A NBC anunciou semana passada o data de retorno da terceira temporada de ‘Chuck’. A season premiere irá ao ar no domingo, 10 de janeiro, a exibição normal da série se dará às segundas-feiras, a partir da semana seguinte, sempre às 20h.

Entre as participações especiais já confirmadas, temos os nomes de Angie Harmon, Brandon Routh, Kristin Kreuk, Armand Assante, Steve Austin, Robert Patrick e Vinnie Jones.

Confira um trailer da nova temporada da série:

Luego de varios meses en el limbo, y una gran campaña de renovación, esta mañana la cadena NBC sorprendió a todos los fanáticos al anunciar que la tercera temporada de Chuck comenzará el próximo domingo 10 de Enero.

Como detalle interesante tenemos que destacar que la nueva temporada comenzará con un episodio especial de dos horas, y al dia siguiente se establecerá en su horario tradicional acompañando a Heroes en la noche de los lunes.

Como todos saben, esta temporada estará llena de invitados sorprendentes, incluyendo a Superman, Lana Lang, el Terminator T-1000 y muchos más, que irán apareciendo en distintos personajes con el paso de los episodios.

Hasta el momento han sido confirmadas las apariciones de Angie Harmon (Law & Order), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), Kristin Kreuk (Smallville), Armand Assante (Judge Dredd) y Vinnie Jones (Snatch).

Luego de los eventos de la temporada pasada, Chuck (Zachary Levi) se ha convertido en el Intersect 2.0, por lo que e el futuro no solo contará con secretos de gobierno, sino que también esta equipado con todo tipo de habilidades afectadas por sus emociones.

La temporada 3 de Chuck comienza el 10 de Enero por NBC.

Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi) and the Buy More will be returning to NBC for a 2-hour episode on Sunday January 10, 2010 at 9pm. The show will then move to its regular time slot starting January 11.

NBC’s “Chuck” will have a slew of guest stars for this upcoming season. Angie Harmon (NBC’s “Law & Order”), who will play Sydney, an enemy operative; Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), who is set to play CIA Agent Daniel Shaw; Robert Patrick (Terminator 2: Judgment Day) will play Colonel Keller, a soldier and spy from Casey’s past; Kristin Kreuk (“Smallville”), who will portray Hannah — a potential love interest for Chuck; Armand Assante (Judge Dredd) as dictator Premier Goya, who is the target of an assassin; Steve Austin (“WWE Smackdown!”) will portray Hugo Panzer, who becomes entangled in Chuck’s first solo mission; and Vinnie Jones (Snatch) will play Carl Stromberg, an arms dealer.

In other “Chuck” casting news, Julia Ling who plays Anna has not been listed in the press release from NBC in a list of characters returning for season 3. All regular and secondary cast members will be back for season 3.

NBC also announced that there will be a 2-hour episode of “Heroes” that will air on January 4 at 8pm, then the show will move its it new time slot of 9pm starting January 11.

Saturday, November 14, 2009
Cuban Martini

Saturday, November 14, 2009
Dirty Vodka Martini

The Cuban Martini is made with 6 parts rum, 1 part dry vermouth, a granulated sugar rim and a lime twist for garnish.  Prior to this I don’t think I associated Cuba with rum.  Cigars, check.  Fidel Castro, check (aka skanky old guy who looks like he’s been living in the same military uniform since before I was born?  Check).  Ricky Ricardo, check.   I guess maybe the Mojito, but that’s such a recently trendy drink and personally I never cared for them.  I don’t like stuff “muddled” in my drink.  Maybe I’m weird that way.  Olives, lemon twists, etc. – okay, that’s different.  I don’t want loose shit floating around in my booze.  It’s like dunking cookies into milk or a donut into coffee.  Nope.  Not for me. 

Only these guys could make satin evening jackets look this good.

But back to Cuba.  My favorite thing to associate with Cuba is Armand Assante in The Mambo Kings.  And really good jazz music from that same 50’s era.  Now I never quite got the whole white dinner jacket thing especially when it always looked hot there, but Armand and, to a lesser extent, a young Antonio Banderas, made sweating look good.  They also made wearing hats, wife-beater tank tops, and smoking cigars look good.   They probably could have made drinking a Cuban Martini look good.  Or, hopefully, Armand could have whipped one up for me while wearing one of those tank tops, preferably after extinguishing his cigar outside.  Yeah.  That works.  Where was I?

Oh yes, the martini.  Very nice concoction, the dry vermouth balances out the sweetness of the rum just enough so it isn’t too much, and the sugar rim and lime twist are a nice tropical/exotic contrast to the drink without being all in your face with a huge pineapple slice and an umbrella.  Probably akin to the contrast in my mind between, say, Jamaica and Cuba.  Jamaica to me is pina coladas and some hottie dreadlocked bartender (similar to Christine Baranski’s paramour in Mamma Mia) playing steel drums, and Cuba shall be slick, evening-jacketed 50’s dudes offering me cool rum-based martini drinks.  Such as this.  4 stars for the Cuban Martini. 

Now being a gal like me who loves dirty martinis, you wouldn’t think a martini could get TOO dirty.  And in truth, I haven’t met one yet that is.  However, I did just meet a martini that was too WET.  I believe technically the dryness of a martini doesn’t necessarily refer to the quantity of vermouth but to using dry vermouth vs. the sweeter variety.  But for the sake of argument I’m going to use wet to refer to a martini with too much vermouth.  The Dirty Vodka Martini recipe from The Martini Book is just such a drink.  6 parts vodka, 2 parts dry vermouth, 1 part olive brine, and a cocktail olive for garnish.  I’ll have to ask Sue what she thought of the dirty gin version she was supposed to have, maybe all that vermouth goes better with gin than it does (at least for me) with vodka.  All I could think of when I sipped it was that it was spoiling a healthy glass of vodka!    I’d give this 3 stars.  When I was about halfway through the drink, I poured in probably another 2 parts’ worth of straight vodka to thin out the vermouth taste, and that was much better.  Were I not following the recipe, I’d use about twice as much olive brine and about 1/4 as much vermouth.  I like my martinis naughty (i.e., dirty), but I also like ‘em dry. 

Cheers,
Cathy

Aunque todavía faltan entre cuatro y seis meses para sus regresos, las producciones de 24 y Chuck ya se encuentran trabajando a toda maquina en las producciones de sus nuevas temporadas, por lo que no nos sorprende encontrarnos con la llegada de nuevos actores.

Comenzando por orden de estreno, la cadena Fox confirmó esta mañana que el conocido actor cómico Stephen Root ha llegado a un acuerdo para participar en la esperada octava temporada de 24, que regresa en enero del 2010.

Como sucede con esta serie, todavía no se conocen muchos detalles sobre el personaje, salvo que será llamado Ben Prady, y será un oficial del Departamento de Correcciones encargado de encontrar a un criminal desaparecido.

Al mismo tiempo, representantes de la cadena NBC, confirmaron que el reconocido actor Armand Assante aceptó participar en la tercera temporada de Chuck, en la que interpretará a un dictador que ha podido evitar repetidos intentos de asesinato por parte de Casey.

A pesar del recorte de presupuesto, la cantidad de invitados en las temporadas de Chuck parece no cambiar, recordando que en las ultimas semanas ha sido confirmada la llegada de Brandon Routh, Kristin Kreuk, Angie Harmon y Vinnie Jones.

Del otro lado, Root completa un reparto totalmente renovado en 24, ya que los únicos regresos son los de Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Cherry Jones, Annie Wersching y Bob Gunton; mientras que todos los demas son nuevos.

La octava temporada de 24 comienza el 17 de enero, mientras que la tercera temporada de Chuck se espera para marzo del 2010.

Primul plan al actiunii. Secventele din 1944 filmate in perioada bombardamentelor fortelor aliate. Pe vremea aceea eram de partea nemtilor si urma sa ramanem cu rusii. Familia se strange in jurul mesei, tatal asculta la radio, masa pune-n farfurii supa aburinda. Incepe raidul. Cad primele bucati din tencuiala. Copilul isi ia avionul de jucarie in adapost. Lumea se refugiaza la subsol, in cotloanele cladirii, pe unde apuca.

Bunicul ramane cumva in urma, se aseaza la masa. Tavanul continua sa se zguduie. Pe scari aluneca o bomba de origine americana, rostogolindu-se frenetic. Oamenii se feresc din calea bombei de dimensiunea unei butelii.

Planul doi. 1999, imediat dupa revolutie, in ex-Iugoslavia fortele armate se ciocneau de zor. Prin Capalnita urma sa treaca un transport catre ex-Iugoslavia, o garnitura cu americani si un echipament de comunicatie.

Doiaru (Razvan Vasilescu), responsabil cu calea ferata din Capalnita, cel care hotaraste cat si ce sa se fure din marfarele ajunse in Capalnita, nimeni altul decat copilul care-si lua avionul de jucarie si-i asteptase o viata pe americani nu se lasa prada mitei, nici amenintarilor si nici insistentelor capitanului Jones (Armand Assante). Opreste garnitura si o imobilizeaza din lipsa de documente insotitoare.

Fiica lui Doiaru, Monica (Maria Dinulescu), ar fi facut orice ca sa plece din sat. Incepe prin a incerca sa fuga cu trenul catre ex-Iugoslavia. Dar trenul ramane cateva zile in sat. Si nu aduce anul cat aduce ceasul. Prezenta americanilor pe teritoriul Capalnitei il determina pe primar (Ion Sapdaru) sa recelebreze sarbatoarea satului pentru a atrage investitorii straini. Monica, nevorbitoare de limba engleza, caci la scoala se preda spaniola de telenovela, se indragosteste de David, maiorul american aflat in misiune. Scene fierbinti cu Maria Dinulescu, insotite de blackout-ul care lasa in bezna Romania.

Ce se va intampla cand furia satenilor este instigata de capitanul Jones (care promite sa-i apere in cazul in care politia deschide focul)? O sa-i lase americanii balta pe sateni si de data aceasta? Va alege Monica sa fuga in California avand in vedere insuficienta de comunicare? Trebuie sa vedeti filmul.

When the Resident IT Consultant’s away, the witch and Daughter watch more NCIS still. For some obscure reason we haven’t watched Blowback, season 4, very much. Actually, the obscure reason for me is Director Shepard’s obsession with The Frog, but that aside, it’s a very humorous episode.

There is the discussion over a suspect’s dead body – who they did not intend to die – on all the possible ways they could have had him end up dead, had he not had a heart attack while being followed. Climbing lots of stairs is, as Ducky points out, ‘rigorous for most, but rigor mortis for him’.

Gibbs shows his childish side in pretending to sound like a frog, and we se him and Di Nozzo in the gents’ toilet. Not that all that much seems to happen in there. As Gibbs points out, they need running water.

Ducky goes under cover and finds he quite likes the Director’s foe. And in actual fact, the Frog is quite a nice man for a bad man.

Hate to admit I’m an idiot, but I still don’t get the ending. Not so much what happens, but more what Director Shepard had intended to happen. And there may have been a continuity glitch, or perhaps I just failed to pay attention.

(Photo © CBS)

Cast: Val Kilmer, Armand Assante, Eric Roberts, and Eve Mauro
The Verdict: Poor Val Kilmer. Once Batman, now a shameless money-grabbing hack on par with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Wesley Snipes, Kilmer continues his slow descent into direct-to-DVD oblivion with this nonsensical thriller that tamely rips off the Saw franchise. Looking like a bloated, drugged-addled Barry Gibb after a night on the town, and babbling mumbo jumbo about the Mayan prediction of a doomsday event in 2012, Kilmer decides to issue a wakeup call to humanity by threatening to kill six people he traps in a steam room. No wonder Armand Assante’s seen-it-all cop dismisses everything Kilmer says with a sneer. That leaves the steam room’s occupants—three men, including a surprisingly restrained Eric Roberts, and three women cast solely for how they look in and out of their swimsuits—to think or muscle their way to freedom. Director Philippe Martinez laughably tries to make this experiment in fear a profound statement on man’s mistreat of Mother Nature, and he undermines himself by shooting the events in the steam room in a grating hallucinatory fashion that erases all tension. Even when Martinez turns up the heat, and blasts Boléro at full volume to drive us all insane, there’s nothing particularly disturbing about watching anyone sweat to death. Hell, everyone just looks like they need a towel or two and a drink of water, and that’s that. It doesn’t help that we’re locked in the steam room with six whiny, weak fools. Martinez doesn’t give us any incentive to root for them to escape their crazed captor. Worse, Martinez displays no imagination when it comes to killing off these saps. Where’s Jigsaw when you really need him?
DVD Features: None

The Chaos Experiment
Cast: Val Kilmer, Armand Assante, and Eric Roberts

Fragments
Cast: Kate Beckinsale, Dakota Fanning, Guy Pearce, Forest Whitaker, and Jennifer Hudson

Labor Pains
Cast: Linsday Lohan, Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, and Janeane Garofalo

Nature’s Grave
Cast: James Caviezel

Este filme tem o selo de qualidade da série Maneater do SyFy (o canal mudou de nome) e portanto sabemos à partida que pessoas vão ser comidas de maneiras espetaculares por criaturas horríveis, neste caso, tubarões. Mas não são tubarões normais, são tubarões que enfardaram umas litradas de fósforo, cortesia da empresa poluidora de Hamilton Lux (o grande Armand Assante), que visa com a poluição matar os peixes todos de uma zona pesqueira no Norte da California, forçando os habitantes locais a vender os seus negócios, para construir condomínios de luxo (os argumentistas inspiraram-se claramente ali no resort de Tróia). Para liderar a revolta numa barcaça pequena, os habitantes não têm Francisco Louçã, mas têm um casal que não quer vender a sua loja de pesca, nem desistir da actividade constituído por John Schneider e uma versão assim a tender já para o XL de Daryl Hannah. Quem faz uma aparição por aqui também é F. Murray Abraham, possivelmente para usufruir dos serviços de catering durante os dias de rodagem. Há ainda John Enos III, o capanga de Armand Assante, que usa quantidades obscenas de gel no cabelo para ganhar a pinta necessária para competir com seu chefe (não tens hipótese contra o Armand) e que tem uma namorada assustadoramente lunática. Os mais atentos reconhecerão também Frank Sivero, em mais um papel onde o seu personagem se chama Frankie (começo a pensar que é uma obrigatoriedade presente no contrato dele). Os tubarões, as verdadeiras estrelas do filme, andam em grandes grupos fazendo lembrar um grupo de Tie Fighters a voar. Um nota final para aquilo que eu vejo como uma espécie de sub-plot no filme: uma miuda chamada Heather (Darcy Rose Byrnes) que tem medo da água, sempre que alguém a obriga a nadar, e são várias as pessoas que o vão fazer ao longo dos 160 minutos deste épico, vê toda a gente ser morta pelos tubarões. Já estou a imaginar um Shark Swarm 2: Child of Blood ou qualquer coisa assim do género, onde esta miuda tem 20 e poucos anos e continua a ser perseguida por tubarões. Fico à espera.

Armand, cheira-me que o teu nome tá aqui dentro do envelope dos Razzies.

Mais vale ver o programa do Goucha

Nielsen Business Media 

   The New York International Latino Film Festival, which runs from July 27 to Aug. 2, will kick off with Peter Bratt’s “The Mission,” starring Benjamin Bratt; include a tribute to John Leguizamo; and conclude with John Cotten’s Mexican crime drama “La Linea” (The Line).
   Celebrating its tenth anniversary, the fest will utilize a number of new venues in New York City like the Clearview Cinemas Chelsea 9 and the School of Visual Arts Theater.
   “The NYILFF began as a dream to showcase our talent and to empower Latinos,” fest exec director Calixto Chinchilla said. “We’ve been fortunate to have grown in size and stature. This year, we have everything; highly anticipated Hollywood premieres to independent films from filmmakers across the globe, industry forums, music showcases and free outdoor events for everyone.”
   “La Mission,” the opening night film, is set in San Francisco’s Mission District and stars Benjamin Bratt as a reformed inmate and recovering alcoholic who discovers his son is gay.
   For the Leguizamo tribute, the performer will be honored with the Tres Generaciones COA Award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in Latino filmmaking. The evening will include the screening of the actor’s 2007 film “Where God Left His Shoes,” directed by Salvatore Stabile.
   “La Linea,” the closing night film stars Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Esai Morales, Armand Assante, Bruce Davison, Jason Connery, Michael DeLorenzo, Joe Morton, Valerie Cruz, Jordi Vilasuso, Danny Trejo, Kevin Gage and Gary Daniels.
   The fest also will host a Dominican night, screening Cruz Angeles’ “Don’t Let Me Drown.”
   The fest will feature several premieres, among which are: the music compilation film “Calle 13: Sin Mapa”; the short “Los Bandoleros/Fast & Furious”; “Red Apples Falling,” a look at the music of Harlem rap star Jim Jones; “Life is Hot in Cracktown”; the sports documentary “Assault in the Ring”; and the cheerleading movie “Bring It On: Fight to the Finish.” 

Now Available for Pre-Order

The Chaos Experiment starring Val Kilmer, is now available for pre-order on DVD through Amazon.com.  The DVD will be released Aug 4, 2009. 

The film which also stars Armand Assante and Eric Roberts  is about a former university professor, Kilmer, who has become deranged and traps six  people in a Turkish bathhouse, slowly turning up the heat to prove his theory that humans will devolve into chaos under the pressures of global warming. 

 The professor tells the police  that he will free the captives if the local newspaper publishes his theory as a front page headline.  Assante is the detective who tries to negotiate for the hostages release. Roberts is one of the hostages trapped with five others in the bathhouse.  You will love to hate Kilmer in this film.

The Chaos Experiment Trailer

You can check out the intesnse trailer for this film at:  http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/4449/The-Chaos-Experiment-Trailer

The Chaos Experiment

Formerly knows as The Steam Experiment, The Chaos Experiment is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It will be released on Aug. 4, 2009.

A former professor, Kilmer concocts a brutal experiment in order to get the word out on the effects of global warming. By trapping six people in an urban Turkish bathhouse, he vows to overheat his hostages unless his global-warming hypothesis is published on the front page of his local paper.   

Also starring Armand Assante, Eric Roberts and Megan Brown.

True Romance

True Romance is will be available on Blu-ray May 28,  2009 and can  be pre-ordered at Amazon.com.

Clarence Worley, Christian Slater is a well-meaning but socially unskilled comic-shop clerk who is celebrating his birthday when he meets a beautiful girl named Alabama, Patricia Arquette and it’s love at first sight for both of them. Clarence’s enthusiasm isn’t dampened much when he discovers Alabama is actually a prostitute who was paid by his boss to bump into him; she’s only been in the business for a few days, and is more than eager to give up streetwalking to be with Clarence. However, Alabama is certain her pimp, Drexl Gary Oldman, will not be happy. Clarence offers to break the news to Drexl and collect her belongings, but he doesn’t tell her he also plans to kill Drexl while he’s there; a melee breaks out that leaves Drexl and his henchmen dead. Clarence grabs a suitcase that he thinks contains Alabama’s clothes, but he discovers it instead holds five million dollars’ worth of cocaine. The couple hits the road for California, planning to sell the dope and enjoy the good life in South America with the proceeds, but soon a group of very unhappy underworld characters are after them, as well as the police. True Romance also stars Dennis Hopper as Clarence’s father, Christopher Walken as a mob boss who wants his cocaine back, Brad Pitt as a cheerful stoner, and Val Kilmer as the ghost of Elvis Presley. Written by Quentin Tarantino.

Knight Rider

Knight Rider Season 1 is now available for pre-order, to be  released on July 28, 2009

On the heels of NBC’s hit movie, the iconic 1980s television classic comes roaring back to life as a reinvented, updated and super-charged action series showcasing the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand), voiced by Val Kilmer.   Absolutely the coolest car ever created, KITT is equipped with an “AI” (artificial intelligence) that is capable of hacking almost any system. Its weapons systems match that of a jet fighter, and its body is capable of actually transforming into other vehicles and using sophisticated holographic imagery to elude villains.

Scarekrowe – This is a pretty good flick for a USA release.  It actually had me up till about 20 minutes to the end, and I realized whodunit…. *toke* *toke*.. Good thing I don’t watch TV that much!

I normally try to at least get a DL link for you all, but to be honest, I have NO clue where you might be able to grab a copy of it.  Supposedly they released a DVD in four countries other than the USA.  All we got was a crappy TV version… *shrugs*… I’m going back to my PS3 now and play Warhawk….*toke* *toke*

Two Bong Tokes

Grand Rapids, MI is the choice for Val Kilmer’s new suspense thriller film, The Chaos Experiment (formally known as The Steam Experiment) to open. On May 5, 2009 a private screening for cast and crew will take place following a weeks run at the Celebration Cinemas in Grand Rapids.  The film which also stars Armand Assante and Eric Roberts is about a  former university professor, Kilmer, who has become deranged  and traps six people in a Turkish bathhouse,  slowly turning up the heat to prove his theory that humans will devolve into chaos under the pressures of global warming. The professor tells the police that he will free the capitives if the local newspaper publish his theory as a front page headline.Assante is the detective who tries to negotiate for the hostages release. Roberts is one of the hostages trapped with five others in the bathhouse.