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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 5 – “Dead Freight”

By EGAN BRUMLEY 08/14/2012

Jesse Plemons in BREAKING BAD - Season 5 - "Dead Freight" | ©2012 AMC/Ursula Coyote

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn Writer: George Mastras Director: George Mastras Network: AMC, airs Sunday Nights Original Telecast: August 12, 2012 “Dead Freight” is BREAKING BAD’s most plot-heavy episode this season, as it details Walt, (Bryan Cranston), Jesse, (Aaron Paul), and Mike’s (Jonathan Banks’s) complicated plan to heist methylamine from a freight train to support their burgeoning drug business. Despite a shocking climax, however, the episode’s focus on exposition related to heist-planning leaves “Dead Freight” without the emotional punch of previous episodes. Still, the build-up to the heist is entertaining, and having the absolute certain knowledge that the […]Read On »

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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 5 – “Fifty-One”

By EGAN BRUMLEY 08/10/2012

Bryan Cranston and Anna White in BREAKING BAD - Season 5 - "Fifty-One" | ©2012 AMC/Ursula Coyote

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn Writer: Sam Catlin Director: Rian Johnson Network: AMC, airs Sunday Nights Original Telecast: August 6, 2012 “Fifty-One” is perhaps the most harrowing episode of BREAKING BAD this season, as it deals primarily with the toll Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston’s) year-long transformation has taken on his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn). Since Walt’s become a power-hungry madman, we were aware that this toll was heavy, but this episode features several gasp-worthy moments that is notable not only for the depiction of Walt’s depravity, but for its abject sadness. Some of those difficult domestic moments include: […]Read On »

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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 5 – “Hazard Pay”

By EGAN BRUMLEY 08/02/2012

Bryan Cranston in BREAKING BAD - Season 5 - "Hazard Pay" | ©2012 AMC/Ursula Coyote

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn Writer: Peter Gould Director: Adam Bernstein Network: AMC, airs Sunday Nights Original Telecast: July 29, 2012 Having convinced Mike to handle the business side of their new drug operation, Walt and Jesse begin to cook meth again, and they begin to fill the void left in the underworld by Gus’s death. But Walt’s ego is already creating fissures in the new partnership. Again this week on BREAKING BAD, Mike (Jonathan Banks) gets the best line, as he tells Walt (Bryan Cranston) “Just because you shot Jesse James – don’t make you Jesse James.” […]Read On »

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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 5 – “Madrigal”

By EGAN BRUMLEY 07/24/2012

Jonathan Banks and Laura Fraser in BREAKING BAD - Season 5 - "Madrigal" | ©2012 AMC/Ursula Coyote

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn Writer: Vince Gilligan Director: Michelle MacLaran Network: AMC, airs Sunday Nights Original Telecast: July 22, 2012 The bomb that killed drug kingpin Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) in last season’s BREAKING BAD finale had, for better or for worse, a liberating effect on Walter White (Bryan Cranston). The success of Walt’s plot to kill Gus not only removed the sword of Damocles from above Walt, and his family’s, heads, but also validated the image he’d been nurturing of himself as a cunning, ruthless drug lord. But for Gus’s former “Head of Security,” the world-weary […]Read On »

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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 5 “Live Free or Die” – Season Premiere

By EGAN BRUMLEY 07/18/2012

BREAKING BAD - Season 5 poster | ©2012 AMC

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn Writer: Vince Gilligan Director: Michael Slovis Network: AMC, airs Sunday Nights Original Telecast: July 15, 2012 BREAKING BAD’s creator Vince Gilligan has described the remarkable metamorphosis undergone by the show’s protagonist Walter White (Bryan Cranston) as a transformation from MR. CHIPS to SCARFACE. And for four seasons now, we’ve watched this play out in fits and starts, as Walt’s lung cancer diagnosis served as the catalyst to a chain of increasingly morally dubious decisions that would change him from an endearing family man and talented high school chemistry teacher into a vain, manipulative, and […]Read On »

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PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES is one of the Blu-ray and DVD picks this week

By PETER BROWN 10/19/2011

Pirates of the Caribbean On Stranger Tides | © 2011 Disney Home Entertainment

Your time is short. We know this. So in order to expedite your buying and Netflix decision making, we provide you with a list of the cool and not-so-cool titles coming out for movies, television and everything in-between. So put your feet up, grab some popcorn and check out this week’s selections. MOVIES PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES – Yeah, times have changed. No longer is Keira Knightley or Orlando Bloom involved but really the first three films were all about Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and this fourth installment of the action franchise delivers him in spades. […]Read On »

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TV Review: BREAKING BAD – Season 4 premiere – “Box Cutter”

By PETER BROWN 07/19/2011

Bryan Cranston and Aarol Paul in BREAKING BAD - Season 4 | ©2011 AMC/Ben Leuner

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte, Giancarlo Esposito Director: Adam Bernstein Writer: Vince Gilligan Network: AMC, airs Sundays at 9 p.m. Original Telecast: July 17, 2011 Well, if that isn’t the way to get a message across to your employees, I’m not sure what is on BREAKING BAD. Of course, I’m talking about meth boss Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) brutal and methodic disrobing of his suit and tie, slowly putting on a chemical suit in the meth lab, stalking about the lab in absolutely silence and ultimately slitting the throat of one of […]Read On »

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Exclusive Interview: BREAKING BAD creator Vince Gilligan breaks down Season 4

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN 07/17/2011

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in BREAKING BAD - Season 4 |2011 AMC/Ben Leuner

AMC’s series BREAKING BAD begins its fourth season tonight, Sunday, at 10 PM. Since the show debuted in 2008, Bryan Cranston’s Walt White has gone from a cancer-stricken mild-mannered high school science teacher who starts manufacturing crystal meth to provide for his family to an in-remission criminal drug dealer who is willing to use violence to further his ends. Cranston has won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for all three previous seasons; Aaron Paul took the Supporting Actor in a Drama Emmy in 2010 for his work as Walt’s former student/current drug partner Jesse Pinkman. […]Read On »

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INCEPTION and FRINGE are big winners at the 37th Annual Saturn Awards

By CARL CORTEZ 06/24/2011

Winners for the 37th Annual Saturn Awards presented by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films were handed out last night at the Castaway in Burbank, CA. For movies, INCEPTION was the big winner (taking home Best Scieince Fiction film, Best Writer and Best Director (for Christopher Nolan), while FRINGE was the big TV winner (it took home Best Network TV series, while John Noble nabbed Best Supporting Actor On TV and Anna Torv took home Best Actress on TV). Special Awards included the Visionary Award to Marvel Studios, Life Career Award to producer-director-writer Bert I. Gordon, the […]Read On »

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BREAKING BAD: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON is one of the Blu-ray and DVD picks this week

By PETER BROWN 06/07/2011

BREAKING BAD THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON | © 2011 Warner Home Video

Your time is short. We know this. So in order to expedite your buying and Netflix decision making, we provide you with a list of the cool and not-so-cool titles coming out for movies, television and everything in-between. So put your feet up, grab some popcorn and check out this week’s selections. MOVIES JUST GO WITH IT – When it comes to Adam Sandler movies … you pretty much know what you are gonna get. He’s a lovable loser with some strange tendency or has been lucky in love or unlucky in love or what have you. He meets some […]Read On »

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