Turner Classic Movies, Sunday, July 7, 1 p.m. The movie that made James Dean a star is about a, yes, rebellious teenager in the 1950s whose charisma persuades a girl (Natalie Wood) and a boy (Sal Mineo) to question the stringency of post-war America. Wood and Mineo were both nominated for Oscars, while Dean became…
People are scared that the end is coming. I don’t think they actually believe that Judgment Day is nigh, or that an extinction-level asteroid is on its way, or that Syria (or North Korea, or Taiwan) is going to lead to World War 3, or that a virus will mutate into a pandemic as deadly…
Robbie Jones and Jurnee Smollett-Bell in Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor dvd of the week If you happen to come across this DVD in someone’s garbage can – do not pay for it – you may enjoy a good couple hours of hate-watching. As ineptly written and directed as the worst of the Razzie…
This Is the End Usually, when Hollywood tackles the end of the world we get giant sci-fi epics focusing on teams of either super-heroes or super-heroic soldiers making the planet’s last ditch effort to stave off oblivion. Whether the end comes in the form of asteroids (Armageddon, Deep Impact), aliens (Independence Day, War of the…
dvd of the week When I saw Harmony Korine’s exploitation art movie Spring Breakers, I knew what I was getting into: I was hoping to be horrified by the wrongness of the movie, but the kids in theater where I saw it were surprised by how horrifying, pornographic, disturbing and weirdly funny the movie is….
After I walked out of Now You See Me, a caper film about four magicians who become master thieves and the FBI agents trying to stop them, I began to overthink the twist at the end. I won’t reveal it, because that would be unfair, but it made me question some of the opinions I…
Diversionary Theatre’s production of The Divine Sister opened at San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre June 1. The cast includes Maggie Carney as Mrs. Levinson, Yolanda Franklin as Sister Acacius, Lauren King as Agnes, Dangerfield G. Moore as Jeremy, Daren Scott as Mother Superior, and Jacque Wilke as Sister Walburga. Diversionary’s production is directed by the Craig…
I ended up seeing Epic because I couldn’t abide seeing the other two movies that opened Memorial Day, Fast & Furious 6 and The Hangover, Part 3. I didn’t bother with Fast & Furious 6 because I didn’t see the previous four, and I was worried that I’d be confused. I’m kidding, of course; I’m…
dvd of the week The first seconds of Warm Bodies announces how different it is from almost every other zombie story. It begins with a zombified young man (Nicholas Hoult) wandering through an airport full of other hunched, shuffling dead people, and, shockingly, the young man has a witty, articulate voice over. This zombie can…
dvr this Turner Classic Movies, 8:15 p.m., May 18 I don’t think Murder by Death is as good as the similarly themed Clue – both of them are parodies of the 1970s Agatha Christie murder mysteries – but it is still great fun. Written by Neil Simon, the film’s conceit is that a rich madman…
