Projections Movie Blog

DVD review: 'Low & Clear' December 28, 2012 | Comment on this article

On its lovely, rugged surface, the dramatic documentary “Low & Clear” seems like a roustabout buddy movie with fly fishing at its center. But in the tradition of the greatest of all fly-fishing movies, “A River Runs Through It,” this documentary is beneath its surface about so much more. Like all good... Read More

DVD reviews: 'Django' Double Features ... Unofficial, unintentionally funny 'Django' sequels abound

December 24, 2012 Ever since Sergio Corbucci took his cue from Sergio Leone and became the second most successful director of “spaghetti” Westerns with 1966′s “Django,” the title character has followed a long and twisting trail through more than 30 unofficial sequels (and one official one, “Django 2,” in 1987) with... Read More

'Django' gives Oklahoma actor Rex Linn a small role in big movie

December 24, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT When the deadly smoke of script rewrites and cutting room machinery clears away, Oklahoma actor Rex Linn may have all of five minutes left in Quentin Tarantino’s wild wild Western “Django Unchained,” but he doesn’t feel bloodied a bit. On the contrary, Tennessee Harry. “It sure is... Read More

Movie review: 'Django Unchained' - Tarantino's spaghetti Western a bloody blast to watch

December 24, 2012 It’s easy to see that Quentin Tarantino loves to play cowboys and Indians — make that cowboys and slavers in his case — and that’s what makes “Django Unchained” so much fun to watch. When this former video store clerk and lifelong B-movie and spaghetti Western geek-turned-filmmaker is enjoying... Read More

Under the Radar DVDs: 2012’s oddest of the odd December 24, 2012 Each week sees literally scores 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 2012 in the “Under-the-Radar DVD... Read More

Gandalf conjures up tempestuous defense for ‘Hobbit’ director

December 20, 2012 NEW YORK – Some of the rougher reviews of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” take director Peter Jackson to task for turning J.R.R. Tolkien’s rather slight children’s story into a groaning, overburdened trilogy that will eventually clock in at nearly nine hours in length. In fact, during a... Read More

'Sunset Boulevard' undergoes repairs

December 17, 2012 BY GENE TRIPLETT Andrea Kalas and her crew have been doing some repair work on “Sunset Boulevard.” The classic Billy Wilder film, that is, not the actual Los Angeles street. This vintage cinematic masterwork about the dark side of the movie business has been given a digital overhaul that restores the... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'The Bowery Boys: Volume One'

December 17, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “The Bowery Boys: Volume One” In early incarnations they were called The Dead End Kids or The East Side Kids or the Little Tough Guys, but eventually the rag-tag street urchins of Depression-era New York came into their own in the mid-20th century as... Read More

‘Hitchcock’ director, cast note their favorite Hitch films

December 14, 2012 NEW YORK – Alfred Hitchcock is such a towering figure in movies that there’s not a serious cinema lover who doesn’t have a favorite film among his impressive body of work, which ranges from the silent “The Pleasure Garden” of 1925 to “Family Plot” in 1976. During a news conference presented by Fox... Read More

After hesitation, Jackson relishes being at ‘The Hobbit’s’ helm

December 14, 2012 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – After more than a decade of total immersion in the dense environs of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth that produced three monumental movies in “The Lord of the Rings” cycle and three Academy Awards (best picture, director and adapted screenplay for “The Return of the King”),... Read More

Movie review: ‘Hitchcock’ presents a juicy slice of the master’s life

December 14, 2012 It’s called “Hitchcock,” but director Sasha Gervasi’s droll and surprisingly cheerful insider Hollywood biopic might just as well have been titled “Alma Reville.” Of course, every moviegoer worth his popcorn salt instantly recognizes the name of the great “Master of Suspense,” maker of such... Read More

In ‘Hitchcock,’ Mirren paints cool portrait of the woman behind the man

December 14, 2012 BY DENNIS KING NEW YORK – Even 32 years after his death the name Alfred Hitchcock casts a long shadow in the world of film. And well hidden in that shadow was a tiny, fiercely intelligent woman named Alma Reville who by all accounts was that time-honored great woman behind the great man. So it’s the fervent... Read More

Movie review: ‘The Hobbit’s’ unexpected journey off to a halting start

December 14, 2012 The proper title of J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 illustrated children’s book is “The Hobbit, or There and Back Again.” But in the first installment of Peter Jackson’s thunderously busy and intricately detailed new trilogy, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” so much time is spent laying groundwork... Read More

Blu-ray review: 'Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection' (Blu-ray)

December 12, 2012 “Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection” contains five of the greatest hits, several near misses and a couple of outright flops from the Master of Suspense — 15 films in all. But the scariest thing about this box set might be the price tag for many of Sir Alfred’s fans (about $225). Thirteen of the... Read More

Under the Radar DVD of the Week: 'Age of the Hobbits'

December 10, 2012 This week, the oddest DVD to appear on release lists is: “Age of the Hobbits” A classic example of a tick hitching a ride on the back of a big dog, “Age of the Hobbits” (due out on DVD Tuesday) has absolutely nothing to do with J.R.R. Tolkien or with Peter Jackson’s hotly anticipated new franchise... Read More

Helen Mirren’s meeting with Hitchcock a nightmare

December 06, 2012 NEW YORK – Judging from her only real-life encounter with the great director Alfred Hitchcock, Helen Mirren is the last actress you’d expect to play his diminutive, influential wife Alma Reville on screen. But the Oscar-winning Mirren deftly essays that very role in the witty biopic “Hitchcock,” and may... Read More

Blu-ray review: ‘D.W. Griffith’s Abraham Lincoln’ (1930)

December 06, 2012 While Steven Spielberg’s stately “Lincoln” is much on the minds of film and history buffs at the moment, it’s a canny move for Kino to release its spiffed-up Blu-ray edition of “D.W. Griffith’s Abraham Lincoln.” Made in 1930, at the tail end of Griffth’s prolific and masterly career as a... Read More

DVD review: “The Forsyte Saga Collection” (2002)

December 01, 2012 Fans of “Upstairs, Downstairs,” “Downton Abbey” and other high-toned British costume productions of that ilk, have one widely acknowledged 1967 BBC series to thank for paving the way and setting the standard for all multi-character, serial melodramas to follow. That would be “The Forsyte Saga,” a... Read More

‘Richard Burton Diaries’ reveal acting giant nagged by insecurities

November 29, 2012 The much-hyped release of Lifetime’s tantalizing biopic “Liz & Dick” brings the carousing, larger-than-life Welsh thespian Richard Burton back into the national spotlight, and some of the resulting public curiosity should rightfully fall to the recently released volume “The Richard Burton Diaries”... Read More

Theater review: ‘A Christmas Story: The Musical’

November 27, 2012 NEW YORK – In recent years – thanks to constant cable TV play – “A Christmas Story” has joined “Miracle on 34th Street” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” among the most beloved holiday movies ever. Based on the nostalgic but craggy short stories of writer and radio raconteur Jean Shepherd, this quirky... 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.