Monthly Archives: January 2015

“The Wedding Ringer” is “Wedding Crashers Redux,” a “Hangover Lite” that softens manic funnyman Kevin Hart’s persona into someone almost as funny, but more sentimental than abrasive. That helps “Ringer” work as a bromantic comedy that feels like a romantic … Continue reading →

“Timbuktu” is a picturesque nightmare, a quiet, beautiful and chilling account of a city under the rule of Islamic jihadists. They briefly seized the ancient city in Mali a couple of years back, but the conflict and events depicted in … Continue reading →

The Golden Raspberry Awards, trashing the worst in cinema in a given year, and once an amusing antidote to Hollywood’s self-celebration, pretty much totally jump the shark this year, turning their “announcement” into a video event, their website into an … Continue reading →

As focused as the blurred, often random moments of unsteady steadicam shots and as coherent as co-star Wei Tang’s indecipherable Chinese accent, Michael Mann’s “Blackhat” is a classic January fire sale thriller. Mann’s worst film since he transitioned into the … Continue reading →

The grief must have drained out of the families that lost loved ones at Bonford Coal Company’s mine disaster. Or else the locals, God fearing Southerners along the West Virginia/Kentucky coal belt, have grown numb to this sort of loss. … Continue reading →

This awards season, we’ve been hearing a lot of the same names, a consistent “Oscar nominee to be” drumbeat for Richard Linklaker (“Boyhood”), Alejandro Innuritu ( “Birdman”) Wes Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Morten Tylden (“The Imitation Game”). Among … Continue reading →