Ice Cube, Kevin Hart do more than Ride Along in 2

Ice Cube and Kevin Hart bring out the best in each other, for sure this time. And that makes Ride Along 2 better than its predecessor, which was a pretty good buddy movie in the first place. We find Hart’s Ben Barber and Cube’s James Peyton a week away from officially becoming brothers-in-law in this…

The B-Sides sound A-1 at Shifty’s

When my good friend Dave Kaspar gives me the heads-up that a trip to Shifty’s is needed to see a new band on the Syracuse scene, I believe him. After all, over the last quarter century, I’ve stood next to the guy hundreds of nights, appreciating the best our city has to offer. And then…

My worst movies of 2015, from 10 to 1

Hold your nose! At least when you get to the bottom of my list of my 10 worst films of the 52 first-run films I saw in the theater during 2015, one each week for my Monday online reviews. That’s where the real stinkers reside. I must admit, a couple that you’ll see a paragraph…

My top movies of 2015, from 10 to 1

When we flipped our calendars to 2016 and I made my way to a darkened theater, it marked my fourth year of once a week letting the wwwdot world know what I think of a first-run movie. Somebody’s got to do it. And every year I compile my Top 10 lists of bests and worsts.…

As Sisters, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler pass the big screen test

Anybody who’s ventured into the theater to see Sisters likely carries with them a torch for the TV work of stars Tina Fey and Amy Poehler from their days on late night comedy mothership Saturday Night Live. At least a glance around the crowded smallish-theater for a New Year’s Day matinée at the Regal Cinemas’…

OK, now I understand Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi

Buy it, my dear wife Karen said. And so, the Friday that so many folks around America were flocking to theaters to be awakened by The Force, thanks to Amazon Prime we sat in the living room of the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood and watched Star Wars: The New Hope…

The Force Awakens within me, and I get Star Wars

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is worth all the fuss. And you don’t have to be one of the diehard followers of the franchise birthed in 1977 from the mind of George Lucas to appreciate the seventh installment, the one long-awaited by fans of IV, V and VI. (Yeah, I, II and III were prequels,…