Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising, "Pretty raunchy, pretty funny, pretty Zac Efron"

The Meddler Official Trailer #1 (2016) Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne Comedy Movie HD
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NEIGHBORS 2: Sorority Rising (2016)

4 STARS (out of 5)

SORORITY RISING is a surprisingly good movie. Zac Efron gives one of his best performances and his comedy timing is flawless. Like so many raunchy comedies, there is sweetness at the end of the film complete with a strong moral message.

The raunchy, politically incorrect, groaning out loud moments, are all still there. There are lots of those moments but while screening this film I could tell, the audience had a good time. The difference between NEIGHBORS 1 and 2 is Mac (played by Seth Rogen) and Kelly (played by Rose Byrne) together with their young daughter, now have purchased a beautiful new home. Teddy (played by Zac Efron) has not yet found himself and is without a roof over his head. Instead of life in the fraternity, we now find young college girls in a sorority who just want to have fun.

At first blush, Zac Efron has plenty of opportunities to take off his shirt and show off his famous physique. The movie really belongs to him, but not because of his body. Under his leadership, he provides the moral compass. Everyone involved in the film seems to grow and gain a more mature perspective on what is important in life. Whether as young college students, as elders or those in-between, we all eventually grow and mature. In doing so, we not only find ourselves, but we find our place in the world. We become neighbors in the truest sense of the word.

THE ANGRY BIRDS (2016)

2 STARS (out of 5)

It was a real struggle for me to fall in love with a film whose premise is to search and destroy. For those not familiar, the movie is based on a video game adventure where flightless birds are launched by a slingshot to destroy all the pigs on the playing field. In the movie, the pigs have a devious plan to take over Bird Island and commit mass murder of all the stolen unhatched eggs.

The transition from video game to the big 3-D screen brings a disturbing reality to this animated carnage. The birds could not be cuter. The pigs could not be deadlier. With this movie, unfortunately, my age is showing. Disturbed, I took the time to listen carefully to the scores of kids and their parents giving their reactions while filing out of the theater.

"Best movie ever!" said one child.

"Awesome!" said another.

"Clever!" "Funny!" "Great!"

Finally, I heard a few mild objections coming from the adults. "No objection to content, but uncomfortable with the repetition of one inappropriate word," said one adult.

Way back in 1961, the great Oscar-winning film, WEST SIDE STORY, pushed the Catholic Legion of Decency envelope in ending the Officer Krupke number with the gang shout out of "KRUP YOU!"

Some fifty-five years later, "PLUCK YOU" doesn"t sound so dirty anymore. At least, not for angry birds.

THE MEDDLER (2016)

4 STARS (out of 5)

THE MEDDLER is yet another beautiful art film that will be lost to any mass audience in 2016. That is a shame. Just as with Don Cheadle"s Oscar worthy performance in MILES AHEAD, Susan Sarandon"s astonishing performance in THE MEDDLER will be missed.

We all know someone like Marnie (played by Susan Sarandon) and her daughter Lori (played by Rose Byrne). It is profoundly devastating to lose a husband or a father. Grief remains the most challenging and difficult emotion to get through, but it is the one that everyone faces. Credit goes to film writer and director Lorene Scafaria for bringing an adult film with such honesty, such authenticity, and such tenderness to the big screen.

Marnie is lost and adrift in her sadness. What she does not get from her daughter, she finds with strangers. We all know someone like Lori, who feels that her mother is smothering and intrusive. So like many of us, this child builds a wall.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons (as Zipper) continues to shine in a most touching and beautiful performance. No doubt, this is absolutely the number one movie that I recommend for you to see this week. From out of such darkness, we can find light and hope and love.

In the end, THE MEDDLER is uplifting.

Connect with Bob Fisher on Twitter @BobFisherNv and on Facebook!

Source: http://news3lv.com/news/local/neighbors-2-sorority-rising-pretty-raunchy-pretty-funny-pretty-zac-efron

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Secret Service shoots gun-wielding man near White House

President Obama Speaks at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner

WASHINGTON A U.S. Secret Service agent shot a man who brandished a gun near the White House on Friday while President Barack Obama was out golfing, and the man was taken to a hospital in critical condition, officials said.

The Secret Service, which protects the president and his family, briefly locked down the White House as a precaution, and Vice President Joe Biden was secured within the White House complex during the lockdown, a White House spokeswoman said.

Authorities later said there appeared to be no link to terrorism.

The shooting took place just off 17th and E streets, near what is known as the South Lawn outside the home and offices of the president.

A man carrying a gun approached a checkpoint shortly after 3 p.m. (1900 GMT) when uniformed Secret Service officers ordered him to stop and drop the weapon, the Secret Service said in a statement.

"When the subject failed to comply with the verbal commands, he was shot once by a Secret Service agent and taken into custody," the statement said.The man was taken to hospital in critical condition, the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department said.

Authorities said they were investigating the motive.

"At this time, based on a preliminary investigation, there is no known nexus to terrorism," security agencies said in a joint statement.

A man who appeared to be in his mid-20s walked to a gate of the White House holding a silver-colored gun pointed at the ground, said Brett Polivka, a 26-year-old visitor from Texas who was near the south side of the White House.

"A couple officers drew their guns, went right at him and within two or three seconds we heard a gunshot," Polivka said.

The Secret Service, which also guards other top dignitaries, said all those under its protection were safe, but it did not say if Obama"s family was home at the time.

"Everyone in the White House is safe and accounted for," a White House official said.

The shooting followed several incidents that raised questions about the Secret Service"s performance.

In September 2014, a knife-carrying man jumped a fence and ran into the White House itself in one of the worst security breaches during Obama"s tenure.

That episode led to the resignation of the Secret Service"s director.

In March 2015, two Secret Service agents capped off a night of drinking by driving into a White House barricade inches away from a suspicious package that investigators were examining.

In 2011, a man hit the White House with automatic rifle fire, though damage to the building was not discovered for several days.

(Reporting by Megan Cassalla, Jeff Mason and Eric Walsh in Washington; additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Gina Cherelus in New York and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Tom Brown and Jonathan Oatis)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-whitehouse-shooting-idUSKCN0YB2L0

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REVIEW: The Meddler

Chevelle- The Meddler (Hats Off to the Bull)

Review by Dustin Heller

The Meddler is a new dramedy starring Susan Sarandon which was written and directed by Lorene Scafaria. Scafaria is best known for her adapted screenplay for the excellent Nick & Norahs Infinite Playlist and also her directorial debut Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Along with Sarandon, the film stars Rose Bryne, J. K. Simmons, Cicely Strong (of SNL fame), Lucy Punch, and Jason Ritter. Opening in Indianapolis on May 20, The Meddler is rated PG-13 for brief drug content.

Marnie (Sarandon) is a recent widow who has recently moved from New York to Los Angeles in order to be closer to her daughter, Lori (Byrne). Having a lot of time on her hands and more money than she will ever need, Marnie spends her days and nights meddling in her daughters affairs. This drives Lori crazy and when an opportunity with her job allows her to go back to New York for a while, Marnie is lost.

While Lori is gone, Marnie begins to plug into the lives of some other people who need help as well. Whether its needing money for a dream wedding or just giving someone a ride when they dont have a car, Marnie is always helping out. Through this, she meets a former cop named Zipper (Simmons) who she really likes, but cant let go of her deep love for her late husband. While Marnie does a great job of making the lives of everyone around her better, she starts to realize that she needs to find her own happiness and take care of herself as well.

The Meddler is all about Susan Sarandon and she gives one of the best performances of her career. She is so charismatic and charming that you fall in love with her character from the opening frame. She is literally in every scene of the film and shows so much range as an actor. The film is somewhat of a feel-good movie that is targeted towards females and more specifically towards mothers. To that point, Im still confused by the films Indianapolis release date as this would have been the perfect film to take your mother to on Mothers Day a couple of weeks ago.

Anyway, the film has a big heart and is actually quite funny at times. The storyline is good and well-written but probably plays it a little too safe at times, but its forgivable. I cant say enough about Susan Sarandon in this movie and I sure hope there are more roles like this in her future. Whether it is a special night out with mom or even a girls night, The Meddler is a worthwhile and rewarding time at the movies.

Grade: B

The Meddler opens in theaters on Friday, May 20

Source: http://fox59.com/2016/05/20/review-the-meddler/

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Founding Beastie Boys Member John Berry Dies at 52

Beastie Boys - Sabotage

Founding Beastie Boys member John Berry has died at the age of 52.

His stepmother, Louise Berry, tells The Associated Press that Berry died Thursday morning at a hospice in Danvers, Massachusetts. She says Berry suffered from frontal lobe dementia and had been in declining health for several years.

His father, John Berry III, says Berry helped found the Beastie Boys in the early 1980s after meeting future bandmate Mike Diamond at the Walden School in New York. Berry III says the band used his Manhattan loft for their first practices and shows. Berry left the group after playing guitar on its first EP. His father says the band was becoming more professional and Berry "wasn"t up for that rigor."

The family plans a public celebration of life in the fall.

Published at 8:28 AM EDT on May 20, 2016

Copyright Associated Press

Source: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/Founding-Beastie-Boys-member-John-Berry-dies-380241561.html

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Morley Safer Hated Contemporary Art. He Also Made Paintings. He Once Sent a Bundle of Them to Me.

Morley Safer, 60 Minutes journalist, dead at 84
Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

Morley Safer, the legendary TV newsman, died Thursday at age 84. So why am I, an art critic, writing about him? Like a lot of people in the art world, I feel I have a sort of history with him.

I don"t mean to be speaking ill of the dead instantaneously, and I intend this more as a begrudging compliment: To us, Safer was a persistent pain in the a*s, most famously in his September 1993 quarter-hour hit piece for 60 Minutes on the whole culture of contemporary art, snidely titled "Yes, But Is It Art?" In the segment, which quickly became insider shorthand for all the ways the wider world misunderstands and sometimes disdains contemporary art, the irascible Safer dressed in an almost-tuxedo and dripping with disdainful innuendo that implied that all of this was just a sham attacked high prices (or what seemed then like high prices), the infamous "political" Whitney Biennial, and, of course, Jeff Koons. And even though every potshot he took seemed slanted, one-sided, his arch insinuations got under the art world"s skin a sign of different times, I guess, both for art and for television news. I remember how miffed I was when, two weeks after his hatchet job hit the airwaves, I spied him drinking free Champagne at that season"s Whitney Museum benefit dinner. In 2012 he more or less repeated the drive-by, sauntering down the aisles of one of the grossest souks on Earth, the Art Basel Miami Beach Art Fair, for another segment, all the while drolly pointing to this or that fashion victim or crapola work of art, cluelessly assuming that all art was like this.

What most people don"t know about Safer is that he was himself an artist. Or, at least, he made art. In the 1990s I"d heard he made watercolors of motel rooms, and I continuously tried to coax him into allowing me to mount a show of them. I don"t even know if my requests ever got to him, as I never heard from him or CBS. That changed last year, when I was writing an article on art by celebrities. Somehow he must have heard about it. Out of nowhere I got the dearest email asking if I"d consider writing about his work. He offered to send a package to New York Magazine. Before I could say "OMG! The bear is coming out of the woods," a carefully wrapped bundle of small original works arrived at our offices. I don"t believe they"ve been published, or possibly even seen publicly before.

UNICODE Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

I didn"t hate them. What I saw had a certain earnest pathos, someone being an artist in a mid-20th-century Sunday-painter way. The work seemed influenced mainly by a very conservative idea about plain modernistic surfaces, depiction, and color. Safer was a careful drawer, and his colors stayed within lines. His subjects were ordinary landscape, portraits, churches, tourist sites, and the like.

Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

I wouldn"t have bought any of these if I saw them at a yard sale, except one. His motel-room picture has everything you"d want it to have, and even a little bit more. Which is to say banality, blankness, something sweet, neat, forlorn, and soul-killing. The space is cramped, the dcor drab and sterile; a rotary dial phone sits on the bare night table next to one generic lamp. Over the small double bed is just the kind of clich landscape that Safer liked to paint: two trees on a hill with a yellow sun in the white sky. Ironies extend. The rumpled bed with only one side turned down lets us know Safer has been here, alone on the road. A plain poignancy lingers, even in the uninspired style.

Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

In 1990 he painted a native of Burkina Faso, West Africa. He"s black, sitting on the ground against a stuccolike building, and wears some sort of scarlet robe. Never mind the Orientalizing that most in the art world would spot as colonialist, Safer does the whole thing in an unhurried, controlled Gericault-meets-Matisse air.

Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

Another work from the same year finds him giving us a scene overlooking bountiful planted summer fields of musky green. (The guy obviously enjoyed his first-class perks and leisure time.) Other than a great tree that feels like it must have been made on the African serengeti, the rest of the work I saw was typical tourist postcard art. The unhurried arid mise-en-scne conjures sparsely peopled retirement communities built around golf courses.

Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

Adding to the pathos of the pictures, after the article came out and he wasn"t included, I got another email asking me, honestly, why not, and what I thought of his art. I never got back to him. Had I, I would have said that it was too bad he never gave art a real chance, as he seemed to have a real feel for a certain strain of painting from observation. And that, had he not set himself against the whole world of contemporary art, he might have picked up a thing or two that might have helped him.

Photo: Courtesy of Morley Safer

Source: http://www.vulture.com/2016/05/morley-safer-once-sent-me-his-strange-paintings.html

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Morley Safer on Gefilte Fish, Observing the High Holidays, and Visiting Auschwitz

Stephen Remembers Morley Safer

In 2005, Abigail Pogrebin published Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish. The following is an excerpt from the chapter about Morley Safer, the Canadian-American broadcast journalist best known for histenureas a reporter onCBS 60 Minutes, who diedon Thursday at the age of83.

MORLEY SAFER, the seventy-four-year-old, wizened newsman, is reclining on a well-worn leather couch in his handsome carriage house, smoking the cigarettes hes never quit, and sipping coffee he cant do withouteven on Yom Kippur. Im not a total hundred percent faster as I once was, he says with a smile. I do have coffee. I need it. Giving up coffee would be cruel and unusual. Aside from caffeine, fasting is not a hardship. I never eat breakfast anyway and not much of a lunch, he explained. But I remember the agony of it as a kid. I mean, agony.

He and his wife, Jane, are not observant, but they do go to synagogue each year. Then we go for a long walk. I think the sheer disengagement, even if one didnt go to synagogue, does make you think. Which is hardly a punishment once a year, and in fact, may be a bonus. Its not exactly wearing a hair shirt or flogging your back or climbing one thousand steps on your knees.

Safer grew up in Toronto, where he experienced some anti-Semitic incidents he prefers not to talk about: I dont want to go into all that, he says, stubbing his cigarette out in a large ashtray.

His family observed a modified Shabbatattending Saturday services, then a matinee. The only holiday he still celebrates without fail is Passover. Weve been doing it for the last thirty-odd years, since Sarah was born, he says, referring to his only child, who is thirty-four when we talk. Its an interesting, really jolly mix of people. Not all the guests are Jewish. I think its about evenly split, Safer says. And the most insistent onesthe ones who start calling weeks before, saying, We havent been invited yettend to be the non-Jews. He chuckles.

For the traditional meal, the Safers order their gefilte fish from Rosedale Fish and Oyster Market on the Upper East Sideits the oldest fish market, Safer tells me, as if that should be obvious to any true New Yorkerbut hes still in search of the perfect lump of pike. Ive yet to find gefilte fish that is as close to the one my mother made, he says wistfully.

Sarah was sent to Hebrew school, he says, so that shed be equipped to spurn Judaism with intelligence. Youve got to know what youre going to reject, Safer says. You should not be allowed to reject something without learning it first. Today she is non-observant. It was her choice, he says. Would I like her to come to synagogue on Yom Kippur with us? She has once or twice. But I cant imposeshes a thirty-whatever-old woman. As a young woman she kind of rejected it, probably more strenuously than she does now. She has a sonour first and only grandchild. Sarahs husband is a Russian Jew, but they chose not to circumcise their son. I would have wanted it because its such an ancient tradition, he says. But he didnt pressure her. Theres nothing more destructive than that.

The Safers never celebrated Christmas, and I ask if he has any reaction to Jews that do. I find it a little alien, but Im not a tyrant on these things. I find excessive Christmas stuff kind of gives me the w*****s anyway. And I hate Christmas in New York because of what happens to the city. I mean, you cant get a cab, the weather is lousyyou freeze your a*s off, and there is no joy in it. I love the idea of itthe idea of charity and all of that.

Ill tell you a story, he continues. At the office, you always get presents for the people you work with around the holidays. Id been doing it for the thirty-three years Ive been at 60 Minutes; I always give a couple of very good bottles of wine, or one very good bottle of wine and one very good bottle of spirits or malt. And it was just fascinating: One year, it was at the height of the homelessness crisis, and I said to my staff, Look, I have a thought: What I would love to do is go and buy food and gloves and scarves. And well distribute the stuff and then all go and have a nice supper together. They looked at me like I was crazy: What? Thats the worst idea you ever had. I was devastated, he says with a laugh. I tell Safer they probably couldnt stand the idea of giving up their malt liquors. He nods. Here I am, engaging this holiday with the kind of heart that youre supposed to have. And people were appalled.

The doorbell rings. Thats our dog coming back from her walk, he says, looking suddenly like a thrilled little boy. Come here, Dora! We have a houseguest! Dora! Dora runs to Safer and they canoodle each other. Hello, my little lady; heres my sweetie pie, They clearly have a mutual admiration. I try to pat her casually, despite my complete awkwardness with animals, and think of the right thing to say. Shes so clean, I manage.

She likes you, Safer says with a smile. She loves loving. I warn you. After some genuine ardor from her owner, Dora pads away, ostensibly to seek a second breakfast.

As Safer fetches a bottle of Pellegrino water from the open kitchen, I ask him whether he thinks being Jewish has affected his reporting in any way. I think, after all these years, and having spent a lot of time covering Middle East wars and covering Israel between the wars, you really are able to detach when you do this work.

But I remember the first time I went to Auschwitzit was probably in the fifties. I was working for the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation], doing a half-hour documentary on Poland. This was after the food riotslate fifties, early sixtiesand the full horror had really been revealed. That was just one of the most powerful moments in my life. The camp hadnt been museum-ized yet; it was in many respects not much different from how it was left.

And it was also very powerful the first time I went to Germany, which was even earlier. I remember getting off the plane in Frankfurt and hearing that sound of the guttural language. He pauses. And you think, There but for a few years . . .this was 1954 as opposed to 1944its not that much time.

So, would Safer say that his Jewishness is a significant part of him? Oh yes, he responds. Its who I am. I think its an important part mainly for what many people may regard as secular reasons, though I dont think theyre entirely secular. That is, I think it leads to a more contemplative kind of life. I think it gives you a very, very clear idea of ethics, which Im not suggesting I may practice. But I certainly have a clear idea. Which is why I never understood why they go through this charade now of teaching ethics. You cant teach ethics. You have to be a zombie not to know the difference between right and wrong. I think that a Jewish background does give you a very, very strong sense of doing the right thing.

Excerpted from Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish by Abigail Pogrebin. Copyright 2005 by Abigail Pogrebin. Used by permission of Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Abigail Pogrebin is the author of Stars of David and One and the Same. She moderates the interview series What Everyone"s Talking About at the JCC in Manhattan.

Source: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/203183/morley-safer-on-gefilte-fish-observing-the-high-holidays-and-visiting-auschwitz

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It"s official: Sara Ramirez is leaving "Grey"s Anatomy"

Sara Ramirez singing "The Story" at the Grey"s Anatomy concert to benefit the Actors Fund

The Catch is billed as the Alice and Ben show, but the Kensington firm gave them some serious competition in the season 1 finale.

If Shonda Rhimes ever finds herself desperate for a spin-off idea, weve got the perfect solution for her: The Kensington firm. We always knew Margot was basically the coolest person alive, but the more weve gotten to know about her family, the more we fall in love with the entire Kensington/Griffiths/Bishop clan (even though we have no idea how their last names work).

Things escalated when John Simm joined the cast as Margots brother, Rhys, and in the season 1 finale of The Catch, Sybil completed this hilarious, entertaining, and completely dysfunctional family. The Kensington firm is more than a group of con artists, theyre a team of absolute scene stealers. Here are 6 times when all eyes were on them in The Catch season 1 finale.

When they got the counterfeiter, and her little dog too

After being severely underused in her first appearance on The Catch, Leah Wells, played by the magnificent Nia Vardalos, made up for it in the season 1 finale. Besides being a hilarious addition to the family, Leahs skills were really cool, and she had a great dynamic with Reggie (another underutilized character).

When we first heard that Rhys was trying to secure the counterfeiter, it seemed like his intentions were obvious. The con artist game gets a lot more relaxing if you have someone who can just make endless amounts of money for you. However, Sybils plan was much more intricate, and demonstrated how powerful she is. If Leah sticks with the firm, theyre going to be an unstoppable force.

The family dinner that put all your Thanksgivings to shame

You think your family gatherings are tiresome or awkward? When one child casually mentions that their mother murdered their father, it takes things to a whole new level. Margot has been showcasing her skills throughout the entire season of The Catch, so its been difficult to understand why she wouldnt have been granted the opportunities she wanted with her own family. Luckily, her mother cleared everything up for us. The tiny glimpse we got of this family hanging out together, including Ben as the fourth wheel, has us longing for more.

When Rhys and Ben could have coordinated a little better

Rhys may be the one that was born into the firm, but when it comes to the art of conning, he has a lot to learn from his buddy Benji. Rhys clear admiration of Ben, combined with Bens incredulous looks, made for some of the best scenes of the whole season.

Reggie has been away for most of The Catch season 1, and Ben and Margot dont often team up in the same way that Ben and Rhys did. Weve seen glimpses of this before, but one of them usually had ulterior motives. When these two are genuinely working toward a common goal, they are absolutely hilarious together!

When Sybil casually busted Margot out of jail

They may be dysfunctional, but they still follow basic family etiquette. When your daughters in jail, you have to break her out! There werent any chiseled walls or mysterious power outages here. Just a simple its a prison break, darling, from the most deceivingly adorable mother of the year.

It was tragic seeing our con queen sitting in that interrogation room, so were grateful that Sybil decided she was worth her time and resources, even though Margot got into this mess by stealing something that Sybil wanted.

When Rhys proposed to Benji

These two were so magical together that they deserved a second spot on the list. As weve seen, Ben is willing to do some pretty extreme things for a con, but he was really hoping that kissing Rhys wouldnt be one of them. After Rhys previous debacle, the two finally got their story straight and showed what an amazing team they can be. They have to be in love, right? Right?

When Margot basically won the entire game

Last, but certainly not least, we have the woman that brought all of this madness into our lives. After her whole life fell apart in the blink of an eye, she didnt waste a second before rebuilding her empire. Sybil and Rhys have both had their scary moments, but in the end, Margot came out on top, and she took everyone else down on her way there!

Source: http://www.hypable.com/sara-ramirez-leaving-greys-anatomy/

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