Born to Run: 30th Anniversary (Columbia Home Video) The centerpiece of this three-disc boxed set isn’t the classic 1975 album, but the two DVDs that come with it. On one, shot in London in 1975, Bruce and the band tear through most of Born to Run and its two predecessors,…
You don’t have to know who the mad King Ludwig II is (he ruled Bavaria in the mid-19th century) to enjoy the naughty comedy of Paul Rudnick’s remarkably funny Valhalla. You don’t even need to know who Rudnick is (for my money, one of the most talented comic writers of…
The part with the dragon is really cool. Might as well cut to the chase, right? It’s not as though you need anybody to tell you the basic premise of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; if you somehow missed the last three, this won’t likely be the one…
It seems like so much nitpicking, but why is the Johnny Cash biopic called Walk the Line when a far better name would have been Ring of Fire? Surely James Mangold, co-writer and director, would insist he chose the former because of its lyrics dealing with the temptations that crop…
Richard Gere? That’s the first thought that came to mind upon learning that Mr. Salt-and-Pepper-Sexy-Buddhist-Wasp had been cast as Saul Naumann in Bee Season, the film version of Myla Goldberg’s best-selling novel. In the book, Saul is an oppressive and learned Jewish patriarch, a cantor and student of mysticism whose…
She’s big, she’s scary, and she’s pissed. The mutha of all muthas — Gaia — is a force to be reckoned with, and she’s sending shock waves, floods and monster storms to settle the score. The exhibition “Separation Anxiety” explores the growing tension between Mother Nature and mankind. “We’ve always…
Grace Slick did it. So did Janis Joplin and Courtney Love. Shane MacGowan was notorious for doing it, as was David Yow. What’s this rocker roll call we’re assembling? It’s a tally of musicians from the pantheon of pop-culture history who’ve gotten shitfaced onstage. Admittedly, we’ve got our work cut…
11/19-4/9Last summer, public displays of lingerie were as plentiful as feral kittens and bad movies. Luckily, as temperatures plummet and sweaters appear, the Phoenix Art Museum is unveiling “Lingerie: Secrets of Elegance” — a sociohistorical perspective on frilly things from the 18th century onward. So what is it about the…
SAT 11/19With an abundance of screenwriting requests, a plethora of awards, and multitudes of speaking engagements, it seems that everyone wants a piece of Suzan-Lori Parks. She was the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her dark comedy Topdog/Underdog, which is about two brothers, Lincoln…
11/17-11/20According to the folks at the International Hot Boat Association, the premier site in the U.S. for drag-boat racing is right here in the desert. No, they aren’t high on nitro-methane. They’re talking about Firebird International Raceway, host of the 2005 IHBA Coors Light World Finals. From Thursday, November 17,…
11/17-12/4Bad dates blow chunks. Whether it’s the icky chick who talked about her colonoscopy over dinner or the gross guy who said he wanted to “feel your belly button from the inside out,” there’s always one meet-up that makes you want to throw up. In the comedy Bad Dates, opening…
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Wellspring) The Ed Sullivan Show Rock & Roll Classics Boxed Set (Sofa Entertainment) Fantasy Island: The Complete First Season (Columbia/Tristar) Friends: The Complete Tenth Season (Warner Bros.) Friends: Collector’s Box (Warner Bros.) Greg Behrendt Is Uncool (WEA) Guided by Voices: The Electrifying Conclusion (Plexifilm)…
THU 17The iPod Nation has a seemingly insatiable craving for larger-than-life gaming. What’s The Amazing Race but a high-stakes Easter-egg hunt? What’s Fear Factor but an over-the-top game of chicken? The latest overgrown-kid craze is RoShamBo/Rock-Paper-Scissors, an extreme makeover of the kiddy contest that’s morphed into a fiercely competitive “sport.”…
Live in the Southwest long enough, mi’ja, and you would rather eat live fire ants than look at one more gallery full of quaint, decorator-friendly Latino folk art. Ruben Maqueda makes art in this tradition, but mercifully, Maqueda manages to bring some contemporary kick to “Tradiciones de Mi Gente (Traditions…
Rockstar Games has a winning recipe: Blend a nuanced story with a rich environment, add a dash of sensational marketing, then drench the confection in blood. What else would you expect from the publisher that gave us Grand Theft Auto? Rockstar’s latest release, The Warriors, proves that the bad boys…
Beavis and Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection, Volume One (Paramount) This three-disc, 40-episode volume chronicling Beavis and Butt-head’s early years will come as a relief to anyone who was stuck in a teenage wasteland when the MTV series first hit the air; turns out, we weren’t just stoned — this…
Dan Collins, 51, a pioneer in digital sculpture, bumps art up against science and lands on the cutting edge. As both fine artist and computer crackerjack, Collins co-directs Arizona State University’s PRISM, a state-of-the-art laboratory that gathers 3-D digital data and builds objects with a rapid prototyping machine — a…
As a screenwriter, Shane Black has built a reputation on action movies featuring mismatched partners. Crazy Mel Gibson and aging Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon; sassy Samuel L. Jackson and amnesiac hit-woman/housewife Geena Davis in The Long Kiss Goodnight; burnout detective Bruce Willis and football player Damon Wayans in The…
Keira Knightley, who is all of 20 but has the grace and gravitas of someone a good decade older, probably considers herself the luckiest lass in all the world at present. Just as Pride & Prejudice begins filling the cineplex with dewy, hopeless romantics who can’t get enough of Jane…
Moviegoers with a taste for nasty villains will get all they can handle from the heavy in Swedish director Mikael Håfström’s Derailed. Philippe LaRoche — played with obvious relish by a craggy-faced Vincent Cassel — is not the kind of effete Frenchman you find reading poetry in the corner bistro…
Pay attention, Disney: This is how you do a family film right. Neither pandering nor dull, Zathura plays exactly like a no-limits replica of the kind of space adventure that imaginative kids left to their own devices might enact. Assuming there’s no Xbox to distract them, naturally. Loosely based on…
About halfway through Get Rich or Die Tryin’, the new movie starring rapper 50 Cent (a.k.a. Curtis Jackson) and loosely based on his life, 50’s character Marcus is in prison, being visited by his girlfriend Charlene (Joy Bryant). Surprised by his inability to communicate with her, she asks the gangsta…
