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An Evening with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan Monday April 20, 2009 Benaroya Hall, Seattle, WA Ken Burns is a bonafide rock star with the PBS crowd. Known for epic documentaries about all types of American history, from Jazz, to Baseball, to The Civil War, he is one of...
Changeling came and went in the theaters, despite the star-wattage attached to it (directed by Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood and starring Oscar-winning Angeline Jolie). Were cinema audience experiencing Angelina burnout? It is entirely possible. So when I finally watched Changeling, I was surprised how good it was, and what...
17 Again wastes no time appeasing its target audience: In the opening sequence, we get to see Zac Efron shirtless (six-pack gleaming with sweat), shooting baskets with ease, smiling his dreamboat smile, dancing with the cheerleaders, and furrowing his brow with concern over a girl. Swooooon. He is sooooo...
There are some books that should be pre-stamped “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!” These books have about the depth of a summer movie, and the same simple, popcorn enjoyment. These are “beach books”—you read them once, often in one sitting, only to find them in the cheap...
OK, I’ll say it right now: Roger Ebert inspired me to become a film critic. In junior high and high school, I would stay up late to watch Siskel & Ebert (or whatever the latest incantation of their long-running syndicated movie review show was called at the time), not...
Blindness‘ “What if?” scenario is along the lines of such sci-fi/horror stories as Children of Men, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, or 28 Days Later. Something happens beyond everyone’s control, sending humanity into a panic, and reducing everyone to mere animals to survive. The film opens with a man (Yusuke Iseya)...
I give Robert Downey, Jr. full credit for being the reason that I found Iron Man to be enjoyable. What is essentially an origin story for the latest Marvel superhero to come to screen is totally given a unique spark by Downey’s inherent smirkiness that he brings to all...
Don’t be misled by the resume of Adventureland‘s writer/director Greg Mottola. He is best known for directing the super-raunch-fest Superbad, the amazingly foul-mouthed comedy that took teen sex comedies to a new level. Adventureland is still about geeky virginal love, but it strips away the sight gags, the crass...
Bambi taught a string of generations about death, and now a whole new generation, pulled into what was advertised as a family-friendly kiddie movie, will be traumatized by Marley & Me. When the movie was in the theaters, I heard the movie could make grown men cry, and I...
For some reason, a feature length Wonder Woman movie has floundered for decades. As Batman, Superman, and other super (and not so super) heroes got their big-screen treatment, the best Wonder Woman could do was a television series in the 1970s. Don’t get me wrong… I loved the Lynda...
Documentary filmmaker Nanette Burstein followed a handful of high-school seniors for their last year of school in small-town Warsaw, Indiana. With gossip, crushes, rejection, peer pressure, and bad skin, American Teen is a fascinating and well-crafted slice of life that has as much drama and often unintentional comedy as...
In the opening scene of the tear-jerking romance P.S. I Love You, we meet Holly and Gerry Kennedy (Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler). They got married young, and are still young and beautiful after 10 years, but boy do they bicker. Sure, the fighting is followed by make-up sex,...
