Imagine this; you are a musician and finally get a shot at the big leagues. Someone in Artists and Repertoire (A&R) sets you up for a meeting, and for a finder’s fee, you to get a multi-million-dollar deal. The chance of a lifetime is waiting if you accept. You’ve been putting in the all the hard work and you deserve it. This is life changing money that you can’t make as a working individual… From the life of an entry level fry guy at McDonald’s to a life of the rich and famous. The ethics and morals of today’s...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| April 20, 2024
I really had a good time with “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the MonsterVerse tale about kaijus, or giant monsters of Japanese fantasy battling each other. It made me feel like a kid again. Of course, it wouldn’t be a monster mash without pesky humans and their – in this case -- trifle dramas. It seems a little convoluted to throw a character with a disability (Kaylee Hottle as Jia) into the mix. King Kong is the patriarch of sorts, going ape over a youngster in his clan and protecting him. There are bullies...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| April 19, 2024
I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this “Ghostbusters” follow-up. The story in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” shifts from the characters’ small Podunk town to the Big Apple, where the ghost removal business all began in 1984. The youngest girl of the family of ghostbusters, Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) can’t join the ghostly proceedings because she’s a minor. In the mix this time is William Atherton, who played jerk bureaucrat Walter Peck in the original. He’s still playing a jerk, but this...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| April 13, 2024
“Roots” (1977) Louis Gossett Jr. won an Emmy for his performance as Fiddler in this groundbreaking ABC miniseries about the struggles of African Americans during slavery, the Civil War and other time periods. It was based on Alex Haley’s book of the same title. A “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1982) Gossett became the first Black Academy Award-winning Best Supporting Actor for his outstanding performance as Gunny Sgt. Emil Foley in this modern-day drama directed by Taylor Hackford and...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| April 9, 2024
I was actually looking forward to “Road House,” the follow-up reimagining of the 1989 original directed by Rowdy Herrington and starring the late, amazing Patrick Swayze. Both versions of action centered on dive barroom brawls are ridiculous, existing somewhere in the outskirts of fantasy land. In the first one, Swayze played an MIT graduate working as a bouncer in a tough Missouri honkytonk. The new version, directed by Doug Liman (“Edge of Tomorrow,” “Swingers”), puts...
The Richland Theater Department continues to impress as it wins more awards, showcasing the talent of students and directors alike. One of the Richland students received recognition for having gave the Funniest Performance, and a couple of other students made it to the finals in their individual competitions. The Richland production of “Plano” was given honorable mention, and got to preform a scene of the play at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival...
Dune: Part Two,” is everything the audience has been asking for and what Hollywood has been failing to deliver. Denis Villeneuve, who directs and co-wrote the screenplay, plastered his name across the Hall of Fame of the greatest directors in cinema history. It is the perfect movie that delivers in every aspect from the sound to the visuals to the performance to the dialogue. This is something very few movies are able to achieve. Timothée Chalamet, Austin Butler, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson and...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 31, 2024
This year’s Oscar race offered few surprises, except for a couple of select categories. “Oppenheimer” was the big winner on March 10 with 13 nominations and seven wins, including Best Picture. Christopher Nolan (“Tenet,” “Interstellar”) finally got his Best Director Oscar for calling the shots on the historical drama about the development of the atomic bomb. Also, Godzilla, the big green guy or Kaiju, stomped his way to an Academy Award in the Visual Effects category for for “Godzilla Minus One.”...
Oddly, as 2023 was set as the landmark of hip-hop reaching its 50th anniversary, the culture comes out of celebrating to face the next 50 years of trials and tribulations. Can hip-hop make someone a billionaire or even a simple millionaire? Does hip-hop have any goals for a set mission? Where does hip-hop start to clean up the culture? Is this a true sustainable career? What is the evolution of hip-hop culture? Where does DFW stand on hip-hop and the whole rap culture? How can Dallas College and...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 30, 2024
I felt like I needed a CliffsNotes version of “Dune” to understand the goings on that occur in “Dune: Part Two.” I was enthralled because I really enjoyed the first part, “Dune,” three years ago. I didn’t need a reference book for that one. “Part Two” begins a few years after the first one with Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) still leading the group of individuals in a spice world where time travel is possible, but only alluded to. I was intrigued by this from the get-go. I loved the shenanigans that...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 29, 2024
“A League of Their Own” (1992): This great Penny Marshall-directed baseball flick starred Geena Davis and Lori Petty as sisters who competed in a baseball league set up by the U.S. government to keep fans interested in baseball and keeping the sport alive while men were off fighting World War II. It also features Tom Hanks with the great line, “There’s crying in baseball.” “A Thousand Acres” (1997): Loosely based on William Shakespeare’s tragedy “King Lear,” this down-on-the-farm drama is the...
