Halle Berry (Cloud Atlas) leads the show as Jordan Turner, a veteran 911 operator in Los Angeles. (If anything, she should dial 911 for help with her distracting hairdo.) In the prologue, she’s giving questionable advice to a girl who calls about a prowler, resulting in the teen’s death. Six months later, Jordan is still […]
9/11
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Patriot acts
Before the end of that nine-day standoff, Weaver’s wife and son would be killed along with a deputy U.S. marshal. And the repercussions of the siege at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, would help fuel the anti-government militia movement of the 1990s. Now, the nation and Oklahoma are seeing a resurgence of the so-called patriot movement beyond […]
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The toll of Islamophobia
Michele Bachmann and others declare that the U.S. government has been infiltrated and compromised by Muslim terrorists. Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh contends that radical Islam is “trying to kill Americans every week” and that “it is a threat that is much more at home now than it was after 9/11.” In our own state, then-Rep. […]
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Act of Valor
SOC Dave (whoever he may be) serves as our marble-mouthed narrator and member of the team led by Lt. Rorke (also whoever he may be). Partly shot in Bruckheimer burnt orange, their missions take them around the globe, first to rescue a comely CIA agent (Roselyn Sanchez, The Game Plan, Rush Hour 2) who’s been […]
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Manson then and now
Marilyn Manson Agata Alexander The word “slut” was painted on his forehead, an expletive hand-drawn onto a black T-shirt. A Bible rested beside him on the ground. Cyrus was there to see the band Marilyn Manson perform. He was one of the first people in a long line for a sold-out show. The 17-year-old is […]
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Keep it local
Brad Gregg No? Um, neither do we. Really. But we hear of a 72-year-old man in the metro who might. Police allege Clyde Hobbs phoned 911 a whopping 17 times on May 5 and made sexual comments to operators. Unfortunately for Hobbs and anyone who didn’t watch Rescue 911 — many 911 systems automatically trace […]
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Kid Jeopardy! champ Thomas Horn carries the drama as best as he can, playing Oskar Schell, the 9-year-old only child of a jeweler (Tom Hanks) and his cubicle wife (Sandra Bullock). Oskar has Asperger syndrome, or close enough, so his father keeps him entertained and engaged with all sorts of elaborate games and activities, the […]
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Travelin’ man
Don’t let Rick Steves fool you. The man whose name is nearly synonymous with travel might have an amiable demeanor familiar to anyone who knows his PBS series or many guidebooks, but beneath that slightly nerdy exterior beats the fiery heart of a provocateur traveler. And he has a message: Travel isn’t just about collecting […]
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Basic instinct
How could it not? A recently widowed 18-year-old mother in Blanchard shot a man dead after he broke into her house. On New Year’s Eve, Sarah McKinley called 911 after a Blanchard man, Justin Shane Martin, allegedly tried breaking down the front door. McKinley, who was in the trailer home with her 3-month-old son, had […]
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‘No excuse to cheer destruction’
Reiger claims to have been sympathetic to Israel until he learned that the state of Israel is really on land that belonged to the Arabs since the Middle Ages, land that was thus taken away from the indigenous Arabs in 1948 and turned into a Jewish homeland by Britain. First, I would point out that […]