‘Walk the Line’ review
“Walk the Line” – He wasn’t just a guy with a cool voice who dressed in black. Country legend Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix) also swooned over a woman (Reese Witherspoon’s June Carter), battled a pill […]
Music
‘Almost Famous’ review
NDSU Spectrum: Movie review ‘Almost Famous’ makes you feel all warm and fuzzy By JOHN HANSEN Oct. 13, 2000 “Almost Famous” is so relentlessly warm and fuzzy that at times I just hoped for a […]
‘Coyote Ugly’ review
“Coyote Ugly” — Aspiring songwriter Violet Sanford (Piper Perabo) takes a job at the titular Big Apple bar. Along with attractive women dancing on bar counters, the film also features a sweet romance, a nice […]
First episode impressions: ‘Roadies’ (TV review)
“Roadies” (10 p.m. Eastern Sundays on Showtime), the new series from Cameron Crowe, feels a little more like “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” or “Love Monkey” than it feels like “Almost Famous.” The pilot episode […]
John’s top 10 songs from ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ so far (TV commentary)
Two new shows I kept on my viewing schedule have already been canceled – “Wicked City” and, for all intents and purposes, “Minority Report,” which had its episode order cut to 10. But the TV […]
Cannon, Banks deliver aca-competent follow-up with ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ (Movie review)
First-time director Elizabeth Banks, who also plays half of the “Pitch Perfect” series’ a cappella podcasting team, and returning screenwriter Kay Cannon deliver a slick, consistently fun and foot-tapping blockbuster to follow up the surprise […]
The top 10 ‘Star Wars’ song parodies of all time
Music commentary: After the prequels wrapped, YouTube burgeoned with parodies and original “Star Wars”-inspired songs.
30 years later, ranking the 12 tracks of ‘Born in the U.S.A.’ (Music commentary)
Some people called Bruce Springsteen a sellout for delivering 12 radio-friendly hits (seven became top 10 singles) on “Born in the U.S.A.,” which hit record stores on June 4, 1984. Others, including his producer/manager Jon Landau, said […]
‘Pitch Perfect’ hits the right notes; ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ falls a bit flat (Movie reviews)
The 2012 college a cappella comedy “Pitch Perfect” (now on DVD) is a nice snapshot of youth culture as it features some of the expected cliques and snobbery — but not too much. When a “Star Wars”- […]
A look back at the best albums of 2012 (Music commentary)
Making a list of my favorite albums of a year is fairly simple: I think of which discs I spun most often in my Jeep in 2012, then subtract the ones that weren’t released in […]