Gallup Sun

Just before Veterans Day, the nation suffered a substantial loss with the death of Joe Annello, who passed away Nov. 7 at the age of 85 in Colorado.

Annello, born May 4, 1933, was perhaps best known in the region as a good friend and close ally of Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, Korean War veteran and Gallup native. The two reportedly served as prisoners of war together, and that is when their bond first emerged.

The story of Miyamura and Annello is chronicled in Miyamura’s book, Forged in Fire: The Saga of Hershey and Joe.

“He was a really nice guy, I met him several times,” Dave Cuellar, head of Gallup Veterans Helping Veterans, said during a Nov. 14 phone interview...

Rating: «« out of ««««

Running Time: 134 minutes

It must be tricky keeping things fresh and lively in the “Wizarding World of Harry Potter.” The first Fantastic Beasts movie spin-off was a bit clunky but set things up well enough to encourage hope that things would carry on in a new and interesting direction.

As it turns out, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is still overly interested in developing its character’s back stories and future plans, promising a grand showdown between the forces of good and evil...without actually delivering one.

Instead, the movie seems to be caught up in the minutiae of its fantasy world. Have you ever wanted to meet a character...

Rating: ««« out of ««««

Running Time: 132 minutes

This film premieres Nov. 16 on Netflix.

Right now, the world seems like a nasty, harsh place. There can be little doubt that the Coen Brothers (Fargo, No Country for Old Men) feel that way, too, tackling some of the crueler aspects of life in their latest film. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is an anthology, containing six individual stories about a bevy of characters living in the old West.

While many movies in this genre are grandiose and display heroic individualism on the part of its protagonists, this movie does something quite different. In this Western, pioneer life is short, brutish and inhumane.

It may not seem like a...

Welcome back to another look at highlights arriving on Blu-ray and DVD. This is jam-packed edition with plenty of noteworthy releases in just about every category. So if you can’t make it out to the movies this week, be sure to give one of these titles a try!

Big New Releases!

Alfa - Set during the ice age, this adventure movie follows a young man who gets injured and becomes separated from his tribe. He finds a wolf in a similarly bad situation and manages to tame it. Together, the pair attempts to survive the harsh elements of the wilderness. Reviews for this survival film were fairly good. A small grouping felt the predictable story let the rest of the film down, but most...