Sam Raimi’s “Oz the Great and Powerful” follows in the footsteps of Tim Burton’s 2009 movie, “Alice in Wonderland”. Both rely heavily on CGI visuals and characters, and even share the same teams for the visuals. Each film is an original story grafted onto a preexisting work, “Oz” being ...
Isaac Marion’s zombie romance novel comes alive thanks to Summit Entertainment’s adaptation, “Warm Bodies”. Jonathan Levine does a brilliant job of adapting a novel told mostly through internal dialogue into a film that is visually engaging , humorous and heartwarming, balancing the macabre ...
The National Players brought an intriguing performance of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” to the Grand Opera House as part of the GrandKids Arts Education series. The National Players is a unique group for the Grand to bring in; though it is a professional theatre company that tours internationally, ...
Because who doesn’t love a little moral ambiguity in their protagonists? Imagine a hostile encounter between Sheriff Andy Taylor of “The Andy Griffith Show” and Deputy Rick Grimes from “The Walking Dead”. While Taylor considers why they are even battling, Grimes will have already shot Taylor ...
The 85th Annual Academy Awards proved to be an interesting one as Family Guy writer and voice-over phenomenon Seth MacFarlane took over hosting duties. Seemingly, this was supposed to be MacFarlane’s year. With several shows on television, the release of his first feature film “Ted” and hosting ...
“The Mikado” remains the greatest of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Savoy Operas, so named after the Savoy Theatre where most of them premiered. Designed to satirize British society through its Japanese characters and setting, this light English opera follows a series of absurd events within the town ...
Despite freezing weather and power failure, music festival persists for patrons Frigid weather was not enough to drive music enthusiasts away from the Drive-By Truckers’ performance at the Hummingbird Bar and Taproom’s biggest Big Bird Bash yet. Kristen O’Neal, the festival organizer, said that ...
The final event of the Macon Film Festival was a screening of the Academy Award-nominated film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”. The film has garnered universal acclaim since its release at the Sundance Film Festival and has gone on to be nominated for four Academy Awards. The film follows the story ...
When talented rappers move from the underground to the mainstream, they are often deemed sellouts in the music industry. Many were worried about Kendrick Lamar. At 25, Lamar was being called the next great West Coast rapper and he was cutting tracks with Lady Gaga. In other words, he was positioning ...
“House of Cards” is Netflix’s bold experiment into professionally produced Internet television. The show is a dark political drama that explores the corruption and cutthroat politics of Washington, D.C. Netflix also made the decision to release all 13 episodes of the first season at the same time, ...
Winsphere Jones’ original production “Thy Kingdom Come”, which premiered at the Douglass Theatre Feb. 8-9, was delightful to experience. The play was a tasteful blend of elements of “Hamlet”, “King Lear” and “Dr. Faustus” set in counterfactual America in the Kingdom of New Amsterdam. ...
Anton Chekhov’s play “The Seagull” is, as Scot Mann writes in his production notes for the Back Door Theatre’s latest performance, a play that cannot establish itself as a comedy or a tragedy. This lack of definition (despite Chekhov’s insistence that the play is a comedy) naturally makes ...
Macon showcases eclectic silver screen talent in local downtown venue The eighth annual Macon Film Festival was held in downtown Macon Feb. 14-17. Dozens of films were shown, several of which actually premiered at the festival. The content ranged from feature-length films about the rise of a punk rock ...
Like just about every other NFL fan this year, I was disappointed by the Super Bowl. The two best teams lost in fluke games, so the teams that actually played were mediocre at best—not to mention controversial (my favorite quote of the night was “I hope someone checks around Ray Lewis after the ...
Famed action legend Sylvester Stallone and Sung Kang of the “Fast and Furious” series team up in their latest action flick, “Bullet to the Head”. The film is one of the most mindless action films to come along in years. Adapted from a French graphic novel of the same name, “Bullet to the Head” ...
In a quest to conquer boredom when not diligently working, I have tried many online games. Some were extraordinarily fun and held my attention for weeks, if not months; others have been boring and only lasted several hours. One of the better games I have found is “World of Tanks” from wargaming.net. For ...
When I first read the synopsis for the book “Warm Bodies” (2011), I literally burst out laughing. A zombie love story? Surely the supernatural-romance genre that exploded with “Twilight” had gone too far. I thought the book was bound to be a hysterical farce or an absolutely horrible piece of ...
This Valentine’s Day, don’t even bother going to the theater for a chick flick. The most romantic film of this year is six and a half minutes long and can be found online. “Paperman,” Disney’s newest animated short, combines hand-drawn animation with CGI to tell a story that is as beautiful ...
Sometimes, the musicals that I enjoy most are not widely loved. I love them for their original Broadway casts or the music, and they get slammed for their plot and scene design. Or the musical wins Tony awards but isn’t successful at the box office. “Catch Me If You Can” is one of those musicals, ...
It takes a special “rom com” to be my jam, and I mainly like that kind of film if it has elements that are atypical of the genre of romantic comedies. “Silver Linings Playbook” was, without a doubt, one of these films. Yes, there was love, but there was also mental illness, hospital breakouts, ...
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