At the beginning of the new Disney spectacle Maleficent, a calm sounding female voice-over narrates: “Let us tell an old story anew.”  What follows may not be what you’re expecting.  Maleficent is one of the great female villains, ever.  In the original animated classic, the woman was without redemption, a walking manifestation of evil.  She […]

For a character who constantly whines about living in the west you’d think he would have moved away years ago.  It’s Arizona in 1882 and in the new Seth MacFarlane western comedy A Million Ways to Die in the West, MacFarlane plays Albert, a sheep farmer who hates living where he does.  He fears that […]

It’s every homeowner’s nightmare: A noise in the middle of the night; an intruder in your house.  You load your gun but you don’t want to use it.  Then, with a shaking hand, you face the dark shadow in your living room, and you fire. It’s East Texas, 1989, and nice guy husband and father, […]

If you’re among those who feel the cinema has been overrun with a glut of super-hero movies of late, then X-Men: Days of Future Past is not for you.  Here, almost every character has a dazzling super-power, and there are a lot of characters.  Freely based on a classic 1981 X-Men adventure, this new and […]

Here’s the funny thing about Adam Sandler; when he was a featured player on TV’s SNL he often looked embarrassed or simply uncomfortable.  The funny voices either amused or annoyed, and he never appeared adept at ad-libbing without looking down and smiling as though he was about to break into giggles.  Out of all the […]