The gist is that young Portland police detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) finds his world of working homicide turned topsy-turvy when his librarian aunt informs him that his parents didn’t really die in a car accident, but were murdered. And not only that, but they were descendants of the brothers Grimm, whose stories weren’t fictional […]
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Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXIV
This edition — four episodes on four discs, per Shout! Factory’s usual — is like a cinematic-crap tour around the globe. We venture south of the border for 1962’s Samson vs. the Vampire Women, a masked-wrestler epic that stars Santo (not Samson, no matter what the title says), the caped superhero of Mexico’s wrasslin’ ring. […]
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Blade Anime
Therefore, I should love Blade Anime. And yet, even going in with no expectations to do just that, I don’t. Worse, I didn’t even like it. Collecting all 12 episodes — each about 20 minutes — the Japanese series offers strong visuals throughout, as it uses Blade’s origin as a diving board to tell an […]
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Above Suspicion: Set 1
Emetophobes may wish to shield their eyes in the opening scenes of the pilot, as rookie Detective Constable Anna Travis (the magnetic Kelly Reilly, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows) has trouble getting used to the job’s sights and smells when it comes to corpses. She eventually proves useful elsewhere, when her superior, the brusque […]
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‘Bad’ teacher
In the AMC cable series, which kicked off its fifth and final season Sunday, Bryan Cranston portrays Walter White, organic chemistry teacher by day, meth manufacturer by night. Since nearly the start, Breaking Bad staff writers call upon Nelson to ensure their series’ science is solid. “It was a little bit of a difficult decision […]
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21 Jump Street
In the prologue, we’re introduced to high school nerd Schmidt (Jonah Hill, Moneyball) and his dumb-jock tormenter, Jenko (Channing Tatum, Magic Mike). Seven years later, both enroll in the police academy, and form an unlikely friendship by helping each other get through. At graduation, they barely can contain their excitement about a law-enforcement career: “Get […]
Posted inMusic
Soundcheck: Classic Series Concert Previews
Saturday marks the second of the group’s eight Classic Series Concert Previews, which are lectures that take place before showtime, in which local musicians and educators offer insights beyond what attendees will find in the program. At 7 p.m., an hour before pianist Jon Kimura Parker joins the Philharmonic for “Two Aspects of Romanticism,” Sergio […]
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All down the line
Remington Park has something new to offer during the break from horse races this summer: a film series that utilizes its 821-inch, high-definition screen. The series, titled “Finish Line Films,” includes semiweekly screenings at 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Saturdays, with a diverse selection of hits, from the original and recently remade “True Grit” Westerns […]
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Earth versus the flying saucers
Falling Skies Sunday, 8 p.m. (TNT) “Falling Skies” is a superior alien-invasion series because it cares about the humans more than the aliens. In the prologue, we learn about a horrifying chain of events through the perspective of a child’s drawings: The aliens came and conquered, forcing survivors to form ad hoc resistance factions. The […]
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Munn ho!: Seventh in a series
The Okie turned actress/ model/geek icon bounced back PDQ from NBC’s nixing of her sitcom, “Perfect Couples,” by landing a role in “More as the Story Develops,” a pilot for an HBO series by Aaron Sorkin, who recently won an Academy Award for his “The Social Network” screenplay. Set amid the world of broadcast news, […]