Everybody’s talking about ‘American Sniper,’ good and bad

Normally I’d shy away from leading my Thursday Film News blog with the same movie I reviewed to start the week. I can’t help myself in the case of “American Sniper.” To call the blockbuster about the life and death of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle increasingly controversial is somewhat of an understatement. To read today’s…

‘American Sniper’ and all these feelings about war

I know I am a man for peace. And against war. I know I am a man who supports the soldiers who fight for our country, without question. The conflict within those two beliefs reared its emotional and complicated head in my stomach again as I sat with hundreds of other folks rapt in attention…

Before there was your Gravatar, there was ‘Avatar’

Are you happy with your Gravatar? I like mine so much I’ve given it a name. And The Head has taken on a life of his own, thanks to my friends here on WordPress and their artistic abilities. But I digress. It’s fun. Did you know that Gravatar comes from Globally Recognized Avatar, which really…

That’s not the movie I saw on the trailer

I really liked the trailer for “Inherent Vice.” It was fast, funny and loose. I saw the movie adapted from the 2009 novel by Thomas Pynchon for today’s installment of my weekly Film Review blog on the Syracuse New Times site. You can read my review of the movie directed and written by Paul Thomas…

Now the ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ are imaginary cartoon characters

I have to hand it to James Gunn, keeper of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” flame. While reading up on movie world happenings for this week’s installment of my film news blog for the awesomely attractive Syracuse New Times site, I came upon the Cinema Blend story that reported how the director had posted on…

For a political volleyball, ‘The Interview’ has no airs

I went to a real movie theater to see “The Interview” on Friday afternoon in Auburn, N.Y., and my dear wife Karen and I sat among 60 or so people who were clearly happy to be there on a snowy day, choosing this particular event out of many available theses or thoses available. There were…

‘Sex Tape’ soils the top of my worst 2014 movie pile

My bottom 10 from the 52 first-run films that I saw for my weekly Monday Film Review Blogs on the Syracuse New Times site is over yonder, the first entry for my 2015 Thursday Film News Blogs. Talk about making news … You can read my Bottom 10 for 2014 on the infinitely interesting Syracuse…

Looking at the world through ‘Big Eyes’

A movie about the art world? How boring! Not so fast. “Big Eyes” was produced and directed by Tim Burton. It stars Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. It’s about about real life artists Walter and Margaret Keane, and there’s a villain and somebody for which to cheer. And doe-eyed children in frames. Many, many doe-eyed…

I ‘present’ my top 10 films list for 2014

As you savor the mood of a post-holiday Friday, I offer you this gift. Over on the Syracuse New Times site is my Top 10 list of my favorite films from 2014. OK, I’ll give you No. 10. That would be “The 100-Foot Journey,” the pretty delightful Disney offering featuring Helen Mirren as the French…

When have you had enough in a movie series?

At the end of “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,” Ben Stiller’s character Larry looks out of the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan wistfully and thinks … And we think … To read my review of this third installment in this comedy franchise for my weekly Monday film blog review on the…