Something about Diana Ross singing Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” reeks of desperation. With a new album of similarly remade ballads, Ross is reduced to a legend grasping onto the spotlight with a death grip, instead of merely resting on her iconic status and diva reputation. Tellingly, when that infamous…
Second Thought Theatre is back with a vengeance with this taut little one-act comedy by Canadian writer Morris Panych. The title characters, the only two in the play, are new friends. Lawrence (Ian Leson) is on the career track, or so it seems, at the department store where they both…
Glinda the Good Witch and Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West, meet in sorcery school and hate each other instantly. Then suddenly, they’re best friends, with Glinda giving Elphie a makeover to tone down her scary apple-green skin. This musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz explains how the…
Writers Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth receive sole credit for the movie Disturbia, which is surprising, as the film clearly is based on both a previously published work (a 1942 short story by Cornell Woolrich titled “It Had to Be Murder”) and the John Michael Hayes-penned, Alfred Hitchcock-directed, Academy Award-nominated…
With friends like these—oh, boy. Two new stage productions—each disquieting, amusing and refreshingly brief—explore the absurd lengths to which some lonely souls go to find a boon companion. The surprise in both works is what happens when the relationship goes wonky. Take Lucy, a plucky 4-year-old played by adult actress…
Sleeping Dogs Lie (First Look) Writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait takes a subversive concept (honesty is overrated) and marries it to an outrageous scenario (a woman’s family learns that she once, uh, performed for a dog) to create . . . a romantic comedy? Well, sort of. Like Goldthwait’s underrated Shakes the…
The residents of Mount Olympus haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep since Kratos moved in. Not only is the new god of war a grumpy, self-professed god-hater, he got the throne by killing Ares, something that naturally makes the other gods a little . . . jumpy. It’s not long…
The Aura (Genius) Avatar: The Last Airbender — Book 2: Earth, Volume 2 (Paramount) The Batman: The Complete Third Season (Warner Bros.) Beneath Still Waters (Lions Gate) Bobby (Weinstein) Coming Soon (Lions Gate) Dead and Deader (Anchor Bay) A Guide for the Married Woman (Fox) Life of the Party (THINKFilm)…
Frylock, Meatwad and Master Shake—the three Stooges inhabiting Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters—will survive should you choose to avoid their movie. Truth be told, you’ve probably never heard of them anyway, unless you’re a regular viewer of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block or vaguely recall…
First, I’m not a sports writer. Thus, I won’t ramble off statistics about shooting averages. I won’t ponder what teams need to win and lose which game to determine the path to the championships. All I’m going to say is I hope the Mavericks mow down the Spurs like a…
According to the Internet Movie DataBase, the “plot keywords” for Mike Nichols’ 1967 über-classic The Graduate include “dysfunctional family,” “bus ride,” “alcoholic mother,” “adultery” and “sports car.” Those few words do as much as any others to sum up Nichols’ cinematic portrayal of post-college generation gap angst, confusion and horniness…
When I was growing up, my mother’s chocolate bundt cake and the handmade star we put on the tree were cherished Christmas traditions. But we dreaded the inevitable Mannheim Steamroller Christmas album, which my mother played for a week straight, until we thought we’d go mad and hang ourselves with…
This summer’s Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is going to make your old grade-school trips to the planetarium look like Bantha turds by comparison. Can’t wait till June? This weekend’s sneak peek will allow visitors to hang with R2D2,…
With the hopes and dreams of an entire city riding on their shoulders and the playoffs just around the corner, Mavs stars Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry must really feel the pressure mounting right about now. Luckily for all of us, they’ll have a chance to blow off…
Why would anyone rub a baby with butter? So it would brown properly after you stuff it with an onion and bake it in a 350-degree oven for 20 minutes per pound, of course. Geez, don’t you people coo…no wait. My bad. Turns out that massaging babies with Palmer’s Baby…
Sure, it’s amazing that the O’Jays have been spreading Philly soul to the masses for nearly 50 years now, but what’s even more amazing is that they’ve kept it up in the home stretch of the past 13 years, after a certain other O.J. publicly soiled their good name. Thankfully…
During my days as an ’80s DJ, the one rule I had was that everything I played had to have been released in the ’80s. Sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s amazing how many ’80s songs were actually released in the late ’70s. I didn’t play Gary Numan’s “Cars”—that was…
A panel of scientists, intelligent design experts and authors will discuss no less than the development of life at this weekend’s “Darwin vs. Design” conference. All of the panel are directly or indirectly involved with the Center for Science and Culture, proponents of intelligent design, so they may be a…
The guy responsible for coming up with the euphem-tastic names for James Bond women ought to be hanging his head just now: The fact that some buxom swingerette named Pink Martini hasn’t been pinned down and given the 007 treatment yet is downright shameful. But despite Pink Martini’s linguistically suggestive…
Picture folks in burkas and and saris lining the halls of First Baptist Dallas, ooh-ing and ahh-ing, calling for encores of yet another verse of “Amazing Grace.” Would that sermons on the book of Micah were like riveting monologues from Tony-winning plays, capturing the imaginations and wonder of tourists the…
One part human kazoo and one part yawning tree frog, an expert Tuvan throat singer can traverse scales and melodies throughout dreamlike hypnotic stretches, sometimes stacking up to four notes at a time. This traditional vocalization style also lends itself to some beautiful and poetic lyrics. Here’s a sampling: “Uuuuuuuuuuunnnnnngh,…
Lions are awesome. I wish we could have lions as pets. My lion would have a cute name so when he grew up to maim Dakota Fanning, everyone would totally be on his side. They’d be all, “There’s no way Fluffykins would ever do that. Dakota’s stupid Stewey-looking face must…
