Seven years ago, a sweet little animated film called "The Croods" was released, and while it didn't make a particularly big splash, it still stood out as a charming, thoughtful, and entertaining adventure about family, survival, and exploring the unknown, all told through the eyes of a prehistoric family trying to make it to "tomorrow." At long last, Dreamworks has finally brought forth a sequel, "The Croods: A New Age," to update us on their continuing search, but with such a long gap, can we expect the same level of quality, or is it perhaps a signal that this sequel was a little too hard to crack? Picking up pretty much right where the first film left off, we find The Croods, including Gr
The Show: "Westworld" has been quite the trip of ups and downs so far. The first season, while a little slow to get the plot moving, eventually became somewhat engrossing as it delved into its futuristic theme park. The second season was where the real trouble began, for besides taking quite a while for it to get going properly, it became something of a mess not only narratively, but also temporally, ultimately favoring structure over substance. With the show returning for its third season, and the realization that it needed some retooling, the showrunners (Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy) have opted to return to a more linear approach, but will that be enough to bring it back to the better days
The Film: I've never been the biggest fan of romantic comedies. Over the decades, it's been a genre that, for the most part, always seems to get mired in a very basic formula, one that puts such a film on a very predictable, and therefore a very dull, course. That being said, that doesn't mean that there haven't been exceptions, films that have managed to work even in the confines of the oft-trod beats of the familiar framework. One such film is Norman Jewison's "Moonstruck," which is being newly-released by the esteemed Criterion Collection this week. Admired right away upon its release in 1987, the film has continued to resonate with audiences ever since, but why? In celebration of its re-