Projections Movie Blog

Movie review: Romantic math too predictable in ‘What’s Your Number?’ September 30, 2011 | Comment on this article

It’s true that we harbor a terrible double standard between men and women when it comes to sexual activity. A healthy young single man who has slept with multiple partners is often considered a dog, a stud, a player. A young woman who has done the same is likely to be stigmatized as a harlot, a slut or... Read More

‘Moneyball’ prompts list of old moneyball diamond classics

September 29, 2011 With Brad Pitt’s smart “Moneyball” racking up bucks at the box office and with the major league playoffs looming on the horizon, now’s a good time to consider baseball movies. Everybody, it seems – fan or non-fan – has a favorite. And you don’t have to be a baseball wonk to rattle off the titles of... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Punkin Chunkin'

September 26, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Punkin Chunkin” Halloween is around the corner and before we know it pumpkin patches everywhere will be rife with ripe orange orbs. So what better time to look in on an annual event dedicated to tinkerers intent on launching these gourd-like squash... Read More

Jim Henson’s puppetry genius celebrated at New York museum

September 23, 2011 NEW YORK – You could consider Jim Henson to be the Cecil B. DeMille or Samuel Goldwyn of the puppet world. As a film producer he was a pioneer who gave film lovers little classics that featured such iconic stars as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and many others. Henson and the magical, comical world... Read More

Though voiceless, Roger Ebert will speak at New York Times event

September 22, 2011 NEW YORK – For nearly 50 years, Roger Ebert has been the most prominent and influential voice among the ranks of America’s film critics. But in recent years, after three major surgeries to battle thyroid cancer he’s been left unable to speak. But he has not been silenced. Ebert still writes movie reviews... Read More

DVD review: 'The Perfect Host'

September 21, 2011 Everyone knows how hilarious the deadpan David Hyde Pierce can be after getting to know his snarky, snobbish, anal-retentive therapist on “Frasier.” But who knew he was capable of scaring the hell out of an audience as a snarky, snobbish, anal-retentive psycho, the way he does so brilliantly in “The Perfect... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World'

September 19, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Ed Hardy: Tattoo the World” Scratch a hipster, find a tattoo. That seems to be the mantra that defines modern pop culture as generations of would-be scenesters, young and old, embrace the formerly forbidden and slightly seedy art of body tattooing.... Read More

Actress Jessica Chastain savors success of ‘The Help,' ‘The Debt'

September 15, 2011 BY GENE TRIPLETT BEVERLY HILLS — Jessica Chastain never paid much attention to ticket sales until one of her movies became the No. 1 moneymaker at the multiplexes. “I didn’t understand the whole idea of box office or anything like that,” Chastain said during a recent press day at the Four Seasons Hotel... Read More

DVD review: 'The Colossus of New York'

September 15, 2011 An appealingly cheesy amalgam of Frankenstein conventions, alien invader mayhem, sci-fi philosophizing and B-movie resourcefulness, “The Colossus of New York” is a cultish, 1958 monster movie finally getting a freshly scrubbed DVD release. Read More

Movie review: ‘The Trip’ a larky ramble with two quirky raconteurs

September 15, 2011 If you were to embark on a ramble around Northern England’s Lake Country and Yorkshire Dells, stopping at various twee country inns to sample their tea-and-crumpets fare, you could do worse than set forth in the company of irreverent comic cut-ups Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. “The Trip,” versatile director... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Produce Your Own Damn Movie!'

September 12, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Produce Your Own Damn Movie!” You’d be hard pressed to find someone who knows his way around a low-budget, independent film shoot better than Lloyd Kaufman, creator of “The Toxic Avenger” and founder of the storied indie film factory Troma... Read More

In multiplexes it’s been ‘the summer of the flamethrower’

September 09, 2011 Sure this summer has been hot, hot, hot in Oklahoma. But by all accounts it has been equally hot on movie screens – flamethrower hot. With teaser footage for Universal’s upcoming remake/prequel of “The Thing” promising the prominent use of a flamethrower (much like the one wielded by Kurt Russell in John... Read More

‘Utopia’ author, screenwriter aims for sweet spot between life and golf

September 08, 2011 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – As with many serious golfers, David Cook’s approach to the game is informed by certain spiritual considerations that make the game of hitting a little white ball into a tiny hole on a green take on profound, life-altering dimensions. Cook, author of the best-selling inspirational... Read More

DVD review: 'The Twilight Zone' Season 5: Blu-ray Edition

September 08, 2011 At the end of the 1963-’64 network television season, they locked the door to another dimension and threw away the key of imagination for good, shutting adventurous viewers off from that middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, between the pit of man’s fears and the summit... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'On Strike for Christmas'

September 06, 2011 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “On Strike for Christmas” It’s September, so it must be time to start celebrating (and selling) Christmas. One early bit of ricky-ticky holiday tinsel arrives on DVD shelves Tuesday with the made-for-TV movie “On Strike for Christmas.” This... Read More

Sam Worthington enjoys the journey of each new job

September 02, 2011 BY GENE TRIPLETT BEVERLY HILLS — Whether he’s reacting to an imagined alien world on a green-screen stage or playing opposite flesh-and-blood actors on a claustrophobic set realistically resembling a filthy apartment in an abandoned East Berlin building, it’s all the same to Sam Worthington. It’s a job... Read More

Movie review: 'The Debt' casts Helen Mirren in second, more serious role as retired spy

September 02, 2011 Helen Mirren may be crowned the killer queen of retired spies if she keeps this up. Less than a year after having played a former British Intelligence sniper turned homemaker in the tongue-in-cheek “Red,” she’s back in yet another espionage thriller, “The Debt,” as an ex-Mossad secret agent who is... Read More

Third time’s the charm for Duvall, Black in ‘Seven Days in Utopia’ September 02, 2011 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – Robert Duvall has known Lucas Black since the young actor was knee-high to a Sling Blade. It was in Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 Southern Gothic drama “Sling Blade” that the two first met – when Duvall played the alcoholic father of slow-witted central character Karl Childers... Read More

DVD review: 'Skateland'

September 01, 2011 A Texas-set coming-of-age story that follows squarely in the footsteps of “Dazed and Confused” and “The Last Picture Show,” writer-director Anthony Burns’ “Skateland” is a thin but engaging 1980s nostalgia piece that also owes a debt to that era’s guru of teen angst, John Hughes. If all that... Read More

‘Twilight’s’ Ashley Greene finds change of pace in ‘Skateland’

September 01, 2011 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – Attempting to stretch her wings beyond the confines of her “Twilight” character Alice Cullen, Ashley Greene has taken on a role in the low-budget indie feature, “Skateland,” as a punkish music fanatic and record-store clerk who obsesses over the new wave and post-punk albums of... Read More

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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.