Posted on May 13, 2017 at 10:18 am
“Big Bang Theory’s” Johnny Galecki is behind a new television series called “By the Book,” based on the bestselling book by Esquire editor A.J. Jacobs, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.
“By the Book” will star Jay R. Ferguson, Lindsey Kraft, Ian Gomez, David Krumholtz, Tony Rock and Camryn Manheim.
Posted on May 12, 2017 at 3:50 pm
Comic Conventions, which now encompass not just comics or even just sci-fi/fantasy but all of popular culture and lively arts, are thrilling but even the hardiest adults can find them overwhelming. Now there’s a Kid Kon just for children and their families, at the Pasadena Convention Center June 10-11, 2017, and it even has a quiet room (San Diego Comic-Con, take note); a special place for parents with babies and toddlers to chill out. There is a princess party, a superhero gathering, Jedi training, a superhero bash, and yoga for children. Special guests include “Yo Gabba Gabba’s” DJ Lance Rock!
Founders Jose and Jessica Prendes write:
Kid Kon is the first-ever fan convention of its kind; a convention with the young fans in mind. As fans of popular entertainment ourselves, we take our two kids to conventions all the time, and half the time they are bored out of their minds because the programming is usually skewed toward an older audience.
We decided that this needed to change.
The goal of Kid Kon is to throw the biggest fandom party any kid has ever seen, celebrating the popular arts like comic books, movies, books, video games, and tv shows that kids are rabid fans of, and giving them a once in a lifetime chance to meet their favorite celebrities in person.
Join us at Kid Kon, where kids of all ages can kick the summer off right!
Posted on May 11, 2017 at 5:30 pm
B-| Lowest Recommended Age: | Mature High Schooler |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated R for crude sexual content, brief nudity, and language throughout |
| Profanity: | Very strong and crude language |
| Alcohol/ Drugs: | Drinking and drunkenness, drug references |
| Violence/ Scariness: | Extended action-style comic peril and violence with some disturbing and grisly images, characters injured and killed, graphic medical procedure |
| Diversity Issues: | Stereotyped portrayal of South Americans |
| Date Released to Theaters: | May 12, 2017 |
Emily gets both fired and dumped (both for good reason) just as she is about to take a vacation in Ecuador, so she retreats to her childhood home, where her agoraphobic brother (Ike Barinholtz) still lives with her divorcee mother, whose character traits come straight out of the cliche drawer: she sips white wine, loves her cats, has four locks on her front door, does not know the difference between a private message and posting on a Facebook wall and needs help unlocking the CAPS key. And Schumer’s Linda is the same self-centered and childish but raunchy character we’ve seen Schumer play too many times already. Emily is too careless. Linda is too careful. Got it? The opening crawl warns us that the movie will feature “violence, mayhem, and a reckless disregard for human life…the kidnappers did bad stuff, too.” So, another “Hangover” variation in the jungles of South America (but filmed in Hawaii).
How does Emily persuade the hyper-cautious Linda to go to Ecuador with her? Wheedling and guilt don’t work, but the magic word is “nonrefundable ticket.” (“Put the ‘fun’ in ‘nonrefundable!'”) So the next thing they know, they are at an elegant resort, where, just to make sure we did not miss the point, Emily lounges by the pool in a bikini and Linda comes out dressed, as Emily points out, like the sun-sensitive character in “Powder” — or a beekeeper. And she slathers sun block on Emily like she’s a toddler.
Emily and Linda get kidnapped for ransom, bicker, escape, get captured again, bicker, escape, etc. Pretty much every South American is a servant or a criminal. The State Department is useless. There are pratfalls and shoot-outs and one very disgusting medical procedure. Various encounters along the way are funny in the usual raunchy comedy mode, especially Christopher Meloni as a khaki-wearing guide who is up for adventure but maybe not up to it, and the invaluable Wanda Sykes and Joan Cusack as American tourists with some special ops skills. The movie would have been better if it was about them.
Parents should know that this film includes very explicit sexual references and crude humor, very strong language, brief nudity, graphic medical treatment, extended peril and violence, some humor about mental illness and disability, characters injured and killed (played for comedy), and some graphic and disturbing images.
Family discussion: Who changes more on the trip, Linda or Emily? Why is it hard for Emily to be nice to her mother?
If you like this, try: “Trainwreck” and “Inside Amy Schumer”
Posted on May 11, 2017 at 8:00 am
Goldie Hawn returns to the screen this week in “Snatched,” her first film in 15 years. It’s a mother/daughter comedy co-starring Amy Schumer. Hawn is best remembered as a comic performer. She was a breakthrough hit on the television in “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In” and won an Oscar for her first movie role in “Cactus Flower,” and went on to star in films like “Private Benjamin,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Foul Play,” and “Overboard.” But she is also a superb dramatic actress, as shown in “The Sugarland Express” and “CrissCross.”
Posted on May 11, 2017 at 12:01 am
In honor of Mother’s Day, my ebook 50 Must-See Movies: Mothers
No relationship is more primal, more fraught, more influential, more worried over, more nurturing when good and more devastating when bad than our connection to our mothers. The first eyes to look at us with love, the first arms to hold us, Mom is the one who first keeps us fed and warm, who applauds our initial steps, kisses our scrapes, and takes our temperature by kissing our forehead. She’s also the one who keeps people in endless years of psychoanalysis. Mothers inspire movies in every category, from comedy to romance to drama to crime to animation to horror, from the lowest-budget indie to the biggest-budget prestige film.
There are innumerable ways of mothering, and all of them show up in the movies. There are cookie-baking, apron-wearing mothers who always know just the right thing to say. There are stylish, sophisticated, wealthy mothers and mothers who do not have enough money to feed their children. There are mothers with PhDs and mothers who cannot read. There are mothers of every race and religion and many species on earth and in outer space (remember Alien).
There are terrifying mothers who abuse or abandon their children. There are mothers who give good advice and endless support and mothers who push their children to take the wrong jobs or marry the wrong people. There are super-strict mothers and super-lax mothers, mothers who want to know every detail of their children’s lives and mothers who barely remember that they have children at all. There are mothers of children with special needs who fight to make sure they have the fullest and most independent lives they can. There are children who love and support their mothers and children who break their mothers’ hearts.
And there are those very special souls who remind us that motherhood doesn’t require a biological connection. Stepmothers and adoptive mothers are as vitally important on screen as they are in the lives of those lucky enough to be raised by them.
“A boy’s best friend is his mother,” says a character whose mother is central to the story even though she never appears in the film. (Spoiler alert: The quote comes from Norman Bates in “Psycho.”) In “Stop or My Mom Will Shoot,” tough guy Sylvester Stallone plays a cop who mother comes along on his investigation whether he wants her to or not. In “Oedipus Wrecks,” one of three short films that make up the compilation New York Stories, Woody Allen plays a lawyer whose mother finds the ultimate way to embarrass him. And don’t get me started on Jason’s mother in the Friday the 13th movies.
I have selected 50 of my favorite movie mothers, from films as varied as The Sound of Music and Little Women along with forgotten or overlooked films like Stella Dallas, Claudia and David, and Dear Frankie. Actresses like Anne Revere and Spring Byington made careers out of wonderful performances as mothers, and I have included some of their best. I have a special affection for films and performances based on real-life mothers, especially those based on the mothers of the writers who told their stories, like Sally Field’s Oscar-winning performance in Places in the Heart. But each of the mothers in these movies is inspired by the unique joys and frustrations of the woman we love first.
A lot of women have been nominated for Oscars for playing mothers and just about every actress over age 20 has appeared as a mother in at least one movie. From beloved Marmee in “Little Women” and Mrs. Brown in “National Velvet” to mean moms in “Now Voyager” and “Mommie Dearest.” Oscar-winnng classics and neglected gems, based on real-life like Sally Fields in “Places in the Heart” or fantasy like Dumbo’s lullabye-singing elephant mom, biological mothers like Irene Dunne in “I Remember Mama” or step-mothers like Maria in “The Sound of Music,” these are all must-see movies.
