Colombiana Review: A Worthy Retreat

There are only three things I’m looking for in a revenge driven action movie. First and foremost: vulnerability. I’m a “gotta see the pain” kind of girl, so in order to sell me on your character’s journey and make me root for this butt-kicking they’re about to hand out, you have to start by showing the hurt. Next up: any brute can slap folks around for 90 minutes and then get themselves locked up in a jail cell during the last two. And since I’m not really a fan of lost causes, my hero’s got to be smart enough to have a shot at getting away. Lastly, I need a heavy dose of delusion with able-bodied performers executing highly difficult tasks with an ease that makes me think that with very little effort, I too can be an action superstar.

And with that being said, I now move to tell you that Colombiana, the new action film starring Zoe Saldana is an incredibly satisfying ride.

Colombiana opens up with young Cataleya, a Colombian girl who witnesses her parents being murdered by the henchmen of Mafioso Don Luis, a man for whom her father worked. Cataleya escapes the massacre and makes her way to the U.S. Embassy where she trades information in order to secure transportation to the U.S. where she reconnects with her uncle and only surviving family. Fast forward a dozen years, and Cataleya now works for said uncle as a hit man for hire. A childhood dream realized as with her parents’ death, Cataleya’s mission has become to kill so that she can exact retribution for their murder. With each hit that she takes, Cataleya leaves a message to Don Luis; on the chest of every crook, thief, and murderer she leaves a sign that she is still out there and looking for him. But when one hit too many leads the police on her trail, Cataleya must wonder if what she’s searching for is worth what it would cost for those who choose to stand beside her.

I’ve got to tell you, Colombiana probably has the best opening sequence that I’ve seen in a film of this genre for a very long time. Seeing her together with her parents and the obvious love they have for one another, juxtaposed with their sort of last stand is horrifying, as is watching young Cataleya’s stoic heartbreak. Here Amandla Stenberg, who plays young Cataleya, does an excellent job with a restrained yet strongly emotive performance that brought tears to my eyes. I haven’t seen this young soon-to be-star in anything else but whatever her next assignment is, sign me up.

Speaking of signing up, apparently I need to get in some Tae Kwan Do classes or something because watching Zoe Saldana’s highly developed fighting skills had me convinced that I could do the same. Sitting in the theater I just wanted someone to say something to me so I could lay the smack down on their candy… but that’s a different story. I just tell this to say that Saldana is an inspired action star who executes every move with flawless effort and intensity that it’s easy to get carried away. Even though most of what she goes through throughout the movie is highly improbable, because of her dedication to this role it’s also easily believable.

Along with Saldana, Colombiana stars Cliff Curtis as Uncle Emilio, mentor to Cataleya who learns that by helping fulfill Cataleya’s dream he may have ended his. Lennie James plays Special Agent Ross who Cataleya turns to when she’s run all out of options. Michael Vartan is Danny Delanay, Cataleya’s love interest. Jordi Molla is Marco, hired henchman out to stop Cataleya. The film also stars Beto Benites as Don Luis, Ofelia Medina as Mama, Callum Blue as Richard, and Jesse Borrego as Fabio.

Overall, Colombiana is a very well done film, although by no means groundbreaking, it is a great mark for female action stars. Cataleya is a character well worth rooting for, ably portrayed by Saldana and Stenberg. If I had one complaint it would be that the Cataleya/Danny relationship is underdeveloped. This is understandable because of the nature of her job she is prone to be secretive and withdrawn, but come on: it’s Michael Vartan, get with it. Even still, Colombiana is a great film.

Grade: B+

Images courtesy of Magali Bragard/Sony Pictures Entertainment

Burn Notice Review: Grenades for Dinner

On this week’s episode of Burn Notice, Michael Westen proves once again that it’s incredibly easy to infiltrate a highly secretive group of criminals. Now, I’m fully aware that Michael Westen is the stuff, he can do the unthinkable, break any barriers, yeah, yeah, whatever. But even still, this whole “Michael infiltrates the gang by proving to the boss how incredibly incompetent his men are, but of course Mike’s the saving grace” thing is getting really old – after the third week in a row. We get it. Mike’s the mastermind of deception, and all criminals are buffoons and easy prey. Now that that’s settled, can we please move on to, I don’t know, something we haven’t seen again and again? Hey, let’s have Michael face off a bear. That would be awesome…

On this week’s episode, Mike helps Jesse out with a little side project of his which of course involves guns, explosions and very bad men. And with Mike busy with his little diversion, Sam and Fi kidnap a computer specialist to help clear Mike’s name and keep him out of Pearce’s ever encroaching reach.

First up this week, Jesse needs help on a security job he is doing. Initially inviting Sam to tag along, Jesse is surprised when Mike shows up in his place. After all, with the whole running one step ahead of the law, Jesse asks Mike if he wouldn’t rather be focused on his own case than helping Jesse with his. Mike tells him that it’s nice to get a little distance, and besides, Fi and Sam have it covered.

For Jesse’s case, Jesse’s client is a guy by the name of Richard Brawnbock, a fast food and tech mogul whose enemies are looking to kidnap him and steal his company secrets. Jesse’s job is to make his way in with the bad guys and blow their plans up from the inside. Jesse has infiltrated the group as a “little man” helper but now the gang needs someone who can handle encryption to hack airport computers, and that’s where Mike comes in. Madelyn is also helping out as surveillance on this case; Jesse reluctantly divulges this to Mike who doesn’t look very pleased to have his mom tagging along for the action. Now Madelyn will be perfectly out of harm’s way, and this job will only last long enough for Mike to figure out what exactly the group is looking for so there should be little danger.

But it turns out the job isn’t as simple as they think. The gang isn’t looking to hack any airport computer. Instead they’re there to kidnap Brawnbock and get his bank codes so that they can rob him blind and sneak off to a country with no extradition agreement with the U.S. Graham, the leader of the group, and his men take the airport employees and passengers hostage; but smart enough to cast a wide net the group also wrangles in any one close enough to the airport, which is how Madelyn became a hostage.

As far as hostage takers go, Graham is pretty decent aside from the fact that, you know, he’s taking hostages. He tells the group they have nothing to fear from him because he doesn’t want to hurt them and his plan is to be long gone out of the government’s reach by the time the police come looking for him. So if they’re all good and cooperate, Graham promises that they’ll receive a gift certificate for a steak dinner. On the other hand, if any one causes any trouble this goes the other way and he’ll set off a grenade killing them all. So, steak dinner or grenade? Decisions, decisions….

Sam and Fi are busy on their end as well. Earlier in the episode Mike and Sam found the guy who hired the bomb maker to kill “fake Mike.” They were all set to kidnap him but then Sam set off a secret alarm sending the assassin fleeing, but not after toasting his computer. Sam and Mike take the charred computer remnants hoping that they can find someone who can still bring up the toasted files.

To help rescue the files, Sam and Fi go to an old acquaintance of Sam’s by the name of Dixon. Too bad the guy hates Sam’s guts. He refuses to help them out, but Fi won’t take no for an answer and hits him with a Taser, throws him in the trunk, and off they go… straight into a police chase.

It turns out that aside from Sam having tased Dixon in the past, the reason he didn’t want to help them out is because he’s currently on house arrest. And the tracking bracelet on his ankle is like a beacon to the police. Fi outruns the cops and Sam and Fi offer to help Dixon get the police off his back for this blatant probation violation they unwittingly caused, but only if he helps them out first. Fair trade.

Back at the airport Mike manages to convince Graham that they’re short one employee. He hints to Graham that Marsden could be trouble and then proceeds to cause all kinds of havoc in Marsden’s name. By blowing up a car, shooting one of Graham’s men, and getting Brawnbock’s plane diverted to a different airport, Mike has the whole team on edge looking for someone who doesn’t exist. While Graham and his team are out searching for Marsden, Mike’s at base with the hostages and one of Graham’s men. Mike causes a distraction and takes out the other guy and then leads the hostages out of the airport and to a warehouse in back. They’re at the warehouse because Graham’s goons are all over the place and they haven’t a hope of reaching the fence. Mike blows up an airplane allowing the hostages time to hide and goes back to the airport where he pretends that Marsden came, knocked him out, and freed the hostages. Now Graham is ticked.

He doesn’t quite buy Mike’s story of Marsden working alone. In fact, he thinks that Mike is working with Marsden and threatens to kill Mike, after he finds those hostages. Mike tells Graham that he’s just as dedicated to this job as he is; he doesn’t want to go back to jail. Graham tells Mike to prove it by killing every one of the hostages. They’re not going to get their money, but they’re also not risking going to jail. One of Graham’s goons informs him that there’s been movement in one of the warehouses, so that’s where they all swarm to with Michael reluctantly following behind.

Mike and one of Graham’s goons go to handle the hostages when the goon turns on Mike and the two get in a fight. Here Madelyn comes up from behind and knocks the goon out. Mike covers himself with some of the goon’s blood and “fatally wounded” searches for Graham. He tells Graham that Marsden attacked them and is hiding with the hostages; he offers to take the grenade and kill himself, Marsden and the hostages. Mike creates a fallout shelter and makes it appear to Graham that he blew the warehouse up, while in fact just a section of the place was damaged. Graham walks away seemingly scot-free, until he’s suddenly swarmed by the police and a smiling Michael. That kind of sucks.

At the end of the episode, Fi comes to Mike and presents him with a jump drive of the information that Dixon managed to get from the computer. They now have the name of Max’s killer, Tavien Cortiza. They also know that this whole kill Max operation was financed by somebody local, but Fi warns Mike that there was a lot of information that will never be recovered. But that gives them something to go on, because with Pearce demanding Mike’s files on the case, it won’t be too long before she starts to pin her sights on Mike. Because as she says, she just needs that one last piece…

Season 5, Episode 10: “An Army of One” (original airdate August 24, 2011)

Burn Notice airs Thursdays at 9/8c on USA Network.

Images courtesy of Robert Zuckerman/USA Network.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark Review: Don’t Forget To Brush

Few film genres are as predictable in pace and aesthetic as the classic horror story, and Hollywood’s recent love for churning out superfluous remakes make the task of updating an already tired formula that much more difficult. While this month’s Fright Night succeeds in ushering an 80s cult staple into the post-millennium oeuvre, the just-released Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark hopes the brazen boasting of Guillermo Del Toro’s creative input will provide sufficient modernization of a 70s TV movie that reportedly terrified the Pan’s Labyrinth auteur as a young boy. Unfortunately, Del Toro’s involvement in Dark’s updated production proves more fruitful on the movie’s ubiquitous advertisements than in the film itself.

Although it’s veteran comic book illustrator Troy Nixey’s name on the back of the director’s chair, producer and co-writer Del Toro’s signature flair haunts Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, and a promising prologue provides ample foundation for the story to flourish. As the camera sweeps across establishing shots of a horse-drawn carriage clipping by a fantastically elaborate gothic manse, we meet deranged artist Edward Blackwood in his basement studio. Propelled by eerie whispers to feed the dungeon-dwelling critters that snatched his son, Blackwood performs a cringe-inducing dental nightmare on his unsuspecting maid, only to be reminded that the finicky spooks prefer to munch on children’s teeth. Blackwood’s own mutilated grin lets us know he’s tried to bypass this requirement before, to no avail.

Some 100 years later, architect Alex Hurst (Guy Pearce, stifling yawn after yawn) and his interior designer girlfriend, Kim (Katie Holmes), have taken the Blackwood estate under their care in a career-boosting attempt to land the cover of Architectural Digest. Once Alex’s brooding, medicated young daughter, Sally (Bailee Madison), arrives to stay with her dad and potential stepmom, the patiently lurking ghouls perk up at the child’s presence and begin to wreak their proverbial havoc while plotting Sally’s capture.

Nixey and Del Toro join forces to lay the promising groundwork for a compelling haunted house tale, and the impeccable set design and dramatically, appropriately gloomy art direction provide the ideal setting for Sally’s supernatural strife. From the hidden doorways and garden mazes to the nooks and crannies within a twisted sprawl of tree branches, Blackwood mansion is the perfect place for a troubled, artistic childlike Sally to let her imagination thrive. With the added circumstance of the menacing homunculi, Sally’s tribulation should have been an easy outlet for Del Toro to unleash his trademark knack for the horror-fantasy blend, if only he’d been the film’s director.

Unfortunately, Nixey’s derivative shock devices and a plodding narrative (co-written by Del Toro and Matthew Robbins) instead derail the film’s good intentions and bury the final product deep in eye-rolling cliché. Pearce’s talents are wasted, as his presence serves little purpose other than filling the shoes of Dopey Dad, one glaring parental oversight after another. Holmes’ Kim is given a bit more to do, as she and Sally forge an unlikely bond by the film’s end in spite of having to maneuver the script’s numerous obstacles.

As for the film’s true stars, Nixey is smart enough to know that the best scary stories let the fright fester within the unknown, and upholds this adage by keeping the mischievous creatures well hidden for the majority of the film. Indeed, they are far more frightening in the form of a pair of eyes cast in shadow or a set of clawed toes scurrying from the beams of light they detest so much. Once the audience is finally given a long, hard look at what’s been going bump in the night, however, an anti-climactic haze falls over the film, cementing its fate as another haphazard entry in the modern horror canon once and for all.

Besides the cavalcade of unanswered questions surrounding the mythology and mortality of the demonized gremlins, standard abandonment of logic also runs amok throughout the film. When mysterious handyman Mr. Harris goes all but unnoticed when he repeatedly warns Alex that Blackwood mansion “is unsafe – especially for a child,” one would think a parent would heed such cryptic forewarning. Alex, however, barely blinks when Sally finds human teeth in the basement and all but ignores her physical and photographic evidence that these evil varmints aren’t just a byproduct of her traumatized, child-of-divorce psyche.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark works best when focused on the atmosphere surrounding the events occurring within the story rather than the plot details themselves. Nixey and Del Toro have created a sumptuous visual feast out of Blackwood mansion that could have looked right at home in Pan’s Labyrinth. However, the go-for-broke jolts of ho-hum scare tactics divert the film from the suspenseful potboiler it should have been to a run-of-the-mill, CG-enhanced campfire story. No need to sleep with the lights on after this one.

Images courtesy of © Miramax Film Corp. and Carolyn Johns.

Project Runway Review: Off the Track

The morning after the last Project Runway challenge, the designers awakened to find athletic attire and footwear in their apartments with instructions to meet Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn at the New Balance Track and Field Center at The Armory.  The designers were told they’d be working in four teams of three with one team captain, which was determined by the top three winners of a one-lap race around the New Balance track.  Before the race began, Cecelia approached Heidi and Tim and told them that she decided she did not want to continue in the competition.  In her final interview, she said it took her a long time for her to become the woman that she wants to be and she doesn’t want to change that for anyone; however, she never expressed who was asking or requiring her to change.  As for the race, Joshua, Bryce, Anthony Ryan, and Viktor were the team leaders, and poor Olivier needed medical attention after suffering a fall and a badly bruised knee.  Joshua chose Anya and Becky.  Bryce chose Kimberly and Danielle.  Anthony Ryan chose Laura and Bert. Viktor chose Olivier.  Since their team was a person short, the judges gave them the privilege of choosing any one of the designers who had previously been eliminated this season to be on their team and come back to the competition.  They chose Josh C.  The team challenge this week was to create three looks for Heidi’s New Balance sneakers.  The sky was the limit.  Basic with a twist.  They also had to use the fabric in her sneakers: denim and suede.  However, the fabrics had to be obvious, not necessarily usurping.  The winning look would be manufactured and sold exclusively on amazon.com and would be part of Heidi’s line for New Balance.

During their initial meeting, Becky threw out a lot of ideas for her team, but Joshua and Anya vetoed her ideas without offering any ideas in their stead.  After they bought the fabric from Mood and were back in the design room, Joshua said in an interview that he needed Becky sewing, not designing, and thinking.  If Joshua was not going to use and respect her ideas, why did he choose her to be on his team again? Right! Seamstress.  Tim Gunn warned Becky not to just allow them to have her sew and end up being thrown under the bus.  After Tim and Heidi left the design room, Becky asked if she could create a jacket for their show.  Joshua said no, because her designs are usually “dowdy.”  When Becky got offended, Joshua said he didn’t mean “dowdy” in a negative way but in a “fashion sense.”  According to Merriam-Webster.com, “dowdy” means “shabby…lacking smartness or taste.”  There is no way Joshua calling Becky’s designs dowdy could have been a compliment. Becky went into the ladies’ restroom and had a good cry.  Anya followed her and tried to console her.  Ironically, Joshua and the cameras followed Becky and Anya into the ladies’ restroom.  While in there, Joshua apologized for his comments, they had a big team hug and went back to work…with Becky still sewing.

Model and designer Erin Wasson joined Nina Garcia and Michael Kors on the judging panel.  Viktor created a dress and a motorcycle jacket.  Josh C. created a Capri pant and a shirt with a baby harness-type design on the back.  Olivier rounded out Viktor’s team with a maxi skirt and a sleeveless top.  Bryce created a short dress with capped-Star Trek-esque sleeves.  Kimberly created shorts with a suede cuff and a suede jacket.  Anthony and Laura created the worst outfits of their team. Anthony’s outfit turned into a romper.  The judges said the shorts were too big and too tight at the same time.  Bert’s outfit is my favorite with a short skirt and off-the-shoulder, fitted top.  It could have been worn with flat shoes or heels.  Josh’s team’s designs, while unique and out-of-the-box, were not anything I’d find chic or cute with a pair of New Balance shoes or heels.  The hot pink fabric that ran through their designs clashed with suede and denim.  However, obviously this is why I am not a judge.  Since it was Heidi’s challenge, she mixed up the results and chose Viktor and Joshua as the winners of the challenge.  Both of the garments they designed would be featured on amazon.com and their teams were “in.” Anthony Ryan and Danielle were in the bottom two. According to Heidi, Danielle bored them again with yet another chiffon top, and Anthony Ryan lost control over his group and his own design; however, he was “in” and remained to design another week.

Season 9, Episode 5: “Off the Track” (originally aired August 25, 2011)

Make it work and watch Project Runway, Thursdays at 9/8c on Lifetime.

For more Project Runway coverage, click here.

Images courtesy of Lifetime

America’s Got Talent Review: Semi-Finals Week One: 11 Good Acts and 1 Bad One

It might have looked like a normal night for America’s Got Talent but there was something different in the air. Nick Cannon wasn’t wearing his usual gaudy outfit, choosing instead a subdued tux, like he was part of the Rat Pack. The judges seemed to be in good spirits and didn’t verbally or physically attacking each other (although that didn’t last long).

There was something else too. After three weeks of themed shows, AGT is finally at the semi-final round. It was time to raise the bar and find out who really wants to be the next big Vegas star.

Zuma Zuma The Kenyan acrobats did what they always do – form human pyramids, limbo under fire, jump and tumble. Their high energy act gets your adrenaline pumping and I found myself agreeing with Piers Morgan calling Zuma Zuma  “a perfect start to the show.”

Beth Ann Robinson I do not see how one 14-year-old solo dancer can compete against entire dance troupes, comedians, magicians and a high diver. It doesn’t matter how technically good she is or whether it’s a beautiful routine, she’s just going against too much competition. Why she doesn’t want to try out for So You Think You Can Dance, I don’t know. Beth Ann danced her heart out with a smile and she should be proud. But it’s a big stage to fill and other acts are able to fill it better.

(The Artists Formally Know As) Sandou Trio Russian Bar Sandou Trio wasn’t just one of my favorite “danger” acts this year, they were one of my favorite acts period. I always  looked forward to their incredible Russian Bar routine. When they promised they had a lot more tricks up their sleeves, I don’t think they meant committing career suicide on stage. They decided to scrap the Russian Bar altogether and elected to instead suspend a piano by wires. As a women played the piano (and sang off-key) it rotated until they were both upside-down,  while one guy did some acrobatics and another guy stood still and smelled a rose. It was embarrassing and downright bad.

Kevin Colis You know that guy that that always takes out his guitar at parties and sings Train and Dave Mathews Band songs? Who invited him?

Matt Wilhelm The glow in the dark BMX bike trickster gave us more of the same from his appearance during YouTube week. Even though the glowing black light effect is fun when coupled with his bike skills, it does get old fast. He had a very noticeable fall near the end which usually signals the end for a performer on AGT.

Poplyfe Just when the show needed a pick-me-up, on came Poplyfe. Being the last band of the competition, they have a lot to prove, and I was concerned when I heard they were covering the Beatles’  “Come Together.” However, their rendition of the song really did rock. The band was on point and animated and KehLani’s voice exudes youth and character. She is a star in the making. They sounded so good I forgot that they were teenagers. Poplyfe is what pop music should sound like. They have become my favorite act this season.

West Springfield Dance Team The only act that had to perform three weeks in a row don’t show any signs of  weariness.  WSDT once again donned their ghoulish make-up and danced to the scariest music on network TV. The act never feels old or tired and I always want to see what they do next. Most of all they are enjoyable to watch and they look like they are having fun doing it. I wonder if there is a East Springfield Dance Team that’s really jealous right now.

Melissa Villasenor Comedians have the toughest time on AGT, mostly because they are the most difficult to judge. Their act is the totally subjective and it’s hard to tell if the audience is liking it or not. Melissa is cute, dorky, and really funny. She’s the only comedian that should have made it this far in the competition. She did spot-on impressions of Wanda Sykes, Shakira and Christina this time around, but it was apparent that she has gone as far as she can go here. Which is fine because we will be seeing her on her own stand-up special soon.

Team iLuminate People that don’t even watch the show know about Team iLuminate.  Part dance team, part electric light show, iLuminate is a strong frontrunner right now and they brought the house down again when they performed a retro video game/Street Fighter II inspired routine.  They are so extremely entertaining to watch,  when some of the light effects on one of the dancers failed to illuminate no one seemed to care, including me.

Daniel Joseph Baker AGT’s resident Lady Gaga enthusiast shed some of his fierceness and got emotional with a performance of Adele’s “Turning Tables.”  He has got a great voice and showed some real piano skills (when he’s not using his foot). He is very likable and a natural performer.

Miami All-Stars These dancing professionals brought out the zoot suits and swing dance moves this week and, like they always do, they killed it. They are sexy, flashy and just plain good. Each time they are on the show I’m amazed they can dance so well in so many different styles. MAS already looks like they are in a Vegas show.

Lys Agnes The striking opera singer has stage presence and a big voice. She covered Evanescence’s “Bring Me To Life” in her operatic style, and made a song I hate at least listenable. The audience LOVED it and it was a wise idea to keep this showstopper for the end.

The second half of Tuesday’s show really showcased the acts that really want to win and have a good shot at it. A funny thing that happened after every performance was when all of the contestants said the same thing  begging for votes, “I have so much more to show you. I can do so many more things…” Which is the exact same thing Sandou Trio Russian Bar said. And you know how that turned out.

On Wednesday the results were in for the five acts moving on to the Top Ten. The first four announced were :Team iLuminate followed by Lys Agnes, Miami All Stars and Poplyfe. It then came down to the remaining three acts for the judges pick: Daniel, Beth Ann and WDST. I expected to see Daniel to go through given that the Top Ten is already dance heavy. But the judges seem to be on a dancing high and the horrific high schoolers WSDT moves on.

America’s Got Talent really showed this week that they have high quality, professional, entertaining acts and I’m now looking forward to next Tuesday.

Season 6, Episode 23 and 24 (original airdates August 23 and 24, 2011)

America’s Got Talent airs Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 8/7c on NBC

Images courtesy of Trae Patton and NBC

Comic-Con 2011: Doctor Who: A Look At What’s To Come!

Tonight’s episode of Doctor Who, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” is sure to have viewers laughing quite often as the series starts to answer some of the more complex questions fans have been asking since the airing of “A Good Man Goes to War” back in June. Luckily for all the Whovians out there, I’ve got some scoop on what to expect from the second half of the season after talking to Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and writer Toby Whithouse during San Diego Comic Con last month.

A veteran writing for Doctor Who with past episodes “School Reunion” (Season 2) and “The Vampires in Venice” (Season 5) and creator of Being Human UK, Whithouse returns to the series to deliver Episode 11, “The God Complex.” “It’s my third episode of Doctor Who and by far my favorite,” Whithouse exclaimed. “It’s the scariest episode I’ve done and the darkest.”

In “The God Complex,” a psychological thriller as Whithouse describes it, “The Doctor, Amy, and Rory find themselves trapped within an ever-shifting, creepy hotel that’s populated with other people’s nightmares.”

Karen earlier revealed the monster in Episode 11 to be the Minotaur from Greek mythology. “The Minotaur as a monster is so, so scary. We actually had a real guy playing the Minotaur chasing us down corridors, which is really exciting. It is something like seven-foot tall and it was really exciting to have a monster that actually, physically kind of chases you. There is a physical threat and not just a psychological one.”  This seems to fit the mold of the episode, as an ever-shifting hotel just might be Whithouse’s modern-day take of the Labyrinth from Greek Mythology.

Gillan commented on Amy’s undying faith in The Doctor saying, “it is something they explore with the Minotaur and it’s really, really interesting.  And something happens that changes that completely… oh, I can’t tell you any of this! It’s really, really exquisite and it’s really explored in Episode 11.”

Curious to see if we would learn more about River, I questioned Whithouse whether the reboot of the timeline/universe at the end of Season 5 affected River Song’s death in Season 3 two-parter “Silence in The Library”/”Forest of the Dead.” Whithouse responded by saying it was a question for showrunner Steven Moffat. “Oh god, you’ll have to ask Steven. I would assume that it all still does. Ask Steven and he’ll give you a 25-minute answer, which will probably still mean yes.”

Gillan was able to shed more light about her newly discovered daughter, River Song, and where their relationship is headed. “After that massive revelation at the end of the last series that relationship between Amy and River is definitely going to be explored, a lot. So that’s been fun actually. That relationship really, really develops and it changes the dynamic between everyone in the cast.”

On tonight’s episode Gillan couldn’t help but be excited. “’Let’s Kill Hitler.’ What a brilliant title! It’s amazing and it is such a good episode. Alex Kingston nails it. We’ve got this really cool robot thing, slash villain called the Teselecta, which is really snazzy.”

Questioned about any new historical figures like last year’s Van Gogh, Gillan mentions that fans can expect a few figures popping up as well as a return of someone from the show’s past.

Playing The Doctor this season has definitely been a ride for Matt Smith.  Talking about being killed off and then brought back moments later, Smith noted, “Only in Doctor Who can you make that possible. I just love the way that Steven [Moffat] plays with time and structure in Who and in the next half of the series we really get into the crux of what that all is about and it’s pretty interesting.”

During the midseason finale in June, River reveals to the The Doctor that he has twisted the meaning of the word ‘doctor’ for many, causing generations growing up considering him as a warrior, not a healer. Smith says we can expect The Doctor to change his ways. “There is a real journey for The Doctor to go on, there’s the journey with River and there’s the one about himself, you know, he dies.  So we’ve got to figure that one out.  I hope there’s been a progression from where we started this year and that there’s a progression from this year to next year going into the 50th Anniversary.  That’s sort of one of the wonders of the part that it’s constantly evolving.”

Talking about the second half the season Matt gives bits of details about what we can expect from each episode. “Well, we start with ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’ and the title does not let the episode down.  It’s a barn-stormer and Alex Kingston is just remarkably brilliant in it.  Then we’ve got these weird creepy dolls coming in a doll’s house in Mark Gatiss’ episode.  And Karen gives the performance of the lifetime in Episode 10. I can’t give away much about it, but it’s so clever and so trippy and so weird.  Toby’s episode “God Complex” feels like [Stanley] Kubrick does Doctor Who.  It’s so odd.  And there’s a great soundtrack, very scary. Craig Owens is back, James Corden in Episode 12, and that’s a good adventure.  I think we’ve got a good double-act near the end.  I like to think so.  Steven [Moffat] doing his brilliant finale writing for [Episode] 13, but that’s it.  I think it’s a strong latter half of the season and we’re really pleased that it seems to be gathering up pace and polarity in America.”

Fans of Doctor Who in America can catch the midseason premiere of “Let’s Kill Hitler” tonight on BBC America at 9/8c.

For more Comic-Con coverage, click here.

Doctor Who airs Saturday nights at 9/8c on BBC America.

Photos Courtesy of Bilal Mian and Poptimal LLC

Jersey Shore Review: The Calm Before the Storm

Thursday night’s episode of Jersey Shore invoked emotions in me I did not imagine possible: I actually felt genuinely sorry for one of the cast members.

Normally, I would say it’s their own damn fault for signing up for the show and airing their dirty laundry on national television, but I couldn’t help but feel pity for Deena. The girl’s clearly got some issues that need to be worked out and some stuff just doesn’t need to be aired on TV.

Let’s back track a bit: Deena is being given a lot of grief by the boys in the house for not only hooking up with another female but for “committing a robbery” on Vinny. Deena, she who has always gotten along with the boys, feels betrayed by this. Pauly D and Vinny, pranksters that they are, decide to put Deena’s bed out in the living room as a joke. Deena comes back, sees what they’ve done and breaks down while crying that she wants to go home. As the audience, we knew the boys meant no harm but I knew Deena would flip her shit.

Deena and Pauly D have a heart to heart where Deena admits she hasn’t been herself and feels lonely. They make-up in the end, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that something’s off with Deena.

Also this week, the cast (or at least three of them) begin working at the pizzeria. Pauly D is having a blast handing out flyers while chatting up girls. At least that seems to be the perfect job for him. Meanwhile Deena and Snooki are inside doing the “boring” work and decide to spruce things up by getting a customer to buy them wine. Too bad their boss is a dictator and sees right through their scheme. Point for the Italian man!

Ronnie and Sammi are still going strong within the first 45 minutes of the episode. There’s all this talk about how they’re so happy together, it won’t be like last time, blah blah blah. And then everything goes to hell the last 15 minutes. Ronnie and Sammi are both drunk, and Ronnie gets mad cause Sammi doesn’t like him dancing within 2 feet of other women. It gets ugly real fast when Sammi brings up that Mike once said that Ronnie was bragging he could bring home 5 chicks from the club if he wanted to (mind you, this is before Sammi and Ronnie got back together).  Ronnie confronts Mike about it and – well, you’ve read the gossip blogs and seen the previews. It doesn’t end pretty for Mike. Whether Mike deserves a beat down is one thing, but I seriously do think Ronnie needs to lay off the heavy drinking if he’s going to be so aggressive. Aggressive drunks are terrifying and Ronnie had no real reason to be screaming and beating up Mike. Or getting so upset at Sammi in the first place.

Hey, remember how this season was supposed to be set in Italy? Aside from the interaction with the employees at the pizzeria, I’m not getting a sense of anything special. All their hook-ups are still with American girls, and we even see Vinny get burned by an Italian girl who flat out tells him, “I’m not going to screw you.” I’m not saying that they need to “smush” an Italian to make the show feel authentic, I’m just pointing out the blatant fact that Jersey Shore is obviously not a true representation of Italian culture and anyone thinking otherwise needs to seriously reevaluate their life. Jersey Shore glorifies the hard-partying offspring’s of Italian-Americans who have created their own sort of sub-culture. Placing the cast in their “homeland” this season just shows how different they are from Italians and makes them seem even more ridiculous, if that’s possible.

Oh, and the overall drama this season? So far, weak, boring, and forced. There’s only so much drama you can create within the same cast before everything starts to become stale.

Season 4, Episode 4: Crime and Punishment (originally aired August 25, 2011)

Jersey Shore airs Thursdays at 10/9c on MTV.

Images courtesy of MTV.

USA Network Summer Wrap-Up Gift Pack

Are you sad to say good-bye to some of your favorite summer shows like Suits, Covert Affairs, Royal Pains, Burn Notice, and White Collar? They say all good things must come to an end, but we don’t believe that. So we’re prolonging the summer and giving away this awesome prize pack from our friends at USA Network filled with some essential summer items (like a customized ice cream scoop!) but also some neat things that you’ll find useful year round (Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses to look like your favorite USA character!).

Here’s what one lucky reader has the chance to win:

• Zipbuds w/ Custom USA Pull
• Powerstick w/ 2G Memory
• Edith A. Miller Nautical Shirt for Women
• J. Crew Navy Polo Shirt for Men
• Bobbi Brown Beach Body Lotion & Scrub
• Surfrider Bobble Water Bottle
• Jogo Head Hammock in Green
• Jogo Head Hammock in Blue
• Haagen Dazs $25 Gift Card
• Customized Ice Cream Scoop
• Plush Navy Beach Towel w/ USA Summer Logo
• Entertainment Weekly Summer Guide
• The New Yorker Talk of the Town Special Issue
• Ray Ban Unisex Aviator Sunglasses

Here’s How to Win (No Purchase Necessary)

1. Post your comments to at least one (1) of our front page articles.

2. Email your name, email address and the name of the post you commented on to contests@poptimal.com. Put “USA Prize Pack ” in the subject line.

3. Wait. The winner* will be notified after September 1st.

*Contest open to residents of the U.S. Prize pack valued at $590.

Catch the Royal Pains season finale Wednesday, August 31st at 9 p.m. EST on USA Network! Necessary Roughness and Suits also air Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, at 10 p.m. EST.

Royal Pains End of Summer Giveaway!

It’s been a great summer with the cast of Royal Pains and to celebrate a successful season, Poptimal and USA are giving away one Royal Pains prize pack to a lucky fan.

Included in the end of summer prize pack is:

o   Custom Nylon Bag ($10)

o   Season 1 & 2 DVDs ($75)

o   Royal Pains Book ($8)

o   Hamptons Sun Protection (or equivalent) ($35)

o   USA Summer T-Shirt ($15)

o   USA 10-City Summer Guide

Here’s How to Win (No Purchase Necessary)

1. Post your comments to at least one (1) of our front page articles.

2. Email your name, email address and the name of the post you commented on to contests@poptimal.com. Put “Royal Pains End of Summer Contest ” in the subject line.

3. Wait. The winner* will be notified after September 1st.

*Contest open to residents of the U.S. Prize pack valued at $145.

Catch the Royal Pains season finale Wednesday, August 31st at 9 p.m. EST on USA Network!

Images courtesy of Justin Stephens/USA Network.

The Glee Project: Q&A with Winners Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen

And so The Glee Project is over. While Ryan Murphy and the producers of Glee were looking for a fresh new face to add to their series, it turns out they found two – scratch that – make it four. In this week’s finale we found out that The Glee Project had not one, but two brand new winners.

A moody-eyed Samuel Larsen and the dreamy brogue of Irish crooner Damian McGinty will each be featured on seven episode arcs of the popular Fox show. Not to leave out anyone out, while finalists Alex Newell and Lindsay Pearce were crushed to learn that they were not this season’s winner, they both were shocked to find out that they will still get a coveted role on the series by way of a two episode storyline. So, in my favorite Oprah voice that sounds a lot like me just shouting, “You get an arc! You get an arc! You get an arc! You get an arc!” Ah, don’t you love a happy ending.

This week Poptimal.com had the chance to talk once again with the guys of The Glee Project, former finalists and now champions Damian and Samuel, as well as runners-up Alex and Lindsay. Over the course of the call, the group talked about their future on Glee, who they thought would win Project, and what makes it easier to keep this whole thing a secret. Hint: The secret is in a whole lot of cheddar.

We’ve watched over the past 10 weeks as The Glee Project sifted through a group of talented hopefuls to find the next Glee superstar. There’ve been weeks of drama, tears, distressed phone calls home to mom… and then Cameron left and things got really real. I’m totally kidding, I loved you Cameron. You know this, I told you so. (Yet it still remains that after you left, the show took me on a roller coaster some kind of fierce. Cameron, down; Hannah, down; everybody’s safe, way up) I didn’t know how in the world this could possibly end satisfactorily. But it did, to me at least, and the final four will each realize their dream of appearing on Glee.

When asked about who they thought would win, the contestants tell us that they were all only sure of one thing, that the winner would be anybody else. “I thought it was going to go to Alex, definitely,” Samuel says, with his fellow contestant and finalist Lindsay agreeing telling us that she thought either Alex or Damian was sure to win. For his part, Alex tells us that he didn’t know who was going to win, but he was certain that it wouldn’t be himself. “I thought it was going to be one of the three of them,” he tells us.

When asked about how he felt when Samuel was named the winner of The Glee Project, right before being told that he had won as well, Damian tells us that what he was feeling in that moment when he thought all was lost was pretty indescribable. “It was a huge shock to the system,” Damian says. “It’s a real sinking feeling knowing that you got so far and then still you’re a million miles away.” But all that completely changed when judge Ryan Murphy revealed another shocking twist that left Damian literally jumping for joy. When asked how he felt after the big win, Damian tells of that: “You lose all sense of reality and you forget where you are… It was a phenomenal moment.”

Considering the team’s understandable excitement, we gotta know: How in the world do you keep a secret like this? Don’t you just want to shout it from the rooftops? The answer: it’s “nearly impossible.” All the contestants tell us that keeping to themselves the winner of The Glee Project was extremely hard. But Samuel describes it best for us when he says as hard as it was to keep something like this quiet, the motivation for not talking was well worth it. “It sucks,” Samuel tells us, “but I think when you have that kind of a lawsuit that could potentially be against you, it gets easier.”

On last week’s call with the contestants, the then final four told us about their dream roles. And now that dreams are meeting reality we had to know if they could give any spoilers about their characters on Glee. But no dice because as they tell us, they really have no clue how the writers are going to draw them in. Samuel tells us that the only hint they have is from the conversations with Ryan on the show, and even that is not a done deal. But once again, they all expressed faith in the writers and said that whatever they come up with will be just fine.

Congratulations once again to the winners of The Glee Project: Damian McGinty and Samuel Larsen, and runners-up (and winners in their own right) Alex Newell and Lindsay Pearce. We look forward to seeing you when you make your debut on Glee!

Images courtesy of Matt Sersion/NBC and Matt Sersion/Oxygen.

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