Entertainment
Within the first two minutes of the retro-cool and warmhearted animated crime-thriller spoof The Bad Guys, we can tell we're in for something refreshingly original - because those two minutes (and change) consist of a single, unbroken shot in a diner that is a clear homage to the prologue of
Entertainment
The third time's the Disarming Charm. That's one of the classes they teach in the second year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, don't ya know, and while we take only a brief excursion to the future learning institution of Harry Potter and friends in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets
Entertainment
All those movie Batmen have the impressive costumery, and in some cases the cool, bat-based toys, and those pricey Batcave living quarters, and sometimes there are even some actual bats hovering about - but as far as I can recall, none of 'em has ever injected himself with actual bat
Entertainment
When you think about it, the Netflix original sensation that was Bridgerton is essentially a fictional, period-piece version of The Bachelor, what with all these impossibly good-looking, mostly shallow, gossip-mongering people - most of them never inconvenienced by a daily work schedule - gathering for another season of orchestrated romance,
Entertainment
Let's start with the jumpsuit. The glittery, spangly, skintight, plunging-neckline, raspberry-colored jumpsuit Sandra Bullock sports throughout much of the loud and unfunny and flat and derivative Romancing the Stone knockoff The Lost City, as if she's wandered in from a mediocre 1980s sitcom. Bullock's Loretta Sage is wedged into that
Entertainment
In the late 1950s, the FBI planted a rudimentary listening device behind the radiator in a Michigan Avenue tailor shop often frequented by Chicago mob bosses, and thus gathered a wealth of information about notorious chiefs such as Sam Giancana and Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo. The Chicago-born writer-director Graham Moore
Entertainment
It was Showtime, folks. The Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980s were the most glamorous organization in the history of American sports, from the immensely talented lineups led by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Earvin "Magic" Johnson that produced five NBA titles to the Hollywood stars in the stands (Hello, Jack!) to the
Entertainment
We're calling The Batman a superhero movie because it's another telling of the tale of one of the most iconic comic-book characters in American history - but in terms of tone and scope and storyline, Matt Reeves' reboot of the ever-fruitful franchise is more of a film noir than a
Entertainment
From the ridiculously simple title to the elevator-pitch premise of Channing Tatum as a broken-down former Army Ranger who has to deliver a troublemaking retired military dog to the memorial service for the dog's human partner, we know exactly where Dog is going to take us; it's as predictable as
Entertainment
After nearly a decade and a half in Development Purgatory, the movie adaptation of the popular video game franchise Uncharted finally hits big screens - and you'd think that somewhere along that 14-year timeline, they would have remembered to put an actual movie inside the movie. You know how they say
Entertainment
When we think of the greatest mustachioed characters in movie history, certain names come to mind: Rhett Butler and Rufus T. Firefly, Charlie Chaplin in myriad roles and even the likes of the Stranger in The Big Lebowski, Lando Calrissian in The Empire Strikes Back and Bill "The Butcher" Cutting
Entertainment
"If there's one thing in my life I do wish I had ... I wish I was loved and respected ... like Brady, Peyton, Roger Staubach. ... I never had that kind of respect. And I wish I did." - Terry Bradshaw In the wake of an epic playoff season, and
Entertainment
From January of 2011 through March of 2016, legions of faithful American fans of Downton Abbey tuned in to PBS every Sunday night to revel in the upstairs-downstairs adventures of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, their immediate and extended family and friends, and, of course, the equally compelling staffers
Entertainment
The most shocking death in the history of the blood-soaked Showtime series Ray Donovan was the hit taken out on the show itself in January 2020 - a move that blindsided the creators, who had ended Season 7 with a number of cliffhangers in the mistaken belief there would be
Entertainment
As evidenced by such recent films as Halloween Kills and Ghostbusters: Afterlife and The Matrix Resurrections, it can be a tricky thing to stage a reunion of beloved characters from a franchise that debuted long ago, so we hoped for the best but feared for mediocrity when it was announced
Entertainment
The numbers are staggering. According to Variety, there were 1,923 series on various platforms in 2021, shattering the record of 1,628 set in 2019. This is why I can't really say my Top 10 list represents the "best" series of 2021; so, let's just call this my 10 favorite new
Critics' Picks
Nearly every year when the Golden Globes came bounding through Hollywood, I would remind folks they were basically a joke. Just a smattering of examples: - "Of all the awards shows, this is the stupidest - but they treat it like a big event in Hollywood." - 1996 - "The
South Sound Cinema
Even though this year was unlike any other in the history of cinema, in that most films were either limited theatrical releases or premiered on at-home platforms, there was no shortage of first-rate works, including: The Assistant, Crip Camp, First Cow, Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Your Woman, The Invisible Man, The Life
South Sound Cinema
1. The Irishman To anyone still intimidated by that three hours and 30 minutes running time: click to any random spot on the timeline and watch for a few minutes. No matter where you've landed, you'll be dropping in on a masterpiece -- from Martin Scorsese's direction to the performances of
South Sound Cinema
The Banker (Dec. 6) George Nolfi, who did such a splendid job of adapting The Adjustment Bureau and turning it into one of the great romantic films of the 2010s, is behind the camera for this based-on-true-events story starring Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie as African-American businessmen in the 1950s