Author: Bob Westal

In an alternate universe where monsters, wizards, and medieval-style swashbuckling coexists with marijuana and 21st century curse words, live two princes. Thadeous (Danny McBride) is lazy, cowardly, arrogant, and generally very unpleasant for a pothead slacker. His older brother, Fabious (James Franco), is, on the other hand, a more or less standard-issue fantasy prince. Good to the point of absurdity, Fabious can think only the best thoughts of his older-looking younger brother – even when Thadeous skips out as the best man at his planned wedding to Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), a lovely waif with a good singing voice that Fabious…

When screenwriter Paul Schrader heard about the attempted 1981 assassination of Ronald Reagan by John David Hinckley, his first thought was that the perpetrator was “one of those ‘Taxi Driver’ kids.” He was more right than he could have possibly realized. What Schrader couldn’t know at the time was how many other “‘Taxi Driver’ kids” would eventually find their way onto the big screen. As the fully restored Blu-ray version of “Taxi Driver” makes clear, the classic collaboration between Schrader, director Martin Scorsese, and actor Robert De Niro remains a suspenseful, shocking, and beautiful film 35 years after its first…

The first shot of “Taxi Driver” is meant to remind us of hell. Steam billows out of a manhole. Then, a yellow cab emerges from it like a monster from a radioactive swamp. The man in the cab is, of course, Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro). A 26 year-old war veteran, he is not merely alienated but estranged from the universe. We hear Travis’s moralistic narration about a cleansing rain that will redeem a Manhattan besmirched by crime and sexual depravity, but he spends his time transporting prostitutes and sitting in porno theaters. We see him popping pills to ensure…

Making a good cocktail can, fairly literally, make you the life of the party. It can definitely score you points with friends, coworkers, bosses (some a lot more than others), significant others and potential significant others (some a lot more than others). You already know how to a lot of cocktails because their recipes are also their names — gin and tonic…rum and Coke…Jack and Coke…Scotch and soda. Screwdrivers and greyhounds are just names for orange or grapefruit juice and vodka. Give or take a garnish, these “highballs” all call for 1-2 ounces of booze to taste, about six ounces…

On top of its many bizarre fantasy action sequences, this wantonly misconceived action-fantasy with quasi-psychological overtones was, according to some sources, shot as a kind of musical. In the current theatrical cut, the numbers have been all but completely removed, but it still resembles a musical. It’s not like one I’ve actually seen, mind you. It’s more like the elaborate shows-within-movies that the characters in “42nd Street” and “The Bandwagon” put on: full of wild imagery and containing absolutely no logic or sense. According to the press materials, “Sucker Punch” is set in 1967, but it actually takes place in…

The more time passes, the more a misleading pleasant glow envelopes the 1980s and the more I grow puzzled about why anyone would want to relive that decade. I was there as a fully aware young adult and, as far as I can tell, it was no high point in any political, social, or mass culture category. How surprising, then, to find a movie that makes me feel a bit wistful for that bygone era when “liberal” became a dirty word and bland pop music permanently took over the airwaves. Like “American Graffiti,” but with vastly more ironic musical choices,…

As young Eric Forman on “That 70’s Show,” Topher Grace was the ideal anchor for the sitcom’s broad humor, a straight man who was also the funniest person on the show. He was noticed, and movies came calling. After a terrific film debut as a smart-yet-idiotic young druggie in Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning “Traffic,” and a brilliant cameo as an idiotic-yet-idiotic version of himself in “Ocean’s Eleven,” he starred in a pair of 2004 comedies with the potential to make a him a major movie star. “In Good Company” was a solid and thoughtful comedy, and “Win a Date With Tad…

A solid actress and nearly universally acclaimed comic in the tradition of Lucille Ball, Carol Channing, and Carol Burnett, Anna Faris has shined in films as diverse as “Lost in Translation,” “The House Bunny,” “Smiley Face,” “Brokeback Mountain,” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.” As an aspiring author circa the late 1980’s who must decide whether or not she wants to marry her deeply stupid boyfriend, played by her new real-life husband, Chris Pratt of “Parks and Recreation,” “Take Me Home Tonight” proves that, though she hasn’t had much practice, Faris can very competently play a character with an…

As comfortable with a joke as a knock-out punch, Jason Statham is not just an action star and martial artist, he’s an honest-to-God movie star. He has been since he first hit the screen in Guy Ritchie’s comic crime tale “Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels” and its bigger budget follow-up, “Snatch.” Following that up with a major role in the 2003 all-star caper, “The Italian Job,” Statham is best known these days as the star of the “Crank” and “Transporter” franchises. Pushing 40, he maintains his discipline of doing as many of his own stunts as is practical and,…

A lot of actors — including a lot of really good ones — play characters who seem to enjoy putting on a show in their personal lives. Ben Foster has made a career of playing people who often seem to hate the thought of being noticed. A method actor who’s been praised for his thoroughly professional attitude, Ben Foster projects an odd sort of vulnerability. Comparisons are always a trap, but it’s hard not to think a little bit of a young Sean Penn or maybe Montgomery Clift. He certainly has that kind of intensity. If you don’t know Foster…