As a critic, I often get the same two questions, virtually back to back:

Have you seen (fill in the blank)? How was it?

Inevitably, I wind up giving one of two answers, if not both:

It was too long.

I wish it had been funnier.

There are very few...

Here's my playlist for two nice and funny guys in one awkward TV situation:

NIGHT SHIFT - The Commodores
IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR - Wilson Pickett
THE PRIME TIME OF YOUR LIFE - Daft Punk
NIGHT TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME - Ray Charles
WAITING FOR...

Any science-fiction movie is predicated at least a little on the suspension of disbelief. But then there are points where what we're presented with so defies logic, physics, or natural human behavior that the mind rebels. At that point, the credibility of an entire...

At a public hearing yesterday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Chad Hummel, the lead defense attorney in Roman Polanski's criminal matter, wanted it known that although he had recently asked for an in-chambers meeting to confer about one particular issue of "great sensitivity," he had never suggested anything else...

Pardon the obvious tardiness, but as often occurs, life got in the way. So, no more procrastination, here are my favorite films of the just finished year, in alphabetical order, with my very favorite pick singled out at the end. And away we go...

A friend sent me a link to a video featuring something called the Incredible Music Machine. If you haven't seen it, you absolutely must check it out.

Like a gazillion other viewers,...

Teenagers in the 1950s and '60s turned Elvis Presley into an icon. His shaking hips and curled lips sent rock 'n' roll shockwaves reverberating around the world and challenged prevailing notions about sex, race and class. As we celebrate what would have been...

Read the tabs -- watch the tube -- if you want to know how a society that has lost its religiosity can still engage with the deities. The eerily appropriate term "celebrity worship" is evidence of the extent to which we've improved on Greek culture: We've invented disposable gods.

Tiger,...

At the age of 21, Michael Cera has been acting professionally for more than half his life, since he was a pre-teen in his native Toronto.

His breakthrough role - at least in Hollywood - was the Emmy-winning but short-lived sit-com, Arrested Development. It showcased his comedy style of misdirection:...

What's happened to Matthew Broderick? Why is he stuck in the rut of playing joyless schnooks, like his character in the new film, Wonderful World?

I thought of this after I happened to catch Ferris Bueller's Day Off on TV recently, for the first time in ages. In that John...

Ralph Meeker, Dan Duryea, Vince Edwards, Steve Cochran. There's just something about the asshole. Scratch that. That's too strong and vulgar and dismissive of a word. More like, the shit heel, the...

Whenever I have a spare half hour, I head for the piano. Recently, I've faced a tough choice: the English Suites or French Suites? Classical music mavens of course know I'm referring to keyboard music written almost 300 years ago by J.S. Bach.

There's nothing particularly English about the...

"He will knock four times."

And so, the finale for the great tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant, came round at last. It was the end of a long goodbye, which itself was part of a long goodbye.

For those who have not seen it, there are spoilers...

While critics have unanimously agreed that the visual spectacle that is James Cameron's Avatar is beyond compare, there has been less enthusiasm for the plot line, which has been called out as flat and unoriginal.

It's quite true that the movie's script -- which centers on a tribe of indigenous...

"We were four relatively sane people in the middle of madness."--George Harrison

The Beatles -- with two members of the group deceased -- were, by the end of 2009, projected to make over $1.6 billion from the release of their 13 remastered albums, as well as the video game, Beatles...

If you don't go to see Avatar you will be depriving yourself of an amazing experience. James Cameron has reached a new level for cinematic genius and breathtaking technology.

That said, soon after leaving the theatre (3-D only please), your mind should soon decompress from the emerald and...

Leap Year is the kind of movie that shows up weekly, if not daily, on the Lifetime, WE and Hallmark channels.

Apparently, the public has an insatiable appetite for unfunny romantic comedies about opposites, who attract after first repelling each other. And, apparently, Hollywood has a bottomless pit of this...