Breaking Halloween news!

I've been trying my hardest to avoid most previews and trailers for Anchorman 2, but I think I can make an exception for this special message from Ron Burgundy.

Special Edna

From EW.com

Fox and The Simpsons producers are making some changes to Sunday’s programming to pay tribute to the passing of longtime Simpsons actress Marcia Wallace.

First, the network is replacing a repeat of American Dad with a classic Simpsons episode that focused on Wallace’s beloved character Edna Krabappel.

The network will re-air the 16th episode of the show’s third season, “Bart the Lover,” which offered a sympathetic take on Bart’s cynical, lonely teacher. In the episode, Bart discovers Krabappel has posted a personal ad, so he begins writing her bogus love letters. After setting her up on a fake date, he spies her sitting by herself in the restaurant. When she’s still there hours later, he’s no longer amused by his prank and sets about trying to make things right. The episode won Wallace an Emmy Award in 1992.

“Bart the Lover” will air as the 7:30 p.m. lead-in to an all-new Simpsons, titled “4 Regrettings and a Funeral.” The new episode will then conclude with a tribute card from the producers honoring Wallace. Also, the episode opens with an epic-length couch-gag spoof of The Hobbit.

Wallace died at age 70. “I was tremendously saddened to learn this morning of the passing of the brilliant and gracious Marcia Wallace,” producer Al Jean said in a statement earlier this week. “She was beloved by all at The Simpsons and we intend to retire her irreplaceable character.”

Come back on down!

From TVGuide.com:

One lucky (and unsuspecting) audience attending an upcoming taping of The Price is Right will be treated to an appearance by the game show's longtime host Bob Barker, as the Emmy Award-winning legend returns to his old CBS Television City studio to celebrate his 90th birthday.

"We've had Bob on just one other time since Drew Carey took over the show," says executive producer Mike Richards. "It was when Bob's book, Priceless Memories, came out and it was a priceless moment for fans. I was looking for the perfect reason to bring Bob back again and this TV legend turning 90 is the perfect reason."

Barker's pre-taped, one-day appearance will air on his birthday, Dec. 12, during a weeklong tribute (Dec. 9-13) to the animal rights crusader. "Monday through Friday we're going to be doing pet adoptions, which is something Bob did on the show for years," explains Richards.

During his appearance, Barker will help place a pup for adoption and take part in a special Showcase presentation featuring prizes that honor the benefits of reaching 90. Such as? "Being treated well," Richards says. "'And you'll be treated incredibly well on this trip to wherever... It's intended to show off just how hilarious Bob is and let him have a little fun. We couldn't be more excited!"

With both Barker and The Price is Right — daytime's No. 1 show — still going strong, Richards feels confident making one more announcement: "I'm officially extending an invitation to Bob to come back for his 100th birthday!"

Bob Barker, come on down!

Counting down the Days

Worlds are about to collide as the casts from the two X-Men franchises are about to come together in one epic movie. While the film, titled X-Men: Days of Future Past, won't come out until next year, we already have a first trailer. Check it out below.

Back into the Shadows

After news earlier this week about George Clooney's The Monuments Men getting pushed back to 2014, we get news today that another film has abandoned its December release date. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit will now also move to early 2014. Here's the full story from EW.com.

EW has confirmed that Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit has dropped off the Christmas release schedule and will now open Jan. 17, 2014

The Paramount Pictures’ action movie is based on characters from late author Tom Clancy and stars Chris Pine (Star Trek) as a young CIA analysis who uncovers a Russian plot to crash the U.S. economy with a terrorist attack. Kenneth Branagh (Valkyrie), Kevin Costner (Man of Steel), and Kiera Knightly (Anna Karenina) will also star alongside Pine in the upcoming action thriller directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Could a Christmas Day release date announcement for Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street be just around the corner? The speculation remains high that Jack Ryan’s move could be a strategic effort by Paramount to announce a Dec. 25 release date for Martin Scorsese’s highly anticipated The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (The Great Gatsby) and Matthew McConaughey (Mud).

Moving Wolf Of Wall Street into Jack Ryan’s old release date of Christmas Day would effectively keep the film in the running for the Oscars but as of yet, Paramount has not commented on whether they will release the Scorsese film before the end of the year not.

Winter is coming

As we count down the days until the Thor sequel hits theaters, the first trailer for a sequel to a different Avenger has hit the Internet. Here's your first look at Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Moving Monuments

From EW.com

George Clooney told the Los Angeles Times Tuesday that his World War II drama The Monuments Men would not meet its scheduled Dec. 18 opening and will instead hit theaters in early 2014. A representative from Sony Pictures, who is distributing the film, confirmed the news to EW and stated that the film would be released sometime in the first quarter of 2014, but no release date has been set.

“We just didn’t have enough time,” Clooney told the paper. The movie, which Clooney directed, produced, and stars in, boasts an all-star cast including Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, and Cate Blanchett and was considered an awards hopeful. According to the report, when Clooney arrived in London to work with composer Alexandre Desplat on the score, he and producing partner Grant Heslov realized they were in trouble.

“If any of the effects looked cheesy, the whole movie would look cheesy,” Clooney told the Times. “We simply don’t have enough people to work enough hours to finish it.” He added: ”All we’ve ever said, from the very beginning, is that we wanted to make a commercial, non-cynical piece of entertainment.”

The Monuments Men isn’t the first film to drop out of the late 2013 release schedule — others have included Sony’s Foxcatcher and The Weinstein Company’s Grace of Monaco, both of which have been pushed to early 2014 as well.

This is rather disappointing news for me considering this was in my Top 5 most anticipated films for this year. Then again, Clooney's current film, Gravity, was originally supposed to come out in 2012 and it's done all right with its delay. So I guess we just have to now play the waiting game.

Non the wiser

What is it about Liam Neeson that he keeps finding himself getting disturbing phone calls that result in him having to go into kick-ass mode? I'm not sure, but as a movie fan, I'm sure glad it keeps happening. Here's a trailer for his latest thriller, Non-Stop (directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also directed Neeson in Unknown) that has him busting out his specific set of skills on an airplane.

Playing the race card

As usual, I'm way late on getting to one of my reviews, but at least this one will be a full one and not a quick hit, so take what you can get.

When you think of some of the greatest athletes in their respective sports, it could be argued that they would not have achieved their greatness had it not been for a rival who equaled them in skill and forced them to be even better. That is certainly true for the two men at the center of Rush, a film about the real-life rivalry of Formula 1 racers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Directed by Ron Howard, this film gives us one of the best stories about rivalry that I have ever seen.

Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) is a blond-haired playboy who has seen success in every venture of his life. Before moving up to Formula 1, he relishes as the big fish in the small pond. His first true taste of competition comes from Lauda (played by Daniel Bruhl). His calculated efforts to be the fastest on the track rub Hunt the wrong way. After establishing these characters, the film focuses on the 1976 season as both men risk everything in order to be champion.

What makes their story interesting is how these two were true opposites. Hunt had his dashing good looks and carefree attitude. Lauda was more the intellectual, using his brains to gain a competitive. Hunt was a people person, while Lauda was stand-offish and brusk. Having a rival be your polar opposite is not a new storytelling device. Yet what makes Rush stand out is that neither man is portrayed negatively or as the villain here. Each man has their strengths and their weaknesses. Howard lets history dictate how we feel about these individuals rather than telling us who we should root for.

Howard should also be commended for the way he is able to depict the racing scenes themselves. You gain the thrill and exhilaration of watching the races just as if you were at the speedway yourself. Howard does not shy away from the dangerous nature of the sport. Scenes involves crashes and wrecks are realistically shown, neither sugar-coating the scares nor exploiting the violence. If you are at all familiar with the rivalry between the two, you know that Lauda is involved in a life-threatening crash midway through the season. We watch in shocked amazement as he refuses to let the accident deter his motivation to be the best

While the focus is on the events on the track, we do get glimpses into the personal lives of these two and the roles they played on their ability to win. Each man has varying levels of success when it comes to their love life. Hunt, for instance, sees his marriage (his wife is played by Olivia Wilde) fall apart in the midst of the season. Although Howard is right to focus on the racing, I would have liked to see him flesh out the women in these guys' lives more fully

Given that Howard does not take as many creative liberties with their story as some directors do when telling the real life stories of other notable people, there are not a lot of surprises here if you are at familiar with the outcome of the '76 season. I personally did not know the end result so I was fully engrossed in how things would play out. However, others may feel cheated that the film does not offer more than a summary of their competitive season.

Credit goes to both Hemsworth and Bruhl for their performances here. Both are outstanding in fully fleshing out who these men were and showing their complexities. I would imagine many will come to the film simply for the racing scenes and will leave surprise as to how good both of these men are in their respective roles. In a different year, I could see either one earn some awards buzz, but I have a feeling this year will have too crowded of a field for their work to be recognized.

I cannot say that I am a huge fan of car racing, but the competitive nature of athletes does capture my attention. For that reason, this movie is excellent. Its story transcends the featured sport and focuses more on the will to win. That is a theme that anyone can relate to. When it comes to athlete biopics, this one is able to rush ahead of the pack. Grade: A-

It's been surreal

It's been way too long since we've been able to see the adventures of U.S. Marshal Chris Monsanto (Chris Elliott). Well wait no more. Here's your first look at Season 3 of Eagleheart which you can see on Comedy Central's Adult Swim starting on November 14th.

RBR: RED 2 (Quick hits)

This one is not available on home movie yet, but it is long gone from the theaters, so we'll just stick it here and be done with it. Those who were fans of the first RED film, will get another dose of the same here. Thankfully I enjoyed the first one and found enough to like here as well. It mostly comes from seeing this group of aging stars have a lot of fun blowing stuff up real good. Could they have done something more interesting from a storytelling perspective? Absolutely. But this is the type of film that matinee theaters were built for. It's harmless entertainment that keeps you engaged for a few hours but then you'll likely quickly forget about a few days after you watched it. There's no need to do a third film in this series, but if they opted to do so, I wouldn't be totally against it. This was certainly better than most of Bruce Willis' efforts (A Good Day to Die Hard, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) this year. Rating: *** 1/2

RBR: The Croods (Quick hits)

Technically this one isn't available at Redbox yet, but it is available on home video and will be at Redbox next month. This animated caveman picture does have some charm. The voice cast including Nicholas Cage and Emma Stone attempts to bring some energy to the characters. It also creates some memorable animal characters that the kids will adore. The biggest problem with the film is its story that plays more like a TV pilot than a self contained film narrative. There is a sense of desperation on the filmmakers part to setup each character and have you like them so that you can see more wacky adventures from this crew. If this had been on Nickelodeon or Disney, I would rate it higher. However, there have been way better animated films that were actually worth your money as opposed to this prehistoric dud. Rating: ***

RBR: Broken City (Quick hits)

Talk about a dreadfully dull film. You would think that a film starring Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg, and Catherine Zeta Jones would crackle with life, but this nearly put me to sleep. About the only thing keeping me awake was trying to wrap my head around the numerous plot holes and mistakes that are found in the story. Like Admission, we see a lot of characters doing dumb things that make no sense to anyone with half a brain. I was hoping for some decent police/political thriller but this material isn't even worth doing on a fourth rate Law & Order spinoff. Rating: **

RBR: Admission (Quick hits version)

So there have been a lot of films that I have seen over the past few months that I never got around to reviewing for one reason or another. I am going to try and knock them all out in a row right now. Given that most of these films aren't in theaters any more, I won't do lengthy reviews. But at least you get to hear my thoughts on them anyways. So here goes nothing...

Tina Fey has earned fame and acclaim for her brand of smart comedy. Whether it was being on SNL or 30 Rock, making films like Mean Girls, or writing one of her successful books, she has managed to find the funny in an intelligent manner. For that reason, I am dumbfounded to see her associate herself with such dumb material like this film. What's even more baffling is that her character works for one of the most prestigious universities in the country. Fey plays an admissions counselor for Princeton. For someone responsible for evaluating the lives and merits of others, the decisions she makes in her own life are highly questionable. After breaking up with her boyfriend (Michael Sheen, doing a rather unfunny running gag of always showing up at inopportune times) she learns that she may have found a son that she gave up for adoption at birth thanks to Paul Rudd who teaches the boy at a progressive charter school. Fey's actions dealing with this potential son do not yield much laughs nor warmth. You just sit there wondering why anyone thought this material was good. Even character actors like Wallace Shaw and Lily Tomlin get wasted here. Now that 30 Rock is over, there were high hopes that Fey would make a successful transition to film, but if she continues to do projects like this she better hope to get a new job in TV real soon. Rating: ** 1/2

New Fall TV Review: The Blacklist

After his disastrous run on The Office, I wasn't sure I was ready to see James Spader on TV again, but he is singlehandedly making this new spy drama must-see. He plays mastermind criminal Raymond Reddington who has willingly turned himself in to the F.B.I. with the promise of sharing information on all the criminals he has worked with over the years. He also requests that he work exclusively with a young female agent. The show has procedural elements as each week deals with Reddington and the female agent working on capturing a criminal on Reddington's "blacklist" each week. However, there are also some perplexing mythological questions that have been established already. One is why Reddington chose to specifically work with this young agent. The one that interests me more is what is going on with the agent's husband who may not be all that he seems. There are some Jason Bourne elements to his storyline that certainly has me intrigued. Right now it is balancing that line to appease fans of both types of shows. But as I mentioned at the top, Spader is the reason to watch. His smarmy, sneaky Reddington captures your interest every time he is on the screen. Even when the "case of the week" doesn't provide something of interest, he keeps you invested in watching. I look forward to seeing how each of these storylines play out as the season unfolds. Verdict: Earns a season pass on the DVR

If you aint Ryan, you aint trying

The release of the first trailer for the new film Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit takes on a more somber tone with the news this week of the passing of author Tom Clancy, who was the creator of the Jack Ryan character. While this film is based on an original story, it seems to still be very much rooted in the themes of geopolitics that Clancy was known for in his books. You can check out the trailer for yourself below.

New Fall TV Review: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

This was probably the show I most anticipated coming in to this fall season and thus far it has no disappointed. Thus far, they've done a nice job of scaling back the story and production to be able to bring the Marvel universe to the small screen. The Marvel name is also not just being slapped on here to draw in viewers. I am loving all of the references to previous Marvel films that have been used within just the first two episodes. This show, however, cannot succeed if it merely makes references to other popular work. It has to be able to stand on its own. While there are some solid components here, I am not fully sold on everyone in the cast. Clark Gregg is great in the role of Agent Coulson and provides some excellent stability. I also like Ming Na Wen as the reluctant enforcer. The two British tech agents known collectively as Fitzsimmons are also a lot of fun. The actors playing Skye and Agent Ward are the weak links thus far, but hopefully they will improve over time. I like that they are already establishing some mysteries that will likely unfold as the season progresses. Already here are the key questions that they are teasing us with:
1)How did Agent Coulson survive and why does he not know what actually happened to him? 2)What happened to Melinda May that made her reluctant to go back out into the field? 3)Can Skye be trusted or is she using SHIELD in order to help her Rising Tide cause? 4)Who is responsible for Project Centipede?

This seems like it should be a very fun show that I am highly looking forward to watching each week. Verdict: Earns a season pass on the DVR

24 prepares for a bloody good time

From comingsoon.net

Twentieth Century Fox Television, Imagine Television and Fox are sending the production of "24: Live Another Day" across the Atlantic to London for a thrilling international adventure, as the new tent-pole event series restarts the clock on the groundbreaking and Emmy Award-winning drama franchise starring Kiefer Sutherland. As previously announced, "24: Live Another Day" will make its debut in the summer of 2014 on Fox.

"'24' has always had such a global sensibility," said Sutherland, who also serves as an executive producer on the event series. "But to be able to tell this intense '24'-style story with the beauty of Europe's history and architecture as the backdrop is going to be fascinating. Hopefully, by the time you're finished watching an episode, you'll feel like you've been there...on the edge of your seat."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Evan Katz added, "We wanted the show's return to be an event, and part of that was putting Jack in a very different context. Four years ago, we left Jack a fugitive from justice and we're going to pick him up four years later in London."

Co-showrunner and executive producer Manny Coto continued, "Jack is soon back on the run and it takes us into the streets of London and in places that break new ground for the show. We've shot in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Cape Town -- but now we're in London and Jack's loose on the streets of Europe, hunted by and hunting bad guys."

Originally premiering November 6, 2001, "24" was nominated for a total of 73 Emmy Awards, winning for Outstanding Drama Series in 2006. Over the course of eight seasons, and a two-hour telefilm, Sutherland garnered seven Emmy Award nominations and one win for Outstanding Lead Actor - Drama Series.

"24: Live Another Day" is a production of 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television in association with Teakwood Lane Productions. Howard Gordon, Brian Grazer and Kiefer Sutherland will executive produce, along with an additional team to be announced. The original series, which had its last American broadcast on May 24, 2010, was created by Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran.

Tribe Watch '13 (Final Report)

So the Indians season finally came to an end last night after they lost the 1-game Wild Card Playoff to the Tampa Bay Rays. It was a tough loss to watch, but I'm overall still extremely proud of this team for their season and excited for what is to come. Last night was a reflection of what this team currently is - a decent team with a great manager that still has to address some issues before they can be a legitimate contender. As we turn to the offseason, there will be some good dilemmas to deal with. One will be determining if we can re-sign Ubaldo Jimenez, Scott Kazmir, or both. Both guys seemingly got better as the season went on but it seems unlikely that we'll be able to afford both, so the question becomes will be able to keep either here next year. We then will have to look at offering some extensions to players who we will want to lock up for the long term future, like Justin Masterson and Jason Kipnis. There are also some players that I would like to see gone from the team like Chris Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera. These guys do nothing to enhance our team, but hopefully that are seen to still have some talent so that we will be able to trade them. Lastly you have to wonder about Jason Giambi. While the stats do not indicate it, you could potentially argue he was an MVP on this team because of the contributions he made. I don't know whether he's ready to retire or still wants to play. I would like to see him remain with us in some capacity, however.

In general, this was an amazing season that was so entertaining from beginning to end. I love this core group of guys that we have and I truly believe we are moving in the right direction. Last night's loss stings, but that will fade soon enough. The good news is that we are now just four months away from pitchers and catchers reporting for Spring Training. No matter what the calendar says, I will always say Go Tribe!!