Entries for July 2008

When I sit down to watch an episode of NBC's "The Office," I do so feeling very confident that I'll be treated to a strong comedic performance from Steve Carell. Through four seasons of watching the series, I'm pretty sure he's had me laughing out loud in each episode at his bumbling, awkward portrayal of a boss straddling the fine line between boss and buddy.

Imagine if everyone left the Earth and someone forgot to turn off the last robot. That's the premise of the engaging and visually stunning computer-animated flick, Wall-E, the latest from Pixar Animation, which brought us "Ratatouille," "The Incredibles" and "Toy Story."The year is 2700 and the titular Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class) is a robot built to clean up the Earth, which has become a stark wasteland, and has spent his time since humans fled making little cubes of trash, developing a quirky little personality. He spends his days following his programming along with his roach friend, Hal (get it, Hal Roach) and collecting little treasures — lighters, sporks, rubber toys — until a new robot arrives to scout planet Earth for signs of life, EVE (Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator).