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...
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 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...
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 22, 2024
“Beaches” (1998): This tearjerker, directed by Garry Marshall (“Pretty Woman,” “A League of Their Own”) follows the relationship between two best friends portrayed by Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. It features the chart-topping song “Wind Beneath My Wings.” A- “Hidden Figures” (2016) This is a well-done historical drama about three African American mathematicians portrayed by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe who are recruited, but somewhat shunned by...
Ricky Miller: “Madame Web” is a Marvel entry, but it comes via Sony Studios. The whole movie is outright silliness galore. Besides Cassandra Webb (Dakota Johnson), the story line deals with too many coincidences and hearsay. Aislyn Smith: Overall, this movie wasn’t good. And as a die-hard Marvel... Aislyn Smith: “Madame Web” was recently released to theaters, and many were not impressed by “Venom” or “Spider-Man: No Way Home” were major hits with the Marvel fandom, despite the....
Ricky Miller, Entertainment Editor
| March 2, 2024
“The Color Purple” (1985) - This gem of a gritty drama got 11 Oscar nominations but ended up with a giant goose egg in the win column. Whoopi Goldberg, in her second feature film appearance, and Oprah Winfrey, making her big-screen debut, were nominated but did not receive any recognition, snubbed by the Academy. GRADE: A+ “Shaft” (1971) - This significant action crime-thriller was amazing be-cause it started the whole blaxploitation trend in the 1970s. It also won a Best Song Academy...
This is a forgotten gem in the Miramax Films arsenal. “Fresh,” which came out in 1994,” is a crime drama youth tale about the title character (Sean Nelson), a 12-year-old boy who’s a drug dealer. The only time he sees Sam (Samuel L. Jackson), his father, is in the park because Fresh is not supposed to be seeing him. Sam is considered a derelict by his family. He plays chess in the park with his father, and it serves as a motivator for his life. Fresh works for two rival gangs and pits them against each...
