I have an issue with Dane Cook’s Tourgasm. I find the show, HBO’s documentary series following four comedians—Dane Cook, Gary Gulman, Jay Davis and Robert Kelly—on tour to be a completely unsuccessful rip-off of Comedy Central’s Comedians of Comedy. Why? Well, hmm. Maybe because Comedians was a documentary series following…
Cat vs. pelican might not sound like as good of a death match as time-honored hypothetical adversaries bear vs. gorilla or pirate vs. ninja. After all, cats eat birds, and pelicans aren’t exactly the most agile bird in the world. If the cat in question is a lion, the odds…
Comedian Gary Owen is apparently down with the brothers. The only white host of BET’s Comicview (I assume he got the job with one of his really lame gay jokes, like the one where Barney has sex with Arnold Schwarzenegger), he’s also had bit parts in Eddie Murphy’s Daddy Day…
Two weeks ago a colleague insisted that Superman Returns isn’t the remake of the 1978 original, as I wrote, but a reinterpretation–its melancholy flip side. Where the Christopher Reeve model was pop art and a cool breeze, the Brandon Routh version is heavy and solemn, weighed down by the burden…
It would be a mighty sweet thing to see M. Night Shyamalan as the great redemptive storyteller he clearly thinks he is–or as he portrays himself in those American Express commercials. Genuine yarn-spinning, even as a doomed ambition, is virtually extinct in American movies; what had been the system’s priority…
In the latest extravaganza from executive producers Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, millions of dollars and long hours in the digital animation studios have produced…a photorealistic, computer-animated, generic American suburb! Location costs must be getting pretty damn expensive nowadays. As Monster House begins, we follow a leaf slowly descending on…
That devil, always messing with the details, like a naughty kitten who won’t be deterred from pawing a flower arrangement. With the slightest curious swipe of the paw, the whole thing comes crashing down. It’s much like what happened during the first weekend of this year’s Festival of Independent Theatres,…
The Italian architect Renzo Piano designs jewel-box buildings. High levels of invention in the realm of engineering–from the ferro-cement ceiling louvers of The Menil Collection in Houston to the glass-sheathed earthquake-proof tower, the Maison Hermès, in Tokyo–do not so much belie the precious quality of his projects as constitute it…
Edison Force (Sony) Gritty cop stuff must write itself — just make sure everyone’s tough, corrupt, and talking like they stole Mickey Spillane’s thesaurus. Then cast Justin Timberlake. Screech! Employing the talented (at music) popster as a crusading journalist isn’t this lame flick’s worst flaw — merely the one you’ll…
The history of football videogames is one of adding layer upon layer of complexity. Tecmo Bowl, the first great football game, had just four plays to choose from. Fast-forward to the latest Madden, and it’s more like 400. The logical result of this evolution is Electronic Arts’ NFL Head Coach,…
The Best of She-Ra Princess of Power (Brentwood) Carnivale: The Complete Second Season (HBO) The Cavern (Sony) Clean (Palm) Don’t Move (Wellspring) An Early Frost (Wolfe) Flash Gordon: The Complete Series (Brentwood) The Incredible Hulk: The Complete First Season (Universal) Intimate Stories (New Yorker) Jack of All Trades: The Complete…
Brooklyn is more than just what holds up the other side of that bridge, and though the most famous lullabies are on Broadway, other New York City boroughs also have stories to tell. The musical Brooklyn borrows the spotlight to shine on itself for a while, telling the story of…
Even when confined to sepia tones and shades of black and white, a certain amount of colorful vibrancy exists in the photography of Marcel Gautherot. His lens captured a Brazil both ripe with promise and rooted in rich culture. In the late ’50s, Gautherot’s camera recorded construction of the newly…
Cases of mistaken identity are nothing if not wacky. Yes, if it’s wacky high jinks you need, look no further than the silly antics in comedy classics like Face/Off and The Fugitive. Wasn’t it hilarious when Harrison Ford took a tumble off that crazy dam? And didn’t you just crack…
Have you ever been picnicking on a beautiful and breezy summer afternoon, enjoying a nice cheese sandwich and conversing with your significant other when suddenly, out of nowhere, a bird craps in your hair? Sadly enough this happens to thousands of innocent people every year, sabotaging joggers and ruining sand…
Sure, the title of the latest Magnolia at the Modern film may be The King, but that doesn’t mean you should show up in sunglasses and a rhinestone-studded polyester suit. (If you do I’ll give you some mad props, however.) See, The King isn’t an Elvis biopic but rather a…
Be amazed by the musical spectacle, Celtic Woman, soon to play at Nokia Theatre! The Celtic women performers—wives and girlfriends of former Boston Celtic basketball players, naturally—will wow you with their ball-handling skills as they dribble, dunk and drive to a carefully choreographed 45-minute classical rendition of “Drunken Lullabies” by…
Some films are instant cult classics, quick to rally legions of loyal followers to large conventions, fanzines and Web sites. Unfortunately, embarrassing costumes and makeup are usually involved when conjuring Siths, Wookies, Klingons and Vulcans. But in 1998 the cult scene achieved a new level of cool when Jeff Bridges…
There are plenty of reasons to see CATS. It’s a well-known and loved musical, composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on poems by T. S. Eliot. It holds the record as the longest-running Broadway show in history, has toured the world, been translated into 20 languages and enjoyed timeless popularity,…
What’s the best way to prove that you’re an iron girl from Texas? It’s certainly not an appearance on CBS’ Rock Star: Supernova, the show on which three Texas femmes are currently embarrassing themselves for the likes of ex-rockers such as Tommy Lee and Jason Newsted. Flailing around in tacky…
You know the painting–dogs hunkered down around the poker table having a grand old time. Thanks to the little poodle barmaid’s drinks, the rest of the players are oblivious to the two English Bulldogs sneakily passing aces to each other. What a pair of cheaters. But who would play that…
Judging solely by its abnormally high price on Amazon.com, Ron Uselton’s Lost Vegas must be a damn good read. After all, it’s more expensive than Tolstoy’s War and Peace, which boasts more than 1,400 pages (Lost Vegas comes in at a paltry 160). The story of the unlikely cast of…
