If nothing else, buddy comedies live and die based on their chemistry, and while there are no unexpected explosions in the remake of “The In-Laws,” the formula appears to have become somewhat diluted. In the original 1979 comedy, Peter Falk and Alan Arkin played the mismatched soon-to-be father-in-laws, Falk the seasoned spy, Arkin the timid dentist, thrown together by fate and pending nuptials. Read the rest of this entry »

War is indeed hell. It’s not pretty. It’s not supposed to be. It’s supposed to be horrendous, gritty, and ultimately, numbing. There’s no method to its madness. In one small insignificant way, it’s like making movies. Lots of action followed by long periods of boredom and silence. Read the rest of this entry »

My mother always told me that if you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all.
My mother didn’t see “Queen of the Damned,” another MTV-influenced horror film shot and edited for people with the attention span of a music video. Take away the eye candy and rock music and what’s left is a vampire film that is sorely in need of a transfusion. Read the rest of this entry »

Time, or the lack of it, can cause people to react in different ways. People late for work or an appointment can stress out, making the journey even more difficult. Others simply take their time, shrugging off the demands. Throw death into the equation, and the outcome becomes amplified. Read the rest of this entry »

Tullymore is a small village in Ireland, one of those quaint seaside hamlets filled with colorful characters and a colorful past. There are 53 residents of Tullymore, and like the residents of every small town, they know each other’s business. You can’t keep a secret in Tullymore, or can you? It seems that one of the residents of Tullymore has won the National Lottery, yet no one has stepped forward to claim the prize. Read the rest of this entry »

Sitting through “White Chicks” made me hanker for a root canal. With any luck, a miscalculation would drive the drill into my brain and dig out the infected gray matter.

If bad ideas were butter, “White Chicks” would be margarine. It’s an insipid spread of bad jokes, scary make-up and patently offensive behavior. Read the rest of this entry »

In Cameron Crowe’s “Almost Famous,” Kate Hudson, daughter of actress Goldie Hawn, plays a 1970’s rock and roll groupie, excuse me, a Band Aid, named Penny Lane. Because “Almost Famous” took place in the moment, we only got to see a small sliver of Lane’s life. Rumor has it that the real Lane “aided” quite a few “bands,” but was never willing to name names. Read the rest of this entry »

If I were in combat, Col. Terry Childers is the kind of man I would want on my side. A 30-year Marine veteran, Childers has seen it all. His combat experiences includes Vietnam, Beirut and Desert Storm. He’s a decorated war hero and he knows how to get things done under fire. Read the rest of this entry »

In the early days of “Saturday Night Live,” John Belushi was featured in a sketch called “The Thing That Would Not Leave.” He played a boorish dinner guest who took advantage of his hosts hospitality by overstaying his welcome. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s one scene in writer-director Bob Clark’s “Porky’s” that left me and my friends on the floor of the theater. It comes towards the end of the film when female gym teacher Beulah Balbricker tries to convince the principal of the school that the only way she’s going to catch a male student who performed an indecent act is to have a line-up of their tally-whackers. Read the rest of this entry »