Nick Nolte

Gangster Squad

retelling the stories of better movies.

Siniad Gonzalez: Your Glamour-Shot Mug of the Day Belongs To Getaway Driver

Not all mugshots are Nick Nolte disasters or Trinity, Texas entertainment. Some women go for the glamor look. Like Siniad Vanessa Gonzalez, charged with being the getaway driver for a home invasion. The three men involved in the caper are on the run, but the victim gave police a description of the ... More >>

Blue-Eyed Butcher: Lifetime's Susan Wright Movie, Viciously Reviewed By One Of Her Attorneys

Susan Wright is the Houston woman who tied her husband to their bed and stabbed him 193 times. Kelly Siegler is the prosecutor who re-enacted that scene in court, bringing in a bed, tying a fellow prosecutor to it, and then fake-stabbing him 193 times for the jury's sake. Lifetime has made a movie ... More >>

For President's Day: The Best Movie Portrayals of 15 Presidents

Portraying presidents on screen is always tricky. Crass imitation makes the thing look like a comedy skit, but completely ignoring the mannerisms and voice that people know doesn't work either. There have been some laughingly inept acting jobs when it comes to the 44 people who have been the countr ... More >>

Luck: "You Don't Know Your Own Depth"

When word came out that David Milch was working on another series for HBO, the inevitable question arose: Would we be getting the David Milch that created the densely lyrical, critically acclaimed Deadwood? Or the David Milch responsible for the incoherent John from Cincinnati? As it turns out, Luck ... More >>

The Film Issue

The Film Issue

Looking back on the year in movies, and what's coming in 2012.

Your 2011 Fall/Movie Preview (Part 1)

​Note: Pop Rocks will return next week. Labor Day has come and gone, which means the official start of the fall movie season is just around the corner. In fact, two of the more anticipated releases of latter 2011 -- Warrior and Contagion -- come out tomorrow. After what has been widely rega ... More >>

Falcon Lake: Casting The Inevitable Lifetime Movie

Tiffany Young-Hartley: Only Reese Witherspoon could do her justice​Okay, so it's time to get started on the script and casting for the movie about David and Tiffany's fateful Jet-Ski trip on Falcon Lake. First, what to name this movie? The Pirates of Falcon Lake will never do: it conjures Johnn ... More >>

Grum's "Through The Night" Is One Rad Buddy-Cop Bromance

Every day Rocks Off trolls the tubes of you in search of videos to share. If you have something that you think deserves to be video of the day, send a link to jef_rouner at yahoo dot com. ​Your daily VJ has been using the phrase "homoerotic undertones" since the fourth grade, and we have the ... More >>

Kanye West's New Toy: Twitter

​If there was any other pop-culture wonder in need of a worldwide soapbox to spout off from it was Kanye West. Yesterday sweet dreams became a beautiful nightmare when West got his own verified Twitter account, @kanyewest. Little wonder this comes right before the run-up of publicity for his n ... More >>

Don't Believe the Hype

Houston's Most Overrated Attractions

Pop Rocks: The Celebrity DUI Conundrum

​I've always preferred brunettes. Aside from making me not a gentleman, this simply meant I favored Jaclyn Smith over Farrah Fawcett, Lynda Carter (or JoAnna Cameron) to Deidre Hall, Yasmine Bleeth to Gena Lee Nolin, and Jane Seymour over, well...just about any of the other Bond Girls. Given ... More >>

The 5 Best Satirical Twitter Accounts

​Probably the only good thing to come out of the Gulf oil disaster (other than the Uncle John's Bathroom Reader-style discovery that dog hair is super absorbent) is @BPGlobalPR.Satirical Twitter accounts -- created by anonymous users to mock and skewer public figures or celebrities -- have been ar ... More >>

Aftermath: Puppet Shows, Neo-Rastas, Freddie Gonorrhea, Black Congress and an Impromptu Nap Saturday at Westheimer Block Party

Marc Brubaker​ Saturday's Westheimer Block Party began on a wobbly note, as most music festivals do with fans and staff still trying to find their bearings, aided by alcohol or otherwise. The scene on the ground seemed chaotic just an hour into the first day of the event. Organizer and Free Press ... More >>

For Flu Season: The Top 5 Comfort Foods and Drinks

It's official: flu season is here and it's hit with a vengeance. Television news reports deliver frightening messages from the Director of Health and Human Services while we're forced to watch Matt Lauer get a flu shot on the Today Show, and our moms keep calling us to remind us to get plenty of res ... More >>

It's a Wacky Life

Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler, together at last in Funny People.

What Do You Get For The Couple Who Has Everything, Including A Crazy Stalker?

Oh gosh, Lisa Nowak's not going to take this news well.(That's Lisa "I was not wearing diapers" Nowak to you; one-third of the wackiest astronaut love triangle ever.)The other two parts of that triangle are getting married.Bill Oefelein, the NASA stud muffin who simply loves the ladies, is tying the ... More >>

Apocalypse Whatever: Tropic Thunder

Ben Stiller's Hollywood send-up lacks firepower

The Children of Huang Shi Is an Epic Bore

This film is just another sweeping, extraordinary journey to redemption

The Spiderwick Chronicles is Both a Smart Children's Fantasy and a CGI-dependent Weepie

Tangled Web

Legs to Spare

Fly Me to the Moon

Astronaut Farmer dares to dream

Freeloader

You, Me and Dupree overstays its welcome

Shell Game

Over the Hedge wants you to feel bad about what it's selling, which is everything

Free At Last

A harrowing journey leads to America, and then to someplace better

Blade Runners

Hotel Rwanda finds hope amid the horrors of tribal genocide

King Artless

Bruckheimer's knights go for grit but lose the glory

Higher Ground

Northfork is the work of angels, real and imagined

Mind over Matter

In Ang Lee's Hulk, the big green guy gets existential

The French Conniption

Nick Nolte pulls off a twitchy Gallic heist

Blood Money

Why John Cusack wouldn't do anything till he made this Hitler movie

Year of the Woman

The big-screen dames of cinema 2003 will keep you watching

Gallic Phallic Humor

French director Francis Veber serves a little straight white whine with his wacky gay farce

Cumming Up

Is he a writer, director, actor or...sex symbol? Um, yes--and more

Dogging Ellroy

James Ellroy is straddling popularity and acclaim

Golden Room with No View

Merchant Ivory's lush take on Henry James needs a few more turns of the screw

Whistlin' Trixie

You'll lap it up as the title character in Alan Rudolph's quirky comedy trips over her own tongue

Boob Job

Julia Roberts and her cleavage fight social injustice in Erin Brockovich

That Was Then...

Confusing Simpatico explores the guilt that haunts three friends who pulled a scam in their youth

Affecting Affliction

A grimly compelling film searches for souls and a murder suspect

Unconventional Conflict

War films get redefined by the complex Thin Red Line

Cuddly or Crude?

As Good As It Gets aims for both. And misses.

Pulp Without Politics

Can Oliver Stone leave his obsessions behind?

Letters

Galactic Mediocrity

Men in Black thinks small and tries too hard

Buddy and the Beast

A pair of unlikely allies trade wisecracks and fight evil. The twist: one's a dragon.

Lover Men

Three films offer differing takes on the myth of the romantic hero

The Chips Are Down

Anything Goes?