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There may be no greater touchstone among the childhood entertainments of Generation X than The Muppet Show, which introduced a whole new crop of kiddies to the comedic possibilities of vaudeville and “variety” while celebrating a gang of wildly different creatures who didn’t merely work together but created their own unique family dynamic. Our parents … more…
The opening moments of the first episode of Lost are some of the most intense commercial television has ever seen: images of a catastrophic failure of technology that leaves its victims dazed, bewildered, and at the mercy of elements both natural and manmade. And as these 24 episodes unfold, hints that the hand of man … more…
Funny? Sure, *Lord of War* is funny. Funny like how you’re not sure whether that headline is from Reuters or The Onion. Funny like how Jon Stewart has to insist that what he’s about to tell you really happened and is not the invention of his team of political wagsters. Satirical? Sure, *Lord of War* is satirical. Satirical like the front page of *The New York Times* is satirical. Satirical like how, at the end of Andrew Niccol’s black comedy about a relatively small-time freelance arms dealer, he tells us that the biggest arms dealers in the world are the nations that are the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
It’s sort of obvious in that Robert Redford-y way we’ve come to know of late: the rugged, wounded, horse-whispering nonsmoking Marlboro Man coming to terms with Life, the Universe, and Everything, particularly his own cantankerousness. But obviousness be damned. The insights into the kind of caged personal hells too many of us live in many … more…
Yup, this is the movie about the 17-year-old kid who still sucks his thumb. But don’t get too excited: there isn’t a lot of hot thumbsucking action or anything like that. Instead there’s a lot of adolescent angst, and the fact that it’s so achingly poignant and pointedly hilarious even if you’re way beyond high school makes me suspect that none of us ever really outgrow that teenage insecurity.
If you’ve seen one supernatural love story, then you’ve already seen *Just Like Heaven,* which is as instantly bland and forgettable as its title. It’s *Ghost* meets *While You Were Sleeping* plus *City of Angels,* with some *Topper* and *All of Me* thrown in because, why not? It’s not as if originality is a virtue in Hollywood…
Charles Ross stands on a black-box stage, dressed entirely in black, sans props and indeed any theatrical support of any kind beyond some simple lighting changes, and he brings to life the *Star Wars* trilogy in a way that, to devoted fans, is instantly recognizable at the same time that it is Ross’s own uniquely insane vision. His *One-Man Star Wars Trilogy* is a triumph of fannish adoration, of snarky commentary, of offbeat theater.
Am I gonna have to take Bruce Campbell off the Perpetual Boyfriend list? It would be a very sad day indeed on which I was forced to take such desperate measures, but my patience does have limits, even with the man who gave us Ash and Brisco County Jr. and Roland the Intrepid Explorer and Smitty the *Argus* reporter and Autolycus the king of thieves and…
Picture the scene. A police interrogation room. The lighting is harsh. The chairs are hard. Miguel Ferrer is the badass internal affairs guy. Samuel L. Jackson is the rogue ATF agent who breaks rules but gets the job done. Ferrer thinks Jackson is dirty, is riding him hard, is gonna bring him down, dammit! Jackson goes nuclear in Ferrer’s face — he ain’t gonna take this shit no more!
It’s Law and Order meets The Exorcist, a sorta rational, down-to-earth jest-the-facts-ma’am attitude mixed with screaming howling insect-eating demonic possession kinda thing.
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