Wedding Crashers
Wedding Crashers Studio: New Line Cinema Rated: R Website: http://www.weddingcrashersmovie.com/ Release Date: 2005-07-15 Cast: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, Christopher Walken, Will Ferrell Director: David Dobkin Screenwriter: Steve Faber, Bob Fisher WorkNameSort: Wedding Crashers Our Rating: 3.50 A dick-swingin’ standout in a field of flaccid mainstream comedies, the hoped-for runaway hit Wedding Crashers actually…
Dark Water
Dark Water Studio: Touchstone Pictures Rated: PG-13 Website: http://darkwater.movies.go.com/ Release Date: 2005-07-08 Cast: Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Tim Roth, Dougray Scott, Pete Postlethwaite Director: Walter Salles Screenwriter: Rafael Yglesias Music Score: Angelo Badalamenti WorkNameSort: Dark Water Our Rating: 3.50 Here we have a well-made movie that unfortunately shares too many essential details with a…
Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four Studio: 20th Century Fox Rated: PG-13 Website: http://www.fantasticfourmovie.com/flash_index.html Release Date: 2005-07-15 Cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Julian McMahon Director: Tim Story Screenwriter: Michael France, Mark Frost WorkNameSort: Fantastic Four Our Rating: 2.00 When I was 12 years old, the FF were as real to me as the members of…
Belladonna
Belladonna Label: Anti- Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Belladonna Influential producer to Robbie Robertson, U2 and Bob Dylan, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Lanois’ own recordings traipse a muggy, sometimes morbid riverbed somewhere between Nashville skyline serenity and ghostly cemetery sonics. Belladonna, Lanois’ sixth release, is more stained-glass lovely than previous recordings yet still retains his love of spectral, twilight…
Felt, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet
Felt, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet Label: Rhymesayers Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Felt, Vol. 2: A Tribute to Lisa Bonet One of the unsung heroes of the Rhymesayers Entertainment camp is producer/DJ Ant, or Anthony Davis. Like he’s done with Brother Ali, Ant provides a soulful, smokin’ backdrop for MCs Slug and Murs to…
Absencen
Absencen Label: Staubgold Rated: NONE WorkNameSort: Absencen Like a pre-Dark Side Pink Floyd arranged by Roland Kirk and Bernard Herrmann, German ensemble Kammerflimmer Kollektief is something rare in today’s indie label-dominated market: a forward-thinking group that is classically trained yet totally renegade. Blending resonant jazz drumming, live strings, piano, horns and Tinkertoy found-sounds in songs…
FLASH AND PHO
When it comes to hot dishes, rice vermicelli is no prom queen. She’s got all the makings but is just too plain, too demure. Look at her flimsy dressing compared to her flashier Italian cousin, spaghetti and meatballs, done up in red velvet. But as many learn on prom night, it’s not so much the…
BEFORE A FALL
My Summer of Love Studio: Focus Features Rated: R Website: http://www.mysummeroflovemovie.com/home.html Release Date: 2005-07-15 Cast: Natalie Press, Emily Blunt, Paddy Considine, Dean Andrews Director: Pawel Pawlikowski Screenwriter: Pawel Pawlikowski, Michael Wynne, Helen Cross Music Score: Goldfrapp WorkNameSort: My Summer of Love Our Rating: 3.00 Just as certain music critics will go gaga over the most…
ROMAN HOLLER DAY
Caterina in the Big City Studio: Empire Pictures Rated: NOT RATED Website: http://www.empirepicturesusa.com/ep/show_movie.asp?title=10030 Release Date: 2005-07-15 Cast: Alice Teghil, Sergio Castellito, Carolina Iaquaniello, Federica Sbrenna Director: Paolo Verzì Screenwriter: Paolo Verzì, Francesco Bruni WorkNameSort: Caterina in the Big City Our Rating: 3.00 Whether or not you consider yourself in the market for an Italian Mean…
Happytown
It’s the end of the world as we know it. Or, at least, the end of Will’s Pub – not that those two things are totally disconnected. On June 27, the Orlando city council voted to approve a request by Allan Klaiman of the Northern Gateway Partnership to expand the Winter Park Urology Clinic and…
BEST OF ORLANDO 2005
Studious readers of our biggest issue of the year will note some changes: First and foremost, we’ve decided to cut our scribes loose from the constraints of writing about items that appeared in our Best Of ballots. They were told to write on anything that struck their fancy, which explains categories like “Best Orlando facsimile…
BLOODY GOOD SAUSAGE
Q: Is blood sausage really made of blood? Where can I find some? A: Yup. It’s blood, all right. Pig’s blood, to be exact. To some, the idea of eating coagulated blood of swine sounds revolting – after all, the trend these days is to eat for your blood type, not to down sausages of…
THINGS ARE SEXIER IN SPACE
Let me tell you what’s stupid about Star Trek. (I know, I know … kicking a show that’s been canceled is like challenging a quadruple amputee to a break-dancing competition. But what can I say? I’m an awesome break dancer.) Star Trek is stupid because they barely ever have sex. Yes, blowing the shit out…
Sports and Recreation
BEST AREA MOTORCYCLE ROAD County Road 419, Osceola County If you ride, you know: There ain’t shit for motorcycle roads in this part of the country. Great motorcycle roads are, first and foremost, curvy. They take you on a roller coaster ride up hill and down dale, finally depositing you in small towns so far…
MEATLESS IN ORLANDO
Any guide to vegetarian cuisine in Orlando starts at Garden Café, the most famous veg-head restaurant in town, dedicated totally to non-meat fare, and simply one of the best dining establishments anywhere in Central Florida. But that’s not where it ends, not by any stretch of the imagination. If you know where to look and…
THIS CITY IS SO 1985
Blame our generational proclivity toward televised gazes backward, or simply curse the fact that ours is an area with scant history or identity (save The Mouse), but eventually you’ll be better off simply scratching at your legwarmer, snorting a line and totally hating your parents. While Orlando may be blossoming into a utopian condominium tribute…
LEMONS INTO PISS & VINEGAR
For The Esoteric, whose Lawrence, Kan., home/studio burned to its foundations in late February, the nomadic lifestyle of the touring act has become an indefinite necessity. Playing on donated equipment while wearing charitable-contribution clothing, the group started playing shows in support of its April release With the Sureness of Sleepwalking less than two weeks after…
Food and Drink
BEST HAPPY HOUR Club Paris 122 W. Church St., (407) 832-7409 Yes, we are talking about the otherwise un-noteworthy club at Church Street Station, namesake of a dingbat quatrillionaire whose claim to infamy is a lo-res porn vid that circulated on the Internet. But let me clarify: I’m not recommending Club Paris for late-night partying;…
GLOBAL SUMMIT
There are pop stars who are rich and famous. And then there’s Khaled, a Moroccan-born singer who has moved beyond merely being “popular” and into something more along the lines of “omnipresent.” “Khaled attracts people from across the board,” says DJ Cheb i Sabbah, who is accompanying Khaled on his current U.S. tour. “‘Didi’ was…
Arts and Entertainment
BEST ARTS FAN Margot H. Knight, President and CEO, United Arts of Central Florida Inc. She’s got class and sass, a head full of smarts and passion for all things creative. When it comes to the local arts, the smiling, laughing Margot H. Knight is seemingly everywhere, catching an exhibit here and a show there,…
Letters
I ♥ Humphrey Thanks for picking up Steven Humphrey’s column `”I ♥ Television”` from The Stranger. I’m from Seattle, and it’s wonderful to see it in print again. You should also “borrow” one of their great column ideas, where readers send in unsigned complaints about relationships, etc. Matthew A. Brinegar, Orlando Thanks for nothing I…
ODE TO CONVENIENCE STORES
As our lives become increasingly more fast-paced, the corner store has become a beacon of our convenience-craving culture. It’s there for us when we need gas for the Daihatsu, another Huggies mega-pack, a 40 of “eight ball,” no-less-than-80 ounces of Slice, and just don’t have time to sit in the damn line at Winn-Dixie. And…
GOING NOWHERE
I am so going nowhere. Some 20 years ago this week I was washed up with the rest of the tween millions in front of my television set, channeling my sense of philanthropy through the close-ups of distended African bellies set to the off-key musical stylings of Bob Geldof and Madonna. I changed the world…
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DISTRICT MAKES
Greater Orlando, you may have noticed, is a community that’s not big on the concept of walking neighborhoods. Strip malls, sure, and other loosely connected asphalt playgrounds you’ll have to spend serious time behind a steering wheel to experience properly. But if you’re looking for an expanse of even a few blocks in which you…
PUMP UP THE RHETORIC
“Any member of the [Senate Judiciary] committee can ask whatever they want, no matter how stupid. But I don’t think [Supreme Court] nominees have to answer certain questions. They don’t have to answer questions about how they are going to vote in the future. They don’t have to answer stupid questions.” — Sen. Orrin Hatch,…
Goods and Services
BEST PLACE TO CRAP YOUR PANTS Barnes & Noble Booksellers 2418 E. Colonial Drive, (407) 894-6024 Given the heady, laxative combination of coffee drinks and literature, the presence of a fecal need is a given at most bookstores with cafés. But at Orlando’s largest Barnes & Noble bookatorium, where thousands of people arrive but never…
COUNTERPOINT: NO, IT ISN’T
I was really hoping that the whole point-counterpoint format would result in an opportunity for me to put a smackdown to this “Orlando is boring” mantra that people insist on chanting. But the eloquent Ms. de Armas has succinctly and clearly made the point that I wanted to hammer home. That point? If you think…
POINT: ORLANDO IS BORING
Orlando is one of the most magical cities on earth – if you’re visiting. But if you live here, you probably feel like you’re stuck in purgatory. Once in a while you’ll have a blast. Once in a while you’ll be miserable. Most of the time, you’re doomed to a life of boredom. Trust me…
SPREADING OUT IN ALL DIRECTIONS
How does one assess the best changes in our young city or the best ones yet to come – this being a city that is predicted to have a population the size of Los Angeles in another half-century or so? Take a scouting approach, I decided, and headed out in four directions to the far…
ORLANDO BY THE NUMBERS
Total number of square miles in Orlando city limits: 109.51 Total acreage: 70,089 Location: 28.30 degrees north latitude, 80.72 degrees west longitude Four other world cities on a similar latitude: Tabuk, Saudi Arabia; New Delhi, India; Nanchang, China; Chihuahua, Mexico Estimated population as of 2002: 194,913 First city name: Jernigan First name of Orange County:…
Local Color
BEST NAME OF A LOCAL CELEBRITY Dallas Friday Dallas Friday is the world’s No. 1 female wakeboarder, and a homegrown product who turned pro at age 13. Now, just a few months shy of her 19th birthday, the 5-foot 2-inch athlete’s career is in full bloom and she’s headed to Wakestock in Lakes Wales (the…
