Aaron Paul

Director Gavin Hood’s new thriller, ‘Eye in the Sky,’ is a vital commentary on the nature of point-and-click warfare.

‘Triple 9’ is a frustrating near-miss that falters beneath the weight of its own ambitions.

Exodus: Gods and Kings Written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine & Steven Zaillian Directed by Ridley Scott UK/USA/Spain, 2014   Perhaps the End Times are finally upon us.  How else to explain a year that began with Russell Crowe playing Noah and ends with Christian Bale as Moses?  Whereas Darren Aronofsky’s Noah reached …

In the spirit of Sound on Sight’s 31 Days of Horror, I decided to select some horror-related forgotten television. This series fits into the genre of supernatural horror series, being described upon its premiere as The Omen meets Carrie meets The OC.

The 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards are now less than a week away, and everyone is excited to see if the final season of Breaking Bad can beat True Detective – and also – if Veep can stack up against Modern Family. In anticipation of the broadcast, the Television Academy has put together a fun 6-minute …

Decoding Annie Parker Written by Adam Bernstein, Steven Bernstein, and Michael Moss Directed by Steven Bernstein USA, 2013 The new film Decoding Annie Parker was made with the most honorable intentions, and unfortunately, very little else. In many respects, the story could just as well have been a movie-of-the-week from the early 1990s on either one …

Aaron Paul stars as Tobey Marshall, a street racer framed for murder by Dino Brewster, Dominic Cooper’s rich racer villain. Rather than prove his innocence or reveal Brewster’s villainy, Tobey’s plan is to beat Brewster in an underground street race hosted by Michael Keaton’s Monarch, a retired racer who sadly does not live in a giant flying cocoon staffed by comical henchmen. With the police and Brewster’s bounty hunters in pursuit, Tobey must race across the country to the starting line.

The new film Need for Speed does not deserve its lead actor, as he proves in a number of the dramatic moments. Even those audience members not familiar with Aaron Paul’s outstanding work on the AMC drama Breaking Bad would likely notice the straining-at-the-seams emotional style he brings to his character here, which is somewhat unexpected in a movie that essentially wants to kickstart its own The Fast and the Furious-esque franchise. Those movies, like Need for Speed, boast plenty of pedal-to-the-metal street racing, outrageous stunts, beautiful women, more racing, more stunts, and so on. Need for Speed, however, tries too hard to be a real, grounded story of revenge and hate, too often tippling over into melodrama.

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 16: “Felina” Written by Vince Gilligan Directed by Vince Gilligan Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – “I did it for me.” – After Walter White utters these words, the rest of “Felina,” the final episode of Breaking Bad, almost doesn’t matter. It’s a definitive punctuation mark, the ultimate …

Breaking Bad is not a series generally noted for its lightness of tone, but Vince Gilligan and his collaborators have always managed to wring humor and quirk out of what would seem to be a hopelessly grim set of story beats. That’s what makes “Granite State,” the series’ super-sized penultimate episode, so hard to watch. Save for a few passing moments of sewer-downhill-from-the-gallows “humour,” “Granite State” is a relentlessly bleak hour of TV, wherein even the glimpses of “hope” are really just (in all likelihood) presaging more carnage.

Note:  This article contains spoilers for Breaking Bad’s “Ozymandias”. It’s been a long time coming and oh so bittersweet, but Walter White has finally reached a point where even his loyal supporters can no longer justify his actions. The series has certainly provided its viewers with poignant examples before of why Walter isn’t a good …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 14: “Ozymandias” Written by Moira Walley-Beckett Directed by Rian Johnson Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – Holy bloody damned hell. – First, some (mild) vindication. I mentioned last week that there was absolutely no way this week’s outing would open with Hank dead, just like that. True enough, once …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 13: “To’hajiilee” Written by George Mastras Directed by Michelle MacLaren Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – Remember a couple of weeks back, when it seemed like Breaking Bad couldn’t milk its cliffhanger tendencies any more than it already had? Those days seem so quaint now. “To’hajiilee” puts that …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 12: “Rabid Dog” Written by Sam Catlin Directed by Sam Catlin Airs Sundays at 9pm ET on AMC – “He’s smarter than you. He’s luckier than you.” – “Rabid Dog” is more or less all talk, no (explicit) action, but as the Breaking Bad endgame begins in earnest, it does …

Some series offer neat, tidy payoffs week-to-week, making sure to leave viewers satisfied while leaving them with enough plot and/or character movement to satisfy while leaving them eager for the next piece of the bigger picture. Not so with Breaking Bad; it’s impossible to imagine anyone getting to the final moments of “Confessions” and not cursing the television gods for not granting them immediate access to next week’s “Rabid Dog.” This right here is some next-level viewer-directed cruelty of the most effective sort.
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Since the very beginning of Breaking Bad, these actresses have been tasked with the most thankless roles on one of the most celebrated dramas in TV history. In the case of Gunn, it’s a repeat performance in a sense: she had a similarly unglamorous gig as Sheriff Bullock’s beleagured-but-upstanding wife Martha. TV historians and prognosticators will be quick to extol the virtues of Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, along with Dean Norris and Bob Odenkirk (and rightfully so) but in a very real sense, Brandt and Gunn have long provided Breaking Bad with a moral dimension that would otherwise be absent.

It’s important to keep expectations in check at all times, but especially with beloved TV series. There are so many variables at work, so many moving parts operated by so many individuals, that even with the smartest showrunners, the best writers’ room, and the most stellar cast, things can go off the rails when you’re least expecting it, often at the worst possible time. So it’s with a sense of relief that “Blood Money” opens with what might be one of the two or three cold opens the series has ever pulled off (and that’s saying something). And yet it’s the end of the episode that easily slides into the all-time Breaking Bad Holy Shit Canon.

Smashed Written by James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke Directed by James Ponsoldt USA 2012 imdb Simon Howell’s TIFF review The reason to see Smashed is an amazing performance by Mary Elizabeth Winstead as an alcoholic 1st grade teacher, married to an equally alcoholic music critic. Winstead’s Kate is walking a tightrope made of broken bottles, teetering …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 8: “Gliding Over All” Written by Moira Walley-Beckett Directed by Michelle MacLaren Airs Sundays at 10pm ET of AMC At this point in its run, it’s plain that there is no better-made show around than Breaking Bad. In terms of its distinctive visual universe, its brilliant performances, its clever, ticksy …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 7: “Say My Name” Written by Thomas Schnauz Directed by Thomas Schnauz Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on AMC Death, and endings: let’s talk about them. Even before we see the gun in Mike’s getaway bag, it seems inevitable: Mr. Ehrmantraut is not much longer for this world. Mike spends …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 5: “Dead Freight” Written by George Mastras Directed by George Mastras Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on AMC Remember “Live Free or Die,” the fifth-season premiere of Breaking Bad, and its nifty but slight little magnet-powered heist? In retrospect, that was little more than a dry run for ‘Dead Freight,” …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 4: “Fifty-One” Written by Sam Catlin Directed by Rian Johnson Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on AMC How criminal is it that Anna Gunn has largely been left out of the accolades Breaking Bad has received over the years, only earning her first Emmy nod this year? Skyler White has …

Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 3: “Hazard Pay” Written by Peter Gould Directed by Adam Bernstein Airs Sundays at 10pm ET on AMC “Hazard Pay” is a classic get-the-pieces-moving episode, of the sort that serialized dramas generally need to make their season arcs tick. In other words, it’s not likely to be recalled as “the …