Free On Fancast: Today’s Highlights: Drew Barrymore In “Far From Home,” New “Monk,” New “In Plain Sight” And More!

TELEVISION

1. Monk: Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever The tension between Monk and Natalie is at an all time high when she becomes the new California lotto girl, but did she win the job jackpot by lawful means?

2. In Plain Sight: To Serge With Love - While continuing to protect her witness Natasha - the Russian one from the pilot episode - Mary discovers Natasha’s got a new boyfriend, also in WITSEC. Why the big deal? Because he’s a felon, and she’s a witness, and never should the two have met (let alone hook up). The plot thickens.

3. America’s Got Talent - That guy looks a lot like Sharon’s husband Ozzy. Could he just be an impersonator?

MOVIES

Feature
Far From Home Drew Barrymore is known primarily as a romantic comedy kind of actress these days, and her pleasantly bubbly persona tends to serve this well. But there was a long road to that upbeat state of mind, and there was a time when she used to specialize in darker fare, which went hand in hand with her troubled youth. The 1989 thriller Far From Home is one of those films from that era. Charlie Cox (Matt Frewer) is a divorced Los Angeles writer returning from a cross-country road trip with his daughter Joleen (Barrymore). When they run out of gas in a remote desert down of Banco, Nevada, one day before Joleen turns 14, they’re forced to take refuge in a ramshackle trailer park until they can find a way home. Things get scarier and scarier as it becomes increasingly clear that there’s a serial killer on the loose who forms a dangerous obsession with Joleen, as well as a belligerent teenager (Andras Jones) determined to make her his. Their attempts to escape with a fellow traveler named Amy (Jennifer Tilly) don’t turn out how they’d hoped, either. Who can they trust in this town? Matt Frewer is a great actor who doesn’t get enough attention, and Jennifer Tilly is Jennifer Tilly. These two, along with Barrymore, make Far From Home something definitely worth checking out.

Trailer
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa You remember the gang from Madagascar, right? The first film came out right in the midst of a whole slew of talking cartoon animal movies, but it was a pretty big hit. America loves its talking cartoon animals. Alex the Lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo, Melman the Giraffe and the rest of the gang are all back for the second go around. In the first film, the foursome escapes their life of blissful captivity in New York’s Central Park Zoo only to find themselves shipped off to Madagascar, the island off the coast of Africa, forced to figure out how to survive in the wild. This time, the whole gang, including a cabal of self-confident penguins, concoct a plan to leave Madagascar via plane and return to their home in New York, only to crash land in Africa proper, to come face to face with their wild counterparts for the first time. Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett Smith, Andy Richter, David Schwimmer, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer and Alec Baldwin all star as voices in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.

BLOGS
1. Watching TV: Psych’s James Roday
2. Top 10: Reality TV Couples: Breaking The MTV Curse
3. Robert Downey Jr.: Talks Iron Man 2

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