In his first movie role, Bruce Willis exhibits some of that easygoing charisma that then was serving him well as TV’s Moonlighting and, just one year later, rocketed him to the stratosphere in Die Hard. At the time hot off 9 1/2 Weeks, but not yet cast in Batman, future Oscar winner Kim Basinger also […]
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Posted inArts & Culture
Witchboard / Night of the Demons
Written and directed by Kevin S. Tenney, the 1986 chiller begins at a party held by couple Jim (Todd Allen, Django Unchained) and Linda (Whitesnake video vixen Tawny Kitaen). Her ex (soap actor Stephen Nichols) brings a Ouija board, proceeds to contact the spirit of a 10-year-old boy, and thus uncorks a shitstorm of trouble. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Escape Plan
The world of 2013, however, is a mighty different landscape; Escape Plan bombed. That’s too bad, because it’s pretty good for what it sets out to be: a big, dumb action movie, in the style of its stars’ big, dumb bread-and-butter recipe of yesteryear. Stallone’s Breslin works as a security expert hired to go undercover […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Reel Zombies / Sorority Party Massacre
Just now getting a DVD release (through Synapse Films), 2008’s Reel Zombies is a feature mockumentary with a welcome twist: Its filmmakers are poking fun at themselves, acknowledging how terrible their previous two (real) movies were. The shot-on-video “epics” in question are 2003’s Zombie Night and its 2006 sequel. The concept behind Reel Zombies is […]
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Judges Creed
Not too long ago, someone who works at Oklahoma Gazette asked, “Does anyone in Oklahoma City make movies besides Mickey Reece?” My answer was, “Of course,” supplemented with several caveats, one of which is that the local filmmaker generally makes more feature films in a year than my parents see within the same time frame. […]
Posted inMusic
Wise guy
Photo: Samantha Lamb For all the talk of Oklahoma singer-songwriter Parker Millsap and his Pentecostal roots, there’s a point that gets glossed over along the way. People note that gruff howl of a voice rumbling out of his gut with a tent-revival vigor equal parts fire-and-brimstone and piss-and-vinegar. Millsap himself nods to those Sunday morning […]
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The Postman Always Rings Twice
Most of the sordid story unfolds at the Twin Oaks Tavern, a sparsely attended roadside diner owned by a Greek man (John Colicos, The Changeling) whose prized possession is either the place, his record player or his much-younger wife, Cora (Lange, TV’s American Horror Story). Much bored, she perks up when Frank (Nicholson) drifts in. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Banshee Chapter / You’re Next
Using the CIA’s real-life Project MKUltra as a jumping-off point, freshman writer/director Blair Erickson explores the fates and legacy of those who volunteered for the controversial mind-control experiments, which ran in secret for about 20 years beginning in the 1950s and often involved LSD. After a friend disappears from downing a 150-mg dose, an […]
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Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
The funniest movie of last year, Bad Grandpa is also the funniest movie of this year (thus far), thanks to its unrated cut on Blu-ray. It’s not that the extra 11 minutes prove essential (they don’t) but that the gags from the theatrical release hold up, even without the benefit of playing to a packed […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon
Therefore, no one blames Hark for wanting to mine Dee for franchise potential. Unfortunately, the result is the kind of unfocused, overindulgent mess that saw the shine wear off his reputation in the first place. With Mark Chao taking over the part, Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon is a prequel concerning the […]