Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Abbott and Costello Show: Who's on First?'
January 31, 2011
|
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
About the writers
Dennis King
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
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
Filmed in Oklahoma: The Posthuman Project
May 3Superhero film 'The Poshtuman Project' is being filmmed...
More Movies from NewsOK
- Heather Graham returns to the 'pack' in 'Hangover Part III'
- Movie Review: 'The Hangover, Part III'
- Blu-ray revew: 'The Town That Dreaded Sundown'
- Bartha follows 'Hangover' trilogy with punk drama 'CBGB'
- 'Star Trek Into Darkness' explores bigger action, bold character development
- Star Trek: The Next Generation — The Best of Both Worlds Blu-ray review





