Bob Mondello

New 'Trek' Goes 'Into Darkness,' But Not Much Deeper

Bob Mondello — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:14:00 +0000

The opening sequence of J.J. Abram's new entry in the Star Trek universe has all the ingredients of the classic franchise.

There's Kirk and his crew bellowing on the bridge, everyone worrying about the prime directive and our favorite Vulcan trapped in a volcano.

OK, I'm in. I may not be a fanboy anymore, but I sure was in my youth, and having these guys in their youths again is just as cool at the outset as it was last time.

Chris Pine's baby-Shatner is spitting his lines while Zachary Quinto channels his inner Nimoy.

Polley's 'Stories': A Family Saga Strikingly Spun

Bob Mondello — Fri, 10 May 2013 20:47:00 +0000

Sarah Polley grew up the fifth of five children in a Canadian theatrical family. Her father, Michael, is a transplanted British actor; her mother, Diane, was an actress and casting director. No wonder Sarah feels her family's narrative has the stuff of drama.

"I'm interested in the way we tell stories about our lives," she says in the film, "about the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down."

Prophetic words, those.

But let's start from the film's beginning.

At The Movies, A Swirl Of Style And Substance

Bob Mondello — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:09:00 +0000

Here's a movie pitch: A celebrated millionaire, known for public extravagance, lives right on the water in a fabulous mansion. He's smooth but reckless, drives like a maniac, has a powerful enemy and — despite a rep as a playboy — has only one girlfriend, who barely registers on-screen.

You're the producer, so whaddya think?

In 'Iron Man 3,' A Metalhead Gets The Blues

Bob Mondello — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:14:00 +0000

Y'know, I think this bummed-out superhero thing is catching. Depressed Bat-guy, brooding Spider-dude, even the Man of Steel seems existentially troubled in previews of his most recent incarnation.

And smart-alecky Iron Man? He'd appeared inoculated by Tony Stark's reflexive snark from succumbing to a similar ailment — but even he's having anxiety attacks these days.

On Broadway, One Runt To Rule Them All

Bob Mondello — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:59:00 +0000

Broadway's newest family-friendly musical, Matilda, based on the Roald Dahl novel about a precocious child who proves smarter than all the adults in her life, opened earlier this month to some of the best reviews of the year.

While it's a brand-new show, seeing it jogged my memory — jogged it all the way back to my very first commentary for All Things Considered exactly 29 years ago.

It was April 25, 1984, and the fact that a revival of Oliver! had just begun previews on Broadway gave me an excuse to share one of my pet theories with the world: that the

Digging Into Ricky Jay's 'Deceptive' Card Tricks

Bob Mondello — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:26:00 +0000

When people talk about movie magic, they rarely mean card tricks.

On The Big Screen, The Tax Guy Can Be Your Buddy

Bob Mondello — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:24:00 +0000

It's fair to say that the bakery employees who hooted and jeered "tax maaaaaan" when mild-mannered auditor Will Ferrell showed up in Stranger than Fiction were no fans of the Internal Revenue Service. In that, they're like a lot of us, no?

So it's intriguing that Hollywood generally treats tax inspectors as nice guys. On the big screen, it's typically their IRS bosses who are the bad ones.

"High bracket, low bracket — if Uncle doesn't get his cut we nail your hide to the barnyard door," snarls Tony Randall's boss in the 1959 comedy The Mating Game.

Earnest '42' Buffs Up A Golden Baseball Moment

Bob Mondello — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

This Monday, every player in Major League Baseball will wear the same number on his jersey: 42, which was Jackie Robinson's number when, in 1947, he became the first black player in the majors, playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Today, baseball celebrates April 15 as Jackie Robinson Day. But 66 years ago, not everyone saw his hiring as cause for celebration — and the earnestly grandiose biopic 42 means to illuminate that history-making moment, in which racial vitriol met its match in a ballplayer who let his talent do the talking.

Not without a struggle, of course.

Home Video Review: 'Badlands'

Bob Mondello — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Time now for a home viewing recommendation from our critic Bob Mondello. This week, Bob is intrigued by the 40th anniversary of the film that put Martin Sheen, Sissy Spacek and director Terrence Malick on the map — Badlands.

The plot's based on a notorious duo and a real-life 1950s killing spree, but when boy meets girl on-screen in Badlands, they're adorable.

A Film So Sumptuous, 'Renoir' Himself Might Have Helped Out

Bob Mondello — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:29:00 +0000

The year is 1915. A beautiful young woman bicycling through sun-dappled woods passes under an effigy of a German soldier and seems entirely unfazed. World War I is raging elsewhere in Europe, but here on the French Riviera life is serene.

The cyclist, Andree, is on her way to pose for an elderly Impressionist painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), whom she somewhat startles by claiming to be an artist herself.

"An artist," wonders the great man.

"Actress, dancer, singer," she says, smiling, as he chuckles.

Hollywood's History Of Putting Gay Rights On Trial

Bob Mondello — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 21:23:00 +0000

With the Supreme Court hearing arguments this week on same-sex marriage, I'd like to point out a parallel evolution in what I see as a Hollywood mini-genre: films in which gay characters are either taken to court or seek redress in court for issues involving their sexuality.

Arguably the most famous question ever asked in a courtroom about a line of poetry — "What is the love that dare not speak its name?" — was originally put to playwright Oscar Wilde in 1894 by a British prosecutor.

'The Croods': 3-D Cartoon Cavemen For The Whole Family

Bob Mondello — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 22:37:00 +0000

The makers of the animated Vikings comedy How to Train Your Dragon have come up with an animated caveman comedy that might as well be titled How to Train Your Father.

'Ginger & Rosa': Life And Times In Cold War London

Bob Mondello — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:18:00 +0000

Two young actresses with substantial Hollywood pedigrees have the title roles in the new film Ginger & Rosa. Ginger is played by Dakota Fanning's sister, Elle, who at 14 already has more than 30 movie credits. Rosa is played by Alice Englert, daughter of Oscar-winning writer-director Jane Campion and star of last month's Beautiful Creatures. Both actresses get a chance to stretch in Ginger & Rosa.

The film starts with an atomic blast — Hiroshima in 1945 — accompanied by shrieks half a world away as two women in a British maternity ward give birth.

From 'Oz,' A Less Than Magical Prequel

Bob Mondello — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Oz the Great and Powerful tells the story of how the Wizard came to Oz, answering a question I suspect no one was asking, but with considerable digital wizardry.

The prequel begins in black and white, just the way you hope it will, with old-fashioned theatrical credits dissolving into a square-screened Kansas circa 1905.

Fairy Tales For Grown-Ups? More Are On The Way

Bob Mondello — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:32:00 +0000

Adaptations of fairy tales are everywhere you look. The TV show Once Upon a Time and the police procedural Grimm are in their second seasons. Hansel and his sister Gretel are at the cineplex hunting witches with machine guns. Jack, of beanstalk fame, starts slaying giants today. And those aren't the only bedtime stories that have been redesigned to keep 20-somethings up at night.

Two years ago, the big-fanged critter threatening Amanda Seyfried's Red, in the Red Riding Hood re-conceived by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke, was a werewolf.