The quasi-sci-fi thriller “Surrogates” takes place at least 14 years in the future. Everything looks the same “? all that’s different is that people no longer leave their homes, because genius Dr. Canter (James Cromwell) invented robotic surrogates to get out and live people’s lives for them. Trouble erupts when someone “? a real person […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
The Invention of Lying
What do you make of a romantic comedy ballsy enough to challenge belief in God? We’re not in Matthew McConaughey territory anymore. Last year’s “The Invention of Lying” is a romcom with a subversive streak, but writer/director/star Ricky Gervais (“Ghost Town“) prefers his rebellion with a smile. It’s a curious, if uneven, sensibility, but at […]
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Pontypool
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002TZS5G0&fc1=000000&IS2=1 Remember the opening of George Romero’s original “Dawn of the Dead,” when the broadcasters started freaking out in their control booths? Imagine a zombie film where the story stayed with them, and you have Bruce McDonald’s “Pontypool,” a 2008 horror indie that, for once, lives up to its hype. Ignore the silly name; […]
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Fireball
Story is secondary in the 2009 Thai actioner “Fireball,” which begins with a big blast of exposition to get “plot” right out of the way. Misunderstood thug Tai (Preeti Barameeanat) is told about his brother, Tan, being beaten within an inch of his life, landing him comatose in the hospital. Tai tracks his brother’s doings […]
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Defying Gravity: The Complete First Season
The endless comparisons of “Defying Gravity” to “Grey’s Anatomy” are not unfounded. With the characters spending all their off-time “? and much of their on-time “? discussing relationship foibles, the drama really does seem like a straight graft of the “Grey’s” template, but replacing “doctors” with “astronauts,” and “hospital” with “spaceship.” At least that’s the […]
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Super Friends: Season One, Volume One
It’s like it’s Saturday morning all over again while watching “Super Friends: Season One, Vol. One.” All that’s lacking for the total 1970s experience is footie PJs and a bowl of Sugar Smacks. Other “Super Friends” episodes have made it to DVD before, but this is the series’ first incarnation, when you had your core […]
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Kingdom of the Spiders
<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=oklahgazet-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B002NN7EY2&fc1=000000&IS2=1 When I was a kid, one movie scared me more than any other: 1977’s “Kingdom of the Spiders.” It remains, as Shout! Factory’s reissue proves, genuinely unsettling. Stupid title aside, this entry in the animal-attack subgenre is a great movie —? somewhat of an unsung horror classic. William Shatner stars as vet Rack […]
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Pandorum
Three decades ago, “Alien” set the standard for the sci-fi subgenre of the spaceship as haunted house. With the exception of the 1986 sequel “Aliens,” no film has even come close to it, but Hollywood continues to trot them out. “Pandorum” is one of the latest, from producer Paul W.S. Anderson (who threw his own […]
Posted inMusic
We Shot the Moon – A Silver Lining
We Shot the Moon’s “A Silver Lining” suffers not from bad songwriting, but from a lack of identity. The band’s songwriting talent peeks through in several songs, but the band takes the majority of its cues from similar, more-established artists. This results in an altogether average pop-punk album that is not their best effort. “A […]
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Avatar
It isn’t totally accurate to say that you’ve never before seen a movie like “Avatar.” After all, a 5-year-old’s drawing of stick figures shaking hands is kind of like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, right? A rock or mineral substance which I think the characters were calling “unobtainium” has been discovered on the planet […]