CliqueClack

What’s new for Corey Reynolds?

Summer television programs are a dime a dozen, but one quality drama will sadly be missing from the line-up this upcoming season – TNT’s The Closer. After it ended its stellar seven year run last summer, the show’s principal cast has been exceptionally busy including fan favorite Corey Reynolds, the cool Tony Award nominated actor who played Kyra Sedgwick’s right-hand man Detective David Gabriel. So, what has Reynolds been up to lately? You’d be surprised. I was blessed to be able to catch up with him to ask him about life after The Closer, the state of minorities in Hollywood and – drum roll please – what it feels like to be a new father.

Ah, Corey! So nice of you to speak with me.

Jaylen Christie! It is I, Corey Reynolds! How are you?

I’m good, dude. So, let’s get this thing started. You made a name for yourself as the actor that originated the role of Seaweed in Broadway’s Hairspray. How does it feel to be both a master of stage and screen?

I don’t know if I’d call myself a master. When I think of a master, I think of the old Chinese sensei that’s 90 years old and kicks every young guy’s ass. Before I moved to L.A. in 2003, every job that I’ve taken in my life, as far as performance goes, has involved singing and dancing. I miss live theatre. There’s nothing that is quite on par with the instant gratification that you get from a live audience. You know, when you’re playing a scene on a stage in front of 25,000 people, you can tell when you have them in the palm of your hand. Sometimes, when it comes to filming, if you say something funny in a scene, no one is really allowed to laugh, so it comes down to trusting the director, trusting your performance and trusting that the camera is capturing what you need because you don’t have an audience that gives you the instant response.

Continue reading 'What’s new for Corey Reynolds?' »

Put Community out of its misery

To misquote Abed on season four: “I remember when this show was about community college and didn’t suck.” Sure, it improved as it went along, but it never managed to shake that Community-tribute-act vibe. It was like the writers were performing a “Best Of,” but hadn’t actually heard the original songs. Or learnt to play their instruments. All the half-assed call-backs to paintball and the darkest timeline seemed to scream: “The fans will remember this! You know, from when it was good.”

Even the characters felt like bad lookalikes this seasons. Look at Abed, surely one of the most interesting comedy characters of recent years. This season saw him reduced to making increasingly lazy references and forced homages. Meanwhile, Jeff’s speeches have become so utterly mawkish and wet that he might as well just walk around wearing a t-shirt saying “I LOVE MY FRIENDS” and save us a lot of wasted time. As for Chang, he’s just one of the worst characters ever.

Continue reading 'Put Community out of its misery' »

A Dangerous Profession: With friends like these …

You know …  A Dangerous Profession wouldn’t have been so dangerous had tough guy George Raft left well enough alone and hadn’t poked his nose into business he had no business poking his nose into.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand … scene!

That’s what I learned from this melodrama that was rather mellow on the drama and stylistically convoluted to boot. Of course, it’s not quite as easy as all that. There’s plenty more to the story … but if you boil it all down, that was pretty much the gist of the matter.

Oh, you betcha … there was a dame involved (Ella Raines as Lucy Beckett, hubba-hubba). She was the reason Vince Kane (Raft) gets involved in all the hoo-ha in the first place. Kane — who was a cop before he got into the “high profile” career as bondsman — gets invested in former flame Mrs. Beckett’s affairs when her husband is nabbed on embezzlement charges. Once sprung from the clink on bond (1/3 of which is courtesy of Kane, his business’s coin and his ulterior motives) Mr. Beckett ends up getting himself snuffed, in turn giving the missus one of the best presents he could possibly afford her: Instant marriage relief. Continue reading 'A Dangerous Profession: With friends like these …' »

Community is renewed, so why am I not flipping-out happy?

The answer to that last question is: probably not.

I know there are a lot of die-hard Community fans out there who believe their beloved show can do no wrong. We have a few at CliqueClack HQ, in fact; I’ve seen the sub-Reddit dedicated to the show too. The fact of the matter is, this season sucked — at least in comparison to previous seasons — and unless it decides to make a significant shift in its writing style, I’m out next season.

What happened to stand-out episodes like the first Halloween episodes? The first paintball episode? Advanced Dungeons and Dragons? The blanket/pillow fort war? What do these all have in common? They didn’t happen in season four. Can you name any that even come close to these gems from season four? I didn’t think so.

Continue reading 'Community is renewed, so why am I not flipping-out happy?' »

How Sweet It Is: Can a mob musical comedy work?

As a general rule (and I’ve said this several times before in previous reviews) I’m not an altruistic comedy film watcher. On occasion I will enjoy them, but the times are few and far between when I’ll plunk myself in front of a big or small screen to catch one.

But How Sweet It Is (via HSII co-writer and CliqueClack contributor Jay Black) piqued my curiosity. This was as good a time as any for a “once in a blue moon” venture into comedy, I figured. And with it being a musical to boot? Well, a little added bonus to wrap my head around.

When I read the premise of the film (“An alcoholic theater owner needs to put together a successful musical in order to pay off his mob debt, but problems arise when the wise guys want to cast their friends in the production”) I figured it could either go one of two ways: Pure cheese-fest or surprisingly workable. I wasn’t planning on getting a little bit of both. Throw in the sidelines of a father/daughter reconnection and some emotional interjection and there was more … well … just keep reading … Continue reading 'How Sweet It Is: Can a mob musical comedy work?' »

Gravity: How I would have made the trailer infinitely more dramatic

Have you seen the teaser trailer for Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, the science fiction thriller scheduled for release in October?

Good.

If you haven’t, take a gander at it above before you read the remainder of this post.

Here’s how it could have been done much better, more dramatically and with greater impact. Continue reading 'Gravity: How I would have made the trailer infinitely more dramatic' »

The Great Gatsby is a bright, showy dance of the calm before the storm

Much has been said about the American Dream, about how anyone can come from anywhere and become anything. And although there are certainly plenty of cases where the Dream has been fulfilled, there are always those that have not. Hopefulness and optimism is no guarantee of success, but it can certainly help. Many periods during the course of American history had cynics and philosophers decry society and proclaim the end of that Dream. Probably since about the start. Sometimes a sad story sells better than a happy story, especially if you have several giant dance parties.

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Be the first to see Star Trek Into Darkness in Baltimore, Norfolk or D.C.

ALL PASSES FOR THESE SCREENINGS HAVE BEEN CLAIMED. COMMENTS ARE CLOSED. CHECK BACK FOR FUTURE OFFERS.

CliqueClack has partnered with Paramount Pictures and Allied Integrated Marketing to offer our readers in the D.C. , Baltimore and Norfolk areas free passes to the advance screening of Star Trek Into Darkness, starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Screenings will take place as follows:

• ALL PASSES FOR THE DC SCREENING HAVE BEEN CLAIMED
• ALL PASSES FOR THE BALTIMORE SCREENING HAVE BEEN CLAIMED
• ALL PASSES FOR THE NORFOLK SCREENING HAVE BEEN CLAIMED

Continue reading 'Be the first to see Star Trek Into Darkness in Baltimore, Norfolk or D.C.' »

My review of Chris Packham’s review of my movie, How Sweet It Is

So, first, a little context. I wrote a movie with my writing partner, Brian Herzlinger. It’s called How Sweet It Is and it’s out in select theaters this Friday.

Our first review came in from The Village Voice and even though it was less-than-favorable, I was still pretty excited. I mean, The Village Voice! Not only are they a venerated institution, they’re the same people who own backpage.com! That’s where I go to hire all my … ahem. Let’s move on.

Reading Chris Packham’s review of my movie was a letdown, though, and not because it was critical. Listen, I started doing stand-up in Northeast Philly, I wrote for TV Squad, and I’m married to an Italian woman: I can take criticism. The pain receptors in my soul were burnt out a long time ago.

Continue reading 'My review of Chris Packham’s review of my movie, How Sweet It Is' »

2013 summer TV premiere & return schedule

To subscribe to the below schedule in iCal, copy this link and paste into the “Subscribe…” menu item in iCal. You can also just click it to open iCal or even click to add to your iPhone calendar. The same link will work in a Google Calendar as well! Or see the calendar as a web page (also embedded at the bottom of this post). The calendar will update as new shows are added/changed.

* All times are in EDT PM, unless otherwise mentioned.
* New series premieres are in Bold Italics

SERIES PREMIERES/RETURNS

MAY

Monday, May 20

8:30 The Goodwin Games (FOX)

10:00 Motive (ABC)

Wednesday, May 22

8:00 MasterChef (FOX)

Thursday, May 23

8:00 Save Me (NBC)

9:00 Showville (AMC)

9:00 Toxic Office (FOX)

10:00 Rookie Blue (ABC)

Monday, May 27

8:00 The Bachelorette (ABC)

9:00 American Pickers (History)

9:00 The Glades (A&E)

10:00 Longmire (A&E)

Tuesday, May 28

8:00 Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition (ABC)

10:00 Brooklyn DA (CBS)

Wednesday, May 29

8:00 The American Baking Competition (CBS)

8:00 Melissa & Joey (ABC Family)

8:30 Baby Daddy (ABC Family)

9:00 Dancing Fools (ABC Family)

10:00 Top Shot (History)

Friday, May 31

9:00 Primetime (ABC)

JUNE

Sunday, June 2

8:00 The Killing (AMC)

9:00 The Next Food Network Star (Food)

9:00 Princesses (Bravo)

12:00 The Venture Bros. (Adult Swim)

Monday, June 3

9:00 The Fosters (ABC Family)

10:00 Teen Wolf (MTV)

10:00 Mistresses (ABC)

Tuesday, June 4

9:00 America’s Got Talent (NBC)

9:00 Total Blackout (Syfy)

10:00 Exit (Syfy)

Wednesday, June 5

10:00 Chef Roblé & Co. (Bravo)

10:00 Paranormal Witness (Syfy)

Thursday, June 6

8:00 The Hero (TNT)

9:00 72 Hours (TNT)

9:00 Burn Notice (USA)

9:00 Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis (Bravo)

10:00 Graceland (USA)

Friday, June 7

10:00 Continuum (Syfy)

Saturday, June 8

9:00 Sinbad (Syfy)

10:00 Being Human (BBCA)

10:00 Primeval (Syfy)

Sunday, June 9

9:00 Falling Skies (TNT)

Monday, June 10

8:00 Switched at Birth (ABC Family)

9:00 White Collar (USA)

10:00 King & Maxwell (TNT)

Tuesday, June 11

8:00 Pretty Little Liars (ABC Family)

9:00 Twisted (ABC Family)

Wednesday, June 12

9:00 Ghost Hunters (Syfy)

9:00 Royal Pains (USA)

10:00 Necessary Roughness (USA)

Friday, June 14

9:00 Magic City (Starz)

Saturday, June 15

10:00 Mistresses (ABC)

Sunday, June 16

9:00 True Blood (HBO)

Wednesday, June 19

9:00 Franklin & Bash (TNT)

10:00 Futurama (Comedy)

10:00 Hot in Cleveland (TV Land)

10:30 The Exes (TV Land)

11:00 Soul Man (TV Land)

Thursday, June 20

10:00 Wilfred (FX)

Sunday, June 23

9:00 Crossing Lines (NBC)

9:00 Drop Dead Diva (Lifetime)

9:00 Whodunnit? (ABC)

10:00 Devious Maids (Lifetime)

Monday, June 24

10:00 Under the Dome (CBS)

Tuesday, June 25

9:00 Rizzoli & Isles (TNT)

10:00 Perception (TNT)

Wednesday, June 26

9:00 Big Brother (CBS)

Sunday, June 30

9:00 Dexter (Showtime)

10:00 Ray Donovan (Showtime)

JULY

Monday, July 1

8:00 American Ninja Warrior (NBC)

Sunday, July 7

9:00 Endeavor (PBS)

Monday, July 8

9:00 Get Out Alive with Bear Grylls (NBC)

Wednesday, July 10

9:00 America’s Got Talent (NBC)

10:00 Camp (NBC)

Thursday, July 11

9:00 The Winner Is … (NBC)

10:00 Hollywood Game Night (NBC)

Sunday, July 14

10:00 The Newsroom (HBO)

Tuesday, July 16

8:00 Whose Line is it Anyway? (CW)

9:00 Covert Affairs (USA)

9:00 Joe Rogan Questions Everything (Syfy)

9:00 Perfect Score (CW)

10:00 Notorious Hauntings (Syfy)

10:00 Suits (USA)

Monday, July 22

11:00 Web Therapy (Showtime)

Wednesday, July 24

9:00 The Vineyard (ABC Family)

10:00 Haunted Highway (Syfy)

Sunday, July 28

9:00 Unforgettable (CBS)

Monday, July 29

9:00 Breaking Pointe (CW)

Wednesday, July 31

9:00 The Hunt (CW)

AUGUST

Saturday, August 3

9:00 Hell on Wheels (AMC)

Sunday, August 11

9:00 Breaking Bad (AMC)

10:00 Low Winter Sun (AMC)

11:00 Talking Bad (AMC)

Thursday, August 15

9:00 Owner’s Manual (AMC)

10:00 The Pitch (AMC)

Sunday, August 25

9:00 Silk (PBS)

Tuesday, August 27

9:00 Face Off (Syfy)

10:00 Cosworld (Syfy)

Saturday, August 31

8:00 Saturday Night College Football (ABC)