'Cowboys & Aliens' - Modern Western keeps it in the family
July 29, 2011
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July 29, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK — As Steve Carell seems poised to become his generation’s Jack Lemmon — an Everyman actor capable of playing broad comedy and self-mocking satire as well as subtle drama and touching romantic roles — he is characteristically modest about his burgeoning stature in Hollywood.
His... Read More
July 29, 2011
Director Jon Favreau mixes sagebrush shoot-’em-up with science fiction freakiness in “Cowboys & Aliens”
and fires off a mash-up of movie genres that’s lightweight fun at a warp-speed gallop.
There’s a whole posse of writers credited for this thriller (six in all) which is usually a sign of trouble... Read More
July 29, 2011
Cal Weaver is a portrait of middle-age, matrimonial ennui. At home, he’s a bland, straight-laced family man who takes his pretty, high school sweetheart wife, Emily, for granted. At work, he’s a t-crossing, i-dotting cubicle drone who wears sneakers with his khakis and oversize sports jackets.
But in the... Read More
July 28, 2011
NEW YORK – Oddly enough for a guy who grew up in show business under the protective umbrella of Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse Club, actor Ryan Gosling these days takes his philosophical cues from Warner Bros.’ cartoon cut-ups Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck.
For Gosling, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies duo of... Read More
July 27, 2011
All the ingredients for a tasty, 1960s coming-of-age story about British food writer, TV chef and gourmet Nigel Slater are neatly gathered in “Toast.”
But even with its substantial cast, a jaunty soundtrack of Dusty Springfield tunes and a zesty period-rich visual design, director S.J. Clarkson’s... Read More
July 25, 2011
This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:
“Invasion of the Blood Farmers”
What can you say about a movie that was shot for $24,000 and reportedly has never made its money back? Or about a cast of actors who, according to the director, worked mostly for six packs of beer? You can say it’s an... Read More
July 22, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – Being the writer behind the writer of the epic Harry Potter movie sagas has not always been a smooth process for Steve Kloves, the screenwriter who penned seven of the eight big-screen adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster fantasy novel series.
Kloves, prior to signing on to... Read More
July 20, 2011
NEW YORK – Don’t look for Draco Malfoy to be singing for his supper.
Now that the Harry Potter cycle is completed with “Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” and actor Tom Felton is ready to put aside his magic wand and look to his future, rumors are rife that the now 23-year-old is looking to follow a career in... Read More
July 19, 2011
BY GENE TRIPLETT
Efrem Zimbalist Jr. has taken his cues from some of the biggest directors in the business: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Raoul Walsh, George Cukor, Terence Young, J. Edgar Hoover …
Whoa. J. Edgar Hoover? The only thing he ever directed was the FBI, right?
True, he built and ruled the nation’s... Read More
July 18, 2011
This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:
“Zonad”
Mix a wee bit of Irish blarney with a wild alien space invaders spoof and you have a whimsical amalgam called “Zonad,” an oddball comedy by brothers John and Kieran Carney due out on DVD Tuesday.
John Carney (best known for writing and... Read More
July 16, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – Of the eight movies in the blockbuster J.K. Rowling cycle, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” is the only one shot in 3D.
But it’s not intrusive, in-your-face 3D, director David Yates points out. It’s a subtle 3D that doesn’t call attention to itself and is... Read More
July 15, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – As the three young wizards that we’ve watched grow up on screen over eight Harry Potter movies mark the end of their 12-year journey with the release of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” one was conspicuous by his absence in the franchise’s final U.S. publicity... Read More
July 15, 2011
J.K. Rowling’s marvelous, magical, epic tale of a young wizard’s harrowing journey through the twisted philosophical thickets of good and evil doesn’t so much end (as ad copy declares) as come full circle in the rousing and deeply satisfying “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.”
Through 10... Read More
July 13, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – On the set of “Horrible Bosses,” they were known as Charlie and the two Jasons. But among themselves, stars Charlie Day, Jason Bateman and Jason Sudeikis often thought of their characters as kindred cousins of the Three Stooges.
Cast as three working stiffs who are driven by... Read More
July 11, 2011
This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is:
“Big Box of Cowboys, Aliens, Robots & Death Rays”
In advance of the much-anticipated “Cowboys & Aliens” later this month, it’s a good time to look back on several old Hollywood chestnuts that mixed horse opera conventions with eerie... Read More
July 08, 2011
It’s always a dubious sign when you watch the coming-attractions trailer for a movie and immediately identify other movies that it filches from (or draws inspiration from, if you want to be charitable).
With “Zookeeper,” starring big-guy Kevin James in full Jackie Gleason form, the immediate influences are... Read More
July 08, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – Despite delivering some dark-tinged performances in indies such as “The Good Girl” and thrillers such as “Derailed,” Jennifer Aniston is still largely cast in the public mind as a wholesome “America’s sweetheart.”
Much of the entertainment-consuming public persists in... Read More
July 08, 2011
Summer in the multiplexes used to be the exclusive domain of kid- and family-friendly G, PG and PG-13 rated movies. That is, until “Wedding Crashers” scored such a surprise hit in the heat of 2005 and pioneered the way for a rash of R-rated counter-programming in summers since.
Already this summer, moviegoers... Read More
July 08, 2011
BY DENNIS KING
NEW YORK – Kevin James doesn’t buy W.C. Fields’ cynical old caution, “Never work with children or animals.”
In his new film, “Zookeeper,” the former star of TV’s long-running “The King of Queens” and regular-guy sidekick to bigger stars in movies such as “Hitch,” “I Now... 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.
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