Articles by Jeff Pfeiffer

In African-American weddings, jumping the broom — a tradition that has its roots in African ritual — signifies the merging of two families. In the comedy Jumping the Broom, it may take a lot more than an old ritual to merge the ultra-upper-class family of bride Sabrina (Paula Patton) with the working class family of groom Jason (Laz Alonso), particularly when his mother’s pride surfaces in the first meeting of the in-laws at the bride’s parents estate on Cape Cod. But this is a romantic comedy, one produced by Bishop T.D. Jakes, so it’s no surprise that, with a bit […]

In Shaun of the Dead, comic actor Simon Pegg battled zombies. In Paul, he befriends an alien who needs help getting to his mother ship. Beyond the sci-fi premises, the films share another connection. Shaun was shot at a time when the damp British climate was being particularly nasty. Pegg swore he wanted to make a movie shot “somewhere it never rains, like a desert,” and said his next movie should be “a road trip with an alien in the American Southwest” where things were presumably warm and dry. A few years later, as Pegg was finishing Hot Fuzz, producer […]