Blood Work, Clint Eastwood’s 23rd film as director, is another crime thriller in the mode of, but better than, True Crime (1998) and Absolute Power (1996), two of his last three films. More than these, however, it resembles In the Line of Fire (1993), the Eastwood vehicle directed by Wolfgang…
In case you didn’t happen to read the tagline on the ubiquitous poster, Xander Cage, also known as XXX because he’s tattooed his first initial three times on the back of his neck, is “a new breed of secret agent.” The old breed, we learn pretty quickly, is Bond, James…
Summer is the off-season in South Florida, so museums often take advantage of the lull to showcase works from their permanent collections. A few years ago, for instance, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach did a large, ambitious, but near-incoherent summer show; last year the Museum of…
A press pass, reporter-turned-novelist Gregory McDonald once said, is good for one thing: It allows the journalist to ask very smart people very stupid questions. Certainly, that’s how it feels after this 45-minute drive from downtown Dallas to the Allen home of Stan Liebowitz, professor of economics at the University…
Since bodybuilding began coming into the public eye, probably first due to the 1976 film Pumping Iron, the activity has grown by leaps and bounds, much like the muscles on any of its competitors. In fact, bodybuilding can even be officially called a sport; the International Federation of Body Builders…
Cyrus Bolooki is getting nostalgic as he chats with New Times from Montana. “It feels like everything has come full circle,” the New Found Glory drummer says after being patched into his old area code. “New Times was the first good-sized publication to give us press back in 1998, when…
This time around, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan puts the surprise at the beginning of his film, and it’s a subtle, shimmering clue — one easily missed and, frankly, one that might not even be there at all. Such are the temptations offered by the maker of The Sixth Sense and…
Like George Clooney says in Ocean’s Eleven, do the math: four Canon XL1 digital cameras, one dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4, a copy of editing software Final Cut Pro 3, 18 shooting days, a 2-million-buck budget, one Oscar-winning Best Director, and nine high-profile actors (among them Julia Roberts, Brad…
In theater, as in life, we expect marriages to fail, lovers to betray, and family members to hurt us, but when friendship takes the center stage, one cannot help but take note. This familiar but unpredictable territory offers much dramatic potential, and GableStage’s current production Chinese Coffee makes the most…
It’s daunting to hear that John Sayles’s new film, Sunshine State, is almost two and a half hours long and consists mostly of calm conversations. But don’t be deterred or you’ll miss out on a study of character, class, and changing times that puts Robert Altman’s stodgy Gosford Park to…
Not much has changed in the 11 years since Mike Myers used the first Wayne’s World movies as a personal launch pad, tipping his James Bond-spoofing Austin Powers hand only when he was strong enough box office to reap the rewards of his licensed characters. Now, those spy-movie send-ups –…
I’ve often cited Gertrude Stein’s complaint that the problem with sculpture is that one can walk around it. It’s a somewhat bizarre assertion, but there’s plenty of modern sculpture to support her sweeping dismissal — big, clunky public art that looks more like the aftermath of an industrial or traffic…
Years ago, in the era before the Williams sisters, Andre Agassi shocked the tennis world by wearing Day-Glo colors to matches. This was simply not done. Not even John “Middle Finger” McEnroe was audacious enough to wear anything but white with a few tasteful stripes occasionally. This was a gentleman’s…
Ah, summertime in South Florida. The struggle of the tourism industry to survive another off season. The unforgiving heat and humidity, broken only by the torrential downpour that occurs for 30 minutes every day, usually exactly when you don’t want it to. The distinctly unique, meaty sound that issues forth…
Anyone looking for the theatrical capital of the world will unquestionably end that search here in London, where a strong theatrical tradition has been nurtured, almost unbroken, for well over 400 years. The city is looking more prosperous and confident than it has in many decades, choked with new construction…
In the blur of post-World War II disillusionment, the art world was dominated by surrealism, and surrealism was dominated by the dictatorial André Breton. In 1948, in a small café on the Rue Saint-Jacques in Paris, a group of vigilante Danish artists formed a collective called CoBrA dedicated to shattering…
Model trains bring out the little boy in many big boys. If you never had your own choo-choos when you were a kid, or if you had them but had to fight dad off so you could play engineer and speed those little locomotives and their retinue of passenger trains…
Of all the A-list men playing dedicated authority figures, Star Wars alums Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson remain among the most amusing and pleasing, which is why K-19: The Widowmaker glides along engagingly rather than sinking. In many ways it’s just another cramped, dank submarine movie — bells, whistles, leaks,…
On the first day (of opening weekend), the Lord said, “Let there be, like, this year’s Evolution or sumpin’, only with more hope for significant box-office returns,” and there is, and it is called Eight Legged Freaks, and it is good. The silly title needs a hyphen in the compound…
At this very moment, members of the Television Critics Association are gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Pasadena, California, to preview this fall’s new series, interview those responsible for them and, finally, gorge themselves silly and drink themselves stupid on the networks’ dwindling dime. This event, the so-called “press tour,” takes…
MAM’s “Ultrabaroque: Aspects of Post-Latin American Art,” an exhibit curated by Elizabeth Armstrong and Victor Zamudio-Taylor that landed here from San Diego, presents works by artists from Latin America who negotiate contemporary global trends within their own local traditions. But this is not a witty or humorous label. To categorize…
Think of it as Todd Solondz lite: loads of dysfunction but, thankfully, none of the perversion. In fact, despite deep-seated neuroses, occasionally inappropriate behavior, and a propensity for unhealthy relationships, the four females who are the Marks family are a fairly benevolent lot. As observed by writer-director Nicole Holofcener, the…
