News

Films reviewed: The History Boys, We are Marshall, Rocky Balboa, Fur

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus, OH – In their final meeting of 2006, the Columbus School Board approved some new policies. Hear what board members think about the changes and what impact they think the rules will have.

Columbus, OH – Columbus City Council President Matt Habash will step down in January.

Sweet

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"But it ain't about how hard you hit... it's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward." Rocky Balboa

Columbus, OH – Columbus has been studying whether a streetcar system would benefit the city. While the concensus is that streetcars would significantly boost the economy, it remains unclear whether the city can afford them.

Films reviewed: Charlotte's Web, The Pursuit of Happyness, The Holiday

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Columbus, OH – After heavy service cuts in the past, COTA will implement minor changes in January and could add some service in May. The once struggling agency anxiously awaits future revenue in 2008 from the recently passed ten-year tax levy. Doug Moore - COTA's Vice President for Planning and Customer Service - talks about the agency's future.

Columbus, OH – John Mueller - author and professor of political science at Ohio State University - says the response to terrorism in the five years since the September 11th attacks has been overblown. Mueller tells WCBE there should be an effort to reduce fear among Americans.

Columbus, OH – Columbus City Council approves funds to acquire more tasers. Despite the recent death of a suspect where a taser was used, city officials say the devices protect officers and suspects.

Columbus, OH – Hear how Columbus school officials think Governor Taft's recently passed education plan will impact the district.

Columbus, OH – Arson on Columbus' Northwest side...Lincoln Theater renovation funds approved...More trouble for one of First Energy's nuclear power plants...Clarett moved to Toledo prison...Lamar Hunt's impact felt in Central Ohio...

Satisfying holiday fare

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"The season developed and matured. Another year's installment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles." Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Trite and Vapid

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

I don't think so . . .

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

A better title would be "Home of the Made-for-TV Movie"--You'd have to be from the "home of the brave film critics" to sit trough this laundry list of post-traumatic syndrome clich?s. Three Iraq veterans return to face a civilian world that doesn't understand and personal demons that won't let them forget the ungodly carnage they lived through. But nothing is new or unique, no dialogue is incisive, no action is memorable.

Films reviewed: Apocalypto, Blood Diamond

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe with guest critic, Kristin Dreyer Kramer

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Kristin Dreyer Kramer is editor-in-chief of NightsandWeekends.com.

Some Indiana Jones, some Heart of Darkness

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

"To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe." Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Terrence Malick has much more to say about apocalypse.

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Gibson loves gore. No, that's not a new political eccentricity for the mercurial director Mel Gibson, but an inference I am drawing from his two recent films, The Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. In Passion, he gives us about an hour of Christ being beaten by Romans, far too much for me, favoring minimalism in film violence and sex, where less is more powerful.

Grade: C
Director: John Stockwell (Into the Blue)
Screenplay: Michael Ross
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Melissa George
Rating: R

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Films reviewed: Bobby, For Your Consideration, Shut Up and Sing

By hosts John DeSando and Clay Lowe

"It's Movie Time" has won 8 national awards including Silver Microphone and Communicator honors.

Drs. Lowe and DeSando were moderator and panelist respectively on TV 25's "World Film Classics." Both have been professors, Lowe at The Ohio State University and DeSando at Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio.

Happy Film

By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time"

Tap-dancing penguins could never have been pitched if the mega-hit doc Marching Penguins (2005) had not caught the imagination of every breathing human. Only this time around Happy Feet is not a doc but a high-class animation (from the director of the very humane Babe) and much more anthropomorphic than Marching Penguins.