For Hailey, it’s her dad (Donal Logue, Silent Night). For Amanda, it’s a stalkery ex-boyfriend. But problems can solved and, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours. In other words, Kill for Me, I kill for you. Director Michael Greenspan’s follow-up to the disastrous Wrecked is a marked improvement. It’s like a gender-swapped […]
michael
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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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Premium Rush
Please note that doesn’t mean it’s the best of the lot — it’s just that its zippy pleasures arrive with no strings, messages or ulterior motives attached. This is a well-made action film, albeit a disposable one — no more, no less. In what may be the only film centered on the world of bike […]
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Michael Summers — More
Plus, I just like writing “Honky Cat.” This winning formula that has made Michael Summers the Michael Bublé of the 405 carries throughout the entirety of More. So slip on your finest cocktail dress, load up on olives and pour yourself a tumbler full of the perfectly blended tunes. “Secret Love Affair” is the way […]
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Parker Millsap can’t lose
Parker Millsap is a classic case of a voice not fitting the person from whom it emerges. Slight, squeaky-clean and still somewhat baby-faced, Millsap is a sharp dresser — often sporting a bow tie, button-down shirt and cardigan — and near-constantly shadowed by his rambunctious, black-and-white mutt, Mavis. It’s the sort of dapper wholesomeness of […]
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The Good Doctor
Now, he’s fallen in love with one of his patients, Diane (Riley Keough, Magic Mike), a young woman with infected kidneys. He so wants to be near her that he starts taking steps to keep her sick — and therefore, in his care at the hospital — like replacing the goods in her medication with sugar […]
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Milwaukee blues
An extended vacation hasn’t hurt What Made Milwaukee Famous’ performing prowess in the least, with the indie-rock act returning to form after the first few shows of its current tour, once it shook off the cobwebs. Yet the same can’t be said for everything. “The shows have been great in terms of playing. The attendance […]
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Deathtrap
Here, Caine stars as Sidney Bruhl, a playwright who has just suffered his fourth straight Broadway flop. Much to the dismay of his wife, Myra (Dyan Cannon, who appeared in an equally keep-’em-guessing film in 1973’s The Last of Sheila), his solution is to kill Clifford Anderson (Christopher Reeve), the former seminar student who has […]
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Coma
Now, cable’s done the same thing with the perfectly fine ’70s sci-fi thriller Coma, which was directed by Crichton. Both updates come from director Mikael Salomon. It’s nice to see the lovely and talented Lauren Ambrose (Sleepwalk with Me) headlining the project as an idealistic med student who uncovers a conspiracy involving a remarkable number […]
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Times bold
Photo: Doug Schwarz It doesn’t take more than a minute or so into Defining Times’ new record, Separate Tongues, to sense the intimacy, closeness and trust the Oklahoma City alternative band members must feel for one another. You’d think they’d been playing for a decade, not a year and a half. “It’s a brotherhood,” front […]