while there’s nothing wrong with that, either, the production’ courtesy of Mr. D’ sounds curiously flat. Even at high volumes, these “Dreams” don’t crackle like they should. In what feels like an end-stage retrospective, Diamond tackles a pair of Beatles tunes (“Yesterday” and “Blackbird”) alongside tunes by The Eagles, Bill Withers and himself (“I’m a […]
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Iron Man: Extremis
I didn’t realize “Iron Man: Extremis” was an animated film in the “motion comics” sense, as I find that approach stilted, lazy and uninvolving. This feature-length treatment of Warren Ellis and Adi Granov’s 2006 six-issue series updates the armored Avenger’s origin for our more high-tech times. In half a dozen serialized episodes, the story of […]
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Coopers’ Christmas
tive=9325&creativeASIN=B003YZGWF0″>Coopers’ Christmas,” which has to be not only an instant cult classic, but a new annual tradition. It’s “Christmas Vacation” with the one thing it really lacked: a hard-R rating. Starring “Daily Show” married couple Jason Jones (who co-wrote) and Samantha Bee, the film captures one crazy Christmas in 1985, all via a barely used […]
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Brass Bancroft of the Secret Service Mysteries Collection
Before he went to Washington, D.C. for reals, Ronald Reagan went there on screen as Lt. Brass Bancroft in a string of Warner Bros. cheapies in 1939 and 1940. All four films “? roughly one hour apiece at best “? are collected on two discs in Warner Archive‘s manufactured-on-demand “Brass Bancroft of the Secret Service […]
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The Terror Within/Dead Space
Leave it to skinflint producer Roger Corman to remake his own films, themselves rip-offs of massive hits. Whereas 1979’s now-classic “Alien” prompted him to follow with 1982’s “Forbidden World,” he couldn’t settle for the small fortune it brought in, and remade “World” as “Dead Space” in 1990, at the height of the VHS rental age. […]
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Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam
As DC Comics’ string of PG-13 animated features go, “Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam” is more fun than any of its predecessors … probably because it isn’t a feature at all. This is a short film, which means action is as tight as the running time, keeping things ticking, clicking and kicking. The piece […]
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Once You Kiss a Stranger
Imagine if “Fatal Attraction” were made in 1969, but featured way more golf. That’s “Once You Kiss a Stranger” in a nutshell (emphasis on “nut), yet that’s not to demean the little-known thriller, now available as a manufactured-on-demand disc from Warner Archive. Despite “? or perhaps because of “? its datedness, this remains one fun […]
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Due Date
My son helped me find a way to summarize this movie when he held an imaginary carrot and said, “Eh, what’s up, doc?” Yes, “Due Date” would make a memorable Looney Tune at a running time of seven minutes and starring Daffy Duck as the too-tightly wound, irascible one, and Porky Pig as the goofball […]
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Two University of Central Oklahoma alums return for the metro debut of ‘Bombs, Babes and Bingo’
Bombs, Babes and Bingo 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday Actor’s Warehouse 30 N.E. 52nd www.artlabtheatre.com 535-6652 $15 Based out of Fayetteville, Ark., the Artist’s Laboratory Theatre (ALT) was formed earlier this year under the direction of University of Central Oklahoma alums Erika Wilhite and Alan Schwanke as a collaborative effort dedicated to the storytelling […]
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The talent of painter Marcus Eakers buds and branches in an exhibit unified by plant imagery
Growth: New Works by Marcus Eakers 7-11 p.m. Friday DNA Galleries 1705-B N.W. 16th www.dnagalleries.com 371-2460 As the Plaza District’s “Live on the Plaza” monthly event grows, so do the paintings of Marcus Eakers “? and somewhat literally, as his new exhibit for DNA Galleries, “Growth,” addresses just that. “Each work has a theme or […]