Meet Gran Torino’s Walt Kowalski: Korean War vet, retired auto worker, widower, ornery racist coot. Walt can’t stand the people crowding into his home for his wife’s wake, and they’re relatives and friends; don’t even get him started on the Hmong family moving in next door. But he’s played by Clint Eastwood, in an Eastwood-directed […]
Meet Gran Torino’s Walt Kowalski: Korean War vet, retired auto worker, widower, ornery racist coot. Walt can’t stand the people crowding into his home for his wife’s wake, and they’re relatives and friends; don’t even get him started on the Hmong family moving in next door. But he’s played by Clint Eastwood, in an Eastwood-directed […]
“American Idol” Tuesday & Wednesday 8pm, Fox “Idol” remains America’s No. 1 TV show in the ratings, although the numbers have started to slide the past few seasons. Part of that is due to the natural laws of pop culture thermodynamics —all things lead toward entropy—but the show wasn’t helped by the overwhelmingly crappy Season […]
Bedtime Stories (PG, 99 minutes) Adam Sandler plays a storytelling uncle whose stories surprise him by coming true. A presumably family-friendly adventure-comedy co-starring Courtney Cox Arquette, Lucy Lawless, Guy Pearce and Kerry Russell. Playing at Regal Seminole Square 4 Bolt (PG, 96 minutes) In Disney’s 48th animated feature, a Hollywood dog who plays a canine […]
Valkyrie puts forth the idea that not all Nazis should be categorized as either ferocious barbarians or craven order-followers. We knew this, of course, from Schindler’s List. And from history. And from not being idiots. And yet we watch. We are curious. It is at once a caper movie, a period piece and a true […]
“Scrubs” Tuesday 9pm, ABC In one of the more baffling moves in recent TV history, ABC opted to pick up an eighth season of NBC’s hospital comedy “Scrubs” after the Peacock gave it the ax. This is despite the fact that the show has never exactly been a ratings bonanza (last year it came in […]
Australia (PG-13, 175 minutes) Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann directs Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman in a romantic historical western. Playing at Carmike Cinema 6 Bedtime Stories (PG, 99 minutes) Adam Sandler plays a storytelling uncle whose stories surprise him by coming true. A presumably family-friendly adventure-comedy co-starring Courtney Cox Arquette, Lucy Lawless, Guy Pearce […]
So here you are, actually reading a review of Marley & Me. Don’t feel guilty, OK? It’s perfectly natural to want to know what happens when John Grogan’s bestseller about building a family around an obedience-proof Labrador retriever, a.k.a. “the world’s worst dog,” becomes a movie starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson. Maybe you tried […]
New Year’s Eve TV Wednesday, multiple channels My fellow shut-ins and social pariahs: Let’s all vow to close out 2008 the way we spent most of it, with our asses glued to the couch and our peepers set squarely on the tube. Who needs to interact with actual people anyway, right? New Year’s Eve offers […]