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'Sex Tape' lacks appeal, even with Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz
Let's start with the bare facts. A big-screen shot of a naked handstand is an overshare any way you look at it of parts and places better left unexposed — even from the back, even in a raunchy sex comedy titled "Sex Tape," even when executed by Jason Segel, like costar Cameron Diaz, a very appealing actor dressed or not. Next, a word about "F-bombs." A fairly liberal use in R-rated fare is expected, but "Sex Tape" must be going for a Guinness world record. Onto the iPad issue. "Sex Tape" seems intent on exposing as many of Apple's i's as those aforementioned nether regions. There is even an iPad plot point. So if Apple...
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'Sex Tape' lacks appeal, even with Jason Segel, Cameron Diaz
Let's start with the bare facts. A big-screen shot of a naked handstand is an overshare any way you look at it of parts and places better left unexposed — even from the back, even in a raunchy sex comedy titled "Sex Tape," even when executed by...
Salonen leads Yuja Wang, L.A. Phil through Russian turmoil
There have been changes at the Hollywood Bowl since Esa-Pekka Salonen's last appearance at the amphitheater six years ago as the Los Angeles Philharmonic music director. That meant Thursday night the now L.A. Phil conductor laureate met for the...
'The Lottery' gambles on a global fertility crisis
"The Lottery," a new series premiering Sunday on Lifetime, takes place in the near future — 2025, if you're counting — six years into a global sterility pandemic. (It's more of an omnidemic, actually — no one can get pregnant.) ...
Huntington's new gallery rooms show promise
Sometimes an art museum opens new galleries more as an expression of ambition and possibility for the future than as the culmination of a completed achievement. That seems to be the case at the Huntington in San Marino, which on July 19 will inaugurate...
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, an L.A. band, stare at 'Hypnotic Eye'
Before easing into a conversation about his new album with the Heartbreakers, "Hypnotic Eye," the longtime Malibu beach-dweller Tom Petty has a score to settle. It's in response to an old Times survey of Los Angeles' most enduring rock bands. ...
'Planes: Fire & Rescue' soars amid blazing-hot visuals
"Planes: Fire & Rescue" sounds more like a category on Craigslist than the name of a new animated film. But what this Disney feature lacks in the title department it makes up for with fluid visuals and fast-moving action of the, yes, firefighting...
Director Aaron Fernandez makes 'The Empty Hours' worth the time
"The Empty Hours," Aaron Fernandez's balmy, blissful new film, is about an impressionable 17-year-old Sebastian, a mid-30s Miranda and an aging rent-by-the-hour beach motel nestled on a spare stretch of Veracruz, Mexico, coastline where their paths...
Michel Gondry's 'Mood Indigo' is wildly inventive
To call Michel Gondry's "Mood Indigo" visually inventive is not even scratching the surface, something like characterizing Apple as a company that's had a certain amount of success. Wacky, surreal, insanely playful, "Mood Indigo" is a film that...
'A Summer's Tale' a belated glimpse of Eric Rohmer magic
Like a forgotten gift we now get to unwrap with delight, Eric Rohmer's 1996 "A Summer's Tale," never before released in this country, arrives just in time to add a touch of delight to the contemporary landscape. Rohmer, who died in 2010 just...
'The Purge: Anarchy' ups the ante and the gore
"The Purge: Anarchy" is a good deal bloodier, but also — gulp — a good deal better than its predecessor. Make no mistake, a good "Purge" does not equal a good movie, but the post-apocalyptic thriller is slightly more interesting because...
'I Origins' looks polished, but story is out of focus
In Mike Cahill movies, bad things happen to good people, and other good people are guilt-ridden as a result. But the human connections and the spare sci-fi logic that characterized "Another Earth," Cahill's ethereal romantic dramatic debut, are muddied...
Bliss goes seriously amiss in 'You're the Worst,' 'Married'
Watching FX's new back-to-back comedies "You're the Worst" and "Married," it's difficult not to be a tiny bit concerned with the emotional state of its executives and the writers pitching them. What, for example, is the collective divorce rate at the...
'The Divide' on WE tv smartly smudges race, class stereotypes
In what is becoming something of a monthly ritual, yet another niche network is venturing in from the old film/documentary/reality fringe with a character-driven drama that executives hope will do what "Mad Men" did for AMC. At least with...
'Satisfaction' and 'Rush' sound a bit familiar
The blue skies of USA are darkening as the network that built itself on smart, fun summer programming copes with increased competition from all sides. Two new dramas debuting Thursday night fit much more in the industry-wide equation of "successful"...
Showtime's 'Masters of Sex' dials up angst with smarts, spirit
To say Showtime's "Masters of Sex" is back and better than ever, though true, makes it sound like a very different kind of show than it is. A multi-story fantasy epic, say, or a dark and violent character drama, complete with car chases and twisting...
Putting art to music, with wondrous results
Did you hear the one about the composer who walks into an art gallery? If you are expecting a punch line — sorry. It's not a joke. When a composer walks into an art gallery or catches sight of an artwork somewhere else, there might be...
FX's 'The Strain' has creepy, old-fashioned fun with vampires
I found myself yelling a lot at the flat screen while watching the first four episodes of Guillermo del Toro's new horror series, "The Strain," which debuts on FX Sunday night. At first, I thought it a residual reaction from the hours spent...
An Appreciation: Lorin Maazel conducted himself inimitably
I didn't understand Lorin Maazel, the exceptional conductor who died Sunday at 84. Who did? Even his family may not have completely gotten him. He complained in an interview two years ago that his kids would laugh off the property anyone...
'Matador' mixes soccer, spies and sangria in fun retro style
You've got another four years to wait for the FIFA World Cup, and a year for the Women's World Cup, but you won't have to wait very long at all for "Matador," a spy story with a soccer setting and Latin twist and the second original series from...
'Stravinsky in Hollywood' an illuminating look at his L.A. years
In his fascinating new hour-long documentary, "Stravinsky in Hollywood," made for European television and now released on DVD by C-Major, Marco Capalbo begins with the oft-quoted statistic that Igor Stravinsky lived in West Hollywood longer than he had...
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