Pages

Saturday, November 3, 2012

This week in entertainment -- Nov. 4, 2012



This may have been the summer of the super hero – but one of those super heroes definitely fell short compared to the others.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, got decent reviews and fan reaction. It just never really got any buzz going.

At the beginning of the summer it was all about ‘The Avengers.’ By the end of summer it was all about ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ debuted in between the two and raked in almost $700 million worldwide – on an estimated $230 million budget. When you compare it to its two counterparts, though, that’s not actually very impressive.

While a sequel to ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ has been green lit, I would imagine that movie producers are going to try and debut it far away from ‘The Avengers’ next time around.

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ hits DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday – so fans that didn’t get a chance to see it in theaters this summer will have another chance this week.

The other notable DVD debuts are the 11th season of ‘Law & Order’ and the ‘Paradise Lost’ Trilogy. For those not in the know, ‘Paradise Lost’ is the three-part documentary series that follows the West Memphis Three – a trio of teenage boys that were incarcerated for 20 years for killing three young boys. DNA evidence essentially exonerates the three accused – and they’ve since been freed from prison.

While the men were still in jail, the documentaries had a certain urgency about them. Now, the only people I think that will be interested are true crime buffs and Johnny Depp fans.

Television

There are several of those ‘Real Housewives’ shows debuting this week – but I don’t really care so you’re on your own to find information about them.

The only decent show debuting this week is USA’s always entertaining ‘Burn Notice,’ which is currently in its sixth season.

‘Burn Notice’ is one of those shows that never seems to get old because it manages to mix drama and comedy in an effective manger. The show’s heroes have taken hits, but they still have each other – and a lot of laughs.

Music
It’s a decent week in music.

Aging rock stars Aerosmith debut ‘Music From Another Dimension,’ which contains 15 new songs. The deluxe CD has 18 songs – and includes a special DVD.

Infomercial queen Dionne Warwick unveils ‘Now,’ which is essentially 12 songs that she’s already released. People listen to her for the nostalgia anyway.

Ne-Yo releases ‘Red,’ an acronym for Realizing Every Dream, on Tuesday. It features 17 songs – including a collaboration with Calvin Harris.

Finally, Public Enemy can boast one of the greatest titles ever – ‘Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp.’ The CD has 11 songs.  Ironically, this isn’t the group’s only CD release of the day. They are also debuting ‘The Evil Empire of Everything,’ which features 13 new songs – including one about the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Video Games
The big release of the week is obviously Halo 4. That’s all any guy can talk about. Any guy with a controller permanently imprinted to his hand, that is.

Still, the gaming franchise has proven popular. Personally, I’m looking forward to next week’s offering a lot more – but I’ll do something separate on that later in the week.

War game buffs also have ‘History Legends of War: Patton’ to play with. The game unites console strategy gaming and a bevy of planes and tanks most people that play video games have never laid eyes on.

The final game of interest this week is ‘NASCAR The Game: Inside Line.’  Yeah, this is pretty much a driving game. You can fully customize practice, qualifying and race sessions and combine them with fast paced side by side racing.

Movies
Finally, there’s really only one movie of interest hitting theaters this week and it’s the new James Bond outing ‘Skyfall.’

I know James Bond is a big thing to a lot of people – but I don’t get the appeal. It doesn’t matter who is playing the character, I just can’t make myself interested in the franchise.

This outing brings back Daniel Craig as Bond and pairs him with Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Albert Finney and the always droll Judi Dench.

‘Skyfall’ tells the story of how Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

At least Dench appears to be getting a lot of screen time.

The film hits IMAX theaters Thursday night and everywhere else on Thursday.

What do you think? What are you looking forward to the most this week?  

No comments:

Post a Comment