Late Laughs for the week of November 29 - December 5, 2015
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Jimmy Fallon
It seemed like there were lots of good [Halloween] costumes this year. I saw that The Rock went as Popeye; Heidi Klum went as Jessica Rabbit; and this year's Mets went as LAST year's Mets.
I saw that Jay-Z and Beyoncé dressed as the characters from the Eddie Murphy movie “Coming to America.” In fact, their "Coming to America" costumes were so good, Donald Trump had them both deported.
Quest to be best: Cheftestants get set to compete in season 13 of 'Top Chef'
Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio as seen in "Top Chef"
Girl power: Bravo's 'Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce' gears up for season 2
Beau Garrett, Lisa Edelstein, Necar Zadegan and Alanna Ubach star in "Girlfriend's Guide to Divorce"
New Releases for the week of November 29 - December 5
Mistress America
Lonely college freshman Tracy (Kirke) is finding that her experience living and studying in New York City is a far cry from the exciting, glamorous lifestyle she thought she’d be enjoying. A call placed to her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Gerwig), soon changes that. The adventurous, outgoing resident of Times Square quickly draws Tracy out of her disappointment and ennui and takes her under her wing in a series of dream-chasing, score-settling experiences and misadventures that more than answer to the Big Apple life Tracy had envisioned.
Director: Noah Baumbach. Stars: Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Michael Chernus, Heather Lind. 2015. 84 min. Comedy.
Mississippi Grind
Down-on-his-luck gambler Gerry (Mendelsohn) is going through a heavy losing streak and owes a lot of people a lot of money. When he meets successful young poker player Curtis (Reynolds), he sees a possibility to turn things around. He convinces Curtis to join him on a road trip down the Mississippi River to a high-stakes poker game in New Orleans, stopping at every gambling spot they can find along the way. The two men form a bond as they experience all the highs and lows the journey throws their way.
Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck. Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Ben Mendelsohn, Alfre Woodard, Stephanie Honoré, Anthony Howard, Yvonne Landry. 2015. 108 min. Drama.
Cooties
When a contaminated chicken nugget is consumed by a fourth-grader, Ft. Chicken Elementary School becomes the scene of a zombie-like epidemic. Substitute teacher and wannabe horror writer Clint Hadson (Wood) must team up with the other remaining teachers and students to fight off the onslaught of the infected. His former high school crush, Lucy (Pill), is among the survivors, and Hadson tries to win her over while her current boyfriend, Wade (Wilson), complicates his efforts. As the outbreak begins to look more and more bleak, the gang of uninfected must pull together if they hope to survive the day.
Directors: Jonathan Milott, Cary Murnion. Stars: Elijah Wood, Rainn Wilson, Alison Pill, Jack McBrayer, Nasim Pedrad, Jorge Garcia. 2015. 88 min. Horror.
The Walking Dead, on AMC
As members of the group come to terms with what has happened so far, new threats are lying in wait in this new episode. It’s the final episode before the mid-season break for the acclaimed show, which will return again on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016.
Q: Who is the youngest actor to win an Oscar?
Your question sounds pretty simple, but there are actually a couple of answers to it, depending on how you define an Oscar.
Shirley Temple technically takes the prize since, at age 6, she received a "special award" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for her "outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934." The award was actually a miniature statue.
That, of course, sounds a lot like a patronizing pat on her curl-topped head.
Bad beginnings: Sophomore season of 'Gotham' is all about the enemy
Camren Bicondova stars in "Gotham"
The story has been told many times, each with its own flavor, but writers of Fox's “Gotham” have added a twist to the origins of the Dark Knight that's miles different from what's been told before.
Q: Can you tell me if they're making another season of the British mystery "Broadchurch"? I know it's been gone for a while, but I'm still holding out hope.
The British and their TV patterns give us all hope, and in the case of "Broadchurch," it's warranted.
When a North American show's been gone from the schedule for almost a year, you can usually assume it's been canceled. Not so with British TV.
"Broadchurch" will, in fact, air a third season, but not for a while yet. Season 2 ended in February, but the third season won't even start filming until this coming summer, meaning the show will go almost two years between episodes.
Q: What was the reason for Aly Forrester being killed off on "The Bold and the Beautiful"? Was it just for the storyline, or did the actress want to leave the show?
There's no indication that actress Ashlyn Pearce had anything to do with the decision to kill off her character, so it seems the show just wanted things to go down that way.
Aly's death, of course, added more complexity to the storyline of one of the show's central characters, Steffy, played by Jacqueline MacInnes Wood. In an interview with TVInsider, Wood essentially confirmed that the decision to leave wasn't Pearce's.
Q: I remember a Don Knotts movie from back in the '70s that had a great cemetery scene -- I never laughed so hard in my life. Can you please tell me the name of the movie?
Don Knotts did a lot of movies in his time, but it's hard to get laughs in a cemetery, so I can tell you pretty certainly that the movie you're thinking of is 1971's "How to Frame a Figg."
In it, Knotts plays Hollis Figg, a fairly unintelligent bookkeeper for a small township. The crooked city councilors try to cover up some shady financial dealings by replacing all of the accountants at city hall with a computer -- all, that is, except Figg, who they deem too dumb to catch on to them.