TV News: House's New Roomie, Starbuck Don't Know Jack (but will!), Heroes Adds Cast Members

- Dr. Gregory House will have a new roommate when the sixth season of House begins this fall. Tony Award-winning actor Lin-Manuel Miranda has been tapped to play the crochety doctor's roommate as he begins his stay in a psychiatric hospital. Mirada is best know for writing and starring in the Broadway musical In the Heights. [Entertainment Weekly]

- Coming on the heels of last week's slew of 24 casting news, Katee Sackhoff (aka "Starbuck" from Battlestar Galactica) has also signed on to join Kiefer Sutherland in the Fox drama. Sackhoff will be a regular cast member during the eighth season, playing "Dana Walsh, a smart, competent, expert data analyst at CTU with a secret past." Walsh is involved with CTU agent Davis Cole, played by Freddie Prinze Jr. [Hollywood Reporter]

- Lots of Heroes casting news too. Prison Break's Robert Knepper will be a new villian, Samuel, who is "the key figure in the death carnival, the primary new setting and storyline for season four."Californication's Madeline Zima will be splitting her time between the Showtime series and Heroes. Zima and former Days of Our Lives actress Rachel Melvin will play Claire Bennet's (Hayden Panettiere) college roommates. [E! Online][Hollywood Reporter]

- A new :50 video sneak peek at Stargate Universe, the upcoming new series in the Stargate franchise, has been posted at the show's official site. The clip features new footage and soundbytes from SGU stars including Robert Carlyle, Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na. [Stargate Universe]

- Cable network TBS is in talks with Fox to revive cancelled comedy My Name Is Earl for a 13-episode season. TBS currently airs Earl reruns. Discussions like this often happen after broadcast shows are axed, but often don't pan out so Earl fans shouldn't get their hopes up too high just yet. [Variety]

- David Letterman and CBS are said to be close to inking a deal that would extend the late night host's contract through 2012. Letterman's show has aired on CBS since he left NBC in 1993. [Reuters via Yahoo! News]

- Kathy Bates, Tim Curry and Colm Meany are starring in SciFi Channel's reimagining of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Simply titled Alice, the four-hour movie event is written and directed by Nick Willing, who directed the Emmy-winning mini-series Tin Man that aired on SciFi in 2007. [SCI FI Wire]

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Movie Review: Monsters vs. Aliens 3-D

DreamWorks' newest 3-D, animated production is filled with all the amazing, eye-popping, state of the art fodder that one comes to expect from the latest venture into the future of movie viewing. Unfortunately, it seems a lot more attention is focused on those bells and whistles and not enough on the substance of the film's plot. The title, itself, gives the impression that the audience will be treated to a plethora of both those title characters. But it doesn't take long before one realizes that, even there, we get a bit short-changed.

On the day sweet Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is to wed her beloved yet self-absorbed fiance Derek Dietl (Paul Rudd), she is unexpectedly hit by a meteorite and almost instantly transformed into a girl of 50 feet (well, 49 ft. 11 in. to be exact). Before long she is taken to a secret, government compound where she makes friends with a motley crew of monsters who have resided there for 50 years. When the evil, four-eyed alien Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson) threatens to take over earth, the President (Stephen Colbert) and Gen. W.R. Monger (Kiefer Sutherland) agree to release the monsters to battle and fend off the unwanted invaders.
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Movie-goers under the age of 12 are undoubtedly going to love this film and the characters of non-threatening, gelatinous B.O.B (Seth Rogen), witty, brainiac Dr. Cockroach (Hugh Laurie), and smooth talking yet odd-ball Missing Link (Will Arnett). Together with Susan/Ginormica and an edifice-size, screeching grub named Insectosaurus, they clumsily attempt to fight off Gallaxhar's clone army all while delivering their sharp, kid-friendly punchlines. Adults, on the other hand, will not take to it so readily. Sure, Monsters vs. Aliens makes the attempt to draw the grown-ups in with carefully placed adult humor and references to sci-fi flicks from yesteryear (ie: The Blob, Attack of the 50 ft. Woman, Dr. Strangelove, The Fly, Godzilla etc.). But the movie never really delivers anything more than a lackluster beginning, middle and end. Though the effort is evident, the delicate balance between amazing, animated special effects and an equally amazing storyline is just not achieved here.

I found myself wanting to love this movie. I did have my own moments of being awed by a paddleball leaping out at me or leaves and debris seemingly at arms length with a laugh here and there. But, sadly, that's where my love for this movie stops. The story is, at best, mediocre. I couldn't quite connect to any of characters or feel like they had any real longevity in years to come. In short, my "feelings" for Monsters vs. Aliens is that I'm fond of it and I'll remember it as such, but don't see having any kind of long-lasting "relationship" with it now or ever.[bxA]

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