Jason Bateman seems a pretty likable guy, despite his penchant for sharp, sarcastic characters. Gone are the days of the sweet, nurturing, unassuming hero; we as a society are deeply entrenched in the era of the sarcastic everyman — the guy who doesn’t simply turn the other cheek. This is the guy who reminds you…
Who would have thought that a British claymation effort with no (intelligible) dialogue would end up being on of the funniest films of the year? Well, when the competition is “Spy,” “Trainwreck,” “Vacation” and “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2,” among others, the victory wasn’t difficult to achieve. Still, there is certainly something to be said…
Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Republican and Democratic national conventions was still being offered by CBS and NBC in 1968, but ABC, lacking their resources, limited their coverage to a few hours in the evening and highlighted it with a ten-night debate between conservative author and commentator William F. Buckley Jr. and flamboyant liberal novelist and…
Every Secret Thing begins with a birthday party — a pool party. 11-year-old Alice is thrilled to have been invited, but she’s really annoyed that her mother makes her bring Ronnie along. Ronnie is weird, quiet, and awkward, and she’s stalling Alice’s plans to be a popular girl. Also, Alice really doesn’t like that her…
We’re fascinated by superheroes. Our fascination mainly stems from the fact that no matter how much we get to know them, we never get to know them enough; they keep surprising us over and over again. At the brink of every new challenge, of every new puzzle or danger, we still hold the belief that…
In 1933, Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward, “Blood Cells”) became the only Irish citizen ever to have been deported from Ireland when he was exiled to America without a trial. His crime seems to be that he was a Communist who incurred the ire of the Catholic Church and the landlords by daring to establish a…
Although the makers of Vacation are saying the film is a sequel and not a remake of its 1983 predecessor, “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” it’s difficult to see it as anything but. The plotlines are so similar it could be sued for identity theft: A goofy, but loving and cheery father (in this case, Ed Helms,…
