One could say that I was intrigued by the hype surrounding “Super 8” I enjoyed the J.J. Abrams’ reboot of the Star Trek franchise in 2009, and I was interested in what he might craft when he turned his creative energies to a kids’ adventure movie. Unfortunately Abrams took a page out his producer, Steven […]
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It’s ironic that writer/director Chris Ordal’s quietly moving “Earthwork” opens its run at Liberty Hall in Lawrence the weekend after Governor Sam Brownback erased the funding for the Kansas Arts Commission, leaving the program with zero budget and no staff or offices. Shot almost entirely in Kansas and based on the true story of Lawrence, […]
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There are movies that make me wish I had the option of the split rock fist, a non-neutral symbol that says this film is as bad as it is good. That’s the way I feel about Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class,” and I only grudgingly went with the slightly positive, because I walked out of […]
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Po (Jack Black), the reluctant and obese Dragon Warrior, and his gang of kung fu specialists are called back into action in Dreamworks’ “Kung Fu Panda 2”. The story, which has Po, Tigeress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan) and all the rest chasing the nefarious peacock Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), is thoroughly entertaining if not […]
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Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifianakis), Doug (Justin Bartha) and Stu (Ed Helms) are reunited in Thailand for Stu’s wedding to his new bride (Jamie Chung) in this sequel to the surprise box office hit of 2009. Once again things get crazy and a forgotten night leads to a blurry-eyed morning in a hotel room […]
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In her new release “In a Better World” Danish filmmaker, Susanne Bier gives us a tense look into the violent human interactions that surround our daily lives, and forces the viewer to question the civility of our civilized world. The film focuses on two parallel stories, the story of Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William […]
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Matthew Lessner‘s new film and first feature, “The Woods,” envisions the fall of the current society and creation of a new one, helmed by the a group of misguided and inept twenty-somethings. Some films march quickly through their paces, hit their plot points, allow their characters to change through fast cuts and dialogue driven action […]
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Honestly, I don’t know if Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is any better than the last two disappointing entries of the franchise or I simply don’t have it in me to care about what happens to these characters anymore. Even though the film did its best to remove the only thing I really […]
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This review of “Farewell” appears on KTKA-49. A 2010 espionage thriller that may have slipped under your radar is now out on Blu-ray and DVD and is definitely worth checking out. “Farewell” is loosely based on the story of a KGB analyst in the early 1980s who became disillusioned with the Soviet regime and began […]
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This review of the “Bridesmaids” appears on KTKA-49. Co-written by and starring “Saturday Night Live” standout Kristen Wiig, “Bridesmaids” is being marketed as “The Hangover” from a female perspective. It’s a nice shortcut, but there are a couple key differences. First off, despite a couple scenes with over-the-top and scatological humor, “Bridesmaids” is a little […]
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Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is having a really bad day. In the first few minutes of the film he loses his job, his wife locks him out of the house and leaves town (first throwing all his possessions on the front lawn), his car is repossessed, his bank accounts are locked out, and he falls […]
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Opening this Friday is a film about two princes of a legendary kingdom. The older brother, heir to the throne, is arrogant and proud, the younger is manipulative and jealous. Though the father tries to love each equally, his blind love for the older child leads to an error in judgment, and ultimately the older […]
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In her new release “In a Better World” Dutch filmmaker, Susanne Bier gives us a tense look into the violent human interactions that surround our daily lives, and forces the viewer to question the civility of our civilized world. The film focuses on two parallel stories, the story of Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William […]
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This review of the “Fast Five” appears on KTKA-49. Supposedly, the fifth movie in the “Fast and Furious” franchise—titled “Fast Five”—takes place before the third movie, but after the fourth. If that sounds like it’s going to make this a tricky film to follow, don’t worry—it’s not. “Fast Five” is a dumb, ridiculous movie filled […]
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