It took Norman Mailer seven years and 1,282 pages to write 1991’s Harlot’s Ghost: A Novel of the CIA, and if memory serves, it took me 12 years to actually finish it. So director Robert De Niro and screenwriter Eric Roth can be forgiven for taking two hours and 40…
The Good German, directed by Steven Soderbergh from Joseph Kanon’s bestseller, is as much simulation as movie. Specifically, it’s the simulation of a 1940s private eye flick. It’s not just a period film, but one that feigns being shot as it would have been in that period. Filmed for maximum…
Bankrupt and brain-damaged in Rocky V, a bout fought so long ago that the other Bush was still sucker-punching Saddam, Sylvester Stallone’s titular pugilist returns to issue another beating in Rocky Balboa. How much punishment can an audience take? Even 007 gets his license renewed by younger models every decade,…
Part Christmas pageant, part tent revival, Jubilee Theatre’s jubilant Black Nativity could make a heathen care about the reason for the season. So full of the spirit are these heavenly hosts—a cast of 11 actor-singers, including Jubilee stalwarts Robert Rouse and Janice L. Jeffery—that when the production in the 147-seat…
When the Levees Broke (HBO) Spike Lee’s four-part doc, easily the best non-fiction film of 2006, gets a fifth part on DVD: a 105-minute epilogue that reveals just how little has changed since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in August 2005. Featuring new interviews with the displaced and displeased,…
Aside from that new ball, NBA Live 07 may be the worst product to bear the league’s name this year. The new basketball game from Electronic Arts is so glitchy that scores of buyers launched an online petition demanding a do-over. Luckily for the rest of us, consumers have a…
Agnes & His Brothers (First Run) All the King’s Men (Sony) American Pie: The Naked Mile (Universal) The Beauty Academy of Kabul (Docurama) The Celestine Prophecy (Sony) Checking Out (Allumination) Derailed (Weinstein) Dreamland (Sony) Invincible (Disney) Lady in the Water (Warner Bros.) Long Distance (Image) My Super Ex-Girlfriend (Fox) National…
The other day former Stars great Brett Hull was on the Ticket trashing the NHL execs for all their pea-brained ideas to make the sport more popular, namely a rumor that they want to change the cut of hockey uniforms so they are more like an Under Armour garment. Then…
Can’t think of anything more contrary to the Christmas spirit than a Cowboys-Eagles game. The Eagles have the nastiest batch of fans in the NFL—these are the charitable folks who cheered when Michael Irvin sustained a career-ending spinal injury and was lying motionless on the field—plus there’s serious bad blood…
As of this writing, the lowly Charlotte Bobcats are sitting near the bottom of the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings, so it’s unlikely they’ll put up much of a fight when they face the Mavericks this Tuesday at the American Airlines Center (the last time they faced the Mavs, Dirk Nowitzki…
In Dark City, Rufus Sewell plays John Murdoch, an Everyman who could be anyone. Or he could be a serial killer. He’s not too sure because, while he’s somehow gained telekinetic powers, he’s also completely lost his memory. Poor John barely has time to enjoy the fact that he’s married…
I’m a sucker for all things British. OK, not all of them, but one thing’s certain—that island across the pond is good at making entertaining cinema. There’s a fine art to English humor and black comedies, and Keeping Mum, the newest film from Niall Johnson, is a prime example. The…
Who is Bob Schneider? Is he the spastic B-52’s vocalist with the swishy sprechgesang (half singing, half talking)? Nope. That’s Fred Schneider. Is Bob Schneider your nosey but lovable mustachioed building superintendent? Sorry, but that’s Schneider from the ’70s sitcom One Day at a Time. Bob Schneider is a singer-songwriter…
Stand-up comedy takes cojones. Just ask my funny friend Donnie, who once took on the crowd at an open mike comedy night and was booed right back to his seat. To this day he still carries the battle scars; he has also come to terms with the fact that his…
The first rule of Al Green is that you do not talk about Al Green. At least, not when somebody’s already doing that in the music section of this very same issue of this very paper in anticipation of his upcoming concert with Etta James and Delbert McClinton. So we…
How do we appreciate Santa? Let us count the ways. Not only is he a symbol of holiday spirit, he’s also a great motivator for kids to act nice. He spends weeks braving tiny screamers and lap-wetters galore and still manages to keep his elves and reindeer productive. And as…
A Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas story (right before Die Hard). I watch the George C. Scott version every year. And every time I see it, The Ghost of Christmas Past freaks me out a little less and the revelation of Ignorance and Want beneath the robes of Christmas…
Every family has its holiday traditions. Maybe your family puts meaningful ornaments on your gigantic Christmas tree together. Or, every year, you decorate homemade holiday cookies. Maybe you’re that one family that goes caroling in matching sweaters (How do you find those fantastic matching sweaters and perfect harmonies?). My family’s…
A few years ago, I played the small role of Mr. Martini in the stage version of It’s a Wonderful Life. Back then I thought my future was on the stage and figured my fewer than 20 lines would somehow amount to awards and accolades in the near future. Alas,…
When the dating gets tough, a non-Jewish friend of mine always threatens to go on Jdate.com and bill herself as a Shiksa Goddess. I always tell her it’s a great idea, because there’s no shortage of cute Jewish doctors just waiting for an opportunity to piss off their mothers by…
Frank Hejl, aside from having an almost-impossible-to-know-how-to-pronounce-right last name, is poised for comedy success. The 24-year-old is already producing and hosting his own semi-regular comedy showcase, Mix Tapes and Baby Fights, at Denton’s Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios. As Hejl puts it, “I started Mix Tapes and Baby Fights as a…
While breakfast with a ballerina might have appealed to me as a plump, naïve child, as a zaftig, world-wise woman, it terrifies me. I like to chow down in the morning, and who can do that comfortably while seated with a sinewy, 99-pound ballet dancer? Good thing this event is…
