TV’s Big Questions Teased at Comic-Con

By Susan JAMES What a difference a year makes, especially in television. At last year’s Comic-Con, the annual, highly anticipated media extravaganza held in San Diego’s Convention Center, producers and cast of the brand new ABC television show “Once Upon A Time” faced a room of a few hundred people, screened the show’s pilot and […]

Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Shakespeare By The Sea theatre group returned again to Two Strike Park on Friday to perform for a crowd of anxious audience members. Families and couples brought picnic dinners, lawn chairs, blankets and other accoutrements to the park to spend an evening with Shakespeare’s classic “Two Gentlemen of Verona.” The production was set on […]

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre Announces “25 Cent Family Flicks”

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (www.chinesetheatres.com) is turning 85 years old and announced a 25 cent-a-ticket offering for families on Saturdays at its Chinese 6 theatres in Hollywood. Each Saturday a classic family film will be featured at 10 a.m. This Saturday is Madagascar 1; on July 21 Puss in Boots; July 28 Kung Fu Panda 1; […]

‘Savages’ is Over the Top – Painfully

By Charly SHELTON Have you ever wanted to see someone beheaded by chainsaw? Or strung up with chains? All this and more is in Oliver Stone’s new film, “Savages.” I, for one, have never wanted to see any of that. Ever. But sitting in the darkened theater, I found it difficult to look away from […]

Once Again, From the Top (Panel, That Is)

By Charly SHELTON “The Avengers” came out this summer and it became the most successful film of all time that was not directed by Jim Cameron. Then “The Amazing Spider-Man” had a nice, big opening this last weekend over July 4th. And later this month, Batman makes his last hurrah on the big screen in […]

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Spins A Golden Web

‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ Spins A Golden Web

By Susan JAMES Director Marc Webb, with the help of an able cast, has spun pure gold from the overworked tale of a boy, a spider and the birth of a superhero. With “The Amazing Spider-Man,” Webb offers us a fully fleshed out origin story that is entertaining, at times comic and always involving. Framed […]

DCA – It’s a Wrap

By Charly SHELTON Big things have been happening at Disney California Adventure. We visited Buena Vista Street, the 1920s-era land recently added to DCA. Then we saw Cars Land located in the same park, the biggest land expansion since the opening of Disneyland. And this week, to wrap it up, we will take a look […]

Revving up for Fun in Cars Land

By Charly SHELTON Last week we looked at the reopening of Disney California Adventure park and the fantastic new opening statement of a land – Buena Vista Street, harking back to the ’20s and ’30s in Los Angeles when a young cartoonist named Walt Disney stepped off the train with a cardboard suitcase and a […]