Email Author Bill Gallo

2004 Stories by Bill Gallo

• Phantom Menace

  published December 23, 2004

  By all accounts, the only living creatures who've never taken in a stage production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera are... More >>

• Closer to Fine

  published December 2, 2004

  Mike Nichols' new film Closer is a boiling pot of lust, mistrust and double-dealing that might well be taken for outright soap opera -- or,... More >>

• Finding a Way

  published December 2, 2004

  The Czech drama Zelary brings to mind Bertolt Brecht's pointed observation that "war is like love; it always finds a way." In this... More >>

• Hail to the Drama Queen

  published November 18, 2004

  Margo Channing cracked wiser. And her devious protégé cooked up better schemes to steal the limelight. Still, half a century after... More >>

• Redemption Thong

  published November 11, 2004

  The witless inanity of After the Sunset is so numbing that the sole reason for any living creature to sit through it -- man, woman or... More >>

• Like Moths to Flame

  published September 30, 2004

  It was only a matter of time before Hollywood capitalized on the sympathy and admiration that have enveloped the nation's firefighters since 9/11,... More >>

• Wet Kisses

  published September 9, 2004

  There is nothing mysterious or subdued about Stacy Peralta's enthusiasms. A product of Southern California's vivid beach scene, he's been a surfer... More >>

• Crooked As They Come

  published September 9, 2004

  The most crucial piece of equipment in Hollywood is obviously not the movie camera. It's not the casting couch. Not even the Rolls-Royce Silver... More >>

• Paddled Senseless

  published August 19, 2004

  Summer movies don't get much sillier or more empty-headed than Without a Paddle, and that includes Catwoman and King Arthur.... More >>

• Collateral Damaged

  published August 5, 2004

  Sheathed in a custom-tailored gray suit and sporting expensively barbered silver hair, Tom Cruise looks like an older, harder version of the... More >>

• The Unlikely Lambs

  published July 29, 2004

  Moviegoers who know the tides of recent Brazilian history likely will get more from Hector Babenco's new prison movie, Carandiru, than the... More >>

• Thunder Rolls

  published July 29, 2004

  If you're, oh, 11 years old and you've had it up to here with Spider-Man's current case of existential angst, it's time to blow your weekly... More >>

• Serenade in the Sand

  published July 15, 2004

  Fair warning: If the behavior of camels in the Gobi Desert during the spring birthing season is not high on your things-to-learn-about list, and... More >>

• Playing on Fear

  published June 17, 2004

  Getting stranded at snowbound O'Hare for the night is one thing. You call home, maybe knock down a couple of martinis, then grab a blanket. A... More >>

• Fear Factors

  published May 27, 2004

  When a pleasant Italian comedy called Mediterraneo won the 1992 Academy Award for best foreign language film, a lot of observant American... More >>

• Pitt and the Pabulum

  published May 13, 2004

  In the mood to launch a thousand ships? Fine, but it's gonna cost you. Feel like sacking the Temple of Apollo? Okay, but bring drachmas.... More >>

• Family Ties

  published May 6, 2004

  In Israeli writer-director Nir Bergman's Broken Wings, we never see an automatic weapon, a military roadblock or a horrific explosion on a... More >>

• Missing Links

  published April 29, 2004

  Pour a couple of old-fashioneds into the average golf historian, and it won't be long until he gets misty-eyed over Robert Tyre Jones Jr.... More >>

• Rage Against the Machine

  published April 22, 2004

  On its surface, José Padilha's absorbing documentary Bus 174 shows us how a homeless 21-year-old named Sandro Rosa do Nascimento... More >>

• Bush Comes to Shove

  published March 4, 2004

  At first glance, Hidalgo seems to be nothing more than an old-fashioned, flat-footed adventure epic plunked down on a vast stretch of... More >>

• Ropes a Dope

  published February 19, 2004

  It's clear by now that Meg Ryan, the bubbling sweetheart of half a dozen romantic comedies, means to bring new substance and seriousness to the... More >>

• Great Heights

  published February 12, 2004

  Some acts of courage command everyone's respect -- the firefighter's return to a burning house to rescue a child, the infantryman's sacrifice of... More >>

• Score!

  published February 5, 2004

  When the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, consisting of 20 raw college boys, beat the seemingly invincible, state-hardened Soviets and went on to... More >>