2013-07-27T19:43:20-06:00

Last updated on: July 27, 2013 at 7:43 pm   By

There has been some interesting activity regarding faith-based entertainment this summer, including a summit between Hollywood and faith-based production companies, an analysis by the Vatican’s newspaper of comic book superheroes, and the June 22 announcement by former U.S. senator and one-time GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum that he is now the CEO of EchoLight Studios, a Dallas company that will produce faith-based and family productions across all platforms. I was present at the well-attended second, perhaps annual, PURPOSE: Family Entertainment + Faith Based Summit, put... Read more

2013-07-19T17:47:14-06:00

Last updated on: July 19, 2013 at 5:47 pm   By

This inspiring and well-made docu-drama tells the story of Nicholas Winton, a British citizen who has earned the title of Prague’s Schindler for saving 669 Czech and Slovak Jewish children as the Nazis began invading European countries in 1939. Nicky was single, in his 30s and worked in finance, the family business. His family had immigrated to the U.K. years before and converted from Judaism to Christianity He found himself in Prague on business when a Jewish mother approached him... Read more

2013-07-19T17:43:23-06:00

Last updated on: July 19, 2013 at 5:43 pm   By

** SPOILER ALERT ** For more than twelve years the subject of pedophilia and clergy sex abuse cover up has been in the headlines. Now from Danish director Thomas Vinterberg comes the story of Lucas (Mads Mikklesen) a 40 something divorced dad, who is working as a pre-school teacher because his middle school teaching job was eliminated. When he is accused of showing himself to one of his students, a little girl named Klara (Annika Wedderkopp) who is the daughter... Read more

2013-07-15T16:19:27-06:00

Last updated on: July 15, 2013 at 4:19 pm   By

  (I wrote this review for the National Catholic Reporter after seeing the film at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013 where it took top honors). “Fruitvale” Feature directed by Ryan Coogler, starring Octavia Spencer, Michael B. Jordan, Chad Michael Murray 100 minutes Just after midnight on the morning of Jan. 1, 2009, a fight broke out on the BART subway system as it pulled into the Fruitvale stop in Oakland, Calif. When the transit police arrived, the fight... Read more

2013-07-15T15:22:10-06:00

Last updated on: July 15, 2013 at 3:22 pm   By

The first horror film I ever saw at age eight, indeed the first film I ever saw in a theater, was the 1959 House on Haunted Hill. It starred Vincent Price, and I now know it was directed by William Castle, called “the poor man’s Hitchcock,” who churned out many “B” thriller movies. Although Castle’s genre was the psychological thriller, his films are subgenres of horror. House on Haunted Hill was projected in “Emergo”, one of the gimmicks Castle was known for. In... Read more

2013-07-15T11:03:13-06:00

Last updated on: July 15, 2013 at 11:03 am   By

In this summer’s gentle and extremely funny and touching coming of age film, Steve Carrell plays Trent,who is a real jerk under the guise of being future husband and step-father material. And he gives up comedy and hands that crown to Sam Rockwell and team at the coastal splash park where 14 year-old Duncan (Liam Jones) gets a job to get out of the beach house where he, his mom (Toni Collette) and Trent’s daughter are staying. The film opens... Read more

2013-07-13T11:06:42-06:00

Last updated on: July 13, 2013 at 11:06 am   By

“The first rule of magic is to always be the smartest guy in the room” is a mantra that four talented and ambitious magicians keep repeating in director Louis Leterrier’s new film Now You See Me, cowritten by Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin, and Edward Ricourt. Michael (Jesse Eisenberg) and Henley (Isla Fisher) used to work together before going their separate ways, but find work entertaining people with their magic. Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson) take a seedier approach... Read more

2013-07-13T10:55:52-06:00

Last updated on: July 13, 2013 at 10:55 am   By

Tilikum, a longtime star of SeaWorld, is an orca that was captured near Iceland in 1983 at about 3 years of age. During these 30 years in captivity, Tilikum has killed three people and seriously injured another. Blackfish is a documentary by director Gabriela Cowperthwaite that traces the origins and development of Tilikum’s aggressive behavior and asks probing questions about the morality of capturing and keeping wild animals for entertainment and profit. Through interviews with former SeaWorld trainers and witnesses of... Read more

2013-07-10T17:31:02-06:00

Last updated on: July 10, 2013 at 5:31 pm   By

By Susan KingJuly 5, 2013, 5:00 a.m. Dolores Hart was one of Hollywood’s top ingenues, giving Elvis Presley his first screen kiss in 1957’s “Loving You” and then reuniting with him a year later in “King Creole.” She worked with such legends as Anthony Quinn and Anna Magnani in 1957’s “Wild Is the Wind” and Robert Ryan and Montgomery Clift in 1958’s “Lonelyhearts,” then earned a Tony Award nomination in 1959 for her first play, the romantic comedy “The Pleasure of His Company.”... Read more

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