Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's on First?' January 31, 2011 | Comment on this article Leave a comment This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “The Abbott and Costello Show: Who’s on First?” Here in the bleak days of winter, with spring training still weeks away, it’s comforting to contemplate the coming of warm weather and the opening of baseball season. And what better way to bask in... Read More
Movie review: ‘Tiny Furniture,’ tiny story, big talent January 28, 2011 With a title this precious, it’s no surprise that “Tiny Furniture” is the work of a highly precocious, painfully self-aware, nakedly self-referential young Manhattan (Tribeca, to be exact) filmmaker who has turned out a sophomore feature film that’s decidedly a homemade family affair. Writer-director-star... Read More
DVD review: 'Red' January 28, 2011 One of the most indelible images from all the movies of 2010 is that of Helen Mirren, wearing a Martha Stewart hairdo and an elegant floor-length white evening gown, cutting loose with a heavy-barreled .50-caliber Browning M2HB machine gun without batting an eyelash. She must have undergone some boot camp-level... Read More
Create your own pre-Super Bowl football film fest January 26, 2011 As you eagerly await kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday, why not sate your pigskin lust with your own video football film festival? Football movies are a burgeoning subgenre of sports films that offers fans literally scores of fine action- and inspiration-filled possibilities – ranging from macho favorites such as... Read More
Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Flash: The Complete Series' January 24, 2011 This week, the most intriguing DVD to appear on release lists is: “The Flash: The Complete Series” With a strong big-screen showing by The Green Hornet and new Spider-Man and Batman movies on the horizon, now’s a good time to revisit one of the best TV incarnations of a comic book superhero in “Flash:... Read More
The ‘True Grit’ eye patch face-off January 21, 2011 These days, it seems that everything in popular culture is fair game for pundits to politicize. Example: When it comes to portraying Rooster Cogburn, the “one-eyed fat man” in the two film interpretations of Charles Portis’ “True Grit,” it seems that stars John Wayne (in Henry Hathaway’s 1969 version)... Read More
Movie review: In ‘Boxing Gym,’ Frederick Wiseman proves himself a champ January 19, 2011 The documentaries of legendary director Frederick Wiseman possess a deceptively simple, formalized elegance. Even when his subject matter seems utterly prosaic – in films such as “High School,” “Hospital,” “Basic Training,” “Public Housing,” “Domestic Violence” and “State Legislature”... Read More
Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'End of the World – 2012 Apocalyptic Prophesies and Inexplicable Phenomena' January 17, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “End of the World – 2012 Apocalyptic Prophesies and Inexplicable Phenomena” Conspiracy theorists can celebrate a documentary bonanza Tuesday with the release of a nine-disc DVD collection of doomsday prognostications and weird occurrences titled... Read More
DVD review: 'Roger Corman's Cult Classics Triple Feature: Sci-Fi Classics' January 13, 2011 Good or bad, the movies of producer-director Roger “King of the B’s” Corman are almost always fun to watch, just to see all the different visual and narrative gimmicks he devises to deliver the popcorn goods on a peanut budget.  A lot of fans get the biggest kick out of his ’50s fare, when this... Read More
Dirty little secrets of The Golden Globe Awards January 12, 2011 In Hollywood, prestige is a dubious currency too often bestowed upon the least worthy in the name of publicity, marketing and just plain old sucking up. Keep that in mind this weekend whenever any of the botoxed, bosom-heaving red-carpet pundettes pronounces with a straight face that the 68th annual Golden Globe... Read More
Museum of the Moving Image reopens high-tech center for film art, history January 11, 2011 NEW YORK – After closing in 2008 for a $67 million renovation and expansion, The Museum of the Moving Image will reopen its doors Saturday to a new three-story addition, a floating, 267-seat theater and expanded, high-tech galleries devoted to exploring the entire history and art of the movies. The museum,... Read More
Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Green Hornet Strikes Again' (75th Anniversary) January 10, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “The Green Hornet Strikes Again” (75th Anniversary) Just as the new Green Hornet prepares to strike up a retro vibe in multiplexes this week, some of the masked crime fighter’s early big-screen forays get a fresh life on DVD with Tuesday’s release... Read More
DVD review: "I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale" January 07, 2011 He appeared in only five feature-length films in seven years, but all of them were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and three of them won. The supporting characters he played tended to be weak, ineffectual and self-loathing individuals, possessed of few redeeming qualities save for a remarkably sympathetic... Read More
Year's top movies worth price of ticket January 07, 2011 BY GENE TRIPLETT Time was, movies were the No. 1 cheap date, with plenty of paycheck left over to cover dinner for two. These days, by the time a couple have made it through the box office and concession lines, they’ve already shelled out enough money for a halfway decent restaurant meal. After that,... Read More
Movie review: ‘My Dog Tulip’ rhapsodizes on the earthy reality of pet love January 07, 2011 As a general rule, movies about dogs are marked by certain tried-and-true conventions – cuddly cuteness, frisky mischief, aching sentimentality and an underlying anthropomorphism that ascribes to canines human traits that allow us to see our best selves in our pets. It’s a tradition as old as “Old Yeller”... Read More
Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Monster Mutt' January 04, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Monster Mutt” Dogs seem to dominate the screens this week, a trend that continues with Tuesday’s DVD release of “Monster Mutt,” a live-action, family-friendly, direct-to-video romp written and directed by veteran make-up artist Todd Tucker... Read More
DVD review: ‘My Dog Skip’ a sweet, old-school tale of a boy and his pet January 04, 2011 If the animated memoir, “My Dog Tulip,” is a film with a sharp bite, then the live-action memory piece, “My Dog Skip” (out on Blu-ray Tuesday), is a big, wet, sloppy lick in the face. Gently nostalgic and often downright sentimental, this golden tale presents an old-fashioned boy-and-his-dog saga that... Read More
2010’s Top 10 movies – best-schmest, here are our ‘favorites’ December 30, 2010 BY DENNIS KING It’s that time of year when movie critics everywhere are busy with bookkeeping, tallying up 2010’s screen offerings and issuing their Top 10 lists. But dictating the year’s “best” films is so often a rote ritual, driven by urgencies of the upcoming awards season and marked by a certain... Read More
‘Specialty’ films promise to warm up winter’s dank months for movie lovers December 30, 2010 BY DENNIS KING They used to call them “indie” films, but that seems passé. Some have called them “art” films, but that sounds elitist. Now those movies produced on modest budgets, with strong themes, story-driven narratives and actors instead of stars (small-scaled dramas and comedies, documentaries and... Read More
Under the Radar DVDs: 2010’s oddest of the odd December 27, 2010 Each week sees literally hundreds of new releases on DVD. Big-bucks advertising and studio clout propel sales of the most high-profile DVDs. But the oddball releases that fly under the radar are often the most fun. Those bottom-of-the-list releases have been spotlighted during 2010 in the “Under-the-Radar DVD... Read More
Advertisement

About the writers

Dennis King


Movie Critic
King spent 31 years as an ink-stained wretch working for newspapers in Seminole, Ada, Oklahoma City and Tulsa. He holds a B.A. degree in English from the University of Central Oklahoma and for 16 years served as an adjunct instructor in journalism and English at Tulsa Community College. For 20 years, he was full-time film critic at the Tulsa World.

In 2006, he left Tulsa and along with his wife, Suzan (a retired English professor), moved to a cabin in Dingmans Ferry, PA. There, along the banks for the Delaware River, he chased after two rambunctious Labrador retrievers, fly fished the waters of the Poconos and did his best to become a full-time trout bum. Still scratching a writer’s itch, he freelanced articles for Explorer magazine and Gray’s Sporting Journal and wrote a stage play about classic movies and old movie theaters, titled “Spirits of the Coronado” (after his long-gone boyhood theater at 39th Street and MacArthur Boulevard).

In December, he and Suzan moved into an apartment in upper Manhattan, where they plan to eat bagels for breakfast and street-cart hot dogs for lunch, haunt the Angelika Theater and the Film Forum, go to plays and museums, ride the subways, complain about the subways and generally live like true New Yorkers.

Gene Triplett


Entertainment Editor

Gene Triplett is another Oklahoma newspaper dinosaur who's been cranking out copy for 34 years, first at the upstart, long defunct Oklahoma Journal, covering just about every news beat imaginable, then at The Oklahoman, where's he's bounced back and forth from features to the news side as assistant city editor, city editor and entertainment editor, managing to hold down the latter position for more than 10 years. He holds a B.A. degree in journalism -- also from the University of Central Oklahoma -- and, also like his colleague King, chases after two loony Labrador retrievers. He does not live by a trout-filled river, but he and his wife Carol do own a swimming pool, much to the delight of their dogs.


The Tripletts enjoy gourmet outdoor cooking year-round (rain, sleet or snow), entertaining friends, road trips to scenic wooded parks that rent rustic lakeside cabins, listening to music, watching classic movies and, in the summertime, swimming with their dogs.



Multimedia

Videoview all videos

Review: Star Trek Into Darkness thumbnail

Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

May 16George Lang and Matt Price discuss the latest Star Trek...

Filmed in Oklahoma: The Posthuman Project thumbnail

Filmed in Oklahoma: The Posthuman Project

May 3Superhero film 'The Poshtuman Project' is being filmmed...

Mud thumbnail

Mud

Apr 25Two teenage boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to...

Pain and Gain thumbnail

Pain and Gain

Apr 25A trio of bodybuilders in Florida get caught up in an...

The Big Wedding thumbnail

The Big Wedding

Apr 25A long-divorced couple fakes being married as their...

More Movies from NewsOK

+ show more