Bill Newcott

1 month ago | saturdayeveningpost.com | Bill Newcott

The Ruse⭐️ ⭐️ Rating: RRun Time: 1 hour 45 minutesStars: Veronica Cartwright, Madelyn Dundon, Michael StegerWriter/Director: Stevan MenaWhat to do about the Not-Very-Good movie? The Not-Bad-Enough-to-Turn-Away, but nevertheless Not-Good-Enough-to-Recommend-It? Such is my dilemma with The Ruse, a thriller about a live-in nurse (Madelyn Dundon) charged with caring for a rapidly failing former concert conductor (Veronica Cartwright) in a big old Maine mansion that may or may not be haunted.

1 month ago | saturdayeveningpost.com | Bill Newcott

The Surfer⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Rating: RRun Time: 1 hour 40 minutesStars: Nicolas Cage, Finn Little, Julian McMahonWriter: Thomas MartinDirector: Lorcan FinneganHere’s a little inside-baseball tidbit about film critics: Most of us can’t wait for the next Nicolas Cage movie to come out, because there’s just no telling what that guy is going to do next. By my reckoning, over the past decade Cage, among the screen’s most accomplished actors, has headlined just one or two big-budget flicks.

1 month ago | saturdayeveningpost.com | Bill Newcott

Pink Floyd at Pompeii — MCMLXXII ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Rating: G Run Time: 1 hour 32 minutes Stars: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, Nick Mason Director: Adrian Maben In the early 1970s, the British rock group Pink Floyd was poised to leave behind its beloved but increasingly self-indulgent blend of blues and psychedelia in favor of catchy, thematically complex songs that might, in the words of band member Nick Mason, make them “far less difficult to enjoy.” But before they could move on to...

2 months ago | saturdayeveningpost.com | Bill Newcott

Cheech & Chong’s Last Movie⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ Rating: RRun Time: 2 hours 3 minutesStars: Tommy Chong, Cheech MarinDirector: David BushellIf ever there were artists who were specifically, indelibly a product of their time, that would be the comedy team Cheech & Chong, whose stoned, defiantly profane celebration of America’s 1970s drug culture cruised through the period’s social barriers with bleary-eyed, munchie-chomping, doobie-lighting glee.

2 months ago | saturdayeveningpost.com | Bill Newcott

If it’s a ghost town you’re looking for, there’s none in America more haunted than Texas’s Washington-on-the-Brazos, where even the buildings are ghosts. When Texans talk about The Revolution, there’s an even chance they’re not referring to the spat that involved George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in 1776, but instead the one headlined by Sam Houston and Stephen Austin in 1836. For nearly 190 years, the eyes of Texas have seldom gazed much farther back than the Texas Revolution.