We have a new president.

CRANK (HBO) is a really good film that has a great first half hour and an amazing last half hour. It’s not a great film, just a really really good one with an awesome premise.


Is it just me or is Paris Hilton becoming a first-rate guest of Letterman’s? God help me, the two have a very funny chemistry.


BOSTON LEGAL (ABC) is actually having a very nice run of final episodes. They are resolving a lot and executing many lovely scenes with the leads. Almost makes me wish they had another season in them – but this is probably for the best. In the meantime – it’s as good as it’s ever gonna get – so if you wanted to check it out – now is probably the time. The paint gun fight Denny and Alan had over the election was masterful – but I hated the fact that David Kelly couldn’t resist having Denny make a voting choice in the end that he never would have made.


THE SARAH SILVERMAN SHOW has been consistently first-rate.


THE HOAX (DVD)
Richard Gere dons an impressive New Yawk accent and an even more impressive curly wig to play a man who once fooled the world into thinking he was writing a book with Howard Hughes. This is based on a true story from the 70s and the film manages to get all the details right. Gere is a fantastic liar, Alfred Molina (everybody’s favorite drug dealer from BOOGIE NIGHTS) is perfect as Gere’s partner in crime and the story itself is one for the books. The sub-plots with Gere’s romantic woes kind of paint a complete picture of deception, but seem extraneous to the story. Other than those brief scenes, this is really juicy stuff. Utterly engrossing.
Grade: B +


DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
Is having a very decent 3rd season. The stuff with Dex and Jimmy Smits is really heating up and the side storylines are kind of predictable (that thing with the CSI guy was ridiculous) but this is otherwise a very solid season, and Michael Hall seems as good as ever as Dexter.
Grade: B +


WE OWN THE NIGHT (DVD)
Directed by the great, sullen James Grey. Starring Joaquin Phoenix (good luck on your retirement!) and Marky Mark Wahlburg and his funky bunch, (Grey had directed them a few years earlier in THE YARDS (another good film.) This is a sad, dark, humorless, gritty, exhilarating thriller that seems to indulge in the kind of hopeless tone that Grey has specialized in since his career began with LITTLE ODESSA. On the surface, this is about a bunch of cops who happen to be linked by blood – in reality – this is a real-deal police drama about values, sacrifice and family. And it’s stunningly well acted and directed. Highly reccomended.
Grade: B +


For the record, I loved the Andy Samberg sketch where he played a dopey Mark Wahlburg talking to a donkey and asking the donkey to "say hi to your mother."


Still liking LIFE ON MARS (ABC) very much.


The LAKERS have won 4 games in a row – though 2 of them have been to the CLIPPERS. So it’s like they’ve won 2.

THE SHIELD is getting so good in its final episodes - I'm really starting to wonder how it's all going to end. This last installment was particularly well directed - with those sad scenes of Shane and his wife and kid squatting in that house. What a way to go. That show will be sorely missed. I think there are only 3 left.

Gotta go, bye.