Movies/TV category, Page 81
TV Q&A: Will there be new episodes of WQED-TV’s ‘QED Cooks’?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Are Chris Fennimore and Nancy Polinsky still making local cooking shows on WQED? — Margo, via email Rob: Production on new “QED Cooks” episodes stopped...
Charlie Brown holiday specials to air exclusively on Apple TV+
Apple TV+ will allow fans of the Charlie Brown holiday specials to watch them for free on the platform after the company bought the exclusive rights to the specials two years ago. Apple’s subscription-based TV platform bought the rights to exclusively stream classic “Peanuts” specials in 2020, but the platform...
Impractical Jokers to kick off tour with Pittsburgh showVideo
The Impractical Jokers are returning to Pittsburgh. The stars of TruTV’s hidden-camera practical joke/reality show will launch their tour on Feb. 2, 2023, at PPG Paints Arena. Sal Vulcano, James Murray and Brian Quinn — otherwise known as Sal, Murr and Q — have been working as a trio since...
Review: Roberts, Clooney bring charm to ‘Ticket to Paradise’Video
It’s often said that the movies that were fun to make never turn out great. Well, George Clooney and Julia Roberts look like they had a grand time making the Bali-set “Ticket to Paradise.” The film, directed and co-written by Ol Parker (“Mama Mia! Here We Go Again”), isn’t the...
Is Alex Jones verdict the death of disinformation? Unlikely
NEW YORK — A Connecticut jury’s ruling this week ordering Alex Jones to pay $965 million to parents of Sandy Hook shooting victims he maligned was heartening for people disgusted by the muck of disinformation. Just don’t expect it to make conspiracy theories go away. The appetite for such hokum...
‘Flash’ actor Ezra Miller pleads not guilty to liquor theft
BENNINGTON, Vt. — Ezra Miller pleaded not guilty Monday to stealing bottles of liquor from a neighbor’s home, one of a string of arrests and reports of erratic behavior by the “Flash” actor that stretch from Hawaii to Vermont. Miller, 30, appeared Monday with their lawyer remotely from Burlington, Vermont,...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking horror movies, Mister Rogers name-checked in ‘Barney’ doc, ‘Doc Martin’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including Mister Rogers getting name-checked in the Peacock docu-series “I Love You, You Hate Me” about “Barney & Friends” and the lack of a “Won’t...
Can the Rock steady the DC universe with ‘Black Adam’?Video
NEW YORK — In Hollywood’s superhero era thus far, there has been one particularly conspicuous absence: While a parade of big-name actors have taken their turns donning various spandex suits, Dwayne Johnson — arguably the biggest movie star in the world — has, until now, sat out the trend. The...
A ‘wow’ moment is also a weird narrative choice on ‘House of the Dragon’
In the early trailers for “House of the Dragon,” Ser Otto Hightower says to his daughter, “We play an ugly game.” That game kicked into high gear with this week’s...
TV Talk: ‘Documentary Now!’ returns but so far no ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ parodyVideo
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. Ever since the Mister Rogers documentary ‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” premiered four years ago, I’ve wondered if IFC’s “Documentary Now!,” which parodies documentaries, might find a way to gently skewer the 2018 feature film...
‘Halloween Ends’ wins box office but renews streaming debate
No matter how you look at the numbers, “Halloween Ends” had a good opening weekend. Touted as the final showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers, the slasher pic earned $41.3 million in ticket sales from 3,901 theaters in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. It’s the first film...
Review: Claire Denis’ erotic thriller ‘Stars at Noon’ emits the sweat smell of sexcessVideo
Few filmmakers can evoke, as fully as Claire Denis does, the intoxication and menace of feeling cast adrift in a world where you don’t belong. Think of the French coffee-plantation owner in “White Material,” clinging desperately to the war-torn African country she’s claimed as her own, even as it tries...
How much Netflix’s new ad-supported plan will cost and what you get (and don’t)
LOS ANGELES — Commercials are coming soon to Netflix. The streamer on Thursday said it would launch a cheaper, ad-supported plan at $6.99 a month starting on Nov. 3 in the U.S. Netflix will still offer ad-free subscriptions, but for people seeking a discount, a total of four to five...
No jail time for Cuba Gooding Jr. in forcible touching case
NEW YORK — Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. resolved his New York City forcible touching case Thursday with a guilty plea to a lesser charge and no jail time after complying with the terms of a conditional plea agreement reached in April. Prosecutor Coleen Balbert said Gooding has stayed out of...
9 Angela Lansbury favorites to watch and where to find them
You’re not alone if you saw the news of Angela Lansbury’s death Tuesday, at 96, and thought about turning on an episode of “Murder, She Wrote,” the beloved mystery series she starred in from 1984 to 1996 as a writer and amateur detective on the coast of Maine. Or, for...
Q&A: Park Chan-wook on love, genre and ‘Decision to Leave’Video
NEW YORK — Long before Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” triumphed at the Oscars and “Squid Game” circled the globe, Park Chan-wook was astonishing worldwide audiences with his sumptuously stylistic, outrageously violent and devilishly elaborate vision of Korean cinema. His latest, “Decision to Leave,” is in some ways more restrained than...
TV Talk: Mister Rogers comparisons abound in ‘Barney’ doc ‘I Love You, You Hate Me’Video
There are some interesting ideas explored in Peacock’s “I Love You, You Hate Me,” a two-part docu-series about 1990s PBS phenomenon “Barney & Friends,” the kids’ show starring a loved and loathed purple dinosaur. But the series, now streaming, veers from its nostalgia lane into true crime territory. Is the...
For Whoopi Goldberg, ‘Till’ release comes after long waitVideo
LOS ANGELES — When Whoopi Goldberg was invited to help produce an Emmett Till project, the actor thought she knew everything about the Black teenager’s 1955 kidnapping and lynching — until she learned the untold stories about how his mother handled the horrific aftermath. After Goldberg dove deep into Till’s...
TV Talk: HBO to debut ‘A Tree of Life’ documentary executive produced by Michael Keaton, Billy Porter, Mark CubanVideo
“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting,” executive produced by Pittsburgh natives Michael Keaton, Billy Porter and Mark Cuban, will premiere on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. Oct. 26. Directed by Trish Adlesic (“Gasland,” “I Am Evidence”), the 80-minute film re-tells the story of the 2018 shooting...
Why classical conductor ‘Tár’ was the most terrifying role of Cate Blanchett’s iconic careerVideo
Cate Blanchett has played her share of formidable characters, rulers who could bring mere mortals to their knees with a single icy stare: Queen Elizabeth I in “Elizabeth,” Galadriel in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the goddess Hela in “Thor: Ragnarok.” But none of that could compare with the...
TV Q&A: Did KDKA-TV’s Royce Jones play for the Steelers?
Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review. Q: Someone told me Royce Jones on KDKA-TV once played for the Steelers. I don’t believe them. Is this a fact? — Ralph, Greenburg Rob: I...
‘Murder She Wrote’ actress Angela Lansbury dies at 96
NEW YORK — Angela Lansbury, the big-eyed, scene-stealing British actress who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” has died. She was 96. Lansbury died Tuesday at her home...
Unpacking the wild twists, excessive vomit in ‘Triangle of Sadness’: ‘Maybe it was too much’Video
When Swedish filmmaker Ruben Ostlund won the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for “Triangle of Sadness,” it put him in the rarified class of two-time Palme d’Or winners. The prestigious group also includes Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Haneke, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Emir Kusturica, Shohei Imamura, Bille...
Making the radical case for Sinéad O’Connor: She was right all alongVideo
Thirty years ago this month, Sinéad O’Connor tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II on “Saturday Night Live,” effectively destroying her mainstream career with a single act of protest against the Catholic Church. Then 25, the Grammy-winning Irish singer was an unlikely pop star. Known for the raw,...
Pittsburgh Pop podcast: Talking Penn State limited series, new ‘Saturday Night Live’ cast, ‘Midnight Club’
In this episode of the “Pittsburgh Pop” podcast, host Tim Benz and TV Talk columnist Rob Owen discuss Pittsburgh pop culture news of the moment, including a report in The Hollywood Reporter about a limited Hulu series “Death at Penn State,” based on the real-life story of the 2017 hazing...
