This review originally appeared on KTKA-TV and KSNT-TV, Kansas First News. An expanded review appears below. Here’s a scary fact about how easily disease can spread: The average person touches their face 3,000 times in a day. If the new global pandemic thriller “Contagion” was directed by anybody else, it would have had an enormous […]
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The word “bunraku” refers to form of Japanese puppet theater where the puppeteers, usually dressed in black, are visible on stage. “Bunraku” the film combines elements of classic samurai and cowboy films and sets it in a gunless future that feels more like an alternate past. The aesthetic feels both unique and familiar. While it […]
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Some movies get rushed through production and hit theaters mere weeks after the final frame of film is shot. Others, for a variety of reasons, go through multiple edits and end up sitting on the shelf for years. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (which was filmed back in the Spring of 2008) is the latter. […]
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As a mediocre to dismal summer for films marked by remakes, reboots, and revisits comes to a close, “The Debt,” a movie chock full of the familiar – international espionage, maniacal Nazis, and beautiful counteragents – arrives in theaters. Can three Israeli operatives stationed in East Germany to hunt a notorious war criminal save the […]
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“The Devil’s Double” takes a healthy production budget and a compelling true story complete with a character in impossible psyche-ravaging situations, and manages to turn a sure win into a dud. Based on the life of Latif Yahia, the double for Saddam Hussein’s psychopathic son Uday, “The Devil’s Double” should have been a fascinating character […]
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One Day is the type of movie that women are likely to enjoy far more than men. It has two likable stars, is less clumsy (in spots) than most romantic comedies, and wants desperately to be better on-screen than it is on the printed page. Sadly, the movie is nothing more, or less, than a […]
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“Sarah’s Key” tells two intertwined stories. The first takes place in present day Paris. Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist, lives with her architect husband, Bertrand Tezac (Frédéric Pierrot). While they renovate an apartment that has been in Bertrand’s family since the 1940s, Julia, for one of her articles, investigates the infamous Vel’ […]
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The germ of the idea for “30 Minutes or Less” may have come from a tragic true story of a pizza delivery driver forced to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest, but this raunchy new comedy isn’t going for realism. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This is big, broad humor […]
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Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), a mild mannered and lead-footed pizza delivery guy, has lost his way. While his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) has finally landed full time employment as a Jr. High teacher, and Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria), the girl he’s in love with and Chet’s sister, just got an opportunity that will take her to Atlanta, […]
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Director Michael Rapaport has created a labor of love. “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest” is the rare documentary that balances adoration and honesty as it takes the viewer on a journey through the career of the influential hip-hop crew, A Tribe Called Quest. The story begins in 2008 during […]
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It’s been 10 years since Tim Burton’s awful “Planet of the Apes” remake failed to reboot the early 70s sci-fi series, so this weekend the new movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” tries its hand with a semi-new origin story. The big surprise is that “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is […]
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In it’s first few minutes, “The Change-Up” gives the viewer a glimpse of a CGI animated baby anus, which, as anticipated, shoots an incredible amount of crap into the surprised face of Dave (Jason Bateman), the exhausted father. When Dave opens his mouth to argue with his child’s backside, a final push fills his mouth […]
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This review of new Blu-ray/DVDs of “Limitless” and “Take Me Home Tonight”originally appears on KTKA-49. “Limitless” is new out on Blu-ray and DVD this week, and it stars Bradley Cooper as an unmotivated man who takes a pill that allows him to finally live up to his utmost potential. Suddenly, he’s finished his book in […]
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This review of “Cowboys and Aliens” originally appears on KTKA-49. The new movie “Cowboys and Aliens” is a perfect example of truth in advertising. The title says it all. There are cowboys and there are aliens. And that’s about it. Taking the title of the 2006 graphic novel that it’s based on and none of […]
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