Jan Wahl Movie Review: 'Gravity' & 'Parkland'

(KCBS) — KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl reviews "Gravity", a well-paced flick clocking in at just 90 minutes, the perfect length for this adventure starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.

KCBS Entertainment Reporter Jan Wahl:

 
GRAVITY (PG-13)

As much as I love movies about real events and actual personalities, once in a while we all need to escape. Enter "Gravity," where we immediately are placed in a world of outer space. Space scientists and engineers George Clooney and Sandra Bullock are enjoying their work fixing their space capsule when everything goes terribly wrong. Soon, it is life or death. Well paced at 90 minutes, it's the perfect length for this adventure. It's tense and smart, especially Bullock's emotional narrative.

I am usually disappointed by 3D, but this time it works. In fact, try and find 3D and IMAX -- the bigger, the better. It's a wild trip worth taking.

Three hats.

 
PARKLAND (PG-13)

Whether you remember where you were when JFK was assassinated or perhaps you've only studied it, this film brings November 22, 1963 to our hearts and minds as we relive that devastating event.

Parkland illuminates that day and the days following the tragedy in Dallas, from the first moments after the gunshots to the hospital to law enforcement and eventually, Lee Harvey Oswald.

Unusual details are given here, as well as characters like Abraham Zapruder, played by Paul Giamatti. The cast is large and excellent: Billy Bob Thornton, Jacki Weaver (a standout as Oswald's mother), Marcia Gay Harden, Zac Efron. No conspiracy here, but an excellent, absorbing film. A special hats off to Tom Hanks for co-producing this important film.

Three & 1/2 hats.

WHEN COMEDY WENT TO SCHOOL (Not rated)

So many started in the Catskill Mountains entertaining at resorts that were not restricted, especially to comedy. In this documentary, we get the history of these Jewish comics, Borscht Belt masters who went on to bring their comedy into the mainstream.

It's not a complete picture of this rich subject, but we do get a sense of Jewish humor as a defense mechanism against oppression.

Three hats.

Movies To See Right Now: Thanks for Sharing, Lee Daniel's The Butler & Blue Jasmine

Home Viewing/DVD: The Bling Ring & The King's Speech (Restored)

 
You can hear KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl's movie reviews on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM Fridays at 8:53am & 4:53pm.

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