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Not sure what to watch search through several hundred of richard roeper’s movie and tv reviews..

Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper

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Need some guidance on what to buy, rent, stream or see at the theater? Search here for links to many of the reviews by Richard Roeper, the Sun-Times’ movie columnist since 2013 — and a contributor since 1987.

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Movie Reviews

Our film critics on blockbusters, independents and everything in between., latest articles, results sorted by select sort order newest oldest.

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• Directed by Alice Rohrwacher

In her latest dreamy movie, the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher follows a tomb raider, played by Josh O’Connor, who’s pining for a lost love.

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

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Movie Reviews

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"Hard Times" is a powerful, brutal film containing a definitive Charles Bronson performance. He plays Chaney, a man of few words and no past, who rides the rails to New Orleans for the winter and tries to win some money by fist fighting. It's in the middle of the Depression. The fights are all-out and bare-knuckle, held in warehouses and open by invitation to men with cash to wager. 

Chaney gets into his first fight almost by accident, and wins. That's how he meets Speed ( James Coburn ), who will manage him for a piece of the action. And Speed introduces him to Poe ( Strother Martin ), who is sort of a doctor: "I spent two years in medical school. In the third year, a dark cloud appeared, and I left under it." He's hooked on opium, but can patch up a fighter and close his cuts. Chaney wins his first fight, and then (in an exhaustingly well-directed action sequence) goes up against the local champion. He's a giant nicknamed Skinhead who has the disconcerting habit of grinning all the time he's pounding his opponents. They fight in a steel-mesh bullpen, and there's a certain nobility about them. They may seem to be animals, but they're craftsmen, in a way, and they respect each other; the real animals are the spectators. 

Later in the film, another fight is arranged - the Chicago champion has been brought south. Chaney doesn't want to fight - he has enough money. "I could start something right here and now," the man from Chicago says menacingly. "I know, but you won't," Chaney says. "You wouldn't work for free." He's right, and that's one of the chilling aspects of the movie's fight scenes: There's no dislike between the fighters. They're in it for money. What this says about the Depression, about hard times in general, is pretty clear, but the movie doesn't press the point. And that makes it all the more effective. There's the temptation, with material like this, to fashion parables and give the characters portentous speeches about the meaning of it all. But "Hard Times" never steps back from itself, never lectures us. It's theme is buried in its material, and it's a hard-edged action film all the way. The violence will be excessive for some audiences, but it's honest violence, about the way of earning a living. There's no sadism or cruelty involved: The fighters are professionals. 

As Bronson creates it, the character of Chaney becomes curiously interesting. We know little about Chaney, and learn little, but we see a man with a barrier around himself that he's willing to lower for people he respects. He has a quiet affection for a part-time hooker ( Jill Ireland ), and a certain loyalty to Speed that causes him to fight again when Speed gets in trouble. And that's it. Almost everything else about him is simply implied by the Bronson presence. We could create several possible pasts for the character, but they wouldn't matter. Bronson simply implies that Chaney has had a past, a difficult one. That's what makes Bronson so good for roles like this; he seems to exist already as the character, so exposition isn't necessary. Walter Hill's screenplay and direction understand that, and the period locations provide the right settings. Chaney comes to town, fights because it's a living, lives according to his code and expects the others to. And they do. "Hard Times" is a tough, bitter, evocative document.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Hard Times (1975)

Charles Bronson as Chaney

James Coburn as Speed

Jill Ireland as Lucy

Strother Martin as Poe

Maggie Blye as Gayleen

Michael McGuire as Gandill

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Movies | Review: ‘Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire’ is a…

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Movies | review: ‘godzilla x kong: the new empire’ is a worthy ‘when hairy met scaly ii’.

Guy behind the concession counter the other night asks me which movie I’m seeing. “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire,” I tell him. He puts down the popcorn and heaves a nearly convulsive sigh of relief. Gratitude? Hope? All of it. A mashup of emotions, to go with the movie’s mashup of species.

“Oh, man,” the concession worker says. “We really need that one.”

“Dune II” notwithstanding, it has been a difficult year at the average movie theater. Now comes the new Godzilla/Kong smackdown — the marketing materials, for the record, tell us that the “X” in “Godzilla X Kong” is silent, which is a confusing waste of a perfectly good letter. But I’m happy to report that the follow-up to the 2021 “Godzilla vs. Kong” does the job — unevenly, yes, but with a pleasantly reckless spirit of engagement.

It’s directed, as was the 2021 movie, by Adam Wingard and features the return of Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle and assorted digital MonsterVerse golden oldies, from ‘Zilla to Kong to Mothra and more, shined up and fulla’ beans.

Maybe the preview crowd on Tuesday was an outlier, but I doubt it. The bursts of applause, particularly in the blithely destructive Rio de Janeiro climax — a team-building exercise for the headliners — had the ring of genuine approval, not just something you do because the movie’s begging for it. At one point Godzilla and Kong sprint toward their enemy, Scar King, the orange authoritarian nightmare whose territorial ambitions as a Kong-scaled antagonist know no bounds. You know the shot: the action-movie slow-mo dash toward the camera, executed here in such a way as to suggest Godzilla and Kong have spent many hours rewatching “Bad Boys.”

Dumb, right? Well, sure. Also amusing, and exciting and sincere. For the audience, it’s a shameless bid for applause that satisfies our deepest urges to see two endlessly competitive beings find the joy in starring, however briefly, in a Michael Bay action movie.

At the end of “Godzilla vs. Kong,” the atomically charged sea lizard and the woolly plus-sized simian reconciled, uneasily (without lawyers), after vanquishing the human-made Mechagodzilla. Despite widespread human fear and skepticism, Godzilla agreed (again, without lawyers) to keep a beady eye in his touchingly too-small head on monstrous threats to humankind on Earth’s surface. Kong returned to Hollow Earth, the gravity-scrambled inner wonderland of verdant beauty and violent predators. The film worked like a remake of “The Odd Couple,” proving that two lonely Titans can share a planet without driving each other crazy.

The threats double, triple and quadruple in the new movie. Scar King, whose miserably enslaved followers include a Titan “ancient” in the Godzilla vein, ranks as Headache No. 1.  But there are others, and Godzilla gives up his post to chase down an unexplained distress signal emitting from Hollow Earth. The signal perplexes the humans in “Godzilla X Kong,” nervous about what might happen if Godzilla and Kong mix it up again.

These humans of whom we speak include the brilliant, eternally preoccupied scientist Dr. Andrews (the Hall character). Her adopted daughter Jia (Hottle), the sole surviving member of the Iwi tribe of Skull Island, has been plagued by visions of Hollow Earth and imminent catastrophe, and with her telepathic communication with her pal Kong heightened, something’s definitely up. Reunited with the Titan-obsessed podcaster Bernie (Henry) and Andrews’ one-time squeeze Trapper (Dan Stevens), the humans zwoop to Hollow Earth to make their own set of astonished green-screen discoveries on cue.

Whole sections of “Godzilla X Kong” shove the humans off-screen for many minutes at a time. Few will complain. I love Hall in just about everything and she and Hottle capture enough authentic feeling in their mother/daughter relationship to earn a tear or two themselves. To be fair, some of that comes from the screenplay by writers Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett and Jeremy Slater, though the laziest exposition and boilerplate dialogue puts the “bored” in “cardboard.” (I stopped counting how often Hall’s character says “Oh, my god!” in response to whatever she’s oh-my-godding about.)

Whatever; nobody’s paying for the words here. “Godzilla X Kong” makes up for its own deficiencies with oddball flourishes. Wingard and the writers work like rogue chefs at an Olive Garden, tossing everything they can at any number of walls to see what sticks. The sight of Godzilla curling up like a kitten, napping inside the Colosseum in Rome after he’s half-trashed it in order to save it from an attacker: very nice. Later on, chowing down on a lifetime’s worth of free food (atomic energy stored under the Arctic ice), Godzilla’s bad breath and body odor color changes from blue to bright pink, as if he’s getting dolled up for a Summer of ’23 weekend with Barbenheimer.

The movie proceeds with brutal bouts of MMA combat with 300-foot combatants. The comparatively measured and selective action storytelling of the 2014 Gareth Edwards “Godzilla,” like last year’s terrific Japanese revitalizer  “Godzilla Minus One,” feels a long way from Wingard’s janky funhouse movies. But they have their own relentless, overstuffed appeal; I wouldn’t recommend them if they didn’t.

If I focus more on Godzilla in this new picture than Kong (the movie’s slightly more Kong-centric), maybe it’s because the best dog I ever had also had a too-small head. Not sure that’s enough to build an entire Godzilla ethos around, but I’ll take it up with my therapist.

And I’ll take these Godzilla/Kong MonsterVerse movies over most other corporate studio franchises these days, especially the recent “Jurassic Park” outings, which were, what’s the word … lousy. Yes, Godzilla and Kong cause untold and blithely unexamined human and property damage in Wingard’s latest, enough so that I wouldn’t mind seeing an entire movie at some point in this franchise’s lifespan devoted to lawsuits and legal battles, if only to see how Godzilla and Kong behave in a courtroom. The Rio carnage is quite extensive; earlier, there’s a dash of sweet pathos in the sight of Godzilla klutzing around Rome, damaging priceless landmarks because he can’t help it. Typical foreign tourist.

But let’s be realistic: What good is realism to “Godzilla X Kong”? Final question: Which low-level employee took the time to add the extra exclamation point to the dire control panel warning “GODZILLA VITALS SURGING!!”? There are only four possible words for whoever it was: employee of the month.

“Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” — 3 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for creature violence and action)

Running time: 2:02

How to watch: Premieres in theaters March 28

Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.

[email protected]

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Local News | Key Bridge collapse: What we know about…

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Local news | key bridge collapse live updates: patapsco not contaminated, tests show; weather delays ship container removal, local news | key bridge collapse: what we know about structure’s history, traffic.

Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed early Tuesday morning after a support column was struck by a cargo ship, sending cars into the Patapsco River, launching a search-and-rescue operation and prompting Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to declare a state of emergency.

Here’s what you should know about the Key Bridge:

What is the history of the bridge’s name?

The Francis Scott Key Bridge is named for the writer behind “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The site of the bridge is believed to be within 100 yards of where Key saw the bombing of Fort McHenry Sept. 12, 1814, which inspired the poem that became the national anthem.

The battle at Fort McHenry was a key victory over British forces during the War of 1812. The American flag raised Sept. 14, 1814, celebrated the victory and inspired the words “broad stripes and bright stars” in Key’s song.

When did the bridge open?

Construction for the 1.6-mile bridge started in 1972, and it opened March 23, 1977.

In the 1960s, the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel reached its traffic capacity, leading the state to conceive of and build the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the final link for the Baltimore Beltway (Interstate 695).

The bridge, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, is one of the longest continuous-truss bridges in the United States.

The now-defunct Greiner Engineering Sciences Inc., which also built the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, began construction in 1972 of what at the time was called the Outer Harbor Crossing.

Harry R. Hughes, then state secretary of transportation, was on hand to collect the first 75-cent toll.

The bridge arched over the Patapsco River from Hawkins Point, in Baltimore City, to Sollers Point, in Baltimore County.

The four-lane bridge, which soared 185 feet above the Fort McHenry Channel, the entranceway to the Baltimore Harbor, hosted 7,448 vehicles in its first 11 hours of operation.

Tolls were 75 cents for passenger cars and 50 cents an axle for trucks.

“For the first time, motorists will also be offered a dramatic panorama: not only of the downtown skyline, but Fort McHenry, Canton, the Inner Harbor, the hills of Catonsville, Towson’s high rises and the television tower near Druid Hill Park,” The Sun reported.

June 23, 1977-BREEZE-FILLED TOPSAIL--The Pride of Baltimore sails toward the Francis Scott Key Bridge on its way home. Photo by Sun photographer Lloyd Pearson. BDJ-705-BS

Workers eased into place yet another piece of the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Outer Harbor, which will link Sotters Point to Hawkins Point near Fort Carroll and complete the Beltway. Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun

Dundalk, Md--8/13/16--Aerial view of I-695 and the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun. #6029.

BALTIMORE, MD -- 12/31/08 -- KEY BRIDGE FOX -- The Key Bridge was closed to traffic because of an overturned truck. Lloyd Fox [Sun Photographer] #5981

Baltimore, MD-3/29/15--The Carnival Pride cruise ship passes under the Key bridge after leaving the Port of Baltimore Cruise Maryland Terminal. Today officials celebrated the return of year-round cruising from the port aboard the Carnival Pride. Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun-#9763.

Baltimore, Md -- 2/8/12 --md-coast-guard-eagle2-p-hairston--The Eagle, the US Coast Guard's training tall ship, passes under the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The ship leaves Baltimore after being in dry dock at the Coast Guard Yard for upgrades. The Eagle will return in June as it takes part in the commemoration of the War of 1812. Kim Hairston [The Baltimore Sun ]-#9515

Baltimore, MD -- 04/14/2016 -- Rebar is exposed and rusting while a driver waits for a traffic light to change beneath a train overpass that shows decades of wear as it crosses above Key Highway at the service road along the I-95 overpass which travels alongside the bridge. Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun (Frame# P4460067.JPG)

Baltimore, MD -- 6/13/12 -- md-sailabration-arrival-p04-davis -- Guayas, a 257-foot long training ship from Ecuador, front, followed by Cuauhtemoc of Mexico, and Dewaruci of Indonesia, sail past the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge toward Fort McHenry. The tall ships arrived in Baltimore Wednesday for the start of Star-Spangled Sailabration, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. Amy Davis [Baltimore Sun Photographer] #7566

The tall Ship Cuauhtemoc of Mexico passes beneath the Francis Scott Key Bridge, heading to the Inner Harbor to highlight the official beginning of the Star Spangled Sailabration on Wednesday, Jun 13, 2012. (Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun Staff)

Date Created: 1976-09-22 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-06-07 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1974-12-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-11-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-07-07 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-05-22 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-08-11 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-02-19 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-06-05 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-02-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-07-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

BALTIMORE, MD--September 5, 1997--A silhoutted walker strolls the walkway along the harbor at Ft. McHenry. The Key Bridge is in the background. Staff photo/Doug Kapustin

DUNDALK, MD--April 18, 1997--The Queen Elizabeth II steams under the Francis Scott Key Bridge on it's way up the Patapsco River to the Dundalk Marine Terminal. Staff photo/Doug Kapustin

BALTIMORE, MD, JULY 25--BAD DAY AT THE RACES--Smoke billows from the engine and cockpit of a 39-foot Fountain race boat after the boat caught fire while racing in the Chesapeake Challenge on Baltimore Harbor this afternoon. The boat was towed back to the inner harbor and sustained major damage. In the background is the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

BALTIMORE, MD--June 29, 2000-- OPSAIL. A tall ship sails under the Key Bridge as it departs the Inner Harbor on it's way to the New York Harbor. Photo by Perry Thorsvik/staff

BALTIMORE, MD.--MAY 25, 2005--The Atlantic Cartier, a ship that sometimes carries nuclear materials into and out of the Port of Baltimore, passes under the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge on its way toward Dundalk Marine Terminal. This picture was shot from Hawkins Point at Fort Armistead Park. BALTIMORE SUN STAFF PHOTO BY KENNETH K. LAM

Date Created: 1977-03-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-03-09 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-08-29 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

BALTIMORE, MD-- AUG 8 1995--with the Key Bridge as backdrop Pres. Clinton talks about environmental safeguards at Ft.Armisted Park today with VP Gore in background. He vows to stop congress from rolling back laws on the books. (George W. Holsey/staff)

(12/19/2009) The snow covered Key Bridge was barren of traffic Saturday as a blizzard shut down the area. (Charles Funk, for the Maryland Gazette)

Sparrows Point, MD -- 2/3/12 --Aerial view of Sparrows Point and the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Kim Hairston [Baltimore Sun Staff]

Date Created: 1976-11-24 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1984-12-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1985-10-01 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Folder Extended Description: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: 2 KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1976-01-28 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-09-02 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge. 1975 Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1977-01-02 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

Date Created: 1975-07-17 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun Folder Description: Key Francis Scott Bridge Folder Extended Description: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Title: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE Subject: KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE

KEY FRANCIS SCOTT BRIDGE in 1974-12-08 Copyright Notice: Baltimore Sun

The steel bridge is one of the harbor’s three toll crossings and is located on the I-695 outer-harbor crossing. It’s part of a 10.9-mile Beltway span that includes a dual-span drawbridge over Curtis Creek and two parallel bridge structures carrying traffic over Bear Creek, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

How is the bridge used?

The bridge, which cost about $110 million in the 1970s, was seen as an efficient alternative because it has lower operating and maintenance costs, as well as more traffic lanes than the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.

The bridge carried more than 12.4 million commercial and passenger vehicles in 2023, according to a state government report issued in November.

The Key Bridge allows wide loads and hazardous material that can’t go through the Harbor Tunnel or Fort McHenry Tunnel. Currently, vehicles transporting hazardous materials are prohibited in tunnels and “should use the western section of I-695 around tunnels,” the transportation authority posted on social media.

What was the economic impact of the bridge?

With the collapse of the Key Bridge, one of Maryland’s major sources of revenue is at a halt.

The Port of Baltimore has created about 15,300 direct jobs and with nearly 140,000 jobs linked to port activities, according to a February statement from Moore, a Democrat.

Moore said in the statement that the port ranks first among those in the nation for volume of automobiles and light trucks, roll-on-roll-off heavy farm and construction machinery, and imported sugar and gypsum.

The Port of Baltimore handled 847,158 cars and light trucks last year, which led all other ports in the nation in its 13th consecutive year, according to the February release.

Baltimore Sun librarian Paul McCardell contributed to this article.

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‘good times’ original cast reacts to animated reboot trailer: “i thought it was going to be different”.

John Amos and BernNadette Stanis tell The Hollywood Reporter about the project that spurred a divisive response on social media: "They figured, if you put us in there, it wouldn't look so bad."

By Ryan Gajewski

Ryan Gajewski

Senior Entertainment Reporter

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Stars of the original Good Times are weighing in after the trailer for Netflix ‘s forthcoming animated reboot led some fans to question whether the new project will indeed be “dynomite.”

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The Hollywood Reporter spoke to original Good Times castmembers John Amos , who portrayed patriarch James Evans on the first three seasons, and BernNadette Stanis — known for playing Thelma, middle child to James and Florida Evans (Esther Rolle), throughout the series — about their reactions to the Netflix trailer. Both made it clear that they were reserving full judgment until they are able to watch the show.

“I really can’t form an opinion, as I’ve not seen any of the episodes yet,” Amos says. He goes on to explain that the high quality of the 1970s series makes it challenging for newer projects that aspire to be compared to it. “Norman — and the entire cast and company — set the bar pretty high. They’ll have a hard time reaching that level of entertainment [and] education. I wish them the best. I see people aspiring to that, but I don’t see anybody reaching that goal, especially in an animated version.”

Stanis, who stars in the forthcoming BET+ series The Family Business: New Orleans , notes that she had yet to watch the animated trailer for Good Times and heard a mixture of responses to it. The actress looks forward to watching the revival’s episodes but acknowledges that some fans of the ’70s series would probably have assumed that the original show’s cast is front and center for the animated version, given that it uses the same name.

Stanis explains that the Netflix series’ team previously reached out to her reps to have her voice a small part on the show, which she did. She said that Walker also voices a minor character.

“I did a little voice for them, but I did not know it was going to be the way it is. I thought it was going to be different,” Stanis says. As for the roles voiced by herself and Walker, she continues, “It’s just a little here and there. But I think that they did that because they knew what their show was going to be like. So I guess they figured, if you put us in there, it wouldn’t look so bad or whatever.”

Netflix’s animated Good Times counts the late Lear, Stephen Curry and Seth MacFarlane as executive producers, with Ranada Shepard serving as showrunner. Launching April 12, the show features a voice cast that includes J.B. Smoove, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jay Pharoah, Marsai Martin and Gerald “Slink” Johnson.

In a post last week on X (formerly Twitter), Brown responded to a user who questioned why the Community alum would be involved with the Good Times revival. “This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times of our childhood but it’s still a show about family, fighting the system and working to make things better despite where you start out in the world,” Brown wrote. “That 100% lines up with my values.”

THR has reached out to Netflix for comment.

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