Projections Movie Blog

Movie review: Checking into 'Hotel Transylvania' good for a few laughs September 28, 2012 | Comment on this article

“Hotel Transylvania” tries to be a Halloween party the whole family can howl at together, with its 1,250 rooms full of 3-D tricks and treats, and the kind of lovable abnormalities we remember from “Monsters Inc.” and “How to Train Your Dragon.” Parents and kids won’t find themselves screaming with... Read More

'Titanic' co-producer recalls making of film

September 24, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT Jon Landau still gets excited when he talks about “Titanic,” 15 years after the romantic blockbuster’s maiden voyage across cinema screens. “In a day and age when people think, ‘Oh, it’s about big explosions and technology,’ and all these things, movies are (still) about drama,... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Strippers Vs. Werewolves'

September 24, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Strippers Vs. Werewolves” Some movies manage to skate by on a titillating title alone – think “Hobo With a Shotgun” – and the micro-budgeted British import “Strippers Vs. Werewolves” (due out on DVD Tuesday) is definitely one of those... Read More

Eastwood puts politics on hold for ‘Trouble with the Curve'

September 21, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT LOS ANGELES — “Am I aging?” Clint Eastwood asked with mock surprise. Those were the first words out of the 82-year-old Hollywood legend’s mouth in response to the opening question at last weekend’s news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel, promoting his new movie, “Trouble... Read More

Movie review: Clint Eastwood hits homer with 'Trouble'

September 21, 2012 Clint Eastwood steps back into the acting box for “Trouble with the Curve,” and connects for an out-of-the-park performance as an aging baseball scout who’s fighting to stay in the game. This in spite of the fact that he’s working with rookies — first-time screenwriter Randy Brown and longtime producing... Read More

Movie review: ‘Sleepwalk With Me’ a stand-up comic’s dream

September 21, 2012 There’s a charmingly bedraggled, “found art” quality to “Sleepwalk With Me,” Mike Birbiglia’s shaggy-dog story about his own struggles to launch his stand-up comedy career, his reluctance to commit to an appealing long-time girlfriend and his on-going battle with a profound sleep disorder. Credit much... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Adventures in Plymptoons!'

September 17, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Adventures in Plymptoons!” Comfortably ensconced in his hipster hometown of Portland, Ore., the enigmatic Bill Plympton has carved out an idiosyncratic and wide-ranging career as America’s foremost independent animator. “Adventures in... Read More

Blu-ray review: ‘A New Leaf’

September 12, 2012 As the keenly intelligent if neurotic distaff side of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, the seminal 1960s stand-up comedy team, May launched her moviemaking career in 1971 as a triple-threat talent – writing, directing and starring in a pithy, pitch-black comedy that sharply skewered the idle rich and the sunny... Read More

Theater review: 'Chaplin the Musical' September 12, 2012 NEW YORK – Movie buffs will likely be drawn to “Chaplin the Musical,” which just opened on Broadway, by the silent film star’s iconic mystique, and they’ll no doubt be charmed by the play’s few tips of the bowler hat to Chaplin’s signature moments on screen. And no one can argue that deft star Rob... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Karate-Robo Zaborgar'

September 10, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Karate-Robo Zaborgar” Nobody does weird metal-robo sci-fi like the Japanese (think “Big Bad Beetleborgs,” “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” and of course the whole “Transformers” universe), and... Read More

DVD review: 'Gunsmoke' The Sixth Season Volume 1

September 07, 2012 The sixth season of “Gunsmoke” (1960-’61) was its last as a 30-minutes-per-episode series and its last truly great string of teleplays. John Meston — co-creator along with director Norman MacDonnell of the original radio series that was adapted for television in 1955 — was still writing the majority of... Read More

Movie review: French, American cultures clash in ‘2 Days in New York’

September 07, 2012 A charming, neurotic French trifle with heady Manhattan (read that: Woody Allen) piquancy, “2 Days in New York” is actress, director and co-writer Julie Delpy’s witty but madly messy follow-up to “2 Days in Paris, “ her 2007 celebration of Franco-American culture clashes and zestful family dysfunction.... Read More

Movie review: ‘Robot and Frank' is programmed to steal your heart

August 31, 2012 Funny how some of the warmest heartbreakers in the science-fiction genre involve relationships between humans and machines. There was Ray Bradbury’s “I Sing the Body Electric,” a short story and classic “Twilight Zone” episode about a wise and kindly automaton grandmother (Josephine Hutchinson) who... Read More

Blu-ray review: ‘The Incredible Mr. Limpet’

August 30, 2012 While Don Knotts himself often seemed like a living, breathing cartoon character, the scrawny, beloved character actor scored one of the most underappreciated works of his career in the hybrid live-action/animated family movie “The Incredible Mr. Limpet,” which now gets a glossy polish in a new Blu-ray edition.... Read More

Movie review: Doc paints solid, workmanlike portrait of ‘Bill W.’ August 29, 2012 So-called “friends of Bill,” as members of Alcoholics Anonymous are astutely called, number in the countless thousands, but the self-effacing co-founder of the lifesaving organization gets a human face – a deeply flawed but sturdily compassionate one – in the workmanlike documentary “Bill W.”... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Two Orphan Vampires: Remastered Edition'

August 27, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Two Orphan Vampires: Remastered Edition” In an obvious effort to capitalize on the burgeoning “Twilight” market, one of the lesser works of French vampire auteur Jean Rollin gets a royal Blu-ray treatment in “Two Orphan Vampires: Remastered... Read More

Movie review: 'Premium Rush' peddles extreme thrills

August 24, 2012 “Premium Rush” moves like “The French Connection” on two wheels with no brakes from start to finish. It’s the Tour de France adapted to the mean streets of New York and it’s a thrill ride worth taking, especially for fans of extreme cycling — as in extremely dangerous. Read More

Museum web project casts a sharp eye on presidential TV ads August 24, 2012 NEW YORK – As election season gears up and American voters gird themselves for a media onslaught of campaign ads and counter-ads, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York has assembled a timely and historically rich web project that tracks the powerful influence of TV ads in past presidential elections.... Read More

Movie review: ‘Queen of Versailles’ reigns over kingdom of materialism

August 23, 2012 If there’s a queasy, outrageous caricature to be had of America’s pampered and greedy one per-centers, it’s surely in the breathtaking portrait painted of the Siegels – 73-year-old time-share billionaire David and his balloon-chested 43-year-old blonde trophy wife Jackie – in “The Queen of... Read More

Blu-ray review: 'Jaws' Universal 100th Anniversary Edition

August 22, 2012 When those double bass fiddles sound the first two ominous notes on the soundtrack and John Williams’ throbbing minimalist theme gradually begins to quicken in tempo, everyone knows to look out for BRUCE! Yes, Bruce. That’s the nickname director Steven Spielberg laid on the troublesome mechanical shark(s)... 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.