I had never seen a production of Art, which caused quite a stir in New York and Los Angeles productions five years ago. So, much as one anticipates laying eyes on a well-known painting such as the Mona Lisa, I was looking forward to seeing, up close for the first…
The Apartment (Lions Gate) The Bill Cosby Show: Season One (Shout! Factory) The Blue Light (Pathfinder) Conviction: The Complete Series (Universal) Dances With Wolves: Extended Cut (MGM) Film Geek (First Run) House, M.D.: Season Two (Universal) Invasion: The Complete Series (Warner Bros.) Just My Luck (Fox) The Maid (Tartan) On…
Everyone has hurdles to overcome, but playwright Wendy Hammond really stacks the deck against her main characters in Julie Johnson. These Hoboken housewives not only have to deal with abusive partners, unruly kids, financial woes, and nasty smoking habits but they’re uneducated (one can’t even balance a checkbook) and openly…
A winning tale of sex, real estate, and more or less immaculate conception, Quinceañera, as you might expect from a white-made drama about Latino life in the Echo Park section of Los Angeles, threatens at first blush to be all about a pregnant teenager and a prodigal cholo in the…
Like the shambling VW van its hapless characters steer from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, Little Miss Sunshine is a rickety vehicle that travels mostly downhill. How this antic extended sitcom from first-time feature makers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris left Sundance with an eight-figure deal and reams of enthralled press…
Snakes on a Plane represents the ideal of contemporary major-studio filmmaking — which is to say, major-studio marketing. Who needs word-of-mouth screenings or critics when you can sell the four-word pitch as written on a napkin? It points to a future that takes all the guesswork out of moviegoing. A…
Apocalypse Now: The Complete Dossier (Paramount) It’s all here, more or less: the 1979 theatrical cut of Francis Ford Coppola’s harrowing and still-hypnotic Joseph Conrad-in-Vietnam adaptation, the 49-minutes-longer-but-feels-24-minutes-shorter 2001 Redux edition, Marlon Brando’s entire 17-minute “The Hollow Men” monologue, even more “lost” and deleted scenes (including a spooky-shocking one, in…
Publisher: Sega
Platform: Xbox 360
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 8 (out of 10)
Benito (Lions Gate) Cape of Good Hope (New Yorker) Clark Gable Collection, Volume 1 (Fox) Don’t Tell (Lions Gate) The Hard Corps (Sony) Hong Kong Phooey: The Complete Series (Turner) Hoot (New Line) James Stewart: The Signature Collection (Warner Bros.) Land of the Blind (Bauer) Lemming (Strand) L’Enfant (Sony) Machined…
There’s a great deal to be said for an exhibition that feels as if it has been installed with just the right attention to flow and contrast and all the other intangibles that please and stimulate the senses. Juxtaposition is sometimes everything, or almost everything, especially in a group show…
World Trade Center is about just that — the attacks on, and the collapse of, the twin towers on September 11, 2001. But 45 minutes in, a viewer might easily forget the movie is set during that nightmarish day. There is little talk of terrorism and scant suggestion that a…
What’s the difference between a good liar and a good storyteller? The answer, or the lack of an answer, is a mystery at the heart of The Night Listener, a muted psychological thriller adapted from an Armistead Maupin novel. A writer’s elaborate what-if scenario extrapolated from an anecdote, it’s presented…
Now on Display Don’t think of it as commitment-phobia; think of it as curatorial caprice! Eaton Fine Art assures only one thing about its summer exhibit, “Summer Sculpture: A Changing Exhibition” — that visitors will see modern sculpture by a dozen respected artists, many of them innovators in their field…
Rian Johnson’s feature debut as writer-director will wind up as one of the year’s best films. A film noir set in a modern-day high school, it’s Sam Spade roaming Ridgemont High; kids get doped up and knocked up and even rubbed out while speaking pulp-novel slang, but the gimmick never…
Publisher: Midway Games
Platform: PS2, GC, GBA, PC
Price: $19.99-$29.99
ESRB Rating: E 10+ (for Everyone 10 and older)
Score: 3 (out of 10)
Adam and Steve (TLA) Back Woods (Terror Vision) Beautiful People: The Complete Series (Sony) Clone (Image) Damon Wayans’ Last Stand (Fox) Frat Boy Collection (Fox) Gilles’ Wife (Koch Lorber) Ghost in a Teeny Bikini (Image) Grounded for Life: Season 3 (Anchor Bay) The Hidden Blade (Tartan) Inside Man (Universal) Jayne…
Whenever word gets out that a new art gallery has opened in Broward or Palm Beach county, I’m usually tempted to drop everything and rush right over, for fear that it might not be around if I hold off too long. Indeed, several times I’ve dallied only to find the…
There is no modern-day antecedent to the movies Will Ferrell makes with writer-director Adam McKay, with whom Ferrell collaborated during their tenure at Saturday Night Live only a few years ago. To compare their offerings, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and the new Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky…
The old Lucas/Spielberg stunt of turning B-movie peekaboos into E-ticket thrill rides remains the industry standard — to the virtual exclusion of other multiplex fare, particularly when school’s out. But as not every kid who remade Raiders in Super 8 either gave up the dream or morphed into action-movie director…
Now that it’s summer and the locals have reclaimed their turf from the snowbirds, we have a chance to celebrate ourselves. It doesn’t matter that most of us hail from somewhere else; now we’re Floridians, and we’re showcasing our talents in all-Florida art exhibits. The Cornell Museum at Old School…
V for Vendetta (Warner Bros.) Illustrator David Lloyd calls this adaptation of the comic he made with writer Alan Moore “very good” — so why did Moore beg to have his name removed? The intentions are noble, sure; name another big-studio blockbuster in which a government manufactures fear to keep…
Publisher: 2K Games
Platform: Xbox 360, PC
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M (for Mature)
Score: 6 (out of 10)
