Josh Bell
Story Archive
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Reviews
Movie review: 'The Last Exorcism'
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 The Last Exorcism starts off with an intriguing concept only to lose momentum and coherence as it gets into its actual horrific elements.
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TV
DVD review: 'Lost: The New Man in Charge'
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 For Lost fans who were disappointed by the show’s finale, this 12-minute epilogue might seem like the perfect solution, but is it?
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A&E
Sing along with 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 Because The Rocky Horror Picture Show shouldn't have all the fun.
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Music
Keeping it weird
Sunday, Aug. 22, 2010 Nearly 30 years into his career, musical parodist “Weird Al” Yankovic is finally hip.
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Film
Sperm fail: 'The Switch' trades in rom-com platitudes
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 Bateman and Aniston have no chemistry, and the movie is sensitive and restrained in its take on modern motherhood.
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Film
'Lottery Ticket' is lame
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 A parade of painful ghetto stereotypes miss every opportunity for satire or meaningful social commentary.
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A&E
The Kids in the Hall return with 'Death Comes to Town'
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 influential sketch-comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall has returned with a fitfully amusing eight-part series that serves as a reminder of how funny the group’s original sketch show was.
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Film
Grindhouse 101
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 American Grindhouse shows exclusively this weekend at the Sci Fi Center.
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Film
Arty French nonsense in ‘Wild Grass’
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010 Wild Grass is a mess, and not in a particularly compelling way.
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Entertainment
Lady Gaga puts songs over spectacle
Saturday, Aug. 14, 2010 The pop star's underrated voice, not her outrageous costumes, carried the Vegas show.
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Film
Early Kurosawa on DVD is for fans only
Friday, Aug. 13, 2010 Collecting the first four features by the Japanese icon, the set illustrates the origins of some of Kurosawa’s stylistic signatures, but it’s more of a historical curiosity than a satisfying experience.
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Film
Action! Romance! Indie rock! 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' has it all
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World dares to ask: What if that action movie was a romantic comedy?
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A&E
The film adaptation of 'Eat Pray Love' is an empty travelogue
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 Elizabeth Gilbert should have just stayed in New York and bought a bag of fortune cookies.
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A&E
'Big C' is a cancer on the airwaves
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 People with terminal cancer deserve our sympathy, but a new dramedy seems determined to disprove that notion.
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Film
Happy 50th birthday, 'Ocean's 11'
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 Celebrate at Frankie's Tiki Room this weekend.
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Film
‘Countdown to Zero’ is a belabored social-issue documentary
Wednesday, Aug. 11, 2010 Like just about every social-advocacy documentary, Countdown to Zero works hard to convince you its issue is the most pressing one facing civilization.
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The return of hating: Josh targets 'The Other Guys,' 'Restrepo' and 'Twelve'
Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010 The Josh Bell Hates Everything podcast returns from hiatus for a chat about The Other Guys, Restrepo and the latest Joel Schumacher crapterpiece Twelve.
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Music
Aerosmith’s live show’s got nothing on its recent headlines
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010 The classic rockers proved break-up rumors were more entertaining than what they offer live. Maybe they would have been better going their separate ways.
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Film
Plot overwhelms comedy in 'The Other Guys'
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010 The Other Guys isn’t quite able to redeem the action-comedy genre, although it delivers a number of laughs.
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Film
'Restrepo' features striking footage but lacks structure
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010 It’s tempting to praise Restrepo merely for the bravery of the filmmakers and the subjects rather than the movie itself. But that doesn’t mean it makes for an effective movie.
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Entertainment
Misguided teen drama 'Twelve' is laughable at best
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010 The movie is like listening to an audiobook while perusing an interior-design magazine.
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Entertainment
What’s for Dinner? "Schmucks" is a hit-and-miss comedy
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 The English remake of The Dinner Game is about as mediocre as the French version.
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Entertainment
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" follow-up film is dull at best
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 The Girl Who Played With Fire presents a much less compelling mystery with a convoluted, grim back story.
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Film
"Salt" is silly fun, then just silly
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 Angelina Jolie keeps Salt grounded even as her actions become increasingly unbelievable.
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Entertainment
Miniseries "The Pillars of the Earth" is a dry history lesson
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 The nearly thousand-page book is adapted into a plodding, dreary, interminable saga.
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Film
Instant moviemaking with the 48-hour Film Project
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 You have until Friday afternoon to sign up to participate in the event and results typically range from unexpected genius to obvious desperation.
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Film
Dull biopic "Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky" turns icons into bores
Wednesday, July 21, 2010 While their chemistry may be inexplicable, that’s no excuse for the lack of insight into Chanel and Stravinsky as people, and minimal dialogue offers little character development.
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Film
'Inception' expertly balances ideas and explosions
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Inception becomes one of the most ingeniously suspenseful movies around, entering into three different layers of dreams within their mark’s mind.
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Music
Lilith Fair is ... fair
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 It was an odd lineup and the venue, too, was a strange place for this sort of show.
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Film
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 Nicolas Cage gives two types of performances: Either he’s off-the-wall crazy, or sleepwalking through films. Unfortunately, this performance falls squarely in the latter category.
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A&E
Running down "Ochocinco," and some other summer TV fare
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Reality dating shows are basically just attention-whore assembly lines at this point, so in a way it’s refreshing to see a show that acknowledges that fact right up front.
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Film
Despicable Me
Wednesday, July 7, 2010 The first film from Illumination Entertainment, Universal’s answer to Pixar, Despicable Me is nothing compared to the joys of Toy Story 3, but it does have its moments.
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Film
Micmacs
Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Jean-Pierre Jeunet reached the height of whimsy with his 2001 film Amelie. Since then, he may have gotten trapped by audiences expecting the same arch cuteness.
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Film
The third "Twilight" film offers a slight improvement
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 That repetitive romantic tangle is still the main selling point and it’s still pretty much worthless.
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Film
The Last Airbender
Wednesday, June 30, 2010 The battles are only slightly more exciting than the exposition, the acting is laughable, and the characters are flat.
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Film
Mother and Child
Thursday, June 24, 2010 The entire movie is the kind in which every character speaks in hushed tones, using only words so heavy with meaning that they practically tumble to the floor.
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Film
Holy Rollers
Thursday, June 24, 2010 You can dress it up in payos and bekishes, but a gangster movie is still a gangster movie.
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Film
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz can’t quite save "Knight and Day"
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 Movie-star presence counts for a lot less than it used to.
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A&E
Louie
Wednesday, June 23, 2010 The show intersperses footage of C.K. doing stand-up with short vignettes starring the comedian as himself, a middle-aged, divorced father of two young girls.
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television
Lazy summer drama: ABC’s "Scoundrels" and "The Gates" fail to deliver
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Watching each pilot will tell you all you need to know about why these shows weren’t deemed worthy of regular-season premieres.
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Film
Please Give
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 A sliver of hope, along with some wonderful performances, makes Please Give an emotionally rich film.
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Film
Weird movie alert: "Adopted"
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 When you think of incisive social commentary, pretty much the last name that comes to mind is Pauly Shore.
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Music
Christina Aguilera
Wednesday, June 16, 2010 It’s a good thing Christina Aguilera has such an amazing voice, because she has yet to find a coherent musical identity.
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Film
Room for improvement
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Josh Bell caught six features and one shorts program at the Las Vegas Film Festival, and very little struck him as being festival-worthy.
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Film
The Karate Kid
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 The new Karate Kid is a grim, plodding, overlong (nearly two and a half hours) affair.
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Film
The Secret in Their Eyes
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 The Secret in Their Eyes (from Argentina) is exactly the kind of classy, respectable movie that the Academy loves.
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A&E
A strange little indie movie house
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 The Giordano Theatre has a number of unique qualities in the strange boutique theater tucked away on the second floor of the Las Vegas Hilton’s showroom.
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Film
Too much of a good thing
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 It is disappointing to see a character or actor go so quickly from pleasant surprise to unwelcome annoyance.