“Has Howard Beal been re-incarnated?” you ask yourself as Money Monster attacks the screen before your very eyes. No … and there aren’t any flashback clips of Peter Finch stalking a TV news set either. But George Clooney comes to us as Lee Gates; not unlike...

'Trump has brought a flamethrower to a stick fight, and fully understands confirmation bias,’ the Dilbert creator claims. Scott Adams’ May 27 appearance on Bill Maher’s Real Time should be compulsory reviewing for all of us. The creator of Dilbert revealed himself as not just a guy with a sharp sense of humor, but a...

Labyrinth of Lies has been selected to represent Germany in the Best Foreign Language Film category at next year’s Academy Awards. It was directed by Giulio Ricciarelli and tells the story of the legal and social struggle Germany faced approximately a decade after WWII.

Which question has more relevancy: what did Miles Davis do for jazz, or what did Miles Davis do to jazz? From where I’ve been listening over several decades, both questions have precisely the same answer: “Quite a bit!”

So you say you need to see yourself a Western?...

“Black Mass” – a film review by Gary Chew Without any surprise for me, there’s only one scene in Black Mass that doesn’t contain the use of that old stand by … the F-Word. It’s when, at the dinner table with his young son, notorious criminal Whitey Bulger is teaching his boy a life lesson...

“Bridge of Spies” – a film review by Gary Chew Seeing Steven Spielberg’s new film as it now opens allows you to compare the current military activity of Vladimir Putin in Syria with the historic and legendary downing of an American U-2 spy plane over Soviet Russia in 1960...

Animal rights activists had a good year, but watch out for tRump! Those who say that we ordinary people can’t have any effect on today’s corporate behemoths should check out two breakthroughs last year by a group the establishment has long derided as somewhere between wacko and criminal: animal rights activists.

The subtlest humor to come from Elvis and Nixon isn’t its relaxed pace and “one-joke-ee-ness,” but something else that quietly comes to mind as this new movie slips through your brain. It’s almost a spoiler, but not quite.

An interview with cartoonist Trina Robbins. Errol Flynn and Kevin Costner both played Robin Hood (though not at the same time), and Al Jolson sang about the “Red, red Robin”...

Even though Miss Sloane is constructed to satisfy a personal bias of mine — that being the passage of more sensible laws as to who may buy and own a gun, while not injuring the Second Amendment — it was a bit of a slog...

There is a failure in our modern media to take a deeper look at the roots of the problems that ours and other societies are facing in the world. At present a huge wave of immigrants are racing across the Mediterranean to Europe to claim their stake in it. Most are fleeing the conflict...

First of all, you have to remind yourself that this movie was taken from a series of comic books lesser known to Americans. As with the plethora of action/hero films which US moviegoers are generously provided continually, that’s how...

As a Western, Jane Got a Gun looks quite authentic. It was shot around Santa Fe. Landscapes are top notch in north central New Mexico. There’s plenty of such of terrain to see in this new movie directed by Gavin O’Connor.

I wrote my comment for the studio rep at the screening of Macbeth as follows: ‘Tis an unruly film … '

Long-time Iowa farm cartoonist fired for factual cartoon criticizing Big Ag Rick Friday has been giving farmers a voice and a laugh every Friday for two decades through his cartoons in the Iowa publication Farm News. Now, in a case of blatant censorship in the service of Big Ag, the long-time Iowa farm cartoonist has...

There is an old saying that “a country gets the leaders it deserves.” So what does that say about the United States and the choices it has made of late? It says that we are now a superficial, gullible people.

Nefarious political critters are scrambling, backed into a corner by the “Panama Papers” It’s always educational to observe the behavior of wildlife in their natural habitat. For example, we learn that there’s nothing more vicious than a wild animal that’s cornered. I would add that there’s nothing more devious than a top political or corporate...

U.S. corporations owe $600 billion in taxes Carl Icahn, noted corporate predator and takeover specialist who made billions of dollars in corporate deals, has recently begun pushing a charitable cause.

Practically every wealthy nation today is making major investments in building high speed rail networks to transport their people, but not the USA.