Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. He has been a staff writer for the Washington Post and TV Guide, and served as the Times' book review editor.
A graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, he is the co-author of Call Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke. He teaches film reviewing and non-fiction writing at USC and is on the board of directors of the National Yiddish Book Center. His most recent books are the University of California Press' Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made and Never Coming To A Theater Near You, published by Public Affairs Press.
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The new movie Coraline is the story of a little girl who follows a secret passage into an alternate universe. It is the first stop-motion animated film to be conceived and shot in 3-D.
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Tell No One is a French thriller that was a hit in Europe, but it had a hard time finding distribution in the United States. Now it's been out for some weeks, and its audience is growing through strong word-of-mouth.
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TV's beloved secret-agent spoof gets a big-screen update — but like its bumbling hero, the film is constantly trying to be something it's not. The result: an unfunny comedy spliced with an unexciting spy caper.
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Critic Kenneth Turan says Marvel Entertainment's resurrection of The Incredible Hulk is solid and efficient, if not particularly adventurous. And it has a problem ending.
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Morning Edition and Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan reviews The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second installment of the fantasy series by C.S. Lewis to be adapted into a film.
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Brilliant arms-merchant playboy dons advanced battle armor to save the world from evil plot. Latest Marvel Comics adaptation wants to be this summer's first blockbuster, but it's too overloaded for takeoff.
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Jackie Chan and Jet Li, two well-known martial arts film stars, just finished their first collaboration. Morning Edition and Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan says their new movie, The Forbidden Kingdom, was not worth the wait.
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Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan reviews the film Young at Heart. It's a documentary about a choir made up of senior citizens who perform songs by rock, punk and soul music artists.
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The story of a young soldier home from the war in Iraq is the subject of the movie Stop-Loss. Los Angeles Times and Morning Edition film critic Kenneth Turan says the movie has a propulsive emotional intensity.
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A new documentary tracks a 30-year battle over land use in Austin, Texas. The Unforseen focuses on a real-estate development project threatening a spring-fed swimming area. Robert Redford and Terrence Malick are the film's executive producers.