Sharing the layers to Jesse Owens’ Race to Gold

The legend of Jesse Owens has long and sadly been relegated to history text books, grandfathers’ knees and the occasional sports talk show. At best. And so it was with great pleasure that this former sports editor saw the seats full when my dear wife Karen and I walked into the biggest of the Regal…

A comedy about being single that feels right

Hollywood loves to mess with the heads of folks still playing the find-the-right-one game in life. Such as releasing the latest in a long line of romantic comedies, How to Be Single, on Valentine’s Day weekend. And they dig playing on the shoved-in-the-closet bad memories in us all, too. Everybody squirmed some while swimming in…

Hail, Caesar! pictures Hollywood in its glorious past

Envision Hollywood as it was in the 1950s, with big stars in the middle of epic historical remakes, comedies and musicals all the while embroiled in dodgy personal lives sure to draw the interest of the best gossip columnists and the American public at large, all of it keeping studio officials on their toes to…

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 Big Short comes up long on smarts and entertainment

Remember that teacher you had for the subject that was more than tad past your grasp but somehow, day after day, came up with a way to punctuate the classroom with enough street oomph to not only keep your head in the game but make you go home with a stake in the overall picture?…

Jennifer Lawrence mops up again in Joy, but don’t let the title fool you

Let’s get one thing straight right away. Joy is not so much a happy movie at its core. Oh, the mostly-taken-from-the-life of entrepreneur Joy Mangano story directed and co-written by David O. Russell (with the help of Bridesmaids writer Amy Mumolo) indeed follows the journey of the harried woman as struggles to take her idea…

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…

Thank you, Sly, for handing our Rocky over to a smart new Creed

Not one bit of the movie franchise fanfare this year has gone to the rebirth of the tale of the tough boxer from Philadelphia who could take on all the punches, literally and figuratively, the world could throw at him. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens about to burst forth from Disneydom and The Hunger…

Mister Met, lost and found

I noticed it with a feeling. Mister Met was calling me from afar, the little guy from the front of my blue baseball cap, the one my dear wife Karen bought for me on our trip this season to watch our favorite team play at Citi Field. And sure enough, my latest favorite hat was…