Even though Pixar films are expected to look great, “Cars” takes visual excellence to a whole new level. While characters are obviously cartoony (they are human-like cars, after all), the landscapes they inhabit are nothing short of photorealistic. It’s astonishing to see how far Pixar has come in a little over a decade, especially considering […]
Author Archives: Mark Humphrey
Recapping TV’s hottest before the heat hits
Now that the 2005-2006 TV season has come to a close, the summer doldrums begin. For the most part, summer is used by many to catch up on what they missed through on-demand video and DVD rentals and purchases. So on that note, I would like to go the David Greenwald route and look back […]
New reruns have too much tech, not enough Trek
I spent this past holiday weekend out of town, like many people across the country and at UCLA. Instead of visiting family, however, I was in Keystone, Colo., for my friend Ken’s wedding. And really, I learned a lot of things this weekend. But aside from the impermanence of youth and all that sentimental junk, […]
Bruins on the verge of something special
With UCLA again one of the top basketball programs in the nation, fans will have to get used to things that Westwood hasn’t seen in a while. There are the good things: 30-win seasons, championship banners and All-Americans crying at the feet of a tenacious Bruin defense. But then there are the downsides to being […]
TV's fall lineup has hits, misses
The annual ritual of television networks announcing their prime-time line-ups reminds me of drafting my fantasy baseball team. There are many similarities: roundtable discussions, heated bidding wars, and most importantly, the smug grins everyone wears upon the completion of it all. Every time I draft, I leave thinking I have the best team and that […]
TV execs must drop “˜Heaven,’ return to “˜Mars’
For fans of television, mid-May is both an extremely exciting and potentially harrowing time of year. On one hand, shows are delivering exciting season-ending arcs. On the other, mid-May is also the time that networks put together their schedules for the next television season. And if you watch as much TV as me, this can […]
Screen Scene: "Poseidon"
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen Warner Bros. True to its theme of water as a destructive force, Wolfgang Petersen’s “Poseidon” exists in something of a whirlpool of irony. “Poseidon” is a fairly generic, paint-by-number disaster movie, ironically based on 1972’s “The Poseidon Adventure,” which is one of the first ““ and considered one of the best […]