I've been on about this before, but one of the things that make so many superhero punch-ups so deadly dull is the Toughness Inconsistency Index, which states that the amount of punishment a hero can …

Avengers: Infinity War was a long movie: 160 minutes or so. After a long movie, there is often a general rush to the rest room, followed by an increasingly uncomfortable wait among a crowd of …

Bagpipes are mostly synthetic nowadays — reeds, chanters, drones; even the bags are rarely fashioned from animal hide any more. But the sound is still primitive, primal: a single octave plus one, the keening whine …

The Supergoose that Laid the Golden Eggs?

For a while there, Ye Olde new release schedule seemed to be waving a blank white flag of surrender: "Oh, Avengers: Infinity War, we know better than to try to compete with your awesome earning …

This week's big new release is very big: Avengers: Infinity War is here to mash up The Avengers, Spider-Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and probably a bunch of other stuff into …

Last Sunday, I took the 79 up to Julian for a family gathering with friends. I usually take the less-winding 67-78 route, but I was trying to work out a musical round about the French …

Bee Pedersen can still remember when she saw the thriller Seven in a theater. “We were going to have dinner after, but when we came out, I said, ‘You know, I think I’ve got to …

Look, even Homer nods. So yes, we missed A Quiet Place. Happily, a whole bunch of people found it without our help. Hooray for smart (by all accounts), small-budget horror! You know, like The Endless, …

A Catholic friend of mine is fond of saying “That’s gonna burn” when he looks back on this or that moment of personal failure. He imagines that when he dies and faces his final judgment, …

Well, we tried. We made it to Sgt. Stubby, You Were Never Really Here, Beirut, Baja, Rampage, and Borg vs. McEnroe. Aardvark and Sweet Country should be up before 5 p.m. (UPDATE: Okay, 10 p.m. …

The Rodeway Inn at the intersection of Spring and Gateside in south La Mesa burned in 2015. But its freestanding roadside sign still advertises the “new management, complimentary breakfast, and free WiFi” at the “home …

The Easter Bunny slipped a bottle of Fortaleza reposado tequila into the bright blue English watering can that doubled as my wife’s Easter basket this year. He deigned to plunk a bottle of Casa Noble …

Let's start with the big new release: for some reason, there's a rooster in the poster for Blockers, a movie about parents trying to preserve their daughters' virginity. What's that about? (Cue Beavis & Butthead …

For a while there, it looked like Steven Spielberg had spun his last spiel — or was getting close to it, anyway. Three years between Munich and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal …

Actor Bob Balaban has appeared in director Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom. In the delightful and exquisite Isle of Dogs, he plays King, a former dog food commercial star who is …

“God love him, you can’t have a holiday without Mike,” says Beth Lipski of her uncle, Mike Welch. He’s the one standing in full Tipperary kilt on the greensward of Balboa Park along Sixth Avenue, …

San Diego State University has appointed a task force to make a recommendation about whether or not to keep Monty Montezuma, the school’s Aztec warrior mascot. As of this writing, there has been no corresponding …

Harumph. My fellow critics are comparing Pacific Rim: Uprising to a Transformers movie. I say both action and story are vastly more clear and compelling than Michael Bay's blockbusters. They're saying that it's not as …

In Love, Simon, the kid has a problem. In Loveless, the kid is the problem. In The Cured, the kid is a reminder of a problem. In Tomb Raider, the heroine's problem is that she …

The San Diego Film Foundation’s 2018 Oscar Viewing Party was held at the luxurious Hacienda del Corazón in Rancho Santa Fe. On January 5 of last year, it was the Wall Street Journal’s House of …

On this particular Sunday, the longest line at the Chino Farm vegetable stand in Rancho Santa Fe is not the one for the pricey produce, or even for the wood-fired Stinging Nettle pizza. Instead, it …

First, the whimsical, quirky news, or at least the news of the whimsical and quirky: as a run-up to the March 28th release of Wes Anderson's latest, Isle of Dogs, the Digital Gym is running …

San Diego Instagram model Julianne (@juli.annee) has 4.9 million followers on the social-media platform. Her posts regularly receive over 100,000 likes. Julianne favors lingerie and swimsuits and often includes teasing captions with her photos that …

Most years, I watch the Oscars from the comfort of my bed, clad in my finest thrift-store pajamas and swilling El Jimador like they’re going to stop importing tequila when they build Trump’s wall. That …

It’s Saturday morning and I’m helping my wife and daughters clean Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Little Italy. It would be purest folly for the church to hire cleaners when they can instead …

A couple of weeks back, I wrote about joining Rotten Tomatoes because I liked the idea of a critical conversation — all those informed perspectives, gathered in one place and trading impressions. Last week, I …

I came out of the screening for Black Panther unmoved. I like films set in Africa. I like star Chadwick Boseman. I sometimes like director Ryan Coogler and actor Michael B. Jordan. I like actress …

It doesn’t much matter how I came to be in my recent predicament — stranded in the Evanston, Wyoming, Comfort Inn, just over the Utah border, staring out of the second-story window at the parking …

Ten years ago, the Academy Award for Best Picture went to No Country for Old Men — a solid choice, even though I would have gone with There Will Be Blood. (Not that you asked.) …

Books do furnish a room, but not at Pottery Barn in University Town Center. Even the writing desk is piled high with leather travel cases instead of readables. The only exception — the John Derian …

It's not a surprise that Scott Marks didn't much care for Fifty Shades Freed, the last chapter in the Fifty Shades trilogy, given what he thought of parts one and two. (Still, the sorry softcore …

Over a recent weekend, I listened to the audiobook of Patton Oswalt’s memoir Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an Addiction to Film. At one point, the actor and comedian recounts a 1996 trip …

Instagram and social media as we know it won’t last forever.

Shea Marie’s mother didn’t plan for her daughter to become a fashion icon any more than she planned for her son Matt Petranovic to become a fashion photographer. It definitely isn’t what they studied at …

Truth be told, there's not a lot on the new release front this week for some reason, and what there is has a decidedly backward-looking feel. Hostiles goes back to the settling (read: claiming) of …

In Hostiles, director and cowriter Scott Cooper re-teams with his Out of the Furnace star Christian Bale to tell the story of Captain Joseph J. Blocker, a man of war facing a violent transition — …

When I was just a little boy/ I asked my mother, “What will I be?” A soldier? A sheriff? An actress? A singer? A dressmaker? Que sera, sera, kid. Que sera, sera.

Maybe it’s when a man starts to feel a bit broken down and disposable himself that he starts to look around for things that are worth repairing and saving. Things like this Belles A amplifier …

I gave my wife five chickens for Christmas. A friend gave her three more, for a total of eight, which is also the number of children we’ve conceived. (Two made their exitus before being born.) …

A dumb train movie. A sweet train movie. A movie about sad old people. A movie about sad young people. A movie about a strong white woman. A movie about a strong black woman. And …

Looks back over the twisted landscape of 2017. Well, that was weird. Look, if lifelong cinephile Scott Marks can’t manage to put together a Top 10 List for this year, I don’t see why Matthew …

2302 Montclair Street Litterachur: A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, by David Foster Wallace God, etc.: The Shack, by William P. Young Crime: Smokin’ Seventeen, by Janet Evanovich. Sexytimes: none Kidz: Troubling a …

David Grant Urban was a fit 50something who had just finished hiking Mount Whitney when he found a lump on his neck. “I went through cancer treatment with three other people, and they all died,” …

Below, please find the most popular movie reviews of 2017, listed in descending order. It should go without saying that “popular” does not necessarily have any connection with “positive.” That goes double for the comments, …

An ode to eros. A screed against greed. A plea for decency. A tribute to decency. A digital update of a board game. A threequel for the Bellas. Daddy issues. Chemical issues. And a trunkful …

“What of [Alcibiades’] beard? Are you not of Homer’s opinion, who says, ‘Youth is most charming when the beard first appears’? And that is now the charm of Alcibiades.” — Socrates, the Protagoras That is …

Santiago, La Jolla’s Darger of the Hedgerows, lives most of his life in a sanctuary he carved for himself amid the dense trees and underbrush separating a kindly Frenchwoman’s home from the busy street on …

A recent exhibition of works by the artist known as Santiago — aka Charlie Chimpo, aka “the Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s Retard Grandson” (a self-applied sobriquet) — during a festival at La Jolla’s Mary Star …

That's not entirely fair, of course. This new Star Wars has lots more ladies than usual, and besides, the repeated bits are always given a little tweak here and there. Still, I did have a …