On the wake of a farcical ‘Mortdecai,’ how do you prefer your movie humor?

Johnny Depp goes deep in his comedy closet in “Mortdecai,” while Gwyneth Paltrow as his wife is funny while using different tools. You can read my take about the farce directed by David Koepp from a screenplay by Eric Aronson as today’s weekly Film Blog review post on the Syracuse New Times site by clicking…

‘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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The story of Moses is told again, and I join the ‘Exodus’ of reviewers

Religion and the big screen. Namely, Moses and his journey to deliver the chosen people to the Promised Land and his chats with God so he could chisel out The Ten Commandments, a time-tested theme on the big screen. I went this weekend to watch Ridley Scott’s epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings” for this morning’s…

Do you 2 have a tale about Horrible Bosses?

As I regrouped after watching the comedy “Horrible Bosses 2” for my film blog review for the Syracuse New Times site this morning, I thought again about the bosses of my lifetime. I didn’t have to go past my first job, junior year of high school on Long Island. My friend Jim had talked his…

My animation weekend brings ‘Lego’ on HBO, ‘Penguins’ at the theater

I experienced some animation domination this past weekend. I caught “The Lego Movie” on HBO, and went to the theater to see “The Penguins of Madagascar” for my weekly Monday new movie blog review for the Syracuse New Times. One of them I liked a lot. One of them I liked a little. I did…

You can sit it in halfway hungry and fill up

I saw the first part of “The Hunger Games” series a year after the fact, on NetFlix. Not on my iPad or phone, thankfully. I watched the blockbuster hit on my living room flat screen. Still, the dystopian story didn’t really win my over. I didn’t gush, and I didn’t rush out to see part…