First episode impressions: ‘About a Boy’ (TV review)
Although I’m a big fan of the Nick Hornby novel and the Hugh Grant movie, when I heard that “About a Boy” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays on NBC) was being made into a TV series, I wasn’t […]
Comedy
‘Drinking Buddies’ delves into the emotional mechanics of love (Movie review)
“Drinking Buddies” is proof that a movie can be enjoyable to watch even if it fails to make a resonant thematic point. It realistically shows how romances and relationships operate thanks to naturalistic, almost improvisational, performances […]
Lifeguards in crisis in ‘The Lifeguard,’ ‘To Do List’
Movie reviews: Kristen Bell and Aubrey Plaza play lifeguards struggling with life in “The Lifeguard” and “The To Do List.”
Joke wears a little thin in ‘Machete Kills,’ but it’s still worth seeing (Movie review)
While it’s not as thematically rich as the brilliant immigration parody “Machete” — my No. 1 movie of 2010 — “Machete Kills” still delivers a lot of laughs and is worth seeing if you’re a fan of the franchise. […]
First episode impressions: ‘Super Fun Night’ (TV review)
While it doesn’t serve up groundbreaking (no fat joke intended) humor, “Super Fun Night” (8:30 p.m. Central Wednesdays on ABC) does have a sweet, somewhat understated vibe that makes it good enough to keep on my schedule […]
First episode impressions: ‘The Goldbergs’ (TV review)
“The Goldbergs” (8 p.m. Central Tuesdays on ABC) starts with a montage of 1980s images like “ALF,” “The Karate Kid” and a Rubik’s Cube as the J. Geils Band’s “Centerfold” plays and Patton Oswalt narrates about […]
First episode impressions: ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ (TV review)
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (7:30 p.m. Central Tuesdays on Fox) has an all-crazy all-the-time vibe that makes it a nice companion to the similarly off-the-wall “New Girl” and “The Mindy Project” in Fox’s Tuesday comedy lineup. Although it’s […]
Liam James breaks out amid stellar cast in lovable ‘The Way Way Back’ (Movie review)
Between “The Descendants” — one of my top 10 movies of 2011 — and this summer’s “The Way Way Back,” screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash have become the masters of sweet-natured, gorgeous-looking, slice-of-life movies. This one […]
You won’t need to be as drunk as the characters to enjoy ‘The World’s End’ (Movie review)
All the things we loved about previous Simon Pegg/Nick Frost movies “Shaun of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz” and “Paul” are present again in the pub-crawl comedy “The World’s End”: A bit of smart humor (the first […]
Vaughn, Wilson recapture comedic chemistry as Google crashers in ‘The Internship’ (Movie review)
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are both experts at playing confident guys in situations where they have no business being confident. Despite their almost identical acting styles, they play off each other well, seeming like […]