Christian Toto - Page 56

The upcoming Comedy Central series “Key & Peele” got some viral video love earlier this month with a sketch reminding us just how cool, tough and awesome President Obama is. Just ignore those pesky economic statistics, the flotilla of broken

All you need to see is the picture of a beaming President Barack Obama included in USA Today’s print assessment of the president’s three-year anniversary to know which way the story is slanted. Or, just take a gander at the

Rev. C.L. Bryant isn’t about to apologize for comparing the plight of black conservatives to the “Peculiar Institution” in his new documentary “Runaway Slave.” “There had to be something shocking enough to bring them around to seeing it,” Bryant says

Ben Stiller doesn’t have to work the boob tube circuit. The star of those “Focker” films as well as the “Night at the Museum” franchise is a pretty safe bet in box office circles. So why did he just sign

Kevin Smith and Spike Lee have very little in common – on the surface. Smith is the pudgy fanboy fave behind “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy.” Lee is the combustible auteur who gave us “Do the Right Thing” and “Malcolm X.”

The new World War II film “Red Tails” hauled in a tidy $19 million over the just-wrapped weekend. That’s an impressive figure for a period film with no bankable stars opening against a popular franchise entry (“Underworld Awakening”) as well

Gina Carano might just be the next female action superstar, but it won’t be thanks to “Haywire.” The new film shows Carana easily translating her MMA fighting chops to the big screen, and all that scrapping clearly didn’t mar her

Robert Redford is angry about the current state of Hollywood. Why doesn’t the government subsidize artists and bring edgy, envelope pushing fair to the masses, cries Redford. Redford shared his State of the Movie Union thoughts this week during the

What’s a liberal comic to do when it becomes harder every day to defend President Barack Obama? Why, play the race card – even when it’s not even in the deck. Comedienne Wanda Sykes, who refused to lay a humorous

For some audiences it will always be too soon for a drama like “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.” The new movie deals directly with the 9/11 attacks in the most emotional way possible, telling the tale of a young boy

ABC’s “Modern Family” represents the very best of the current broadcast television lineup. Smart scripts. Singularly great characters. Big laughs buffeted by an array of smaller ones. So why are two of the show’s cast members trying to milk a

Perhaps now Hollywood celebrities will discover what the rest of the country already has – those Occupy Wall Street types are pretty gamey up close. The Occupy movement seems to be dying down, witness the pathetic showings at recent OWS-style

Two years ago, movie goers were fed a rom-com with more stars than anyone could process. The result? “Valentine’s Day” lacked the sugary sweetness we demand from romantic fare. For 2012’s most romantic season, the leads from “The Notebook” and

Adam Carolla isn’t looking to change the culture at large with his popular podcast. “My life is about building and working and wrenching on some cars,” says Carolla, host of the most downloaded podcast on iTunes. When a subject as

To say “Star Wars” fans have a love/hate relationship with the series’ creator, George Lucas, is to state the obvious. Heck, they made an entire film on the subject – “The People vs. George Lucas.” Fans critical of Lucas’ incessant

Director Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” is aging as badly as the Aussie-fied mullet Robert Downey Jr. sports in the 1994 media satire. Loud, brash and in your face, this collage of film stocks, styles and sensibilities made some critics

This weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” skit targeting likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is a perfect example of two media worlds working toward the same goal – the re-election of President Barack Obama. First, mainstream news media outlets take a

You’d think people who get paid to recite lines, hit their cues and say the right thing would do some, if not all, of the above during a gala ceremony honoring their peers. Anyone who so much as channel surfed

This weekend’s new action film “Contraband” might be 90-plus minutes worth of Deja View. Mark Wahlberg stars as a retired smuggler forced to take on “one last mission” to save “his wife and kids” from “an out of control” thug,

Ricky Gervais will not apologize for the jokes he’s planning to tell during this weekend’s Golden Globes telecast. At least, that’s what he’s been explaining in one media interview after another to drum up interest for the show. Usually, the

Let’s hope the folks behind the upcoming A&E series “Bates Motel” have watched the recent “Halloween” reboot and “Hannibal Rising.” Those clunkers showed precisely how NOT to illustrate the birth of a movie monster. [youtube NG3-GlvKPcg nolink] A&E’s push to

Even by post-apocalyptic standards, the new thriller “The Divide” is pretty darn bleak. They don’t make cheery nuclear war movies, but “The Divide” will make viewers wish the Big One came and took them out, quick. [youtube iaLpieSNIfk nolink] That’s

It’s a shame the endless stream of “Howling”-inspired sequels drew attention away from a darned good monster movie. Director Joe Dante’s “The Howling” may rely on old-school movie make-up, but the 1981 shocker is smarter than the average horror flick

Director Wes Anderson puts a stamp on his films unlike any other director. Sometimes all you need to see is a single frame, or just an appearance by Bill Murray, to know it’s a movie from the man who gave

Steven Soderbergh’s “Contagion,” available now on Blu-ray and DVD, captures the credible fear that an airborne virus could wipe out thousands, if not millions, of people. So, where are the thrills, the chases and the heart-stopping revelations that usually accompany

HBO has made a name for itself for not only delivering strong original content like “The Sopranos” but deeply biased documentaries like “Reagan.” Now, HBO’s main competitor Showtime is backing a new documentary on Vice President Dick Cheney. The channel

The Comedy Central series “Key & Peele” doesn’t debut until Jan. 31, but a sneak peek at their content suggests it’s yet another humor program protecting The One. “Key & Peele” stars comics Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele in a

No stars, no budget, no problem. The shock success of “The Devil Inside,” a “found footage” thriller which hauled in nearly $34 million over the weekend, should finally pave the way for the most cost-effective film genre possible. The only

For years, actors have been essentially insulting half their potential audience by trashing the right in press interviews and talk show appearances. Just ask Kate Beckinsale, who told Entertainment Weekly regarding the 2008 elections – “And I was so shocked

Brendan Gleeson has been so good for so long in supporting roles that it was only a matter of time before someone wisely cast him as the lead. “The Guard” gives Gleeson a film to call his own, and he

Sometimes it helps to get a rave review from the right person. Novelist Anne Rice loved the haunting 2010 film “The Stoning of Soraya M.” and asked her agent to see if he had seen the movie and, better yet,

The only thing more painful than hearing someone explain a joke is listening to the teller defend said joke. The newest Entertainment Weekly lets frequent Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais do just, and it was as awkward and self-serving as

If a documentary filmmaker dreams of winning an Oscar, he or she better hope their project is on the radar of two of the more liberal newspapers in the country. The organization that puts on the Academy Awards has created

You would think a humor publication would find plenty to mock about Barack Obama. After all, then-Sen. Barack Obama campaigned in 2008 alongside Greek columns and promised his election would be the moment “when the rise of the oceans began