making of video and the first official publicity photo from the series.


]]> Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:24:24 PDT http://alphaecho.com/post/95956/