This weekend was warm enough that locals seemed to collectively change their wardrobes from light layers to tank tops, shorts and other summer staples. If you cringe at the thought of your right to bare arms, then it’s time to take the Tough Lotus Challenge.

Just about all the actors in “The Big Wedding” are severely typecast. Diane Keaton is a high-strung, divorced mother like in “Something’s Gotta Give,” Robert De Niro is the father of somebody getting married like in “Meet the Fockers,” Amanda Seyfried is a blushing bride like in “Mamma Mia,” Robin Williams is an eccentric minister like in “License to Wed,” Topher Grace is a deadpan, quick-witted nice guy like in “That ‘70s Show,” and Katherine Heigl is a needy single woman like in every movie she does. Even though the actors are in their comfort zones, not a single person feels natural in “The Big Wedding.” That’s probably because the film doesn’t understand its own characters or their motivations. Nobody behind the camera has any idea what they’re doing, resulting in one of the most awkward romantic comedies of recent memory.

There's a siege mentality about Michael Bay's movies, as though viewers are the enemy holed up in a bunker and he's the guy ordering heavy-metal music around-the-clock to wear down our morale and force us to surrender.

DirecTV’s Audience Network is producing a completely original show with “Rogue,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 3.

Harmony Korine seems to want it both ways, all day, with "Spring Breakers," his super-stylized descent into a sunbaked hell where bikini-clad, gun-toting college babes serve as our guides.

In a week when North Korea posted a homemade video showing the U.S. Capitol building being destroyed by a missile, what more logical response could Hollywood offer than a macho thriller about a Secret Service agent who takes on North Korean terrorists who attack the White House? The first of two similarly themed action dramas set for this year ("White House Down" arrives in June), "Olympus Has Fallen" will put to the test the question of whether American audiences are ready, 12 years after 9-11, to watch, strictly as disposable popcorn entertainment, a film in which the United States and some of its most prominent landmarks are devastated by foreign terrorists.

Mesa Unified School District will need to hire another high school principal after first-year principal Tim Richard announced he will leave Westwood High School at the end of the school year.

All-Tribune First Team

In countless films about emergencies, crimes and police work, the 911 dispatcher is but a bit player, an anonymous, robotic voice briefly heard on the other end of a breathless call made by our movie's main players.

Nearly 900 commercial truck drivers were pulled off the road in a two-day effort to make driving safer on Interstate 10 in southern Arizona.

SALT LAKE CITY — A suspended University of Utah swim coach sexually abused a teenage girl years ago in Arizona and urged her to keep quiet about it, saying, "People will think I'm Chester the Molester," according to a police report obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

It's easy to understand why Hollywood loves doing business with author Nicholas Sparks. His books are huge best-sellers, and several of the films adapted from his novels - "Message in a Bottle," ''The Notebook," and "Dear John" - have achieved impressive box office grosses. The latest Sparks adaptation, "Safe Haven," will probably continue his winning streak, especially with its Valentine's Day opening pegged to lure female fans. A thriller element that has not been present in earlier Sparks movies is designed to draw reluctant male viewers to see the picture, but they won't respond with the same enthusiasm as his core audience of woozy romantics.

Just one day after schools in Tempe were put into lockdown, Mesa’s Dobson High School was partially evacuated Friday following a bomb threat.

We have recently witnessed the exposure of various examples of abuse by government employees. This abuse includes the theft, pilfering and misuse of public monies, and also bribery. It seems that these people do not fear being caught, and worse, they do not fear punishment.

When scandalous tales of fraud involving superstar athletes Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o were exposed in the last week, connections to films were immediate and obvious. The story of Notre Dame Football hero Te'o falling for a fake dead girlfriend on the Internet called to mind the documentary "Catfish." And disgraced cyclist Armstrong, who has finally admitted to doping in winning the Tour de France a record seven times, is already the subject of a biopic that's in the works.

PARKER, Texas (AP) — The white two-story home with stately pillars overlooking a green Texas pasture where longhorns roam is instantly recognizable: This is the power seat of television's famous Ewing family.

Dustin Hoffman's directing bow at 75 finds a perfect match in the well-heeled subject of "Quartet," a charming tale of aging musicians whose passion for life continues undiminished in a stately English manor filled with humor, caring and of course great music.

Obviously, the possible transfer legislation which heated up during Tuesday’s jam-packed Arizona Interscholastic Association Executive Board meeting is the big talker, full of arguments to be made on either side and plenty of details which will be decided upon quickly. It is and will be the big talker if/until pen is taken to paper (and even after).

"The Last Stand" is the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie you didn't even realize you wanted to see.

With “The Hurt Locker,” which won six Academy Awards including Best Picture in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow created a riveting, small-scale war film focusing on a first-rate bomb squad unit in Iraq. The key to the film’s effectiveness was its emphasis on less being more – rather than drumming up suspense with constant explosions and shootouts, it was the quiet before the storm and what made the soldiers tick that really seized our attention.

There’s always that one person — whether an ignorant friend or snarky online commenter — who bemoans what a weak year it’s been for film. To those naysayers I reply, “Well, you just haven’t seen enough movies.”

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins and co-writer Rebecca Cantrell will appear at the Poisoned Pen bookstore from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Jan. 9 to sign copies of “The Blood Gospel.”

Stop me if this premise sounds even remotely familiar.

Parents and students at Mesa’s Westwood High School are standing behind their principal after the district criticized him for not following discipline policy when he punished two students for fighting by having them hold hands.