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Category: Entertainment

Latest movie and TV news, in-depth reviews, opinion essays, plus book highlights. Your ultimate entertainment hub for films, series, and reading.

Winter's Tale
Entertainment

Winter’s Tale Review

William McPherson

Here’s the main thing that bothered me at the end of Winter’s Tale. How in the hell did Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell get drawn into what is essentially Twilight for history buffs? This movie is helmed by Akiva Goldsman, an uneven director in the past who has given us both the wonderful ‘Cinderella Man’ and the ambulance chasing would be cash cow “The Da Vinci Code”… In this movie he is faced with the task of adapting a far less controversial novel, but one that is very beloved. I will note…

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Entertainment

The Expendables 3 Review

William McPherson

In this third installment of the Expendables franchise we learn a little bit about the origins of Barney Frank and Lee Christmas’ (Stallone and Statham) gang of do-gooder mercenaries. Apparently the team was originally co-founded with Frank by a man named Conrad Stonebanks (Mel Gibson) who eventually tired of being the run around man of various government agencies and decided to form his own crew of “Expendables” to make himself crazy rich/powerful, unfortunately he did this by killing a lot of…

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Life Itself
Entertainment

Life Itself Review

William McPherson

Roger Ebert lived the last six or seven years of his life with no voice, other than a computer generated one he typed into in the final few years. This movie in both a figurative and a literal sense, is about giving Ebert his voice back. At least, that was what it was about before he passed away, which he unfortunately did during the filming of this documentary. After that, the movie’s focus shifted inevitably to become more of a eulogy and tribute to the man himself. I waited a long time to see…

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Easy Rider
Entertainment

Easy Rider Review

William McPherson

One of my favorite mini-genres of movies is the latter day western. In these types of movies, set normally in the early 20th century, you see the last of the true cowboys fighting the expansion/encroachment on their way of life that was surely coming with the rapidly advancing technology and population boom of that time. There’s indeed something quite romantic about being the last of a particular breed, at the closing epoch of a famous era. Easy Rider is that kind of movie, but for the 1960s…

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Entertainment

Road To Paloma Review

William McPherson

First things first, fans of current day WWE will not be able to watch this movie without mistaking Jason Momoa for wrestler Roman Reigns. In fact there have been reports that when WWE showed the advertisement for this film during their live events, that many in the crowd assumed it was Reigns as well in the lead role, and with the way he is positioned in the company right now it would make sense for them to give him some outside exposure via a movie role quite like this one. That this is a WWE…

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Mud
Entertainment

Mud Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Ellis and Neckbone live on the banks of the Arkansas river. What an amazing place to grow up this must be. Ellis stays on a houseboat with his father and mother, who are going through problems he cannot even begin to understand, but that may soon cost him his entire known way of life. In the evenings he sneaks off with his best friend, the aforementioned Neckbone, to explore the river and the many hidden treasures contained therein. One such adventure leads them to a small island, where they…

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A Million Ways to Die in the West
Entertainment

A Million Ways To Die In The West Review

William McPherson4 Comments

We picture the west in vast panoramas, great big blue skies, open prairies, with miles upon miles of amazing, yet challenging and often life threatening terrain, symbolizing opportunity and risk, the “Manifest Destiny” of the 19th century and the quintessential “American Dream” of the 20th century, all punctuated by a booming Elmer Bernstein soundtrack and Big John Wayne smiling at us from afar atop his trusty mount. Seth MacFarlane pictures the west as a giant sweaty pile of cow manure with no…

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Neighbors
Entertainment

Neighbors Review

THE MONKEY

Neighbors tells the story of Mac and Kelly Radner (played by Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne) who are a couple in their young 30's with a new house and a new baby. Though they miss going out and staying out late with friends to a certain degree they also are very happy with their new life as parents. Then a wrench is thrown into their lives in the way of a frat that moves in next door. At first Mac and Kelly want to appear cool to the college kids rather than come off as the "uncool old couple" but it…

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Nebraska Review
Entertainment

Nebraska Review

William McPherson7 Comments

I, along with many others, have harbored a deep irrational and unfair grudge against Bruce Dern ever since his role in “The Cowyboys” back in the 1970s where he became forever known as the man who shot John Wayne in the back. Other men had done the same deed over the years, but thanks in part to Dern’s memorable lanky facial features and his signature drawl, he was the one who would be immortalized for the deed. Now finally, at age 77, it appears Dern has finally found “redemption” from his past…

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WWE 50 Book
Book Reviews

WWE 50 Review

Gary Smith2 Comments

If you're a wrestling fan odds are you have both of the beautiful DK released WWE Encyclopedia's. After all, they're amazing books and an invaluable research tool for anyone who cares about the history of World Wrestling Entertainment. Chances are you're also looking forward to the inevitable third update to the WWE Encyclopedia. We're not there yet, but in the mean time WWE and DK have teamed up again to release what might as well be considered the WWE history book in the form of “WWE 50,”…

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John Cena
Book Reviews

DK Reader Level 2 – WWE John Cena Second Edition Review

Gary Smith

Over the past few years, WWE has gone PG and began targeting children as an audience and it's a move that has been successful. While kids have always been wrestling fans regardless of the era, now more than ever we're seeing more and more really young kids at WWE events. If you're a parent of a young WWE fan, or you have a sibling, niece, nephew, or grandchild who is a fan of WWE then you should know about the WWE books in the DK Reader series. This series of books are designed to help kids…

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Bridge on the River Kwai
Entertainment

Bridge on the River Kwai Review

William McPherson1 Comment

“Madness! Madness! Madness! “ That is the enduring battle cry of ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’, a movie about stubborn obstinate people who stick to their guns regardless of the consequences. It is a war movie in the sense that it takes place during a war, but it has more in common with Indiana Jones than it does with Saving Private Ryan. ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ was made in 1957 by David Lean, the great movie maker also known for directing the epic ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ as well as many other high…

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The Monuments Men
Entertainment

The Monuments Men Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Richard Roeper, who you may remember as the former television partner of the late Roger Ebert of ‘Ebert and Roeper’ fame, writes in his review of ‘The Monuments Men’ that this is a “solid albeit slow building film with few dull moments.” I like to imagine if Roger were still alive (and never lost his ability to speak,) and ‘Ebert and Roeper’ were still on the air that right after Roeper dared utter that nonsensical line on the show that Ebert would pick up a nearby phonebook and thwack him in…

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Night of the Hunter
Entertainment

Night of the Hunter Review

William McPherson

It isn’t easy being a widow. Willa Harper (Shelley Winters) finds that out the hard way when her good intentioned husband Ben (Peter Graves) finds himself hanging from the gallows after robbing a local bank. The movie is set during the depression, and bank robbing at the time was about the noblest form of outlawry to be found, especially to many down and out sodbusters who blamed greedy bankers for sucking up their entire life savings while they had to sit and watch their families nearly starve…

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Escape Plan
Entertainment

Escape Plan Review

William McPherson6 Comments

My wife can’t stand Sylvester Stallone. Hates the way he looks, hates the way he talks, and hates the predictable turn most of his movies take. She represents a large group of people who harp on the guy’s faults, and I am not here to argue that those faults do not exist. I am just here to say they mostly don’t bother me when Stallone is put to use in a movie that is best suited to his particular strengths. Escape Plan, much like the abysmally boring ‘Bullet to the Head’ is not one of those…

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Homefront
Entertainment

Homefront Review

William McPherson

There was a much more interesting movie that bookended Homefront’s main story. It was about a long haired Jason Statham infiltrating a biker gang lead by a guy called Danny T, played by Chuck Zito, and it ended with a giant police raid, featuring an intense standoff in which T’s son basically commits suicide by cop as a dozen or so uniformed officers make it rain exploding squibs on his chest while Danny T looks at Statham and swears vengeance. At this point I want the movie to go back in time…

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Prisoners
Entertainment

Prisoners Review

William McPherson

Keller Dover is an uber-macho survivalist who keeps a basement full of canned goods and assorted Zombie Apocalypse gear all set up in neat alphabetically ordered shelving units. During a Thanksgiving dinner at a friend’s house, both his daughter and his friend’s daughter go missing in an apparent kidnapping. Normally kidnapping movies save the kidnapping for at least a little ways into the movie to establish a pattern of everyday life. This movie instead goes for the shock route of placing the…

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Captain Phillips
Entertainment

Captain Phillips Review

William McPherson3 Comments

Tom Hanks rarely makes bad movies anymore. Perhaps this is due to the fact that he is so unfathomably rich that he has the luxury of only doing projects that directly appeal to his artistic nature. That’s not to say I’ve liked everything he has been in, but there are only a small number of movies from the past decade of his that I would be able to honestly give a truly negative review. Captain Phillips tells the story of Richard Phillips a commercial shipping captain who had the unenviable task…

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Out of the Furnace
Entertainment

Out of the Furnace Review

William McPherson2 Comments

Russell Baze (Christian Bale) and his younger brother Rodney (a multiple tour Iraq war vet played by Casey Affleck) have spent their entire lives in the northeast rust belt in one of those towns kept alive by the local steel mill and a lot of hard earned calloused hands.  Russell is seemingly content with this, as he works in the same mill that his father (who is dying of cancer) did and makes due with what he has, and keeps going in spite of some personal hardships such as a freak car accident…

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Bad Grandpa
Entertainment

Bad Grandpa Review

THE MONKEY6 Comments

The story revolves around the Zisman family and how the family deals with a set of tragic events.  Irving Zisman (Knoxville) is a "free" man following the death of his wife of several years and is ready to get back into the single life.  His daughter Kimmie is about to go to jail again for violating parole and wants him to take his 8-year old grandson to North Carolina to be with his deadbeat father.  From there it's more or less about how Billy and his grandfather Irving eventually start to…

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