Category: TV & Movies

1.

“Life (Itself) with Roger Ebert”: A wonderful blog post about Roger’s legacy from a writer credited as “Richard” at the Vaughn Public Libraries’ For Your Leisure blog.

“His voice was informative – yet both supportive and biting. I fell in love with his writing when I received as a gift the CD ROM (anyone remember those?) that held the complete Ebert body of work. His work on Sneak Previews really didn’t do his writing justice. The review that made me a believer? I was – and still am – a huge Romero / zombie fan. Ebert’s thoughts on Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead.’ This is a reviewer who appreciates the craft, skill and intelligence needed for excellent filmmaking but Ebert was also a populist who understood that film was fun. He was never an elitist who focused only on film’s loftier artistic goals. He praised Bergman (as he should) but he also had time for movies like ‘The Descent.’”

“I wonder if anyone younger than me can really recognize what Allen once meant. Obviously, his classics remain classics. His …read more

Just 150 lucky Comic-Con attendees each day got to try out the new
virtual reality Oculus Rift at the Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment booth. Tickets were free but they were gone in
under a minute each morning as soon as the doors to the Exhibition Hall
opened. On Saturday,
they were gone in twelve seconds. I was one of the lucky explorers to
get to try out “The X-Men Cerebro Experience,” based on the technology
developed by then-18-year old Palmer Luckey and purchased by Facebook
for $2 billion. According to a June 2014 cover story in WIRED Magazine,
this is a technological leap that will “change gaming, movies, TV,
music design, medicine, sex, sports, art, travel, social networking,
education — and reality. The Oculus Rift is here, and it will blow your
mind.” I felt like Natalie Wood in “Brainstorm,” as Christopher Walken
put his new invention on her head so she could see inside his mind.

The Cerebro Experience is cleverly constructed to bring us inside the
mind of Professor X, the man who can see inside everyone’s mind (except
for Magneto when he has his helmet on). So if some of the images are
indistinct, it …read more

You never know what you’ll find wandering around the Gaslamp District of San Diego during San Diego Comic-Con. On Saturday, a secret “Avengers: Age of Ultron” headquarters opened up, thanks to Samsung Revolution.

As
part of Samsung’s advertising campaign for its lightest and thinnest
tablet yet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, Samsung treated fans to a sneak
peek of Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Although the line
officially opened at 7 p.m., people were already in line at 6 p.m.
waiting for the office to open. The group of three guys who were first
in line had been wandering around when they were handed a flyer about
the presentation but details were sketchy.

First,
the address was vague—the corner of K and 6th. Then there was little
more known than that it was a preview presentation. By the time the line was
forming, no one was handing out flyers and the people standing in line
had to explain why they were there.

Unlike
the Hall H presentation, there were no celebrities, but Samsung does
know how to treat fans well. Our group played a few games with the Tab
S, ordered Super Hero-themed foods and compared the clarity of …read more

In the middle of a press conference about his forthcoming film “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” Samuel L. Jackson stopped to answer a phone call.

It wasn’t his phone. There were dozens of reporters’ cell phones on the table in front of him, recording the comments by Jackson, Colin Firth, the other cast members, and co-creators Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, and suddenly a call came in on one of them. Jackson stopped everything to answer it. “This is Sam,” he said, in one of the world’s most recognizable voices. “We’re having a press conference. Tell me who you’re calling so everyone here can know whose phone it is.”

The owner never came forward, even as the event ended and Jackson picked up the phone again to try to hold it hostage until the guilty party came forward. The group of weary reporters loved it, but the reaction to watch was from Firth, whose expression of disbelief and amusement indicates strong chemistry between them in the film.

Both actors said that what makes this film so special to them was the opportunity to do on a grand scale exactly the very first kind of acting they …read more

In this list, we are exploring films that support an Israeli narrative. There are three components here: religion, persecution, and the modern state.

I have already addressed a major component of the religious narrative in the first entry in this series, by speaking about “The Ten Commandments.” But, that film spoke of origins. For more, we should consider the following Biblical passage, Tehillim/Psalm 137, which holds special value for many people. It provided a cornerstone for American Civil Rights activists, speaking of the sorrows in searching for the Promised Land of equality and dignity. In the Feminist movement, Womanists (like Mujerista theologians) cite this passage while speaking as foreigners in a foreign land. In the late 1970s, disco music fans from Europe to the Indian Subcontinent were introduced to this verse through the music of the Jamaican band Boney M. But, for many Jews, this passage guides a Jewish heart. Other passages like the Shema (“Hear me Oh Israel, Adonai is your Lord, your Lord is One.”) might capture the foundations of Judaism itself, but this following set of verses draws us to a consciousness of living in exile: humanity exiled from the Divine in paradise, and the people …read more

Friday was all about survival. While The Hunger Games experience didn’t give you much hope, The Simpsons World experience at San Diego Comic-Con 2014 begins by giving you a survival kit before you enter the mind of Homer Simpson, or Homer’s Dome, a projection mapping experience. Don’t worry. “The Simpsons” hasn’t gone all apocalyptic survival science fiction. We’re talking about surviving the FXX Simpsons marathon. That’s a major couch potato event that only the worthiest D’oh spud or spudette can survive.

The Matt Groenig created animated sitcom for FOX, “The Simpsons,” has proven to be a scrappy survivor. Debuting on December 17, 1989, the show is the longest-running American sitcom (replacing “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” in 2009), the longest running American animated program (surpassing “The Flintstones” in 1997) and the longest-running American scripted primetime TV series (taking the honor from “Gunsmoke”). This year, was its 25th season.

To date, that’s 552 episodes and in case you missed a few, the Dome that is Homer’s head, goes through some highlights. As you might expect that yellow dome is quite roomy and, at the center, is a comparatively small brain. Looking up and best viewed lying down on …read more