I saw an early screening of the new Sam Raimi movie, Drag Me To Hell. It’s a movie that Raimi fans have been dying to see, since Raimi has taken a break from the Horror genre for a few years, working on movies such as The Quick And The Dead  with Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, A Simple Plan starring Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thorton, For The Love Of The Game with Kevin Costner, and of course, most recently and profitably, Spiderman 1-3. But Raimi has a core of dedicated fans from his Evil Dead series, as well as movies like Darkman and Army Of Darkness. For those dedicated fans, Drag Me To Hell is a fun, scary, funny thrillride. For those who are not fans of Raimi’s mix of slapstick and horror, Drag Me To Hell absolutely, unequivocably sucks ass! [Read more →]

Tags: movies by David Alfreds
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The Pack A.D. (yes, the A.D. is for After Death) is not a blues band. Sure, they probably listen to blues music (don’t a lot of people?), and they met at a gas station, but they are not a blues band. How do I know? Because I hear them rocking out my ipod right now. I think I am supposed to call them garage rock. I wish I had a garage and some money because they are coming to a show in my town and I would pay whatever for them to show up the day before, plug their equipment into my washer/dryer outlet and play a while. [Read more →]

Tags: music by Van McO
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Captain James T. Kirk does not believe in no-win scenarios. As a cadet at Starfleet Academy, when faced with the Kobayashi Maru simulation, Kirk reprogrammed the test to change its conditions and thus became the first cadet to defeat the Kobayashi Maru. He “cheated” but he received a commendation for original thinking. Star Trek director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman found themselves in a similar situation. After six films and numerous television spin offs, what more could be done with a franchise whose original characters and cast are beloved, but the lead actors are approaching eighty? Like Captain Kirk, they cheated, but the result is original and thrilling. And, it is well worth the $12.50 ticket price to see Star Trek in an IMAX theater. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
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The new Star Trek film does an excellent job of paying tribute to the existing canon while freeing itself from all previous content to explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before. And nerd-dom has a new captain.

[Read more →]

Tags: movies by Steve Mazzeo
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Grey’s Anatomy (Thursday, ABC, 9PM) — Let’s be honest. Grey’s Anatomy has sucked for the past 2 years. It’s been boring, whiny, repetitive and the off-screen drama hasn’t helped. However, they did a really good job this week… season 1 good. [Read more →]

Tags: television by Lauren LaBumbard
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If I had become a film buff in my youth instead of my adulthood and pursued an educational and career trajectory similar to that of my film-loving peers in this town (Hollywood), I might have learned to become more critical about the films I see and far more cynical about the industry than I actually am.

Long before I became a film buff, if I saw a movie with a friend and he criticized the plot, theme or dialogue of a flick I found entertaining, I’d reply something like, “It’s just a movie. It was entertaining; that’s what matters.” I reserved my critical judgment for literature. So, now, while my cinematic critical capacity has increased, I still retain another important capacity, to enjoy a well-made movie with a weak (or contrived) story, provided it keeps me entertained.

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Tags: movies by B. Daniel Blatt
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Have you ever wondered what would happen if you could go back to a particular moment of your life and do something differently? What if you hadn’t taken a job you’d accepted, married someone you’d broken up with, said “no” when you’d previously said yes…or vice-versa? What if we were all allowed one do-over?  Would your life be completely different than it is now, or would events have conspired to put you in pretty much the same place? By continuing to explore the concept of the variable, “Follow the Leader” brings up these very same questions, and if you’ve been paying attention, it’s already given us the answers. [Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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My mother began her “higher learning” at a later age than most. I was in junior high school when she attended Sarah Lawrence studying philosophy and I was in high school when she attended the school of anthropology at the University of Virginia. I got to meet a lot of interesting people associated with academia: students, professors, writers, thinkers and do-ers. Generally at that age, I was bored by their discussions, uninterested in their high-art movies, theatre, and book readings, but there was one morsel of media with which we all could concur, one passive activity which satiated a teenager’s desire for adventure as well as an anthropologist’s hunger for discovery, a sociologist’s curiosity about humanity and a philosopher’s quest for truth — we could all agree on Star Trek. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, television by David Alfreds
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After appearing in more than one hundred films, Sir Michael Caine dropped his usual fee to star in the low budget Is Anybody There?, because it was the only screenplay he had ever read that made him cry.  Films about vital people experiencing aging and dementia tend to provoke that reaction. This film is somewhat predictable, but the magical setting and stellar performances by leads Michael Caine (Clarence) and young Bill Milner (Edward) turn what could be a clichéd tearjerker into a life affirming meditation on death and aging. [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
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Private Practice (Thursday, ABC, 10PM) — I wasn’t able to watch TV this week. “What?!“, you scream? I have a good excuse. I was in Miami celebrating the upcoming nuptials of my bestie, Emma. I have a lot of catching up to do. However, between sun, cocktails, and late night boozing, I managed to watch the season finale of Private Practice on www.abc.com. And all I can say is, WTF?! [Read more →]

Tags: television by Lauren LaBumbard
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Wolverine Origin (graphic novel) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine don’t have much in common. They deal with different stories in different ways. The book is great and the movie is okay. [Read more →]

Tags: books & writing, movies by Steve Mazzeo
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In 30 years of watching the symphony orchestra business, I’ve never seen anything quite as remarkable as the recent story in the Washington Post describing a voluntary concession, nay “donation”, of wage and benefit reductions totaling $1 million offered by the musicians of the Baltimore Symphony. Orchestra management was actually taken by surprise by the news. [Read more →]

Tags: music by Christopher Guerin
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If you check out the various lists touting the greatest movies of all time, you’ll notice that the top spot varies between two films, The Godfather and Citizen Kane. Which is the best? Well, for me, the answer is obvious, because one of those movies changed my life and the other did not, and that’s the measure of a movie’s greatness. Every time you see a movie, you are changed a little bit, but some movies, rare movies, can change your life. [Read more →]

Tags: movies by David Alfreds
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 At the end of my last column, I asked whether the “variable” would prove to be an event that could change everything. The one thing that could have a domino effect on the outcomes of every event that followed. I wondered if this changeable event is what Ben and Widmore have been fighting for control of. After watching “The Variable,” I have to say “yes,” this is what the term is referring to. However, I’m still not so sure whether the variable will actually vary anything according to the mythology of the show.

[Read more →]

Tags: religion & philosophy, television by Marc Oromaner
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As the fascinating new documentary Tyson reminds us, Iron Mike refuses to have a happy ending. He earned 100 million dollars…and squandered 100 million dollars…and earned another 100 million dollars…and wasted it again. (When he complains about Don King stealing tens of millions from him, one sympathizes but can’t help thinking, “So with your spending habits and general knack for shrewd decision making, that would have kept you out of the red for, what, another month?”) He keenly understands his mistakes, but keeps making them. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, sports by Sean Cunningham
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 Megan Holley heard a story on NPR about two women who started a crime scene cleaning business. By the time Holley arrived at work, she knew this story had to be a movie, and wrote her first screenplay. After winning a local screenwriting contest, she earned a trip to Sundance and a movie deal. Some political pundits say that the public’s optimism and hope during these bleak economic times may actually lead to better economic times. Fortunately for all of us, optimism and hope paved the way to a new career for Holley, and for Sunshine Cleaning’s lead character Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams). [Read more →]

Tags: Gail sees a movie, movies by Gail D. Rosen
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The mind often works better on its own, without any prodding or guidance from us. Think of all those ideas that just occurred to you out of the blue, or that problem you solved upon waking up one morning after giving up on it the night before and going to bed.

I was reminded of this recently when my wife and I went to see the exhibition of late still lifes and interiors by Pierre Bonnard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment, that's what he said, by Frank Wilson by Frank Wilson
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30 Rock (Thursday, NBC, 9:30PM) — I can’t comment on Thursday’s episode of 30 Rock. That’s because I didn’t watch it. I am ashamed to say I just starting watching 30 Rock (Netflixed season 1). When 30 Rock premiered, there was another, supposed-to-be similar show about sketch comedy also premiering called Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip that I stupidly chose over 30 Rock (a chance to see Matthew Perry on my TV every week? I took it). Not to say Studio 60 wasn’t awesome, because it was. But it died a slow death and is now in cancellation heaven (BTW, these two shows are so completely different, I don’t know why they were ever compared to each other to begin with). [Read more →]

Tags: television by Lauren LaBumbard
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Last night I attended a performance of the Wasabassco Traveling Burlesque Revue & Medicine Show. Having never attended a burlesque performance before, I was ill-prepared for the amount of lascivious fun to be had.  In a refreshing departure from the inorganic extremities that modern pornography perpetuates, the women featured — Anita Cupcake; Nasty Canasta; and GiGi La Femme — represented both the beauties and imperfections of the female figure in an unabashed celebration of innuendo, entertainment, and a past time when staring at a naked woman on stage chiseled buoyant smiles on the faces of audience members. [Read more →]

Tags: art & entertainment by Nathan Cushing
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Who is the greatest director of all time? Coppola? Spielberg? Scorcese? Chaplin? Fellini? Ford? The question may be as subjective as “what is the greatest movie of all time?”, but I submit for your approval… Akira Kurosawa. Why Kurosawa and not Orson Welles or Alfred Hitchcock? Because Kurosawa was able to do more with less! [Read more →]

Tags: movies by David Alfreds
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