Mom always says that videogames rot your brain. Hell, some say that Grand Theft Auto trains kids to kill. So Nintendos claim that its new portable offering, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, actually makes players smarter has been received with a mix of curiosity, cynicism, and…
All Youve Got (MTV) American Soldiers (Velocity) The Big Valley: Season One (Fox) Con Air: Unrated Extended Edition (Buena Vista) Crimson Tide: Unrated Extended Edition (Buena Vista) Doogal (Weinstein) Duma (Warner Bros.) Funny Games (Kino) Garon Stupide (Picture This) Hill Street Blues: Season Two (Fox) My Mothers Smile (New Yorker)…
The Old West has vanished, John Wayne is dead, and–this just in–the two most famous ranch hands in America are gay. But there would be no point in telling any of that to Harlan Fairfax Carruthers, the deceptively charming protagonist of Down in the Valley. Like the anachronistic cowboy Kirk…
At this late date, it’s hard to tell one digitally rendered talking animal from another. Madagascar blends into Ice Age looks like A Shark’s Tale sounds like Shrek might as well be A Bug’s Life turns into Antz feels like Chicken Little could be Over the Hedge, which is really…
You know it’s hard out here for a screenwriter. You’ve got a surefire hit on your hands–an adaptation of the runaway best-seller The Da Vinci Code–and yet it’s all about talking and solving cryptic riddles, which isn’t exactly suited to the visual medium. It’s also a book that depends on…
After writing this, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to turn in my Man Card. (And yes, of course I have one. Don’t you?) When I found out Michael Cunningham was coming, I wasn’t necessarily excited, but thoughts quickly flashed to the brilliant movie version of his book, The…
Ush on the Rocks cheerfully purports to deliver “a brand of comedy that you won’t find anywhere else in Dallas.” As weak and predictable as most Dallas comedy cavalcades are (I’m looking at you, Section 8), such a proclamation is analogous to an Eskimo bragging about being the best wind…
Normally the terms “repetitive” and “inflated” aren’t necessarily used in the most positive of ways. They sound more like descriptive words for ‘tween dialogue or Top 40 pop music, but when applied to the paintings of Charlotte Smith and the sculpures of William Cannings respectively, the terms denote specific style…
The ladies feel my pain: You’re strolling down Lower Greenville one evening, clad respectably in appropriately fitting clothing, and a couple of jerks in a Civic crawl by, hollering out the window. They’re spouting gems like, “Wassup, baby?” and “Y’all need a ride, WOOOHOOOOHAHAHA?!” I know that it takes all…
Though many of us are too young to remember it, the shockwaves from the 1960s integration of DISD are still being felt in our community, and while race relations in our city are certainly more cordial these days, they’re certainly no less complicated. To see just how far we’ve come…
In bizarre stage adaptation news, Little Women—The Broadway Musical comes to Fair Park this week. What was the thinking there? “Hey, Kevin, I was thinking this antiquated 47-chapter weeper about four sisters during the Civil War—get this, one of ’em plays the piano and dies, dude—would really translate well to…
In his new book, Mayflower, acclaimed historian Nathaniel Philbrick explains how the first 50 years of settlement at Plymouth in essence defined America and its subsequent push westward. The book’s subtitle, A Voyage to War, is fitting as Philbrick dispenses with the elementary-school version of the pilgrims’ landing in America…
Napoleon Bonaparte has inspired some extraordinary creations: a great palindrome (“Able was I ere I saw Elba”), a great song (ABBA’s “Waterloo”) and a great pastry (uh, the napoleon). On the other hand, the “little corporal” has become in modern society little more than a caricature, his image synonymous with…
Do the following words mean anything to you? The Arbiter, Master Chief, Cortana, Elites, Brutes and Spartans (not the naked Greek kind). No? Then turn the page, pal. You’re obviously a PS2 fan or maybe even a Gamecube player. You Halo 2 fans, however, should know this: The Universal Collectibles…
There’s nothing quite like sitting on a hill of snow, eating a corny dog in the heat of a Texas summer. I think the Grapevine city fathers were sippin’ in the wine cellar while they planned this year’s Main Street Festival. But, they deserve some credit because they managed to…
One of the few reasons to have kids is to have somebody to clean out the garage. There’s nothing we would rather not do on a lazy Saturday than sift through dusty furniture, broken power tools and boxes of god-knows-what that were never unpacked from when we moved two years…
Q Cinema’s Annual Gay & Lesbian International Film Festival is a precocious little 8-year-old. Born in 1999, the slapdash weekend of gay-friendly screenings has steadily matured into a full-fledged cinema schmooze event, complete with nightly after-parties and live entertainment. Previous years have seen some hit-or-miss moments, more than likely a…
When I lived in Nashville, my girlfriend and I ran out of stuff to do. Sometimes we’d just drive around town literally looking for something—anything—to occupy our time for the evening, and all too often we’d wind up at the one independent movie house watching some foreign film about an…
Rod Dreher has coined the term “crunchy conservative” for those “right-of-center Americans who reject much of Republican orthodoxy and are seeking a purer form of conservatism.” And apparently they’re “crunchy” because Dreher thinks we don’t typically think of conservatives as the granola-eating, Birkenstock-wearing, organic food-buying types, but I think they’re…
Wheel watchers: Prepare your eyes! The Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile is rolling into town, and it’s taking prisoners! Well, contestants. The event, free and open to the public, will allow fans to play a simulated version of WoF, win prizes and qualify for an audition to appear on an upcoming…
Wheel watchers: Prepare your eyes! The Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile is rolling into town, and it’s taking prisoners! Well, contestants. The event, free and open to the public, will allow fans to play a simulated version of WoF, win prizes and qualify for an audition to appear on an upcoming…
The only thing worse than a slacker is one who doesn’t watch the entirety of The Price Is Right. (Talkin’ to you, negligent pet owners.) Maybe you just wanted to catch Plinko, or maybe you flip the channel the instant a Showcase Showdown winner is announced, but you keep missing…
