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On the Big Screen

Lesson from ‘Selma’ rings true still

When is a universal right worth standing together with friends, family and strangers and enduring brutal words, broken bones, and threats on your life? "Selma," an adaptation of a portion of the life of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during his 1960s fight for voting rights on ...

Does ‘Interview’ mess set or follow a precedence?

Regardless of if you were in awe over the length of the fight scenes in "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies" or identified with the inner leadership struggles of Moses (Christian Bale) in "Exodus: Gods & Kings," a satiric comedy about the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un titled "The ...

Redmayne brilliant as Stephen Hawking

When physicist Stephen Hawking learned as a doctoral student at Cambridge about his muscular degenerative ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) his love Jane Wilde promised Hawking and his family that, "I love you. We will be together for as long as it is. That will have to do." She anticipated taking ...

2014: Badass girls, mess-you-up thrillers and Hobbits

Unless you're entertainment challenged, you have likely read an article or two about the under-performance of certain high expectation films in 2014.Actually, the market has altered as viewers demonstrate they want more films with curve balls built within, for instance, the stable franchises.As ...

Keaton et al go a little batty in ‘Birdman’

Instead of looking up in the sky for a drone or daredevil, the non-existent trilogy of Birdman (now 20 years past on screen) re-awakens memories of once young fans. Riggan "Birdman" Thomas, played by Michael Keaton, mounts a splashy Broadway philosophical love opus "What We Talk About When We ...

John Woo-inspired ‘John Wick’ a good vehicle for Reeves

"John Wick" has the most nondescript flick title in a lengthy time frame. Without a glimpse at the poster or a preview, you would, like Iosef (Alfie Allen), the young son of a Russian gangster, have no fear of the unkempt squiggly bearded nobody (Keanu Reeves) who steals his classic Mustang, ...

Pitt and company fighting like ‘Fury’

Claustrophobic submarine thrillers like "Das Boot," "Run Silent, Run Deep" and "The Enemy Within" strap viewers inside a metal ship afraid to breathe. So you would think that five men inside a tank would burst the compression meter. No, instead, "Fury" director David Ayer ("Training Day," "End ...

Nothing like a little comedy to lighten up the holidays

2014 has revealed several "trends" at the big screen multiplex. First, the romantic comedy which generally has a couple unite, break up, then reunite for a happy ending, now has trouble finding an audience. Second, lots of CGI bells and whistles does not guarantee success. Ironically, a washed ...

‘Ouija’ not a perfect scare fest, but will do

Don't play alone with a ouija board.Warnings abound about using the "game" that may open conduits to the spirit world. One could make movie after movie about urban legends that have arisen from adverse consequences from playing with a board to contact the dead. Hard to believe, it is just a ...

‘Tombstones’ a gritty mob-inspired drama

For those earning a living by drug trafficking, infernal conduct surrounds efforts to mask their "profession" as legitimate. When the wife of heroin dealer Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) is kidnapped, he does not dial 911 or call the police. He pays the ransom. The two dealers holding her hostage ...