Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pan’s Labyrinth is something alchemical. To an astonishing degree, the 42-year-old Mexican filmmaker best known for his contribution to the Blade and Hellboy franchises has transformed the horror of mid-20th-century European history into a boldly fanciful example of what surrealists would call le…
At face value, Alpha Dog—based on a real-life story that’s still waiting for its ending—plays like an amped-up, drugged-out episode of Dragnet. In 2000, a gang of SoCal kids kidnapped and murdered 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz, a soft-spoken boy from the San Fernando Valley who dreamed of becoming a rabbi and…
A bad review can be murder. So let’s establish right now that actor-writer Kurt Kleinmann and his merry band of Pegasus Theatre players are first-rate, top-notch, good-looking, love-their-shoes artistic geniuses who deserve every kind adjective, gilded accolade, naked statue and freebie-stuffed goody bag their profession allows. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug…
Bandidas (Fox) This review is not long enough for a suitable treatment of the beauty of Penélope Cruz and Salma Hayek. The makers of Bandidas would certainly prefer I tried, though, than to discuss this plodding cliché of a western featuring the two. You could write the script right now…
It’s been 20 years since the first Castlevania bewitched gamers with its gothic horror. Twenty years of vampire hunters going fist to fang with Lord Dracula. With almost two dozen titles in the series, Castlevania is one of the most enduring and beloved game franchises of all time. Castlevania: Portrait…
America’s Funniest Home Videos: Salute to Romance (Shout Factory) Behind the Mask (Good Times) Broken Bridges (Paramount) Color of the Cross (Fox) Conversations With Other Women (Hart Sharp) Crank (Lions Gate) Everybody Says I’m Fine (BFS) Good Morning World (S’More) Hello Kitty’s Animation Theater: Complete Collection (ADV) Live Nude Girls…
I will stop smoking. I will not run for mayor. I will not watch the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging. Again. I will lose 23 pounds. I will stop doing Borat impressions. You likes? Nice. I will learn to hold on to the football. I will learn how to ballroom…
As kids we didn’t call it exercise. We called it playing outside. We didn’t take spinning classes; we rode bikes. We also jumped rope, rollerbladed, ran ourselves breathless around the yard yelling “You’re it!” and built up our biceps and triceps climbing trees. It was fun. It still is, which…
Check out Scott Colby’s Women’s Fitness Camps at http://www.womensfitnesscamp.com. Or call him at 214-505-8504. Join Colby’s free co-ed Playground Fitness Club at Meetup.com (http://fitness.meetup.com/236/). The next scheduled playground workout is 9 a.m., January 20, on the playground at the intersection of Lexington Avenue and St. John’s Drive in Highland Park…
I will stop smoking. I will not run for mayor. I will not watch the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging. Again. I will lose 23 pounds. I will stop doing Borat impressions. You likes? Nice. I will learn to hold on to the football. I will learn how to ballroom…
I will stop smoking. I will not run for mayor. I will not watch the video of Saddam Hussein’s hanging. Again. I will lose 23 pounds. I will stop doing Borat impressions. You likes? Nice. I will learn to hold on to the football. I will learn how to ballroom…
If you’re like me at this time of year, you’re scrambling to catch up on all the movies that get nominated for whatever upcoming awards only because they seem to all come out in a three-week period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Yes, it’s mostly good stuff, but every couple…
When we were little, and sometimes even now, we fantasized about the house we would have when we were older. What color would it be? Would it have a basement, or possibly a Batcave? While we’re bummed that our reality is about as far from the Batcave as it gets…
It’s a cliché: A picture is worth a thousand words. As a writer, I don’t believe that—until I see a powerful picture or work of art. Then I realize that visual art is storytelling in its purest form. Check out two artists who pursue their work in very different ways…
Winona, Texas, is a small town situated northeast of Tyler in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Approximately 100 miles east of Dallas, the town isn’t much to speak of, with a population of less than 1,000. Unfortunately, Winona is best-known for the pollution, disease and death left in the…
Librettists must have been slapping their foreheads and muttering “Why didn’t I think of that?” when Altar Boyz debuted off-Broadway. Take the boy-band phenomenon and the Christian pop movement, mash it around with double-entendres and create a musical comedy! Five young men—Matthew, Mark, Luke, Juan and Abraham (the Jewish guy,…
A group of friends and a truck crash. That story can’t end well, can it? Perhaps “well” isn’t exactly the right term, but “interesting” could sure fit the bill. And “illogical.” When it comes to Schrödinger’s Ball, a novel by Adam Felber, “entertaining” might work as well—especially since the friends…
What is the science of sexy? Is it that Miracle of Life video you had to watch in junior high? Science, sure, but we’re not so sure about the live birth bit at the end. Coulda done without. How about the Victoria’s Secret fashion show? Sexy, sure, but do you…
What happens when, instead of a glass slipper, Cinderella leaves one of her smelly tennis shoes behind when she flees the ball? Well, the prince better have a clothespin for his nose as he visits the other fair maids while looking for his beloved. Inanimate objects come to life in…
Kelly Price’s mother remembers her baby daughter singing out from her crib in the middle of a quiet night. Not too surprising as the little spiritual diva was raised accompanying her father, the Reverend Joseph Price (as well as her evangelist mother, Claudia, and siblings), to work every day at…
These days, you’d think most kids would be taught by their parents to run like the wind if a stranger offered them a ride on a “magic” school bus. That’s how youngsters wind up on milk cartons or with nasty hallucinogen habits. But have no fears, parents, about Ms. Frizzle’s…
Billy Joe Shaver was the songwriter du jour for the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, penning tunes recorded by Kris Kristofferson, Bobby Bare and Johnny Cash. Waylon Jennings even did a whole album of Shaver compositions, 1973’s Honky Tonk Heroes, often credited for kicking off the movement that would…
