For those who have been clamoring for a return to the more optimistic, life-affirming version of The Lips (or, as some would call them, “songs”), Peace Sword ought to appease — albeit subtly. The six-song EP was conceived after being asked to write music for the end credits of the recently released sci-fi flick Ender’s […]
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This Is the End
Playing exaggerated versions of themselves, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel go to a party at the house of James Franco. Surrounded by all of their Judd Apatow bros, including Jonah Hill, Michael Cera and Craig Robinson (star of the similar, simultaneous Rapture-Palooza) — all playing even more greatly exaggerated versions of themselves — they party it […]
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This Is the End
I wasted so much of my 20s hanging out with these 420-types, sitting bored in their thrift-store-furnished living rooms, desperately looking at my watch while the person who was usually my ride sank deeper and deeper into the couch as the thick whiffs of chronic sunk deeper and deeper into their lungs. They were all […]
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Iron Man 3
So leaden are the jokes, so scattered is its focus, it threatens to court disaster. Then, against all odds, the movie rights itself to recapture that Marvel-ous spirit of the 2008 original. It’s almost as if Shane Black (directing for only the second time, and his first since 2005’s woefully underseen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) […]
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The Bowery Boys: Volume Two
For this four-disc follow-up to 2012’s set, Warner Archive again mined its vaults for 12 of the Boys’ Poverty Row features. The best way to describe their style is that it comes from the “why I oughta!” school of comedy. I’m unsure if it ever graduated, given exchanges like “How can you read in the […]
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John Dies at the End
“My name is David Wong. I once saw a man’s kidneys grow tentacles,” intones our genial narrator and protagonist (the heretofore unknown Chase Williamson) who boasts psychic abilities that include communicating with the dead. He and his best bud, John (Rob Mayes, MTV’s The American Mall), operate as freelance ghostbusters when they’re not beer-drinking slackers. […]
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End of Watch / Officer Down
David Ayer has spent much of his career chronicling the life of Los Angeles law enforcement in his screenplays for Training Day, S.W.A.T. and Dark Blue, and directing Street Kings. With End of Watch, he pulls double duty. The result is an invigorating, pulse-pounding crime drama. Through a found-footage gimmick that really isn’t necessary to […]
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Doomsday Book
Doomsday begins with the most fun of the bunch, “A Brave New World,” in which a nerdy, horny young man is upset that his family embarks on a fabulous getaway vacation without him, leaving a long list of chores. Many of them deal, unsettling enough, with food waste. He gets ill, and I’ll leave the […]
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Gone in 60 Seconds: Car Crash King Edition
Making its Blu-ray debut in a combo pack — albeit one saddled with the silly subtitle of Car Crash King Edition — the film features writer/director/producer Halicki as its protagonist, too: an insurance investigator named Pace (get it?) who makes better money heading an illegal car-theft ring and chop shop that’s more or less wallpapered […]
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Oklahoma motorcyclist deaths down in 2010
The numbers mirror an overall decline nationwide, according to a new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association. Nationally, motorcycle fatalities decreased by at least 2 percent last year. However, a slight increase toward the end of 2010 gives officials pause. “While there is a lot of good news in this report, the increase in […]