By all rights, 2002’s Die Another Day should have been and could have been the final James Bond film. It was packaged like a cynical, weary best-of concert coughed up by an aging dinosaur, offering copious nods to the franchise’s past without bothering to offer any new material of consequence…
For Your Consideration pulls off the neat trick of skewering the movie industry while remaking it in its own image. The latest ensemble comedy by Christopher Guest and company may take place in Los Angeles, but its imaginative provenance lies somewhere between the la-la lands of Entourage and Mulholland Dr…
Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater from Eric Schlosser’s 2001 best-selling exposé of the McDonald’s conspiracy, is an anti-commercial. It’s designed to kill desire and deprogram the viewer’s appetite. Linklater—who, along with Steven Soderbergh and Gus Van Sant, has staked out a particular outpost on the indie-studio border—here takes…
Revenge is for suckers,” says Henry Gondorff, Paul Newman’s character in The Sting. Among con artists the rule is you get stung, you move on. Don’t try to get even. Because if the grifter is good, you’ll end up getting taken all over again. That’s just about what happens to…
Forbidden Planet (Warner Bros.) Long available as faded discount product, Fred McLeod Wilcox’s 1956 masterpiece–the movie without which Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, and, oh, Lost in Space wouldn’t exist–at last gets its proper due; this double-disc collection comes with everything but stardust and rocket fuel. The tale of a…
Final Fantasy is to role-playing games as the Yankees are to baseball. The series — now almost 20 years old — practically redefined the genre with Final Fantasy VII on the original PlayStation, the first console RPG that captured a mainstream audience in the States. But FF was a victim…
Brothers of the Head (IFC) Cary Grant: The Franchise Collection (Universal) CSI: The Complete Sixth Season (Paramount) Cream: Royal Albert Hall (Rhino) 49 Up (First Run) Friends: The Complete Series Collection (Warner Bros.) The Green Mile: Two-Disc Special Edition (Warner Bros.) Hate Crime (Image) He Changed Our World: Steve Irwin…
So it’s Christmas. Wait! No, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but every grocery store and mall tells us it’s time to celebrate that most wonderful time of the year—early and often. So while you’re at it, the Great Russian Nutcracker is one of the better ways to get in the…
What do you get when you cross Han Solo with Wolfman Jack, drag racing, drive-in diners, Richard Dreyfuss and “Rock Around the Clock”? You get a classic in American film from George Lucas—one without hyper drives, droids or battle stations, making it safe from “fixing” by the technology-obsessed director determined…
Kinky, you let us down. You crapped up the gubernatorial debate by cracking off the same old tired witticisms. Then, with a week to go before November 7, you admitted there was no way to win but didn’t drop out of the race so that votes might instead be cast…
Slam poetry has never really lived up to its billing for me; there’s nothing particularly “slammin'” about it in my eyes. But get a couple people together to actually slam dance while reciting Dylan Thomas (or even better, Mattie J. T. Stepanek), and you might win me over. If you’re…
The best days in elementary school were the days we got to skip out of class. Once, my mom wrote me a fake doctor’s note so I could get out of school to see a museum exhibit. I can’t remember whether or not the exhibit was cool, but my mom…
Watching crazed couples and bickering brothers navigate their way around the world to reach their destination first is one of the true pleasures of reality television. Had a honeymoon from hell? Couldn’t be worse than getting spit on by camels in the Sahara Desert. Endured a family vacation with three…
Before the long-awaited Art Conspiracy coming December 1 to the Longhorn Ballroom, curator and art/event coordinator Sarah Jane Semrad (and CorinthPark owner Herschel Alan Weisfield) offer an artistic amuse bouche of sorts with the appropriately titled Primer. The group exhibition features works from local artists Kate Nelson, Tim Stokes, Ronald…
This is the Gobble Hobble 5K and Family Fun Run’s inaugural year, and it’s being hyped as Richardson’s new Thanksgiving tradition, complete with a kick-ass “Kids Zone.” Personally, we think restricting adults from awesome stuff such as rock-climbing walls and inflatable obstacle courses by designating it a “Kids Zone” should…
What’s scarier than a monster in your closet? How about an oversized monster prancing around an ice rink on razor-sharp steel blades? I am always the first to doubt that a chilled, choreographed fairy tale redux will entertain the kids, but Disney on Ice continues to prove me wrong. Now…
For the non-motorcycle guy, there’s something a little jeering, a bit bullying about the two-wheeled beasts. If it were alive, all that chrome and steel and power would, I think, sneer at me: “What’s the matter, pussy-boy? You chicken? Buc-buc-bucaw.” Shades of high school come creeping in: wanting to hang…
Penguins are the new black (and white). This Friday, the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is hosting a full-on penguin celebration in honor of the IMAX version of the animated penguin flick, Happy Feet. The Happy Feet Dance Fest features tap-dance lessons and mini performances from the LaFeet…
Get ready, because the circus is coming to town. Don’t worry, though, because you won’t have to wade your way through PETA protesters to see it, and a French translator will not be needed if you want to see some fine acrobatics. In director Chris Lashua’s Birdhouse Factory, acrobats (featuring…
Between coordinating a playgroup for aborted fetuses, running quality control on natural disasters and being slowly devoured through the magic of transubstantiation, we’re pretty sure Jesus doesn’t have time to hate us. Besides, we’re very careful: Even an omnipotent dude has to take a smoke break every now and then,…
I’ve been called the whitest Hispanic ever. And that’s by my closest friends. The slightest hint of jalapeño has me gasping for water. I’m lost when someone speaks to me in Spanish. The closest I’ve gotten to actual Mexican culture was a resort stay in Cancún. If I have any…
Once an actor gets big enough to take whatever kind of role he wants, it makes sense that the biggest stretch imaginable, given his current situation, is the part of a powerless man with no control over the world around him. Call it a “nice” movie—a vehicle designed to tone…
