It’s hard to get past De Niro’s big stink in Dirty Grandpa

This sort of sleaze-in-comedy-clothing you expect from Zac Efron, having slinked down Eeew Lane just two years ago with Neighbors. (Sorority house sequel with Seth Rogen coming soon, trailer in theaters now, beware!) But sitting through each of the sex-crazy 102 minutes of Dirty Grandpa in a pretty-packed late Friday afternoon showing in the Regal…

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…

Ron Howard tries too hard to take us deep into the heart of the tale of Moby-Dick

Ishmael and that great, big whale brought to the world from the pen of Herman Melville 165 years ago are back. Ron Howard, one mammoth director by any standard, has latched onto the prequel, if you will, of what went on in Nantucket back in the day that allowed Melville to open his mind enough…

Oh, those precocious princesses may make you appreciate the Royals

The Royals fascinate America. No news flash here, what with the morning shows rushing over to televise the tight waves high from the balcony of Buckingham Palace every time Queen Elizabeth and her son Charles and his sons with divorced but still beloved but gone Princess Diana marry, make babies … The human drama these…

The 33 allows you to root for the winner you know

If you had your ears open in 2010, you likely heard the tale of the miners stuck deep down in belly of that Chilean mine. It was the kind of event that moves the world’s talkers to tell all. The horror of the collapse. The despair of repeated failure to connect with the possible pocket…

Bill Murray finds himself taking a shot in Rock the Kasbah

There’s no doubt that agent Richie Lanz is playing among the lesser lights in the biz no matter how much he boasts about his connections and his past. He may have discovered Madonna at a hamburger joint and told Jimi Hendrix to play The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock in The Day, but right now…

A Mets fan can feel lonely in Syracuse even with the World Series ahead

My devotion to the New York Mets has been well-chronicled here this season. There was the trip to Citi Field in late June with my dear wife Karen and friends Steve and Kristen that spurred my multiple-part series about the team and stadium. And there was my discovery that Mets cable network SNY picked my…

Who wouldn’t want to learn from a gentle DeNiro?

Ben Whittaker has done the travel thing, the exercise thing and the grandpa thing in his retirement world, and none of it is exactly making the 70-year-old widow from Brooklyn happy. Oh, he’s not complaining, mind you, as he faces the camera explaining exactly how he’s gotten to this point in life as we meet…

In Black Mass, Johnny Depp has evil down cold

Quite the block in South Boston that was that gave the world the Bulger brothers and John Connolly. Black Mass tells the tale with a deep and horrible chill. Directed by Scott Cooper by a script from Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth, this crime drama documentary is 122 minutes full of high ambition and low…

Next time a stranger offers to pay for that coffee …

Oh, her life looks so good. Big house on a beautiful street, with a slightly nosy neighbor who’s really just looking out for her. Great job, a decision-maker and rising star in a major lobbyist firm. But, wait. In this thriller written by Tyger Williams and directed by David M. Rosenthal, something has to shake…