Monthly Archives: September 2015

Movie Review: “Finders Keepers,” y’all.

Sometimes it seems that rural white southern males are the last permissibly mockable group in these United States. Good’ol boys living all along the NASCAR belt drawl some bit of rural rube ridiculousness, and America giggles. And tunes in, when … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Walk”

It doesn’t take too much away from “The Walk,” the frothy new caper dramedy about the World Trade Center high-wire walk of Philippe Petit, to say it’s inferior to the delightful 2008 documentary, “Man on Wire,” about the same event. … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Martian”

Epic, majestic, breathtakingly detailed, thrilling — all words that have accurately described the film ouvre of Ridley Scott over the decades. When your directing resume includes “Blade Runner,” “Gladiator” and “Alien,” that’s a given. But “The Martian” manages a new … Continue reading

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Box Office: Sandler’s “Hotel” is packed, “Intern” pays off, “Green Inferno” cracks the top ten

Nobody is going to confuse the first passable cartoon to hit theaters since “Shaun the Sheep” for an Adam Sandler comeback. Hopefully. But the established brand “Hotel Transylvania 2,” whose most generous reviews (like mine) used phrases like “not awful,” … Continue reading

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Weekend Movies — “Intern” doesn’t get hired, check out of “Hotel Transvlvania” again

It’s a great weekend…for panned movies opening wide in these United States. “Pawn Sacrifice” opens wider. So there’s that. But “The Intern” is a creaking, edge-free rom-com without the rom. Robert DeNiro is the stiff, nice  senior citizen intern brought … Continue reading

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Weekend Movies — “Intern” doesn’t get hired, check out of “Hotel Transvlvania” again

It’s a great weekend…for panned movies opening wide in these United States. “Pawn Sacrifice” opens wider. so there’s that. But “The Intern” is a creaking, edge-free rom-com without the rom. Robert DeNiro is the stiff, nice  senior citizen intern brought … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Hotel Transylvania 2”

It has a little over 20 laughs — or at least mild chuckles. Most courtesy of quick-cut sight gags, pratfalls and the like. And the animation is sharper, deeper, more refined. So yeah, we can call “Hotel Transylvania 2” a … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “The Intern”

“I hate girls who cry at work,” a character weeps in the two-hour-long comedy “The Intern.” So do I. You’d have to go back to an era when female office workers called each other “girls” to find that appropriate. But … Continue reading

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Movie Review: “Un Gallo Con Muchos Huevos”

Here in Los Estados Unidos, there’s usually a clear boundary between cartoons for kids and what we’d call “adult entertainment.” So this Mexican cartoon, in Spanish with English subtitles, is racy enough to count as a bit of culture clash. … Continue reading

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Movie Review — “Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead : The Story of the National Lampoon”

Satire, parody, racist skewerings of racism, sacred cows slaughtered, silly slides down the slippery slope into Anti-Semitism. And breasts. Lots and lots of breasts! That was National Lampoon in its heyday, an R-Rated Mad Magazine, a pervier Playboy (all in … Continue reading

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