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The Lego Movie 2 Review: Another Brick in the Wall

Jason Gorber — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 18:00:15 +0000

In an alternate timeline where The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part was in fact the first of the series, it would rival just about any animated film that’s likely to come out this year. It’s smart, beautifully rendered, and has clever set-pieces. It’s got a terrific voice cast, a nice little meta-story, and plenty...

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Weekend Roundtable: Best Celebrity Animation Voice Casting

Josh Zyber — Fri, 15 Jun 2018 17:00:38 +0000

All of the major Hollywood studios love to hire notable celebrities to do voices in their big, expensive animated movies. Far too often, this stunt-casting is more distracting than effective. Sometimes, however, the right voice can be a perfect fit for a character, as in some of this week’s Roundtable picks. Deirdre Crimmins Though nearly...

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‘The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature’ Review: More of This Garbage?

Philip Brown — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 12:00:43 +0000

‘The Nut Job’ was one of the worst talking animal animated family flicks in the history of the genre. But it was also one of the cheapest, so it made enough money off undemanding family audiences to justify a sequel. The follow-up is about as idiotic and unnecessary as the first film. In discussing the...

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‘The Lego Batman Movie’ Review: Same Bat-Brick, Same Bat-Fun

Philip Brown — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 20:00:32 +0000

‘The Lego Movie’ shouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was. The product placement pop culture extravaganza could have been a wearily commercial enterprise designed to sell expensive pieces of plastic, but turned out to be a wonderful explosion of creativity and comedy instead. Now the scene-stealing Bat-star of that film has his own...

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‘Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping’ Review: Totally Dope

Philip Brown — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 15:00:54 +0000

Ever since ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ created the modern mockumentary form, comedy filmmakers have chased the dragon of that dumbbell music doc spoof. The subject matter is just too rich. Over-privileged morons ranting about their greatness between song parodies? That’s funny in the bank. It’s pretty much impossible to match the ‘Spinal Tap’ magic, of...

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‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ Review: The Secret of the Snooze

Philip Brown — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 19:00:34 +0000

Here’s the thing about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: With the possible exception of the original comic book series and weirdo 1990 live action movie, this franchise was never very good. Yeah, yeah, I know. Nostalgia. I get it. I was alive in the ’90s too. There are photos of me wearing outfits entirely branded...

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‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Review: Heroes with a Half-Brain

Philip Brown — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 19:00:24 +0000

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have returned, possibly signaling the moment when ’90s nostalgia hits the mainstream. There’s a problem with nostalgia, though. Fond memories tend to make things seem better than they were. Unless you’re an unapologetic Ninja Turtles nut, all this new reboot offers is definitive proof that some franchises should never be...

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Now Playing: Plastic Perfection

Philip Brown — Thu, 06 Feb 2014 17:00:58 +0000

On paper, ‘The Lego Movie’ should be a heartless blockbuster toy advertisement, much like ‘Transformers’ or ‘Battleship’. Thankfully, the project fell into the hands of co-directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who specialize in creating magical comedies out of terrible ideas (‘Clone High’, ‘Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs’, ’21 Jump Street’). This is the...

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‘Arrested Development’ Season 4 Recap: “Daddy Needs to Get His Rocks Off”

Shannon Nutt — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 19:00:35 +0000

Seven years after being canceled by Fox, ‘Arrested Development’ returns with 15 brand-new episodes (currently) available only on Netflix. Like it has done with its other exclusive series, Netflix has made the entire season available all at once, which allows fans to binge on the Bluths or take their time to savor each and every...

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Fall 2011 Sitcom Scorecard: ‘New Girl’ Atop New Comedies

Aaron Peck — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:00:27 +0000

You know it’s officially fall when there are more new sitcoms on TV than familiar ones. Don’t ask me why, but as of right now, I’ve seen every new comedy pilot that has aired. Read on to see how I rate each of them. The Sitcom Scorecard is a way to gauge exactly what comedy...

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Mid-Week Poll: Which Fall 2011 New TV Comedies Will You Watch?

Josh Zyber — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:00:15 +0000

In last week’s poll, we asked you which of the fall’s new TV dramas you plan to watch. This week, let’s take a look at the comedies. I honestly don’t have too much of a stake in this topic. I watch very few sitcoms regularly. My DVR is programmed for the NBC Thursday line-up, ‘Raising...

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Black Hawk Down of Duty?

Wayne Rowe — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000

Few would deny that Ridley Scott is a competent director. Since he made ‘Alien‘ and ‘Blade Runner‘, he gets a lot of free passes in my book. However, Scott has been taking advantage of said passes rather liberally in the last 10-12 years. This ‘Alien’ prequel thing he’s doing could easily go south pretty quickly...

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