It’s usually at the end of the review that I talk about a film’s MPAA rating, but I’ll twist it up for “Twisters.” Or rather, for its 1996 predecessor “Twister” and its all-time terribly-worded rating justification. The film was rated PG-13 for “intense depiction of very bad weather.” Yes, the depiction was intense, and yes, […]

I tell this story, not to encourage you to wrestle or lecture someone, but as an example of situational awareness before situational awareness was even a term. In 1970, a man named Dallin Oaks, his wife June, and their children lived in Chicago. One evening, June had a meeting at church. When Dallin came to […]

The gruesome horror movie “Longlegs” pulled something of an upset at this past weekend’s domestic box office. It wasn’t enough to upset “Despicable Me 4” for the #1 spot, but it did the best among new releases. Great reviews were seemingly enough to pull the family-unfriendly indie darling into the #2 spot and make it […]

A woman pulled into her driveway, turned off her car, and sat for a few moments looking at her phone. She didn’t notice a man slowly walking down the sidewalk in front of her house. Quicker than you can say one-thousand-one, the guy ran to her car, opened her door, and jerked her right out […]

For a franchise that has been fairly consistent with its style of PG animated humor, the “Despicable Me” movies are kind of all over the place for me. I couldn’t stand the first one, loved the second one, thought the first “Minions” spinoff had its moments, felt the shtick was stale for the third one, […]

What do hard times call for? If you said hard measures, you are wrong. Hard times call for silly songs. During the Great Depression and WWII, silly songs lifted people’s spirits, and few groups were sillier than the Hoosier Hot Shots. They tickled people’s funny bones when those bones were in sore need of tickling. […]

“A Quiet Place: Day One” made a grave miscalculation with its advertising. Scenes were filmed with the intention of putting them in the trailers, but not the movie. This way, when people saw the movie, they wouldn’t be able to properly anticipate the surprises and story progression. To that end, the advertising succeeded, I was […]

One day as a man sat writing, a spider descended a thin strand of web and dangled just before him. “Excuse me,” said the man, “but you don’t belong in here. I’m afraid I will have to smash you between two shoes.” “Please don’t do that,” the spider replied. “Perhaps instead of giving me the […]

In 2003, the Advertiser Democrat hired me as a reporter, even though I was thin on journalistic experience. The editor, Susan Arena, nursed me along, teaching me about interviewing, how to write a lead, and how not to bury that lead. Howard James, the owner and publisher, would also talk to me about ways to […]