CliqueClack

Depression robbed us of Robin Williams

In a mere 24 hours there has been a spate of posts and commentaries and various other entries on the unfortunate passing of Robin Williams.

A bevy of news reports on whichever channel you call a favorite. Gaggles of radio talk shows in incredulous discussion. Water cooler snippets about a favorite film of his. You can’t even access the internet right now without some banner blaring reminders every which way about the man.

I’ve seen several friends and acquaintances taking the opportunity to use the news as a launching point to tell their own stories of personal fights with this skulking disease called “Depression,” using it to remind people there are outlets to battle this silent, lurking evil. And there isn’t anything wrong with that. A tragedy like this, painful as it is, should be used to recognize its vice-like hold on those afflicted and point them in a direction other than that of Robin Williams.

Me personally? I’m angry. Pissed off. And at the point of seething.

Because I loved Robin Williams. He was one of my all-time favorite actors and comedians. And Depression took him away from the family and friends and fans who loved him.

I thought the man was amazing as the manic Parry in The Fisher King. (I got a two-for-one bonus in that film as he co-starred with another of my favorite actors, Jeff Bridges.) He was superb in Awakenings, intriguing in Moscow On The Hudson (one of his first films) and painfully emotive and completely believable as Robert Ellison in “Bop Gun,” an outstanding episode of Homicide: Life On The Street which unfolded the story of Williams’ character and family as his wife was killed while on a visit to Baltimore. There was The Birdcage, Good Will Hunting and Insomnia with Al Pacino, all three completely different, each film stretching the man’s acting chops. And how about his dual role in a film which probably plays #2 in the world right behind The Shawshank Redemption, Mrs. Doubtfire? All a result of his one-off appearance on an unlikely episode of Happy Days which led to the bright-burning Mork & Mindy. Continue reading 'Depression robbed us of Robin Williams' »

The Last Ship at SDCC: What we learned

TNT’s The Last Ship has been one of the surprise hits of the summer, drawing in over 5 million viewers in its premiere. The network brought the cast and creators to San Diego Comic-Con and even threw a big party on the deck of the USS Midway. We talked with the cast and writers of the show, including Eric Dane (Tom Chandler), Rhona Mitra (Rachel Scott), Charles Parnell (Russell Jeter), Travis Van Winkle (Danny Green) and producers Steve Kane and Hank Steinberg. This is what we learned about the show’s relationship with the Navy, the second season and more.

The Navy Way

Learning the “Navy Way” was an experience. Kane related a story where they’d written in a punishment for a character to be placed on kitchen duty, as they had seen in old war movies. One of the technical advisors, a ship’s captain, corrected that quickly. “The culinary specialists take that job very seriously … they are the ones that keep the troops fed, that keep morale up. If they saw you punishing somebody else by giving them their job, it would make their job feel like crap to them.”  Continue reading 'The Last Ship at SDCC: What we learned' »

Win free passes to see If I Stay in Boston or Hartford

THIS OFFER IS CLOSED. FOLLOW CLIQUECLACK ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE+ and TUMBLR FOR CONTEST ALERTS, REVIEWS and BREAKING NEWS.

CliqueClack has partnered with Warner Brothers Pictures to offer readers in Boston and Hartford an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new drama If I Stay starring Chloë Grace Moretz, Mireille Enos, Joshua Leonard, Jamie Blackley and Stacy Keach. Rounding out the main cast are Liana Liberato, Aisha Hinds, Jakob Davies and Gabrielle Rose.

Mia Hall (Moretz) thought the hardest decision she would ever face would be whether to pursue her musical dreams at Juilliard or follow a different path to be with the love of her life, Adam (Blackley). But what should have been a carefree family drive changes everything in an instant, and now her own life hangs in the balance. Caught between life and death for one revealing day, Mia has only one decision left, which will not only decide her future but her ultimate fate. If I Stay is based on the best-selling novel of the same name.

Continue reading 'Win free passes to see If I Stay in Boston or Hartford' »

Win free passes for The Expendables 3 in Baltimore, DC or Virginia Beach

ALL PASSES HAVE BEEN CLAIMED. FOLLOW CLIQUECLACK ON TWITTER, FACEBOOK, GOOGLE+ and TUMBLR FOR CONTEST ALERTS, REVIEWS and BREAKING NEWS.

CliqueClack has partnered with Lionsgate to offer readers in the Boston and Hartford areas an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new action movie The Expendables 3 Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Kellan Lutz, Ronda Rousey, Glen Powell, Victor Ortiz, Robert Davi, with Mel Gibson, with Harrison Ford, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Barney (Stallone), Christmas (Statham) and the rest of the team come face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks (Gibson), who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill … or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables — but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.

Continue reading 'Win free passes for The Expendables 3 in Baltimore, DC or Virginia Beach' »

Win passes to see The Possession of Michael King in Chicago

CliqueClack has partnered with Anchor Bay to offer readers in Chicago an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new thriller The Possession of Michael King starring Shane Johnson, Dale Dickey, Tomas Arana, and Julie McNiven.

Michael King (Johnson) doesn’t believe in God or The Devil. Following the sudden death of his wife, the documentary filmmaker decides to make his next film about the search for the existence of the supernatural. With cameras rolling 24/7, Michael decides to make himself the center of the experiment — allowing demonologists, necromancers, and various practitioners of the occult to try the deepest and darkest spells and rituals they can find on him — in the hopes that when they fail, he’ll once and for all have proof, on camera, that religion, spiritualism, and the paranormal are nothing more than myth. But something does happen. An evil and horrifying force has now possessed Michael King. And it will not let go.

Continue reading 'Win passes to see The Possession of Michael King in Chicago' »

The Hundred-Foot Journey is frothily forgettable

I once knew a young lady. In the interests of this review for The Hundred-Foot Journey – and online propriety – let’s call her “Marguerite.” Marguerite was a young, lusty girl, full of sass and life and verve. She wasn’t quite like anyone I’d ever met before, and made my gawky, goofy high school self feel all kinds of feelings. Marguerite and I were together but for a short time, but that time always serves as a kind of guiding point for my experiences with passion, especially of the younger, sillier, and more reckless sort.

I tell this brief and somewhat uninteresting anecdote because in The Hundred-Foot Journey, releasing this week from Touchstone Pictures circa 1996, food is meant to rile up this reckless kind of passion. Our protagonist Hassan (the impossibly handsome Manish Dayal) is continuously driven to unlocking food’s mysteries. Picking ingredients. Mixing ingredients. Cooking meats and sauces. Devouring the creation. Every facet of the “ritual” of food – sumptuously lit in all of its various textures – is detailed, meant to ignite fires deep inside moviegoers’ minds. It doesn’t.

Continue reading 'The Hundred-Foot Journey is frothily forgettable' »

Grace Kelly gets regal treatment with a new DVD box set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

Some actors and actresses look like they were meant to grace the silver screen with their chiseled cheekbones and impeccable skin complexions. It’s as if they were created solely for the purpose of being put up on a glamorous pedestal of perfection. If ever a figure of classic cinema measured up to that description, it is beyond a shadow of a doubt Grace Kelly. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment recently released the Grace Kelly Collection, a spectacular new box set featuring six of Kelly’s most memorable performances assembled in one DVD collection for the first time ever, as well as a rare TV interview with Pierre Salinger that was recorded right before her tragic death in 1982. Warner Bros. graciously provided CliqueClack a review copy of the collection.

The Grace Kelly Collection features Mogambo (1953), The Country Girl (1954), The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954), Dial M for Murder (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and Kelly’s last film High Society (1956). This collection also includes the Princess Grace de Monaco: A Moment in Time documentary/interview, as well as numerous other bonus features, including documentaries about the two included Alfred Hitchcock films, radio spots for High Society, a Droopy cartoon from MGM, a documentary about Edith Head’s Paramount Years, special commentaries and trailers for all six films. The leading men in this box set are also among Hollywood’s finest: Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, William Holden and Mickey Rooney all give outstanding performances opposite Kelly.

Continue reading 'Grace Kelly gets regal treatment with a new DVD box set from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment' »

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is what it is

Let’s get this out of the way right from the start: I am the best/worst person to review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I have absolutely zero deep-seated childhood connection, adoration or knowledge of the “Heroes on the Half Shell,” so my review of the movie will simply be about the movie and not how it bastardizes the memories from my childhood.

Now, with that out of the way let’s have a look at Michael Bay’s production of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. In the movie, a gang known as the Foot Clan is terrorizing New York City. TV news reporter April O’Neil (Megan Fox), better known for her fluff pieces, is trying to break into real journalism by exposing the Foot Clan. During one major heist, she sees some kind of vigilante but no one believes her.

After another attack, she sees there are four vigilantes and … they’re turtles! Six foot tall, sword-wielding turtles. That can talk too. And it turns out, she knows who they are and where they came from. It’s then up to April to protect their identities while they attempt to stop the Foot Clan, but someone else who knows of the experiments that created the ninja turtles is working with the evil Shredder to poison the city and then provide an antidote for big bucks. Cue ninja turtle action.

Continue reading 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is what it is' »

Into the Storm is Twister on steroids

Everyone can agree that we’ve seen some crazy weather across the country in recent years. Some say it’s due to humans, some say it’s just nature, but there’s no denying the ferocity of some of the hurricanes and tornadoes we’ve witnessed lately.

Hollywood has not been one to shy away from the “Mother Nature run amok” disaster movies, giving special effects technicians a chance to shine. 1933 saw what many consider to be the first disaster movie, Deluge, reduce New York to a pile of rubble after an earthquake and then swallowed by a massive tsunami. Recent climate change movies like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 have been more successful at effects than storytelling.

It’s been 18 years since Twister hit the big screen, showing off what the relatively new field of CGI special effects could do, and this year brings us the Twister on steroids Into the Storm. The story focuses on one really, really bad day for a small town in the mid-west’s “Tornado Alley” with one storm cell after another forming and producing more, bigger tornadoes.

Continue reading 'Into the Storm is Twister on steroids' »

Win free passes to see Let’s Be Cops in Baltimore, DC and Virginia Beach

This offer is now closed. Follow CliqueClack on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Tumblr for contest alerts, reviews and breaking news.

CliqueClack has partnered with Twentieth Century Fox to offer readers in Baltimore, DC and Virginia Beach an opportunity to attend an advance screening of the new comedy Let’s Be Cops starring Damon Wayans Jr., Jake Johnson, Rob Riggle, Nina Dobrev, James D’Arcy and Andy Garcia.

It’s the ultimate buddy cop movie except for one thing: they’re not cops. When two struggling pals dress as police officers for a costume party, they become neighborhood sensations. But when these newly-minted “heroes” get tangled in a real life web of mobsters and dirty detectives, they must put their fake badges on the line.

Continue reading 'Win free passes to see Let’s Be Cops in Baltimore, DC and Virginia Beach' »