FISH OUT OF WATER
Delight in the exotic flavors of live sea creatures cooked to order
Dreamgirls
Dreamgirls Studio: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks SKG Rated: PG-13 Cast: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover, Jennifer Hudson Director: Bill Condon WorkNameSort: Dreamgirls Our Rating: 4.50 I love music, but I hate musicals. Unless they’re singing in Hindi, I just can’t deal with the jolting unreality of characters breaking into song in order to…
The Good Shepherd
The Good Shepherd Studio: Universal Pictures Rated: R Cast: Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, John Turturro, Patrick Wilson Director: Robert De Niro WorkNameSort: Good Shepherd, The Our Rating: 2.00 A good spy thriller is one that has you leaving the theater wanting to become a spook. The agents populating this Robert De Niro’directed…
The History Boys
The History Boys Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures Rated: R Cast: Richard Griffiths, Clive Merrison, Frances De La Tour, Stephen Campbell Moore, Dominic Cooper Director: Nicholas Hytner, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Starr WorkNameSort: History Boys, The Ever wondered what it would be like if the struggle for Charlie Sheen’s soul in Platoon had been played out in…
Rocky Balboa
Rocky Balboa Studio: MGM Distribution Company Rated: PG Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia, Antonio Tarver, Geraldine Hughes Director: Sylvester Stallone WorkNameSort: Rocky Balboa Our Rating: 3.50 Smartly, Rocky Balboa not only acknowledges how ridiculous and unseemly it is to resubmit the Italian Stallion into the pop-culture fray of 2006, but wraps the entire…
We Are Marshall
We Are Marshall Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution Rated: PG Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, David Strathairn, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie Director: Joseph McGinty Nichol WorkNameSort: We Are Marshall Our Rating: 3.00 When a plane carrying the 1970 Marshall University football team crashes, killing pretty much the whole squad and coaching staff, the resilient surviving…
Wim Wenders Collection, Vol. 2
Wim Wenders Collection, Vol. 2 Studio: Anchor Bay WorkNameSort: Wim Wenders Collection, Vol. 2 Aside from Jean-Luc Godard, I can’t think of another filmmaker as obsessed with chronicling film itself as Wim Wenders. The cinema ‘ as an art, entertainment and business ‘ and its makers form the fabric of so many of the German…
Pulse
Pulse Studio: Magnolia Pictures WorkNameSort: Pulse Unless you’re a hard-core Veronica Mars fan, skip the recent DVD release of the Kristen Bell’starring remake of Pulse, put aside some Xanax and watch Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s artfully terrifying original. Domestically released on DVD earlier this year, the hook is a despairing take on J-horror ‘ the dead, forced…
The Weeping Meadow
The Weeping Meadow Studio: New Yorker WorkNameSort: Weeping Meadow , The This staggering and mesmerizing film, set to be the first in a trilogy chronicling a century of Greek history, is one of the best films of the past few years. Greek director Theo Angelopoulos shoots the film in his trademark fluid long takes, rarely…
HAPPYTOWN
;Whoa. What the heck is going on? Here we are, stumbling around in a tequila hangover stupor and trying to avoid the turkey coma that follows the office potluck, when we came upon the shocking … shocking! … news that Bill Nelson has cojones. Whodathunkit? ;;Our own Democratic senator, a man who doesn’t get excited…
LETTERS
Poverty is expensive Thanks for the eye-opening story on life at the Palms Trailer Park `”Welcome to paradise,” Dec. 14`. I’ve been blessed never to live in poverty, but the most amazing part of the story is the amount of money these people pay to live with rats. (I’m 45 years old and have had…
SELECTIONS
;; ;Thursday•21 ;;Rockapella It’s no coincidence that the five-man Rockapella group, aka the “kings of contemporary a cappella,” finish their holiday concert tour here. Almost all of the current members hail from Orlando, Tampa and Winter Haven (Scott Leonard, high tenor; Kevin Wright, tenor; George Baldi, bassist; John K. Brown, tenor), save one New Yorker…
I HATE CHRISTMAS MUSIC
Being an embittered Jew, I’ve always despised Christmas. Among the many aspects of the season that make me want to yak (the ceaseless crass advertising, the rancid family films, the floods of stressed-out, manic people) nothing disgusts me more than the frothy holiday music that comes belching out of speakers in malls, on the radio…
COME ALL YE TOURISTS
This time of year, it’s important that we remember the most vulnerable members of our community. No, not the homeless — the theme parks. They spend 365 days a year turning tourist cash into smiles, but does anyone ever think about what they need for Christmas? In the spirit of the season, here is my…
CHEAP SHOTS
;Once again we find ourselves at the end of another year, and once again we find ourselves in need of a good purge. Though it may have started out on the right foot – at least we think it did, we were hung over that day – 2006 turned out to be as chockablock with…
WE WISH YOU AN ILLICIT CHRISTMAS
Not every little boy and girl in Orlando should be classified as “good.” They don’t want to be. For some the cookie-fed Santa syndrome — the cruel bait-and-switch of it all — generates only unnecessary anxiety. Their needs will not be quelled by a Wii or the cataloging of 60 gigs of their lives into…
AN OPEN LETTER
;; ;To the Editors of Time: ;;Looking at Time magazine’s selection for 2006’s “Person of the Year,” I can see that you’re in trouble. I can’t believe you chose “You,” as in “you people who use services like YouTube and MySpace.” I mean, how much of a copout is that?; ;In fact, your previous choices…
POLICE BEAT
DEC. 3, 9:47 A.M.: A man walked into an auto parts store in the 2400 block of West Church Street and became belligerent. When the employees suggested he scoot, the dude “selected store merchandise, put it down his pants and walked out the front door … daring them to call the police on him,” police…
BLISTER
I’m in the drowning pool. Actually, I’ve been watching The Drowning Pool with my more rugged half and engaging in the sort of barely-there conversation that flips open laptops on couches in search of some sort of qualifiable truth (insert gay joke about external hard drives here). Alan, who the world agrees looks like Paul…
SAVAGE LOVE
;My wife and I have been married four and a half years. We’ve been propositioned by — and played with — a number of sexy friends heteroflexible enough not to want/need full swap. So our play with others has been limited to oral and light petting.; ;We’ve now been approached by a very sexy couple,…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
ARIES I’ve been meditating on the perfect holiday gift for you. What might inspire you to take maximum advantage of the cosmic currents in 2007? Here’s my answer: a plane ticket to an exotic playground where your mind will get blown and your emotions aired out and your instincts educated. Another gift I’d love you…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
;Last Thursday, recording industry visionary and co-founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun died at the age of 83 due to complications from a fall at a Rolling Stones concert in New York. The thought of what the music industry at large has become tends to obscure the import of stories like his to most people.…
I LOVE TELEVISION
Happy holidays, everyone! OK, enough bullpoop niceties. I must say I’ve been extremely disappointed in your test scores over the last few years in regards to my annual Xmas Snap Quiz™. As you undoubtedly remember, every year I test your knowledge of those Rankin/Bass holiday specials that feature creepy wooden puppets, and every year you…
ARTS & CULTURE TO GO
;The Lion King ;; The prodigal son returns, redeeming his decayed spiritual homeland, and the natives sing in gratitude. That’s not just the plot of Disney’s The Lion King; it’s a metaphor for the effect this blockbuster’s arrival has had on the Carr Performing Arts Centre, where it resides through Jan. 14. The show’s signature…
