I think they're confusing conservative with family-friendly - the two are not synonymous. Most of the movies they mention are apolitical and even many of the films they cite as the type of movies people want (Hugo, The Artist) didn't exactly set the world on fire, though I give them credit for recognizing good work. Besides, if a film is rated R, less people can see it. It doesn't mean R-rated movies are unwanted.

They pan Twilight yet I've read many reviews of those films labeling them as "conservative" (or at least "conservative-friendly"). And I'm surprised to see The Muppets on their good list considering the controversy.

But you know what... 91 "conservative" movies to 105 "liberal" ones? Dare I say it, that actually sounds almost balanced.

The Ferris Bueller ad was... somewhat disappointing. A cameo from Alan Ruck or Ben Stein would've helped. :-)

Anyway, I'm biased because I'm a fan but 30 Rock is not pretending to be anything - the media is pretending (what else is new?). Even I'm forced to admit it's not a pop culture phenomenon like Seinfeld or Friends - at best, it's a cult favorite like Party Down or Arrested Development.

To be fair, I borrowed that line from Wikipedia. Apparently, that's the description used by the show's creators. :-)

"[...] and his appearances on the “Columbo” television series, where he played the villain to Peter Falk’s detective."

A friend and I just watched Shatner's Columbo episode. Shatner plays an actor (with the matinee idol name "Ward Fowler") who's best known for playing a TV detective named Lt. Lucerne. He decides to kill his producer who's blackmailing him and Columbo is put on the case.

Fowler takes a bizarre interest in his own case and decides to "help" Columbo solve it, but he does it in the character of Lucerne. I swear Shatner's talking about himself in the fourth person at one point where he's speculating what his fictional alter-ego might do to solve the case. It's quite ridiculous, but also a lot of fun. :-)

Incidentally, I'm only 29 and I'd never seen a full-length episode of Columbo. Neither my friend nor I had any idea how a typical episode was formatted so it came as a surprise that they showed the crime being committed and that the entertainment came from seeing Columbo put the clues together. It's not a "whodunit" - it's a "howdhecatchem."

"I see you found my trophy room, Dalton. The only thing that's missing... is your ass."

For the most part, Enterprise was filmed in HD and should be ready to go for a Blu-Ray release. (TNG was posted on video which can't be upgraded to HD, hence all the new work.) I'm surprised they haven't released it already but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. You're certainly not the only one who's wondering about that.

I don't want to get into this (too late!) but I thought DS9 was the best of the spinoffs. I thought Enterprise suffered from uneven writing and when it finally got good, they cancelled it. I was, however, a big fan of the Trip Tucker character and I'd love to see that actor (Connor Trinneer) do something bigger one day.

Re: Star Trek: TNG in HD, they're actually doing something even better than what they did with the original series. Instead of re-creating the effects shots with CGI, they've gone back to the original 35mm elements and are recompositing the same shots from scratch. And since the episodes were edited and posted on video, they've gone back and reconstructed every episode from scratch as well.

The team at Paramount/CBS has three shifts operating around the clock: http://trekmovie.com/2012/01/20/first-impressions...

They'll be using CGI only when they have to (phasers, energy fields, etc.) but from the screencaps I've seen, the show looks like it was shot yesterday (80s hairstyles notwithstanding).

Paging Mr. Lucas...! :-)

Nathan Fillion stopped by the set one day :-)
http://chucktv.net/2010/02/22/photo-nathan-fillio...

Edgar Wright didn't have anything to do with Paul - he was busy directing the infinitely superior Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. And Simon Pegg and Nick Frost wanted Paul to have a more nuanced view of religion but the studio ordered them to dumb it down. I believe Hunter Duesing mentioned that in his review.

As for Russell Brand... meh. I thought he was okay in Forgetting Sarah Marshal but that's probably because he works better in small doses. Hollywood's attempt to shove him down our throats reeks of, "This man is funny! You must like him!" But hey, Katy Perry is single again! :-)

And hopefully it'll be Raiders of the Lost Ark Spielberg directing the Moses flick... I wonder where that guy went...?

I'm not that familiar with the story behind The Passion but I believe Icon already existed as Gibson's production company and I know an indie outfit called Newmarket Films assisted with the distribution.

As for Lucas, I'm surprised he would have so much trouble. You'd think after all the success of all the Star Wars films, 20th Century Fox would jump at the chance to work with him again.