by Nat Almirall, Jul 1 2011 // 7:00 AM

You may have heard of a film called Sullivan’s Travels, and if you’ve heard of it, you may know the gist: Popular but unfulfilled director Sullivan is tired of making commercially successful but emotionally and intellectually vapid films. He decides that his next film (named O Brother, Where Art Thou?) will be a socially conscious depiction of the lower classes.
Through a series of comic mix-ups, he gets tossed in prison. One night a cartoon is screened for the inmates and Sullivan has an epiphany: The best way he can help the downtrodden is not by making high drama, but low-brow crowd-pleasers.
Larry Crowne is the kind of movie Sullivan would make if he were alive today. It’s full of plot-holes, cheap laughs, lazy pop-culture references, and utterly devoid of conflict. But for the women-age-45-and-up demographic wanting to see a cute romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (have they ever been paired together? I can’t recall), this should suffice.
Tom Hanks, who wrote, directed, and produced it, plays Crowne, a middle-aged supermarket drone/former Naval cook who loses his beloved job because he never went to college. Low on cash but doggone tenacious, he enrolls in community college, taking a speech class taught by the jaded Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts, who’s getting more attractive with age) and an Econ 101 class taught by the zany Dr. Matsutani (George Takei).
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Posted in: Comedy · Movies · Reviews · Universal Pictures
Tagged: Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, George Takei, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Ian Gomez, Julia Roberts, Larry Crowne, Maria Canals Barrera, Nia Vardalos, Pam Grier, Rita Wilson, Taraji P. Henson, Tom Hanks, Universal Pictures, Wilmer Valderrama
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by Joe Gillis, Sep 10 2010 // 12:00 PM
As we’ve been doing a lot lately, we’ve got another huge bunch of previews for another Fall TV show to share with you today. This time around the previews are for the new J.J. Abrams show Undercovers.
In case you’re not familiar with the series, here’s a little bit of info on its plot and characters:
Outwardly, Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and his wife, Samantha (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), are a typical married couple who own and operate a small catering company in Los Angeles. Secretly, the duo were two of the best spies the CIA had ever known, until they fell in love on the job five years ago and retired.
When fellow spy and good friend Leo Nash (Carter MacIntyre) goes missing while on the trail of a Russian arms dealer, the Blooms are reinstated by boss and agency liaison, Carlton Shaw (Gerald McRaney), to locate and rescue Nash. Following leads that take them to cities spanning the globe, Steven and Samantha quickly realize that perhaps this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides exactly the kind of excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing.
Okay that’s the story. Now, to help you learn even more, we’ve got those videos we told you about after the jump including the full length trailer, interviews with the show’s two leads and and interview with the man himself J.J. Abrams. Check them out. Undercovers premieres September 22nd on NBC.
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Posted in: NBC · News · TV · Video
Tagged: Boris Kodjoe, Fall Previews, Gerald McRaney, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, J.J Abrams, NBC, TV, Undercovers
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by Joe Gillis, Jul 2 2010 // 12:00 PM
Friday has sorta turned into “Clip Friday” around The Flickcast offices seeing as how we tend to bring you previews of shows quite a bit at the end of the week. However, even though we do it frequently, that doesn’t make it any less fun — especially when the show being previewed today comes from none other than J.J. Abrams.
The show is Undercovers and we’ve brought you some info on it previously including a bit on the plot and a couple previews. Now, we’ve got even more to show you: Interviews with some of the cast and Abrams himself as well as a never-before-seen clips from the new show.
Pay close attention to the interview with Abrams because he talks about his love of the spy genre and also mentions another of our favorite shows that we’ve discussed arond here recently.
Click through for all the clips. Be sure to check out Undercovers when it premieres on NBC in the Fall and follow the show via Facebook and Twitter.
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Posted in: Abrams · Action · Drama · NBC · News · TV · Video
Tagged: Action, Alias, Boris Kodjoe, Fall TV, Gerald McRaney, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, J.J. Abrams, NBC, TV, Undercovers
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