Black Dynamite opens with three drug-dealing pimps lined up outside a limousine. A shadowy man rolls down the window and informs them there’s a traitor in their midst. After a few awkward, sideways glances, the pimp in the middle begins spewing poorly executed jive talk with a British accent. That’s…
Alaska’s Mount Saint Elias is the third-tallest mountain in North America, and it is notoriously unfriendly. It was first climbed in 1897, and it was then all but forgotten. Uncommonly close to tidewater for such a large mountain, its weather is extremely volatile. Near the top, it is often hellish…
Most documentaries about Hurricane Katrina — and there have been a lot in the past four years — address its many disasters, whether political, natural, man-made, and/or moral. A Bridge Life: Finding Our Way Home doesn’t shy from such material, nor does it avoid the painful, shameful memories. It recycles…
The rationale behind Lessons From South Africa is something like this: Lots of people in both Miami and South Africa have AIDS, but in South Africa, people are doing a lot more to address the problem. True! Producer Allan Richards, interim dean of Florida International University’s journalism school, could probably…
We’re introduced to Trucker’s main character, Diane Ford (Michelle Monaghan), in the midst of a drunken one-night stand in a seedy truck-stop motel. Once lust has run its course, Diane refuses her conquest’s half-hearted attempt to keep in touch via email, gets back in her truck, and takes off. Two…
The vampire trend continues, but the only authentic bloodsuckers in Cirque du Freak are its producers and studio execs. Drawn from the young-adult books by U.K. author Darren Shan, Cirque du Freak has F/X creatures, teen angst and romance, mysterious backstories, and a brewing war between beasties. On paper, it’s…
Perpetually grumpy Robert (David Thornton) is a musician who’s unable to pick up his saxophone anymore due to depression, and he’s being kicked out of his New York apartment because he can’t pay the rent. When his mover, a Serbian immigrant named Branko (Branislav Trifunovic), shows up, they form a…
Official Rejection may be too insidery to appeal to a mass audience, but it’s a documentary custom-made for aspiring independent filmmakers and the festival-cruising set. Paul Osborn, the film’s director, practically admits as much during the end credits when he asks his interviewees what they thought of his documentary’s chances…
You’re not always entirely sure what is happening in Tony Jaa’s new movie, but there certainly is a lot of it. In this sequel in name only, the martial-arts maven plays Tien, a scion avenging his family in a 15th-century Thailand marked by arcane hybrid fighting styles and a numbing…
Tantric Tourists follows a group of wealthy, Western, New Age-types in their journey across India and toward enlightenment — or so they believe. Their mantra is “Breathe and squeeze.” (Squeeze your asshole, that is. But you must do it without squeezing your butt cheeks.) And with all this squeezing and…
Step two in Francis Ford Coppola’s reinvention as a self-financed, off-Hollywood, personal filmmaker, Tetro — a moody job shot in carefully-framed widescreen and sumptuous, black-and-white chiaroscuro — is a marked advance over the Faustian, time-traveling absurdity Youth Without Youth (2007). Bennie Tetrocini (Alden Ehrenreich), an 18-year-old waiter on a luxury…
Touché, New York. After years of Allan Houston & Co. owning the Miami Heat’s balls in the playoffs, you went into the toilet when James Dolan sold MSG’s soul to free-spending, non-winning Isiah Thomas. And we laughed at you as we held up our NBA championship trophy. But then you…
Michael Jackson, the immortal Peter Pan, takes audiences on a spellbinding journey through his whimsical world in This Is It. Opening in theaters nationwide today for a two-week limited run, the film gives a candid view of the master at work as he prepared for his ill-fated comeback: 50 sold…
Instead of catching a flight to see the bright lights of Broadway, a quick ride to Biscayne Boulevard can give you your theatre fix this season. If you think that that means the usual crackhead productions that go down on the daily, you’re mistaken — because the Arsht Center (1300…
Say you have a crazy dream that you’re copiloting a plane, and Jon Bon Jovi is the pilot. Soon, he gets up and asks you to grab the controls. Why would he do this? Hint: This dream isn’t revealing you were meant to be a pilot. It’s to tell you…
Stephen Ross’ quest to make the Miami Dolphins the most ridiculous franchise in the NFL is nearly complete. As if getting D-List celebrities that haven’t been relevant since the Clinton Administration to sign on as minority owners and then hiring T-Pain to ruin the original Dolphins fight song wasn’t enough,…
Julie West’s collection of uber-cute characters might seem like simply cuddlesome creatures fit for kids of any age. But beneath their insanely adorable surfaces lies a complexity that could have come straight from a harrowing children’s tale. Take Squeeze, the little girl “who found a bird, decided to keep it,…
Las Olas Boulevard will transform into a beer-soaked art fair this weekend. A hundred and fifty national artists are showing up on the drag with $15 million worth of juried art — to mark Oktoberfest. There will be both art booths and micro-brewed beer. What this means in practice is…
Crafting sushi is an art. Carefully selecting the best high grade fish, vegetables, and rice and arranging them into picture perfect rolls takes years to perfect. There’s no doubt that the best way to enjoy such fine craftsmanship is to quickly jam as much of it as possible into your…
Who’da thunk in 1983 that Michael Jackson’s actual corpse would look nothing like the swarthy, raccoon-eyed zombie he plays at the end of the “Thriller” video? Most MJ fans, you gotta figure, will always remember him as that curly-headed kid in the red jacket leading a small platoon in some…
The Seinfeld era marked a more honest point in American history. At its epicenter was an unlikely anti-hero: a milk-drinking neurotic with perfect teeth. Jerry Seinfeld’s OCD tendencies made obsessive-compulsion cool well before Adderall’s focused leap into the limelight. By luring audience attention to his own self-deprivation, the star politely…
Rest assured, Fort Lauderdaleites, we’re not deprived of artists. But, yeah, we could use some more space to cultivate our arty garden and let it grow. Back in June, promoters Garo Gallo and Yvonne Colon gave us the art/music-filled venue the Bubble. And thanks to two New York-transplant artists, we…
