Screen Test

Zooey (Ji-young Yoo), Rumi (Arden Cho) and Mira (May Hong) are KPop Demon Hunters. Netflix photo via IMDb.com  Bet you never expected to find a glowing review of something called “KPop Demon Hunters” in this space. Me neither. But if you've got preteen kids or grandkids, you get it. Or, if you noticed last weekend's box office numbers, or music charts, or show-biz news that this animated PG-rated Korean musical is the most successful project Netflix has ever produced, your interest might be piqued, too. I have our grandson Niko, now 11, to thank for already knowing a bit about demons in various Asian cultures and the intrepid young warriors – often barely more than children – who fight them. My filmmaking buddy Tom Vendetti has climbed some of the highest mountains in the Himalayas to shoot Buddhist monasteries celebrating colorful multi-day festivals depicting monks locked in eternal battle against the demons of illusion. Same song, different verse. Under his soccer-playing, g...

  Liam Neeson in action in “The Naked Gun.  Paramount Pictures photo via IMDb.com One afternoon in 1980 when I was the entertainment reporter at the Santa Cruz Sentinel, a man appeared at the front counter in the newsroom. He was in his 30s, and reminded me a little of the Fonz. He was, if I recall, wearing a bowling shirt. His name was Jim Abrahams. Co-writing and directing with brothers David and Jerry Zucker, he had just made a movie, and was making a cold call at the newspaper trying to drum up publicity for it. The movie was called “Airplane!” As screen comedies go, it was destined to be a game changer. The trio of filmmakers, soon to be known as ZAZ, had a simple formula for getting big laughs: Make everything a parody of itself. And the silliest thing of all is seriousness. I read that Jim Abrahams died last year at age 80 of complications from leukemia. The ZAZ brand of comedy died a long time before that. Case in point: the Liam Neeson reboot of 1988's detective spoof...

                 Jason Momoa with his men in “Chief of War.”  Photo courtesy of Apple TV+ via IMDb.com. Even with all the footage of nearly naked men charging through jungles and across beaches to engage in grisly dances of bone breaking and neck slitting with weapons made from shark teeth, Apple TV's “Chief of War” is a work of impressive filmmaking and awesome storytelling. The visuals of the $340-million production capture the majesty and pay proper respect to Hawaii's landscapes and seascapes (even if much of the filming took place in New Zealand). As of the end of the second episode, most of the characters were still speaking Hawaiian, subtitled on screen. It was one of the many demands for authenticity made by producer and star Jason Momoa. Whether or not Momoa deserves  all  the credit, the production is steeped in realism, integrity and soulful understanding of the culture it depicts. Although Captain Cook had arrived a...