Josh Bell
Story Archive
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Film
The bland message of docudrama 'Conviction'
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 At times it seems like Hilary Swank works exclusively in the genre of Oscar bait, even though she’s made her share of crappy movies along the way, too.
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Film
'The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest' a bit livelier than 'Played with Fire'
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 Compared to the snappy murder mystery of the first movie, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Hornet’s Nest is quite the slog.
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Music
Heavy metal nostalgia: Thrash’s “big three” take Pearl audience back in time
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 Three of the “big four” bands of the ’80s movement that fused underground metal and punk were on hand for the show.
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Film
Disappearing Trinity of Terrors
Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2010 This time last year, the horror film festival was gearing up at the Palms. And this year?
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A&E
‘Paranormal Activity 2’ mostly copies the original, with mixed results
Friday, Oct. 22, 2010 Does the anticipated sequel to Paranormal Activity live up to the hype?
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Woody and Clint: A retrospective
Thursday, Oct. 21, 2010 Josh and guest Tony Macklin tackle You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger and Hereafter.
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Noise
Alice in Chains, Deftones and Mastodon span two decades of heavy
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 Representing three significant movements in hard rock over the last two decades, Alice in Chains, Deftones and Mastodon joined forces for the final night of their monthlong tour.
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Film
'Hereafter' is the world’s dullest meditation on the afterlife
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 Hereafter touts its own profundity at every turn, from its muted color palette to its maudlin score to its cheap use of real-life disasters as plot devices.
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Film
'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger' will delight Woody Allen fans
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 The movie’s story of romantic frustration among upper-class Londoners is hardly original, but it finds Allen ruminating seriously on aging and regret.
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Entertainment
'Lost Boy' Corey Feldman is back!
Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010 Corey Feldman hosts the Lost Boys Ball at the House of Blues.
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Film
Movie review: 'Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1'
Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 A worthy conclusion to the story of French criminal Jacques Mesrine
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Film
John Lennon’s early life is clumsily dramatized in 'Nowhere Boy'
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 Before He Was Interesting may have been a better title for this pre-Beatles biopic.
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Film
'Red' is a fun balance of action and comedy
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 The entertainment value comes from the great casting, even if some of the roles are glorified cameos.
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A&E
Live action sci-fi drama 'Tower Prep' should have been a cartoon
Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010 Tower Prep is dragged down by subpar acting and cheesy special effects.
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Coffins, clones and mental patients
Friday, Oct. 8, 2010 Jason Harris joins Josh to talk "It's Kind of a Funny Story", "Buried", Never Let Me Go" and "The Social Network."
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Screen
Vincent Cassel dazzles in crime biopic ‘Mesrine: Killer Instinct’
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 Mesrine: the story continues.
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Screen
‘Life as We Know It’ is romantic-comedy mush
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 Accidental parents: classic rom-com material?
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Screen
‘Buried’ gets buried under its own premise
Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010 Six feet under: scary or silly?
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Film
'Never Let Me Go' brings emotions to science-fiction films
Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010 It's kind of like The Island ... only better.
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Film
'Secretariat' the movie is far from a winner
Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010 Disney’s Secretariat manages to reduce the story of the Triple Crown-winning racehorse and its owner, Penny Chenery (Lane), to nothing but bare-bones inspiration and exposition.
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Film
Foreign remake 'A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop' falls short of American original
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 We’re used to seeing American remakes of foreign films, but foreign versions of American movies are much less common
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Film
'The Social Network' explores the betrayals at the founding of Facebook
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 The film isn't so much concerned with the cultural ramifications of social networking as they are with Zuckerberg and his immediate circle.
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Music
'Clapton' is a living legend puttering about on new album
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 Eric Clapton has nothing left to prove, so there isn’t anything wrong with his coasting through a bunch of old blues and jazz tunes.
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UNLV
UNLV’s hidden horrors
Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2010 A UNLV film professor puts on a horror-flick fest on the university's campus.
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Don't bet on 'Wall Street'
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010 Brian Black joins Josh to talk about "Wall Street," "Lebanon" and "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole."
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Film
‘Mao’s Last Dancer’ turns a fascinating life into Hollywood mush
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010 Hollywood biopics are very good at turning the lives of fascinating people into by-the-numbers storytelling.
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Film
‘Legend of the Guardians’ is bland fantasy but looks great
Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010 'Legends' feels less like an epic fantasy than a compilation of TV episodes.
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Film
The restored 'Metropolis' is a must-see
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 Thanks to footage discovered in 2008, there’s a fascinating new restored version of the silent sci-fi classic.
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A&E
'S#*! My Dad Says' is better on Twitter than TV
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 The material is so drab and bland, though, that neither William Shatner’s innate charm nor the prickly cynicism of writer Halpern’s actual dad comes through.
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A&E
'No Ordinary Family' is a welcome sense of wonder
Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2010 A show that’s as much about family drama as it is about superpowered action.
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Joaquin Phoenix produces a 'stinkumentary,' Australia produces one of year's best movies
Friday, Sept. 17, 2010 Film critic and historian Tony Macklin joins Josh this week.
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Film
‘The Virginity Hit’ is a misguided teen sex comedy
Thursday, Sept. 16, 2010 The approach of The Virginity Hit is both inventive and obvious. The problem with it is that it fails to convey the humor and emotion necessary for an entertaining, satisfying coming-of-age comedy.
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Music
Weezer's 'Hurley' is pretty coldly calculated
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 Frontman Rivers Cuomo has been retreating further and further into a bubble of superficial pop songcraft.
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Film
Ben Affleck goes two-for-two with crime drama 'The Town'
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 The Town embraces all sorts of heist-movie clichés, including one final job, the dangerous older mastermind and the criminal who just wants to take himself out of the game.
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Screen
TV drama 'The Defenders' captures the oily charm of Vegas billboard lawyers
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 The Defenders showcases one more Vegas institution that has thus far been underrepresented: billboard lawyers.
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Screen
'The Event' is an hour's worth of being jerked around
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 A show so irritating that at times it seems like a parody.
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Screen
'Boardwalk Empire' impeccably depicts Atlantic City in the 1920s
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 There’s a certain expectation of epicness from HBO dramas, and Boardwalk Empire has the chance to be the most epic yet.
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Film
'Easy A' tries too hard to be something it's not
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 Easy A is a little too conventional and a little too unfocused to achieve what it sets out for.
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Film
‘Legendary’ is Hallmark-style sap from World Wrestling Entertainment
Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010 Pro wrestler John Cena struggles to emote beyond a grimace.
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Film
Rob Reiner peddles false nostalgia in teen romance ‘Flipped’
Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010 Flipped sees everything, not just its setting, through rose-colored glasses.
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Film
Monsters, mobsters and singing brothel madams: Local feature films now on DVD and VOD
Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 Support homegrown films, even if Josh Bell didn't like 'em all.
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A&E
SyFy show 'Beast Legends' offers up “realistic” monsters
Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 It’s all deeply silly, although there’s a chance you might learn some actual science.
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Fun with Mexican and American violence
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010 Ken Johnson joins Josh to talk about Machete, The American, Going the Distance and a couple of worthy indie films on DVD.
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Film
A mix of boredom and excitement in Mt. Everest documentary ‘The Wildest Dream’
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010 A respectable but often dry and dull account of the efforts of famed mountaineer George Mallory to climb Mt. Everest in 1924
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Entertainment
George Clooney elevates a moody thriller in 'The American'
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 An actor with less going on behind his eyes than George Clooney might have sunk The American.
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Film
'Going the Distance' hardly makes it out of the gate
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 Real-life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long have a natural chemistry in the romantic comedy Going the Distance.
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A&E
'Terriers' struggles to bust out from a procedural format
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010 The new private-eye series 'Terriers' comes the closest yet to the FX version of a predictable, lighthearted time-waster.
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Summer movie wrap-up extravaganza
Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010 Jeffrey K. Howard of Vegas Film Critic joins Josh to look back at the summer movie season of 2010.
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Film
Movie review: 'Takers'
Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010 Takers is in many ways the poor man’s version of Michael Mann’s Heat, except it only feels like it’s three hours long.
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Film
George A. Romero's 'Survival of the Dead' is a real improvement
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 Easily the best since 1985’s Day of the Dead.