Yearly Archives: 2016

Sensitive child actor turned sensitive character player and leading man Anton Yelchin is the latest celebrity death in the grim gallery of 2016. Pinned against a wall by his own car, apparently. It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, under a … Continue reading →

    Pervy, titillating and deeply disturbing, the one word you’d never use to describe the documentary “Tickled” is funny. An expose of the Internet phenomenon of “Competitive Endurance Tickling,” it’s one of those “sports” you hear DJs talk about … Continue reading →

OK, so now they’re three weeks into “Top Gear: TNG.” How’s it doing? “Still gaining acceptance?” Don’t know about that. Wouldn’t be prudent to make a judgment. Yet. Maybe everybody made up their minds about post-May/Hammond/Clarkson TG with the premiere … Continue reading →

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin “Little Man” Hart team up for “Central Intelligence.” That’s all the info we need to know exactly how this action comedy is going down. Lots of Big Man/Little Fella sight gags, confident muscle man, … Continue reading →

There are enough laughs in “Finding Dory” to justify Disney wanting a sequel to “Finding Nemo,” one of the most successful animated films of all time. And there’s enough heart and smarts to warrant Pixar making it. A message-heavy action … Continue reading →

The characters are ’80s “types” — the Madonna-wannabe, the would-be B-Boys, the punk rock punk, the martial arts geek, etc. The soundtrack is a John Hughes comedy cliche — a little “Pretty in Pink,” a lot of “Breakfast Club,” with … Continue reading →

Horror director James Wan’s latest trick is to morph his “The Conjuring” franchise into a supernatural love story. Both as a director and as a producer, Wan is mining the rich “true story” vein provided by Lorraine and Ed Warren, … Continue reading →

Another video game makes a branded transition to the big screen, and Hollywood blows it, yet again. That’s “Warcraft.” And seeing as how this tripe just wasted two hours and three minutes of my life, with the threat of sequels … Continue reading →

Editor’s note: The news that BBC radio was re-visiting “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” for a fresh series (“And Another Thing…”) prompted me to pack my CDs of the earlier incarnations for a recent road trip. And I thought I’d … Continue reading →

Summer sequel season is long since in full swing. This weekend’s crop is quite representative — one solid sequel that might please the faithful, one limp one to a movie nobody thought merited a sequel in the first place. Jesse … Continue reading →