Walkie Talkie Blog
Considering the rich history of cheap, hastily produced films aimed at a Christian audience, it's sort of surprising how infrequently a high-profile version of that - like Son of God - comes around. On the whole, Christian moviegoers have never quite wanted for movies that pander to them, but it's
Walkie Talkie Blog
As we trudge toward the end of the dismal cinematic months of winter, it's only fitting that I should find myself facing such a dilemma: do I write about the new Paul W.S. Anderson (Alien vs. Predator, Death Race, the Resident Evil franchise) movie, or the new McG (This Means
Walkie Talkie Blog
ERMAHGERD! There's going to be a Goosebumps movie, you guys! Continuing the exhausting phase of mining every little bit of nostalgia for the increasingly apathetic eyes of '90s children, the once-beloved book series of cheesy lite horror for kids is coming roaring to the big screen. The audience for such an adaptation
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About Last Night is a photocopy of a photocopy. Adapted from the '80s Rob Lowe/Demi Moore vehicle, About Last Night..., which was itself an adaptation of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, this new iteration seems to have morphed its initial premise to the point of abstraction. About Last Night... boasted
Walkie Talkie Blog
Before we get started, I think it is my duty to urge you to fall into the deliriously insane rabbit hole that is the movie Foodfight!. Set in a Toy Story-aping world of sentient corporate food mascots, Foodfight! is a fascinatingly inept failure of a movie. Almost certainly conceived as
Walkie Talkie Blog
SATURDAY, FEB. 8: CHRIS PERONDI'S STUNT DOG EXPERIENCE OK, dear reader, there's no use in beating around the bush with this one. We'd just be fooling ourselves. The notion of the stunt animal live show is absolutely ridiculous. Dogs being made to dress in silly costumes and perform little sketches is
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My first experience with Rachel Ratner was in Austin, Texas, watching her perform with her band Butts. The two-piece consisted of Ratner and Shannon Perry performing wonderfully goofy punk songs that rarely, if ever, passed the one-minute mark. Topics included how awesome alcohol is ("Alcohol") and how not awesome it
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Well, we all knew it would come to this, didn't we? And you know what? You're ALL guilty! Years after making jokes about how the trend of sex-ifying monsters (a la the Twilight saga) would lead to sexy mummies and swamp things became so rote that they established themselves as
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JAN. 23-25: GILBERT GOTTFRIED AT THE TACOMA COMEDY CLUB Even before Gilbert Gottfried's Comedy Central roast appearances became the stuff of legend, he was always a comedian with a uniquely skewed point of view. He combined an acerbic manner with a clearly very deep affection for the structure and melody of
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Bandolier is one of those working bands that does so well at being consistently strong and reliable that they sometimes are in danger of flying under the radar. Recently, I was lucky enough to catch a typically energetic performance of theirs at a Christmas show, when they tore through an
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Dear lord, it's another one. A scant two weeks following the release of Paranormal Activity's fifth perfunctory installment, The Marked Ones, a nation finds itself faced with the grim reality that there is yet another limp found footage movie to capitalize on our apparently continued fear of demonic possession. At
Walkie Talkie Blog
Before you get too excited, let's just get this out of the way: no, The Legend of Hercules is not the Kevin Sorbo comeback vehicle we've all been waiting for. Instead, this is a $70mil action-adventure picture that looks appallingly cheap. It makes old YouTube clips of Xena: Warrior Princess look
Walkie Talkie Blog
JAN. 9-11: MATT BRAUNGER AT THE TACOMA COMEDY CLUB One of the pleasures and pains of being nerdy about pop culture is that you will inevitably watch as certain people and things you love grow in popularity and visibility. Frequently, and unfortunately, the nerd will respond by then boycotting what he
Walkie Talkie Blog
It's the end of 2013, and by this point we've all been flooded with a deluge of year-end "best of" lists. How sick of them must you be? But fear not! At Judging by the Trailer, there is no best of. There is only Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones -
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Some might say it's unfair to kick a film when it is so obviously down. I mean, it's hard to call a film with a reported $225m budget an underdog, but this notoriously troubled production is almost certainly doomed to commercial failure, and a prompt one-way trip to obscurity. Still,
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Over the course of his trilogy of books filled with fake trivia (The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, and That Is All), John Hodgman posited a theory that the world is made up of jock culture and nerd culture, and that everything more or less fell
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Almost a decade ago, a young Rev. Adam McKinney sat down in a packed theater and had a groundbreaking exposure to absurdist, largely improvised comedy. Seeing Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in a theater that radiated with warm laughter was a revelation. "Is this the funniest movie ever made?"
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I was going to start off this article by saying that you couldn't pay me to sit through another Tolkien movie, but that's just not true: $25, plus food and drink, or best offer. My pliability not withstanding, the fact remains that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy has stolen
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Regretfully, I spent much of this year cocooned in solitude; too poor and depressed to do much beyond learn the names of the most praised cultural items of 2013. As such, it makes it quite difficult to put together a proper year-end "Best Of" list, as I am normally wont
Walkie Talkie Blog
Back in 2005, I was a projectionist at The Grand Cinema. It was a heady time of passionate discussions on music and film, and it was the time when I was most steeped in difficult and adventurous art. Somehow, I stumbled across as film called Oldboy - a classic of