Projections Movie Blog

DVD review: ‘We Need to Talk About Kevin’ May 29, 2012 | Comment on this article

In purely pop-culture terms, you could glibly characterize “We Need to Talk About Kevin” as “The Omen” for the art-house crowd. But that’s undoubtedly trivializing the haunting and deeply unsettling thematic heft of writer-director Lynne Ramsey’s staid but stunningly effective bad-seed drama (drawn... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Found Footage Festival: Vol. 5'

May 28, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “The Found Footage Festival: Vol. 5” For most, VHS might be an obsolete media technology, but for Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher the old videotape format is a repository of pure, pop-cult gold. As self-proclaimed “champions of VHS,” they’ve hosted... Read More

‘Harvey’ hops around again to the Broadway stage

May 25, 2012 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – Classic movie buffs know and love “Harvey” from director Henry Koster’s whimsical 1950 film that had James Stewart essaying the role of amiable tippler Elwood P. Dowd, convivial barstool cohort to the invisible, 6-foot white rabbit of the title. But fans of live theater know... Read More

‘Learning With the Lights Off’ examines textbooks on celluloid May 24, 2012 It’s probably safe to say that most American students, especially baby boomers, had their first exposure to documentaries through educational films shown in their grade school and high school classrooms. Remember “Hemo the Magnificent,” Frank Capra’s jazzy, partially animated documentary on the workings... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'American Warships'

May 21, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD on release lists is: “American Warships” While “Battleship” bombards multiplex audiences with FX bombast, a rival juggernaut of “mockbuster” proportions now prepares to moor itself on video shelves. “American Warships,” produced by notorious copycat company Global... Read More

Great ensemble cast, wise director enliven ‘Marigold Hotel’

May 18, 2012 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – John Madden’s secret for directing a Masterpiece Theater-caliber cast of British actors in the ensemble comedy-drama “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is simple. Just stay out of the way and let them act. That might sound a bit disingenuous, but the versatile,... Read More

India provides culture-shock experience for ‘Marigold Hotel’ stars

May 18, 2012 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – For esteemed British thespians Dame Judi Dench and Tom Wilkinson shooting a film on location in India proved to be a piquant curry stew of exotic experience, flamboyant adventure and eye-opening revelations. Rich with undercurrents of faded colonialism and emerging third-world... Read More

Movie review: British acting royalty checks in to ‘Marigold Hotel’

May 18, 2012 If for nothing else, “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” deserves praise for courting an underserved box-office demographic (so-called “senior citizens”) and for assembling an energetic, wily A-team of English actors to demonstrate that dramatic chops definitely do not diminish with age. While this canny if... Read More

Movie review: Bombastic ‘Battleship’ shoots blanks

May 18, 2012 The United States of Hasbro breaks out the big FX guns in a noisy, clunky, vainglorious effort to transform its dated board game “Battleship” into a big, brassy summer blockbuster of the Michael Bay kind. Bay, who has managed to cobble the giant toy and game manufacturer’s Transformers action-figure line... Read More

DVD review: 'Maverick: The Complete First Season'

May 17, 2012 Back in what can accurately be called the horse and buggy days of television, when there were only three TV networks to choose from and all three were overrun with Westerns, one saddle-tramping series trumped all the rest with a winning hand of adult-friendly wit and satirical fun-poking at the cowpoke genre. And... Read More

There are no salmon in the Yemen, tourist board advises

May 17, 2012 The Yemen Tourist Board has issued a press statement warning would-be Western travelers against planning salmon fishing holidays in the arid desert nation. The reason: despite the whimsical notion offered in the movie “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, there are no salmon... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Dragonslayer'

May 14, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on releases lists is: “Dragonslayer” When the daring young ragamuffins of Dogtown (a la Stacy Peralta’s portraits of California skate-punk culture) approach adulthood, their carefree endless summer just might portend a grim, aimless future like that of Josh... Read More

DVD review: 'Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie'

May 11, 2012 Insomniacs and late-night cable archaeologists know the names Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim from their amateurishly in-your-face antics on “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” on the Cartoon Network’s quirky “Adult Swim” block of programming. A hit-or-miss hodgepodge of skit comedy –... Read More

Oklahoma @ the Movies examines Sooners' cinema connections

May 11, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT Who knew that the pretty blonde woman who comes face to face with Mrs. Read More

DVD review: 'W.E.'

May 10, 2012 The Material Girl tries to have it both ways in the glossy, fawning “W.E.,” first-time director and co-writer Madonna’s paean to materialism that attempts to simultaneously celebrate and damn the opulent life of upper-crust twits. “W.E.” is undoubtedly a vanity project that springs from Madonna’s... Read More

James Garner: Hometown 'Maverick' still embraces humble Norman beginnings

May 07, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT He learned to drive on the bumpy back roads of Cleveland County when he was a high-spirited kid of 10, and by the time he was 50 he was doing “reverse 180s” on the streets of Hollywood in a Sierra Gold 1978 Pontiac Firebird. That’s a trick driving maneuver where “you’re going straight... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Bobcat Goldthwait: You Don't Look the Same Either'

May 07, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Bobcat Goldthwait: You Don’t Look the Same Either” Since his heyday in the 1980s as the screechy-voiced manchild who animated the “Police Academy” movies and set Jay Leno’s guest couch on fire, Bobcat Goldthwait has largely been out of the... Read More

DVD review: Grateful Dead: ‘All the Years Combine'

May 04, 2012 A massive flashback of the best possible kind awaits dedicated Deadheads in the hefty “All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection” box set. A mind-blowing 38 hours of footage unwind on 14 DVDs, offering 12 Grateful Dead concert films and all the bonus features from previous releases of the DVDs, a bonus disc... Read More

‘Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook’ a virtual garage sale of FX treasures May 02, 2012 With Aardman’s stop-motion animation feature “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” now in theaters, it’s a good time to revisit the groundbreaking works and career of Ray Harryhausen, the godfather of stop-frame and special efforts cinema. “Ray Harryhausen’s Fantasy Scrapbook: Models, Artwork and Memories of... Read More

DVD review: 'Chinatown' Blu-ray

April 30, 2012 The best thing about studios celebrating their centennial anniversaries is that they tend to dig into their vaults and roll out restored versions of some of their greatest titles, and they don’t get much greater than Paramount’s 1974 neo-noir nugget, “Chinatown,” now on Blu-ray for the first time. Jack... 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.