Past the Popcorn: Bradley Cooper Will Blow You Away in American Sniper

by Jeff Walls American Sniper is a return to form of sorts for director Clint Eastwood, following a couple of underwhelming releases in J. Edgar and last year’s Jersey Boys.  The new film is based... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Undefeated reviewed by Greg Wright This is football, and this is life. Both are games of inches. And if you don’t believe the fate of men and nations alike turn on the simplest of choices and miscues,... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: An Important Story Finally Gets Its Due in Selma

by Jeff Walls It is difficult to believe that there has never been a theatrically released movie about Martin Luther King, Jr.  There have been a few versions on television, but none that have debuted... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Colin & Brad: Two Man Group reviewed by Greg Wright What do you get when two stalwarts from the long-running Improv Comedy TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway? take to the road for a two-man Improv Comedy... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Cumberbatch Stars as Alan Turing in The Imitation Game

by Jeff Walls The characters in the new movie The Imitation Game are constantly reminding us and each other that “sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Elf reviewed by Greg Wright Once long ago, Ethics Daily culture editor Cliff Vaughn and I were sitting in a movie theatre debating radical goodness. I have long believed that love professed but undemonstrated... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

by Jeff Walls The final chapter of The Hobbit trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies is billed as the final film in director Peter Jackson’s Middle Earth film series that included both this trilogy... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

The 12 Dates of Christmas reviewed by Greg Wright I first saw Amy Smart in The Butterfly Effect and was blown away by her performance as a young woman traumatized by sexual abuse. With Effect‘s... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

This Christmas reviewed by Greg Wright I will confess that I am an opening-credits junkie. I was raised in an era when audiences knew that the actual content of a film started as soon as the overture was... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Warm Holiday Romance in The Christmas Secret

by Greg Wright Have you ever taken a road trip to someplace like the Grand Canyon, or Disneyland? I’ve done both, and have discovered that the journey there can be just as much fun as the destination... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

The Christmas Hope reviewed by Greg Wright Can holiday tearjerkers be formulaic? Yes, and The Christmas Hope is certainly that. Can formulaic tearjerkers also be effective, both as entertainment and as... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Act of Valor reviewed by Greg Wright Have you ever been caught completely off guard by a movie and thought, “Wow! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like that before!”? Well, that was... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Saints and Soldiers reviewed by Greg Wright So… I’m not a fan of Saving Private Ryan. One of its core messages was about the same as Peter Jackson’s The Two Towers: “Show your enemies no mercy,... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Disney Has a Hit on Their Hands with Big Hero 6

by Jeff Walls While the Marvel Cinematic Universe is dominating the live-action box-office with some of the publisher’s more well-known characters, some of the lesser-known characters are finding a... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

Miss Representation reviewed by Greg Wright Once I put on my “critic” hat for screening a film, I’m pretty hard to provoke. At the moment a movie starts, it’s my job to evaluate it, not react to... [Read more]

Lunch with the Marine View Diner: The Des Moines DogHouse

by Greg Wright Better late than never, right? Tami LaFreniere’s last day as the proprietor of The Des Moines DogHouse is today. After nine years of fun-loving and excellent service to the community,... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Jake Gyllenhaal Does His Best Work in Nightcrawler

by Jeff Walls Jake Gyllenhaal is quickly becoming one of our better actors.  After bursting onto the scene in 2001’s indie cult hit Donnie Darko, Gyllenhaal earned his first and (so far) only Oscar... [Read more]

Past the Popcorn: Waterland Home Video Feature

by Greg Wright Wesley Terrace recently played host to a screening of the 2012 film Rape for Profit, about the human-trafficking problem right on International Boulevard. The Whistleblower dramatizes a... [Read more]