Rocco Dormarunno

A celebration of The Garden State., July 19 2004

Bounded by the Hudson and Atlantic to the east, and by the Delaware River to the west, New Jersey has a lot to offer to the visitor or to those who've lived there all their lives. Just don't wander onto Tony Soprano's lawn. The "Portrait of America" series is a wonderful introduction for pre-teens to the 50 states and to the places and events that shaped the history of the United States. This "New Jersey" installment is particularly good. The book is broken down into sections like "History", "Culture", "Economy" etc., and each section is thoughtfully written and edited. And this edition is loaded with several beautiful photographs. The "Culture" section is my personal favorite. This book,… Read more

Gremlins in Gotham, July 19 2004

I'm not saying this just because I am a New Yorker, but GREMLINS 2--THE NEW BATCH is slightly better than the original. First, it's a much less mean-spirited film than the first (which I also gave five stars, but for different reasons). Just the fact that a character who was crushed to death in the first film, shows up in the sequel (wearing a small cast) because he really was likeable, shows that Joe Dante and the scriptwriters were going into this film for the fun of it. Second, the casting was flawless. Whoever chose Tony Randall to do the voice of the strangely-William F. Buckley-sounding, intellectual gremlin was responding to nothing short of divine inspiration. Everyone involved in… Read more

There are just three rules..., July 19 2004

1) Buy GREMLINS. 2) Watch GREMLINS 3) Repeat #2 several times

Every time I surf the t.v. and I come across GREMLINS, I will put down the remote and watch it til the end. GREMLINS, for its time, was truly groundbreaking. It was E.T., except with really rotten friends and relatives. Well-paced and directed Joe Dante, with unique performances by Zach Galligan and the gorgeous Phoebe Cates, GREMLINS deftly treads in and out of suspense/horror and comedy. (Phoebe Cates' explication of how her father died is still outrageous.) And there are plenty of pitched battles between the good guys and the unruly gremlins to keep the plot moving. Just don't show this movie to young kids around… Read more