Tag Archives: Jack Poessiger
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: ‘EVERYBODY’S FINE’ Surprises
EVERYBODY’S FINE is what I like to think of as the holiday movie season’s early December Surprise!
It certainly casts Robert DeNiro in a completely different light.
Not as the typical tough guy, but as a recently widowed father who’s planning a family reunion-weekend with his four grown kids at his home. And he’s pulling out all the stops!
Good wine. Choice cuts of beef. The works.
…that is until they one-by-one bail out at the last minute. Continue reading
New Jack City: Let’s All Go to the Snack Bar–Please!
AMC Entertainment’s announcement Monday that it would no longer permit moviegoers to bring their own concession items into their theatres touched off a firestorm of media handwringing.
It was front page news in Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: The Plaza Gift that DIDN’T Keep On Giving!
Don’t do as I did. Do as I now will do!
My favorite Christmas, birthday or anytime gifts to receive are Gift Cards. Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: Jack’s BEST-BETS with All the Stuffings!
This holiday week will have thousands of Kansas Citians heading for their favorite MegaPlexes.
To help you get the biggest bang for your entertainment buck, here are my Jack Goes To The Movies–Best Bets at the Box Office!
Looking for LAFFS with your Turkey? Here are MY Comedy Picks:
Director Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated FANTASTIC MR. FOX whose idyllic home life goes to hell in a handbag when he slips back to his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief.
The adult comedy stars the voice-talents of George Clooney as Mr. while Meryl Streep is the Mrs.
Also along for the ride Jason Schwartzman, Willem DaFoe, Owen Wilson—and Bill Murray as Badger.
My other Fun-Picks include OLD DOGS with John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston, Matt Dillon and Seth Green….IF you thought WILD HOGS was a hoot…
Also the quirky Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: Catch a Falling STAR…but Keep it Out of MY Pocket!
A while back the good folks at the KANSAS CITY STAR inserted a small card into my newspaper.
On it they announced big plans for their upcoming Thanksgiving issue. Something to the effect that “…the Kansas City Star has BIG PLANS for your Thanksgiving Day edition and holiday shopping.”
Big Plans?
We could look forward to the largest edition of the year. Not necessarily news, mind you but that the paper will be filled with sales inserts from all of my favorite retailers, etc.
So WHAT Plans?
Those were outlined in a much smaller print size at the bottom of the piece explaining that all STAR subscribers will automatically receive home delivery on Thanksgiving day at an additional cost of $1.25!
“November delivery will reflect this slight one-time additional cost,” it proclaimed.
As a longtime subscriber to the STAR, I’ve reluctantly come to accept today’s meager print editions.
Looks to me that one of the only real BRIGHT SIDES left are the obituaries— seemingly one of the few remaining profit centers for the newspaper.
I digress. Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: NEW MOON Shatters Records!
Friday’s debut of the Vampire-Romance sequel NEW MOON has broken the previous opening day record of $ 67.2 million set by THE DARK KNIGHT in July of 2008!
TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON produced an incredible $72.7 million in first day ticket sales.
…and that’s JUST in North American Theaters! Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: ‘PRECIOUS’ Delivers Raw Shocks. Painful to Watch!
26 year old Gabourey Sidibe’s portrayal of 16 year old Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones is Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Bullock scores Touchdown for Thanksgiving!
THE BLIND SIDE is an uplifting and inspirational Bio-Drama that should redeem Sandra Bullock for her Labor Day weekend cinematic misstep ALL ABOUT STEVE—a movie I’m sure she wouldn’t like to be reminded of these days.
Here Bullock stars in the true story of black Baltimore Ravens tackle Michael Oher.
She plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, an affluent Memphis interior designer and mother of two, who rescues Oher from life on the streets.
Oher is receptive to the opportunity given him by this family and becomes a son, brother and one hell of an All-American offensive left tackle.
Oher being part of the Tuohy’s lives leads them to some insightful discoveries of their own. While Oher in his new environment faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome as both a student and football player.
Lots’a sociological sideline issues and a good dose of sugarcoating of both racial and political realities in the South. Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: …and the Envelope, Please!
On my calendar, Kansas City’s movie-award season begins this weekend as the Hollywood studios begin to release their more prestigious films—or expand potential award winners to markets beyond New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Toronto.
Why THIS weekend for Kansas City?
Because one of these Expansion Runs includes K.C.!
It’s “PRECIOUS: Based On The Novel PUSH by Sapphire.”
This is the disturbing, often painful account of how an overweight 16 year old black girl in Harlem learns to rise above her bleak life while enduring unspeakable abuses.
The movie wow’ed them at this year’s Sundance Film Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: PIRATE RADIO Rocks Brits from Off-Shore!
During the late 60’s American AM radio stations blasted Rock ‘N Roll 24 hours a day.
Yet in the home country of THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES, the only way young Britain’s could get their R & R fix was by tuning to renegade PIRATE RADIO stations docked off-shore in the North Sea.
The government tried everything possible to shut them down—and eventually succeeded.
PIRATE RADIO was ‘INSPIRED’ Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: 2012 – The Ultimate Disaster Flick. High Art it’s Not!
German movie maker Roland Emmerich’s special effects trick bag sure has come a long way since bringing us INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.
Too bad his Eye on Script and Acting didn’t follow suit!
Make no mistake about it 2012 is the MOTHER of ALL disaster movies. And the film’s huge production Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: It’s Only a Movie…Only a Movie…Only a Movie – Take as Much as you Can!
Fans of the paranormal and supernatural are feasting on a smorgasbord of films currently in Kansas City.
There’s the long-running ZOMBIELAND, CIRQUE DU FREAK, SAW VI—and the breakthrough hit PARANORMAL ACTIVITY.
This weekend Hollywood adds 3 more titles of the genre!
The first is the dark comedy of psychic detectives with the strange title THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS.
Here small town reporter Ewan McGregor encounters Continue reading
JACK GOES CONFIDENTIAL: DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL Wows and Delights!
Since the Walt Disney Company felt strong enough that the time was right for yet another remake of Charles Dickens A CHRISTMAS CAROL—the 7th film version to be specific—it first had to find the right person to helm the project.
Selecting visionary filmmaker Robert Zemeckis to direct the studio’s new version was clearly the right move by the House of Mouse as his new production trumps all others and Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: AMC Theatres CEO’s 3-D Prediction Echoed by Jack!
Asked recently whether 3-D is finally poised to really take off, new AMC ENTERTAINMENT honcho Gerry Lopez suggested to Hearne Christopher that we reserve judgement until Christmas.
Why Christmas?
Because both DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL and AVATAR are opening in November and “are bound to take 3-D to a new place where it’s never gone before,” Lopez said.
He called it a ‘WATERSHED MOMENT.’
Having now seen DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL in 3-D earlier this week, as well as a 20 minute IMAX 3-D demo of AVATAR, I’m here to tell you that the AMC honcho is Right On!
DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL’s 3-D presentation is STUNNING and takes this 7th Continue reading
NEW JACK CITY: Get Stuffed in Style at the Movies
Who doesn’t love a good list?
There’s the Letterman TOP 10. And Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Michael Jackson delivers beyond expectations!
MICHAEL JACKSON’S: THIS IS IT is not a documentary per se. It is a quasi Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: Butch Goes to the Movies at Crown Center!
Motion Picture Management, a partnership between local movie mavens Butch Rigby and John Shipp, are bringing film exhibition back to Crown Center in Kansas City.
The pair currently manage the PLAZA 8 THEATRE, a discount movie operation in St. Joseph, Missouri.
To be known as SCREENLAND CROWN CENTER, Kansas City’s newest movieplex will take over the two remaining auditoriums of Crown Center’s previous six-plex located on the 3rd floor of Crown Center Shops.
The main auditorium will seat 175 while the second seats 125.
The other four auditoriums were converted into the OFF CENTER THEATRE—a live entertainment venue.
So what will be the booking policy for SCREENLAND CROWN CENTER? Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: CIRQUE Du FREAK–Funky fun with a bite!
The smash success of the Continue reading
Jack Goes Confidential: AMELIA takeoff fails to reach altitude!
I was really, really looking forward to enjoying Hilary Swank in the title role of Amelia Earhart.
That was last week before I glanced at VARIETY’s early review of the film.
Here’s a quote from their thumbs-down take on the film:
“To say that AMELIA never gets off the ground would be an understatement; it barely makes it out of the hangar….what rankles most about AMELIA is the timidity and lack of imagination with which (director) Mira Nair approached one of America’s most exceptional and intriguing celebrity life stories….”
My take? Continue reading
New Jack City: Radio Ratings Portable People Meters, right Here, Right Now!
Several weeks ago I reported on the major change in how radio listenership is about to be measured in Kansas City.
K.C. will be converted from a Diary reporting to a Personal People Meter or PPM market.
The changeover has now been implemented and the first solid ratings info using the new system will become available December 31, 2009.
To say that local radio suits are nervous about their first set of numbers achieved under the new system would be an understatement.
But let’s back up minute.
Up until now Arbitron selected listeners pretty much at random and had them fill out a quarterly diary of their daily listening habits.
Pretty unscientific, Continue reading
