Review: Rock Camp | 3 out of 4 Stars | Not Rated By Kyle Osborne A cynical person would say that “Rock Camp” is really just a long infomercial for Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp, and maybe it is. But I don’t care – the ordinary people who attend these…
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Review: “The Marksman” Hits Just One Target
By Kyle Osborne You know, sometimes all you want from a movie is for it to be completely predictable. You want the good guy to wear a white hat and the bad guy to twirl his handlebar moustache. You don’t want one.single.thing to happen that hasn’t been telegraphed in advance.…
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Review: MLK/FBI 4 Stars. Gripping and Revealing
Review: MLK/FBI | Gripping and Revealing By Kyle Osborne More than half a century after his assassination, one would have thought that we’d seen and heard all there was to learn about Martin Luther King, Jr. Certainly anyone past grade school can recite at least one of the civil rights…
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Review: “Zappa” Documentary Not Just For Hardcore Fans| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
Review: Zappa | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Not Rated | By Kyle Osborne When I was 21 years old, I interviewed Frank Zappa backstage before a show in Brussels, Belgium. He was not happy to be there. He was exactly twice my age on that night, and…
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Oscar Nominee Review: “Soul” | 4 out of 4 Stars
Review: Soul | 4 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG | By Kyle Osborne “Soul,” the latest feature from Pixar Animation is deep. It’s very deep, yet it’s also delightful. How did they do that? I dunno, man. It’s magic. As amazing as the other Pixar films have been along…
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Oscar Nominee Review: Mank |3 ½ out of 4 Stars
Review: Mank | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | By Kyle Osborne What I liked about “Mank” is its rhythm, – the cadence of the dialogue and the almost musical beats in the editing. Gary Oldman delivers his lines like he’s calmly snapping your neck with a rubber band.…
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Oscar Nominee Review: News of the World | 2 Stars
Review: News of the World | 2 out of 4 Stars | PG-13 By Kyle Osborne It’s being billed as Tom Hanks’ first Western, but “News of the World” is simply a road movie. Like Midnight Run or Rain Man or Planes, Trains, and Automobiles…except not so great. The slow-pokey…
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Review: Wonder Woman 1984 | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
Review: Wonder Woman 1984 | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Wonder Woman 1984 (stylized as WW84) would have been a four star movie if it’d been about an hour shorter. Alas, the considerable goodwill begins to wane heading toward the conclusion at 2 ½…
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Review: ESPN’s Doc on Women’s Football Hits Hard
By Kyle Osborne You know the Patriots, the Red Sox, the Celtics and the Bruins, but have you ever heard of the Boston Renegades? You’d be in rare company if you did. In the documentary Born to Play, which debuts July 1st at 9 EDT on ESPN, director Viridiana Lieberman…
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Movie Review: ‘All I Can Say’ – Blind Melon’s Shannon Hoon Filmed His Own Doc
All I Can Say | 2 out of 4 Stars | Not Rated By Kyle Osborne The “Bee Girl” was everywhere in 1993. You couldn’t turn on MTV without seeing the video for the Blind Melon song, “No Rain.” Interspersed with the inscrutable girl were the band members, performing a…
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Review: ‘Incitement’ 3 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne How does a young man go from being a promising law student with a nice girlfriend to a Right Wing zealot who thinks he’s doing God’s work by killing the Prime Minister of Israel? The new film “Incitement” takes us through those steps, many of which must…
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Review: Color Out of Space | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | NR
Color Out of Space | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Not Rated By Kyle Osborne If you go into Color Out of Space completely blind, the sci-fi thriller plays almost like a Roger Corman B-movie; sort of overcooked, yet under developed. All of it punctuated by Nicolas Cage…
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Review: “Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound”| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars |
By Kyle Osborne Every year at the Oscars comes the few minutes where we fidget, or go to the bathroom or check to see if we’re winning the office Oscar pool. I speak of the hurried acceptance speeches of the winners for Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing. Usually…
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Review: ‘Joker’ | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R
“Joker”| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne I trashed my original review-I did the present day version of ripping the paper from the typewriter, noisily wadding the paper into a ball and chucking it in the trash can. Why? Because I had fallen into…
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Review: Where’s My Roy Cohn? | 3 out of 4 Stars
Where’s My Roy Cohn? | 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Attorney Roy Cohn died more than 30 years ago, yet his presence, or rather his lack of presence, looms large in the current White House. Cohn, after all, was once the mentor to New…
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Review: “Good Boys” is good, (not so) clean fun | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
Review: “Good Boys”| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne Remember back in 2004 when the Tony Award-winning musical “Avenue Q” was all the rage? The writers hit upon a novel idea that worked: take something innocent like warm, fuzzy puppets…and make them say the most…
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The Nightingale | 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated R
The Nightingale | | Rated R By Kyle Osborne By turns horrific, haunting, and visually rich, “The Nightingale” is an original spin on a revenge tale. Director Jennifer Kent (“The Babadook”) takes us to a time and place we’ve likely not seen in a movie: Tasmania, circa 1825, but material is…
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Review: ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name’| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars |
Review: ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name’| 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne “I was an asshole,” David Crosby says about himself in the revelatory documentary ‘David Crosby: Remember My Name’, and, indeed, the next 90 minutes don’t offer anyone who will argue against that point.…
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Review: ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ | 2 out of 4 Stars |
Review: ‘Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw’ | 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne For about a solid 90 minutes into the two hour and seventeen minute Fast & Furious spin-off, the abundant goodwill generated by Dwayne Johnson (Hobbs) and Jason Statham (Shaw) is…
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Review: ‘Once Upon A Time in Hollywood’ | 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated R
‘Once Upon A Time in…Hollywood’ | 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated R| 2hr 40min By Kyle Osborne Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film is like a big ass, vintage Cadillac: the ride is so smooth and easy, you may not notice or even care how long it takes you…
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Review: Midsommar | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R
Midsommar | 3 ½ out 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne Once or twice a year, when a movie ends and the credits roll, you find yourself saying, “Holy crap! What the hell was that?” It’s when a director swings for the fences and makes something that isn’t…
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Review: Yesterday | 3 out 4 Stars | Rated PG-13
Review: Yesterday | 3 out 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne At its core, Yesterday is a sweet British rom-com with one helluva soundtrack. If the news of the world and the current state of affairs have got you down, this good natured confection might be the perfect…
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Review: Being Frank | 1 out of 4 Stars |
Being Frank| 1 out of 4 Stars| Rated R By Kyle Osborne If a certain someone in the Oval Office were reviewing the new comedy Being Frank, he might accurately describe it as “low energy.” As a comedy, it doesn’t get many laughs, and as a family drama, it’s too…
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Review: First to the Moon | 3 out of 4 Stars|
Review: First to the Moon| 3 out of 4 Stars| Not rated By Kyle Osborne Serviceable, though not quite cinematic, First to the Moon, nevertheless, tells the Apollo 8 story with as much accuracy and detail as one could hope for. That’s mainly thanks to all three of its astronauts,…
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Review: Halston | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars|
Halston | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars| Not Rated By Kyle Osborne I learned that he had a first name- it was Roy. And I learned that he was the biggest American designer of his day in the 70s, before falling prey to the two things that cut down…
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Review: Echo in the Canyon | 3 out of 4 Stars
Echo in the Canyon | 3 out of 4 Stars| PG-13 (for drug references and some suggestive content) By Kyle Osborne We are living in a Golden Age of music documentaries. Maybe it’s just a function of so many streaming services needing content to fill out their programming? Maybe filmmakers…
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Review: The Russian Five | 3 out of 4 Stars
The Russian Five | 3 out of 4 Stars| Not Rated By Kyle Osborne The true test of whether a sports documentary has done its job comes down to this: did the filmmakers make you care about the athletes on a team in which you are otherwise completely uninterested? Legendary…
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Review: Finding Steve McQueen| 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG
Finding Steve McQueen| 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne It’s based on a fascinating true story that would make a terrific documentary for NetFlix. Alas, the story told as a semi-comedic, semi-fictionalized, Indie flick is uneven and not quite lively enough for the big screen–it,…
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Review: Mary Poppins Returns | 3 out of 4 Stars
Mary Poppins Returns| 3 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG By Kyle Osborne This is a challenge for someone my age–someone who remembers the original in its earliest days, if not its actual premiere (that part is fuzzy), because it’s impossible for a “sequel” to match that initial experience.…
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Review: Bohemian Rhapsody | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
Bohemian Rhapsody | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Man, I really, really wanted to love this movie. I’ve loved Queen and Freddie Mercury since 7th grade. Seared in my memory is seeing the video for the song Bohemian Rhapsody when it was first…
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Review: Mid90s | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
Mid90s | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars |Rated R By Kyle Osborne It’s hard not to feel affection for actor Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, even though Mid90s is scruffy, rough around the edges, and feels more like a draft than a finished film. It’s not for everybody, but if…
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Review: First Man | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
First Man | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Neil Armstrong was the rock star of his day, only with way better demographics and none of the glamour. An uncontroversial All-American with a brilliant mind and an aw-shucks demeanor, Armstrong was apple pie personified.…
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Review: A Star Is Born | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
A Star Is Born | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne I’m several days late in posting a review of A Star IS Born, which currently has a favorable score of 91% on RottenTomatoes.com, and certainly doesn’t need any help from me. However, I…
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Theatre Review: ‘Heisenberg’ at Signature Theatre
Heisenberg | 3 out of 4 Stars | Signature Theatre By Kyle Osborne Walking into Signature Theatre’s smaller house, The ARK, you can’t help but notice that there’s a bed in the center of the room…and that you won’t be more than a few rows from it, no matter where…
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Review: ‘Venom’ 2 out of 4 Stars
Venom | 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne For my money, Tom Hardy is as interesting an actor as anyone currently in the business. He works economically, his performances are well-calibrated with charisma that burns through the lens- even when he’s not saying a word.…
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Review: ‘Macbeth’ at Folger Theatre. There Will Be Blood
Macbeth by William Shakespeare |3 out of 4 Stars|Folger Theatre By Kyle Osborne This article isn’t for people who know their Shakespeare cold. For knowledgeable theatre goers, read this take on the play and music. No, this is for those who only kinda recognize the quotes below, and will be…
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Movie Review: ‘Peppermint’ …Please, Make It Schnapp
Peppermint| 1 out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne You have to hand it to Peppermint, the latest version of Death Wish/Equalizer, starring the always likable Jennifer Garner: It never settles for mediocre when it can go for full blown horrible instead. Virtually every move by Director…
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Review: Never Goin’ Back | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars
Never Goin’ Back | 2 ½ out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne It’s an odd, but engaging film that mixes an Indie character study vibe with elements of a gross-out, buddy film. I suppose there is some novelty in having two teenaged girls discussing poop, pooping,…
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Review: ‘The Meg’ 2 out of 4 Stars
The Meg | 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Not quite good enough to be “good” and not quite bad enough to be “bad”, The Meg, nevertheless, finds a space somewhere between JAWS and Sharknado as a decent diversion for summer moviegoers. Especially as seen…
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Review: Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti 2 out of 4 Stars
“Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti” | 2 out of 4 Stars | Rated R By Kyle Osborne Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Picasso: scores of biopics about noted artists have been made, but as I search my oft-failing memory for one that was 100% successful, none comes to mind. At least Gauguin is…
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Review: ‘The Scottsboro Boys’ at Signature Theatre 3 out of 4 Stars
The Scottsboro Boys | Signature Theatre | 3 out of 4 Stars By Kyle Osborne Kander and Ebb were/are/forever will be known for Cabaret and Chicago and for the song New York, New York, among their large and celebrated body of work. Less well known is their 2010 musical (which…
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Review: Ocean’s 8 | 3 out of 4 Stars
Ocean’s 8 | 3 out of 4 Stars By Kyle Osborne It’s hard to get mad at a film with such low ambitions—Ocean’s 8 only wants to be a light and fluffy summer flick, and on that score it succeeds. It’s fun and breezy and pass the popcorn. Sandra Bullock plays…
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That Time Sandra Bullock’s Mom Called Me
By Kyle Osborne Did I ever tell you about the time that Sandy Bullock’s mom called me at work? I was thinking about that tonight for the first time in years as I was watching ‘Oceans 8’ (opens June 8). It was in the summer of 1995-Sandy had really broken…
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Interview: Leigh Whannell, Creator of ‘Saw’ and ‘Insidious’ Makes Cool New Movie
By Kyle Osborne If you’ve ever seen a movie with “Saw” or “Insidious” in the title since 2004, then you’ve seen the work of Leigh Whannell. Along with his producing partner, Director James Wan, Whannell has written and/or produced and, in some cases, directed films that have scared the bejeezus…
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Review: ‘Upgrade’ 3 ½ out of 4 Stars
Upgrade | 3 ½ out of 4 Stars By Kyle Osborne Director and Screenwriter Leigh Whannell, the guy (along with producing partner James Wan) whose “Saw” and “Insidious” movies have made him very rich and famous, has crafted a taut revenge thriller that is unlike those in his Horror catalog.…
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Review: ‘Saint Joan’ at Folger Theatre 3 out of 4 Stars
‘Saint Joan’ at Folger Theatre | 3 out of 4 stars By Kyle Osborne| Photos: Teresa Wood The play is quite long—this review will be short. George Bernard Shaw’s classic “Saint Joan,” a play from the 1920s about that most famous girl to have ever been burned at the stake…
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Review: Breaking In with Gabrielle Union: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
Breaking In |Gabrielle Union| 2 ½ out of 4 stars By Kyle Osborne It isn’t high art, but the unpretentious thriller Breaking In is a good version of what it is: a popcorn thriller that features a relatable heroine going against some bad guys who have unwisely messed with the…
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Review: Life of the Party with Melissa McCarthy: Zero Stars
Life of the Party | Melissa McCarthy | Zero Stars By Kyle Osborne Has anyone simultaneously generated more goodwill, yet more box office stink bombs than Melissa McCarthy? She is a gifted comedic actor and, by all accounts, a lovely person. Why does she rarely find material that takes advantage…
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Review: I Feel Pretty with Amy Schumer 3 out of 4 Stars
I Feel Pretty 3 out of 4 stars Rated PG-13 By Kyle Osborne Amy Schumer’s new comedy, “I Feel Pretty,” brings back the charming, relatable everywoman who mass audiences embraced so warmly in 2015’s similar (sort of) rom-com “Trainwreck.” This is good news. Schumer’s early years were niche-successful, but…
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Movie Review: A Quiet Place 3 out of 4 Stars
A Quiet Place 3 out of 4 stars By Kyle Osborne A Quiet Place, directed by the actor John Krasinski, who also co-stars with real-life wife Emily Blunt, may just be the most economical movie I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t tell you anything more than what you absolutely need…
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Review: The Way of the World at Folger Theatre
By Kyle Osborne The Folger Theatre has a way of amplifying the mood and tone of each play presented there. There’s something in the air inside that house that is nearly indescribable, but in the case of writer and director Theresa Rebeck’s The Way of the World, it translates into…
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Good, Not Great: Three New Movies That Just Missed The Mark
By Kyle Osborne No, I’m not intentionally trolling and, no, I don’t think my opinion is better than yours. But this past month I’ve seen three movies that, while pretty solid, fell short of my hopes. And what were my hopes based on? They were based on the high praise…
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Movie Review: I, Tonya 4 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne I, Tonya 4 out of 4 Stars I kinda hate that this movie is being positioned as a snarky comedy in certain circles because it is so much better than that. It’s closer to a Shakespearean tragedy than an SNL skit. There are laughs, to be sure,…
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Movie Review: Molly’s Game 3 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Molly’s Game 3 ½ out of 4 Stars Director Aaron Sorkin writes a script that snaps, crackles and pops. He loves his own words, some might say he loves his own words a little too much, but in the hands of the right actors, so do we.…
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Review: The Book of Will at Round House Theatre
NOTE: The run of the play has been extended through December 30th. By Kyle Osborne Equal parts silly and substantive, The Book of Will introduces us to the unsung heroes who got their old theatre pal’s plays–to reverse the old phrase–from the stage to the page. The fact that their…
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Review: The Shape of Water 4 out of 4 Stars
The Shape of Water 4 out of 4 stars Rated R (for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence and language) By Kyle Osborne If you’ve seen Beauty and The Beast or, really, any number of fairy tales, then there are but few surprises in director Guillermo del Toro’s beautiful The Shape…
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Review: The Disaster Artist
The Disaster Artist 3 out of 4 stars rated R (for language throughout and some sexuality/nudity) By Kyle Osborne I was trying to describe the movies The Room and The Disaster Artist to a friend who lives more than 10,000 miles away and speaks English as a second language. It…
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Review: Thor: Ragnarok – The Superhero Movie for People Not All That Into Superhero Movies
By Kyle Osborne I always go into these Marvel movies with high hopes, even though the whole Superhero/Comic Book genre is not my favorite. Not even close. What’s great about Thor: Ragnarok is that it’s the Superhero movie for people who aren’t that into Superhero movies. I really liked it.…
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Movie Review: ‘American Assassin’: Just Shoot Me
American Assassin 1.5 out of 4 stars By Kyle Osborne True to its literal title, ‘American Assassin’ gets right to the point, as vacationers on a pristine beach are mowed down by gunfire from an apparent Muslim terrorist cell. The body count in the first five minutes numbers in the…
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Movie Review: ‘IT’: Creepy Clown, Underground
By Kyle Osborne The guy sitting next to me at the screening for ‘IT’, the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel, is about 40 years old. A professional film critic. By my count, he’s yelled out loud four separate times. “Waughh!!!,” followed by exhales heavy enough for high…
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Review: ‘The Big Sick’ : Bad Title, Great Movie
By Kyle Osborne Imagine a romantic comedy that is both romantic and, well, funny! From a genre that has disappointed so many of us starry-eyed hopefuls comes ‘The Big Sick’, a delightful, heartwarming comedy that has an incredible sense of tone and reality. Yes, it is a terrible title, but…
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Movie Review: ‘Baby Driver’ One of the Year’s Best
By Kyle Osborne It’s no wonder that the fanboys were immediately gaga over “Baby Driver,” it’s a movie that is gleefully about movie making. Its flamboyant tracking shots and long takes without a cut are as attention-seeking as a bright red hot rod. The editing is frenetic and the soundtrack…
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My Top Ten Films of 2016
Top Ten Films of 2016 By Kyle Osborne This is probably my least conventional list in years. There’s a super hero flick, a film that was “Rotten” on Rotten Tomatoes.com, and two foreign releases. Whatever, I don’t care—these were the films that moved me the most in 2016. Manchester By…
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Theatre Review: ‘Titanic’ at Signature Theatre
By Kyle Osborne After a decidedly rough 2016, you wanted some good news for the new year? Here it is: Titanic, the Tony Award-winning musical currently playing at Signature Theatre, is as glorious as you’ve heard. You think you know the ending? As the annoying Trivago commercial spokesman might say:…
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Theatre Review: ‘All The Way’ at Arena Stage
By Kyle Osborne Reckoning with the fact that Black Lives Matter. Arm-twisting to get legislation passed. Preparing for possible shenanigans at the upcoming convention. Although it sounds a lot like 2016, it’s 1964. Lyndon Johnson has become President following the assassination of John F. Kennedy several months earlier. High stakes…
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Theatre Review: ‘Destiny of Desire’ at Arena Stage: Dos Thumbs Up!
By Kyle Osborne The new theatre season has just begun and it’s already feeling exceptional. Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater has started things off with a hilarious romp called Destiny of Desire. It’s sexy and silly and a lot of fun to experience. Please read my review and…
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Movie Review: ‘The Visit’
By Kyle Osborne No one has rooted for M Night Shyamalan with more passion than I. ‘Unbreakable’ remains one of my favorite films of the 90’s and, of course, ‘The Sixth Sense’ made him an instant sensation. But let’s face it–he lit the fuses to numerous stink bombs over the…
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Movie Review: ‘Get Hard’ – Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart Bring Up The Rear…Repeatedly
By Kyle Osborne It goes out of its way to be offensive, it takes low brow to a new low, and if you were paid a nickel for every f-bomb and anatomical reference, you’d walk out of the theatre with enough to pay for your popcorn. But “Get Hard” also…
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Theatre Review: ‘Laugh’ at Studio Theatre
Laugh, set in the Silent Film era of the 1920’s, is a love letter to pratfalls and props, to double-takes and dreams of Hollywood and striking it rich. And pies in the face. Helen Cespedes plays Mabel, a rube who would be right at home in a vintage Mountain Dew…
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Movie Review: ‘The Divergent Series: Insurgent’
By Kyle Osborne Not to sound like a curmudgeon, but these so-called “Young Adult” novels turned movies sort of run together for me—which one has Jennifer Lawrence? Is she the same person as Shailene Woodley? What was the name of the one that had Harrison Ford and a kid in…
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Movie Review: ‘Run All Night’ with Liam Neeson and Ed Harris 3 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne We abhor violence and murder and deadly car chases in real life. Of course we do. But put those elements in a cinematic context and you’re talking about important components of some of the greatest films in American history. ‘Run All Night’ isn’t even close to being…
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Movie Review: ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’: A Warm Visit With Old Friends
By Kyle Osborne If you’re old enough to remember old TV Shows like ‘The Love Boat’ and ‘Hotel’,then you might think what I’m about to say is an insult, but it’s not…’The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ is like an extended episode of the Love Boat. Seriously. It uses the…
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Movie Review: ‘Jupiter Ascending’ – Space Camp
By Kyle Osborne Note: This is not a review. It would be dishonest to say that I saw all of “Jupiter Ascending.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s the worst movie I’ve seen in recent memory, and if I were officially giving it a rating, I’d give Zero out of 4…
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Theatre Review: ‘Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery’ at Arena Stage
Is there anything wrong with a play being “Silly”? Are you kidding? Any Monty Python fan will instantly think of the “Ministry Of Silly Walks” and double over laughing. And so it is with Ken Ludwigs Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery. It’s whip smart and completely sophisticated in its execution, writing and delivery.…
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Movie Review: ‘The Boy Next Door’ Oh, No J-Lo !
By Kyle Osborne I realize that a lot of people think that critics just live for movies like the Jennifer Lopez debacle, “The Boy Next Door,” but the truth is that we don’t want to spend two hours in Hell, just so we can trash a movie that had very…
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Movie Review: “Birdman (Or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) 4 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Like the pompous ass I can be (when I’m at my very best) I have already predicted 3 of the 5 Best Actor Nominees, which will be announced sometime in 2015. Eddie Redmayne for “The Theory of Everything” is the surest of sure things. Steve Carrell for…
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Movie Review: “The Theory of Everything” 4 out of 4 Stars. Certain Oscar Nom for Eddie Redmayne
By Kyle Osborne I know this sounds cocky, but of the 5 guys who will be nominated for Best Actor Oscars at the next Academy Awards—I’m certain I know 3 of them. The first soon to be nominee is Eddie Redmayne, who plays the celebrated scientist Stephen Hawking in “The…
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Movie Review: ‘Interstellar’ 2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne I’m not saying that the Emperor isn’t wearing any clothing, but Director Christopher Nolan is walking through the town square in a razor thin thong that his most rabid fans (whose hero worship borders on a proprietary bent) are mistaking for a three-piece suit. “Interstellar,” Nolan’s “Epic”…
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Theatre Review: ‘Elmer Gantry’ at Signature Theatre
By Kyle Osborne There is a moment in Elmer Gantry, about half way through the first act, when you realize you’re experiencing something great—something that you can’t see whenever the mood strikes you—something you can go around the corner and grab like a loaf of bread. That something (someone) is…
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Movie Review ‘Kill The Messenger’ with Jeremy Renner 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne There’s something appealing about thrillers involving journalists—they’re the ultimate whistle-blowers. Great films, ranging from ‘All The President’s Men” to “The Insider”, have given us portraits of “The Lone Crusader for Truth” putting his reputation if not his very life in jeopardy to expose the evil doings of…
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Movie Review: ‘The Judge’ 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne You couldn’t ask for a better cast, and the production is first rate-so what’s wrong with “The Judge”? The story follows a slick Chicago lawyer (Robert Downey, Jr.) who never represents innocent people because they can’t afford his services. Downey is perfectly cast as the cocky dandy…
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Movie Review: ‘Gone Girl’ 3 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Did he kill his wife or not? That’s the central question in “Gone Girl,” the new movie adapted from the worldwide best-selling novel. Well, it’s the central question for half of the film, before a big “reveal”, and a shift in tone and plot—none of which will…
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Movie Review: ‘The Equalizer’. Denzel Does His Thing!
By Kyle Osborne We go to the movies for lots of reasons—to put away our cares for a couple of hours, or to be taken to a location which we’ll probably never see in “real life.” But sometimes we simply want to see the good guy prevail over the…
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Theatre Review: ‘The Shoplifters’ at Arena Stage Will Steal Your Heart
By Kyle Osborne How does one make serious commentary on the subject of income inequality and the soulless indifference of corporate chain stores? If you’re Canadian playwright and director Morris Panych, you start with a 16 ounce Rib-eye steak being hidden up an old lady’s dress. Next, have said old…
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Movie Review: ‘This Is Where I Leave You’ With Jason Bateman and Tina Fey
By Kyle Osborne “This Is Where I Leave You” stars one of my favorite guys for the past 5 or 10 years—Jason Bateman. He comes home to find his wife cheating on him with his boss, and barely settles in to a bachelor’s apartment before learning that his father has…
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Movie Review: ‘The Maze Runner’ 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne This week, 2 films that are driving right down the middle of the road, neither terrible nor terrific, but certainly appealing to the narrowest part of their respective audiences. The Maze Runner gets off to a compelling start, as a late teen dude finds himself waking up…
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Movie Review” “Sin City: A Dame To Kill For” 4 Out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Let’s be honest, movies start getting worse, not better, during August and early September. Typically, these few weeks are when Hollywood dumps the films that weren’t good enough for summer and aren’t good enough for late fall and the holidays. Talk about “expendable.” So, it’s nice to…
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Movie Review: ‘The Expendables 3’ Gets 2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne The four eldest actors of the cast of “The Expendables 3” have a combined age of 265 years. If they had to buy tickets to their own movie, they’d get the senior citizen’s discount. They’re not the Expendables, they’re the Depends-ables. This film isn’t rated PG-13, it’s…
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5 Myths About Movie Critics Dispelled (or rather ‘Explained’)
Five Myths About Movie Critics By Kyle Osborne Film critics hold a confusing, often contradictory status among movie goers. They’re the bad guys, the snoots, the nerds with a Twizzler stuck up their… And yet, studio marketing people know that good “quotes” that can be incorporated into the advertising of…
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Movie Review: ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ 2 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Would I lose credibility with you if I mentioned that ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ is nowhere near as awful as I thought it’d be? What’s that? I don’t have any credibility to lose? Perfect, because some people are really gonna like it, and I don’t think those…
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Movie Review: ‘Into The Storm’ In The Running For Worst of 2014
By Kyle Osborne You know how sometimes you see a TV commercial for a movie and it’s described as a “Thrill Ride?” I’ve decided to describe the new movie “Into the Storm” that way too, based on how I think of rides at theme parks: It’s crowded. It’s hot. You…
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Movie Review: ‘Calvary” Profound Message With A Light Touch
By Kyle Osborne We learn in the first minutes of “Calvary”, an Irish film starring the great Brendan Gleeson as the Priest of a small seaside town, that Gleeson is a good priest, a good man. And that is precisely why his life is in mortal danger. Inside the confessional…
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Movie Review: ‘Snowpiercer’ Now on iTunes and Still In Some Theaters
By Kyle Osborne Don’t you sometimes get a little suspicious when every critic is raving about a film that hardly anyone you know has seen? Same here. Sometimes it means that the critics have glommed onto something that they dare not pan for fear of losing cool points with their…
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Theatre Review: ‘Carrie: The Musical’ Bloody Good Fun at Studio Theatre
By Kyle Osborne How could you not want to see a Broadway musical that made history—a show that remains part of showbiz lore? Carrie: The Musical, which opened on Broadway in 1988, and quickly closed after five official performances, was one of the biggest belly flops in theatre history. The…
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Movie Review: “Guardians of the Galaxy” 3 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne I was sick of the preview trailer by this past Spring, and having never heard of the Guardians of the Galaxy, I figured that Marvel Comics had finally run out of super heroes to star in zillion dollar movies, and had gotten desperate. Ah, but it’s nice…
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Movie Review: “Lucy” – This is Your Brain On Drugs
By Kyle Osborne Have you ever listened intently to, let’s say, an old Uncle tell you a story that is so ridiculously implausible, so far-fetched, that you’re actually too entertained to interrupt and call bull on the whole thing? Well, say hello to Uncle Luc Besson, the director of “Lucy”. …
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Movie Review: ‘Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes’ 3 Out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Hi Friends! This week I’m posting a video review of ‘Dawn Of The Planet of The Apes.’ I hope you’ll click the image below and watch it. I’m not raving as much as most critics, but it is worth seeing. Tweet Pin It
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Movie Review: “Tammy”. Melissa McCarthy’s Comedy Is Tragic
By Kyle Osborne To paraphrase an old show biz axiom: Slip on a banana peel and fall on your bum? That’s comedy. Slip on a banana peel, fall and crack your skull open and start bleeding? That’s tragedy. Melissa McCarthy’s new comedy “Tammy”, which she and her husband, Ben Falcone,…
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Movie Review: “Transformers: Age of Extinction”
By Kyle Osborne We all know that the Transformers films and their reviled director, Michael Bay, are critic-proof. So why am I even here? If you’re a fan, you’ve already made your plans and you won’t be disappointed. If you’re not a fan, is this fourth film in the franchise,…
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Movie Review: ‘Jersey Boys’ Can’t We All Just Get Along?
By Kyle Osborne I’ve only met him twice, briefly—but Clint Eastwood’s friendly smile and direct eye contact and firm handshake are the stuff movie stars are made of. Everyone who has ever worked with him, especially those whom he has directed, has only the nicest things to say about him.…
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Movie Review: ‘Chef’ 4 Out Of 4 Stars. Jon Favreau Cooks Up Laughs
By Kyle Osborne In the midst of all the summer bombast—the monsters and the superheroes and the big-budget extravaganzas, may we take a moment for a little “counter-programming”? I’ve let it quietly go for a few weeks, but it’s starting to expand into more theaters and it’s time to talk…
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Movie Review: ‘Maleficent’ Shhh…you’ll wake the audience
By Kyle Osborne Every good fairy tale starts with “Once Upon A Time,” and so does the new movie “Maleficent,” Disney’s re-imagining (or some word like that) of the Sleeping Beauty tale, as seen through the eyes of who we always thought was the kinda hot witch who casts the…
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Movie Review: ‘A Million Ways To Die In The West’
By Kyle Osborne Flatulence, pedophilia, explosive diarrhea, male bodily fluids, urinating sheep and a shooting gallery that features “runaway slaves” as the painted metal targets—these are just a few of the “hilarious” subjects that Seth McFarlane mines for groans in “A Million Ways To Die In The West.” McFarlane, best…
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Theatre Review: ‘Cock’ at Studio Theatre- Now Extended Through June 29th
NOTE: ‘Cock” has received a one week extension at Studio Theatre, where it will now close on June 29th. GO SEE IT! By Kyle Osborne “….you don’t have to like the characters in order to enjoy a play, of course. And in Cock that is great news. One more minute…
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Theatre Review: ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ at Arena Stage
By Kyle Osborne When Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller met in Los Angeles in 1950, the two teenagers could never have imagined that they’d co-write dozens of songs that not only would be chart-topping hits, but would become part of Americana. Decades of pop culture have played out over a…
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Q&A with ‘Godzilla’ Director Gareth Edwards
By Kyle Osborne It’s hard to believe that the man who directed the new ‘Godzilla’ film is still in his thirties. The soft-spoken Brit had only made one other film (2010’s ‘Monsters’) before getting the reigns to a film that reportedly cost well over 100 million dollars to make. Read…
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Movie Review: ‘Godzilla’ 3 1/2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne According to Hollywood folklore, the titular character in the film that invented the phrase “Summer Blockbuster” was quite temperamental and wasn’t very cooperative. The mechanical shark in “JAWS” was meant to be seen a lot more frequently than what the final cut revealed, but due to problems…
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Movie Review: ‘Neighbors’ 2 out of 4 Stars
By Kyle Osborne Here’s the question you have to ask yourself before you go to see the new comedy “Neighbors”… “How much do I love dick jokes?” Not one or two over the course of 90 minutes or so, but many. Are phalluses funny? What about power-stream lactation of a…
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Theatre Review: ‘The Threepenny Opera’ at Signature Theatre
By Kyle Osborne For many of us, the only thing we know about The Threepenny Opera is the song “Mack the Knife”—and even then we mostly know it as the swinging, lounge-y version that was a #1 hit for Bobby Darin in 1959. (I happen to remember the bastardized version…
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Theatre Review: ‘The Two Gentlemen of Verona’ at Folger Shakespeare Theatre
By Kyle Osborne Fun. Now, there’s a word you never hear in conjunction with Shakespeare. You hear “interesting” or “edifying” or “educational”, but hardly ever just “fun.” You know, like a pumpkin patch or a boat ride—something that simply gives you pleasure, makes you smile. Get ready to have fun…
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Movie Review: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Has 2 Much There, There
By Kyle Osborne The Spider-Man reboot of 2012 with Andrew Garfield in the title role was great—the youthful exuberance and joke cracking was, to me, more appealing than Tobey Maguire’s sleepy-eyed moodiness. Hey, if we want a brooding super hero, we’ll go to a Dark Knight movie. Now comes “The…
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Theatre Review: ‘Two Trains Running’ at Round House Theatre
By Kyle Osborne Playwright August Wilson had already achieved star status by the time of his death in 2005 at the too young age of 60. His cycle of ten plays, one for each decade of the twentieth century, included the celebrated Fences, and introduced theatre goers to his hometown of Pittsburgh—specifically the…
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Theatre Review: ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ at Ford’s Theatre
The past couple weeks have been filled with sad and disappointing news on TV and online—it makes one wish for a quick “getaway.” Some way to spend an evening, perhaps, laughing and smiling and enjoying oneself. If only there was a way…. Ah, here’s something: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling…
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Movie Review: ‘Transcendence’ High-Tech or High Camp?
By Kyle Osborne “Transcendence” comes out of the chute with crackling energy and the promise of a good premise, but don’t get your hopes up—less than half way in the film collapses into camp and never recovers. Johnny Depp plays Dr. Will Caster, a real expert on Artificial Intelligence. He…
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Movie Review: ‘Draft Day’ Not Just By The Numbers
By Kyle Osborne You know how you can tell that you’ve just seen a good movie? If you’ve been entertained or interested in a story, the subject of which you couldn’t care less about, then the film has done its job. Insider trading on Wall Street? I don’t even know…
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