THIEVERY ON A GRAND SCALE
The Lookout doesn’t quite get away with it
Blades of Glory
Blades of Glory Studio: Paramount Pictures Rated: PG-13 Website: http://www.bladesofglorymovie.com/ Release Date: 2007-03-30 Cast: Will Ferrell, Jon Heder, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Jenna Fischer Director: Will Speck, Josh Gordon WorkNameSort: Blades of Glory Our Rating: 3.00 Will Ferrell has more range than his detractors will admit. But since Melinda and Melinda and Stranger Than Fiction…
Meet the Robinsons
Meet the Robinsons Studio: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution Rated: G Website: http://www.meettherobinsons.com Release Date: 2007-03-30 Cast: Angela Bassett, Jordan Fry, Tom Kenny, Harland Williams, Adam West Director: Stephen J. Anderson WorkNameSort: Meet the Robinsons Our Rating: 2.00 Despite the occasional winning laugh line and beautiful animation, Meet the Robinsons is a disappointing outing for the…
The Namesake
The Namesake Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures Rated: PG-13 Website: http://www.foxsearchlight.com/thenamesake/ Release Date: 2007-03-30 Cast: Kal Penn, Zuleikha Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Jacinda Barrett Director: Mira Nair WorkNameSort: Namesake, The Our Rating: 4.50 Jhumpa Lahiri’s 2003 novel, The Namesake, delivers its story in a fashion well-suited to literature; with a tight focus on one family over…
PARTY OF FIVE
Never-frozen ground beef yields a near-perfect burger experience
Muriel
Muriel Studio: Koch Lorber Films Rated: NOT RATED Release Date: 2007-03-13 Cast: Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, Claude Sainval Director: Alain Resnais WorkNameSort: Muriel French New Wave epitomizer Alain Resnais still makes groundbreaking films ‘ check out his great revisionist musicals Same Old Song (1997) and Not on the Lips (2003) ‘…
Maude: The Complete First Season
Maude: The Complete First Season Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Rated: NOT RATED Release Date: 2007-03-20 Cast: Beatrice Arthur, Bill Macy, Brian Morrison, Conrad Bain, Rue McClanahan Director: John Rich WorkNameSort: Maude: The Complete First Season Of all the shows that Norman Lear birthed in the wake of All in the Family’s revolutionary template, Maude…
Engineering an Empire
Engineering an Empire Studio: A&E Home Video Rated: NOT RATED Release Date: 2007-03-27 WorkNameSort: Engineering an Empire OK, I’ll grant you that nine and a half hours of exploring the engineering marvels of Persia, Greece, Rome, Great Britain and other global dominators might not sound appealing to anyone but the nerdiest of shut-ins. But these…
Myths of the Near Future
Myths of the Near Future Label: Geffen Records Length: LP Rated: NONE Website: http://www.klaxons.net Release Date: 2007-03-27 Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Myths of the Near Future Myths of the Near Future (Geffen) Only painful things can come of subscribing to hype. Klaxons, hype aside, bring an interesting argument to re-evaluating what’s on your turntable:…
Person Pitch
Person Pitch Label: Paw Tracks Length: LP Rated: NONE Release Date: 2007-03-20 Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Person Pitch C’mon, ‘Comfy in Nauticaâ?�? It reeks of the product-placement-as-content rationalizing we expect from chart-aspiring hip-hop; it isn’t impossible to imagine some NYC punchline rapper titling his album’s ‘startlingly intimateâ?� slow jam that way, but that’s how…
Sweet Beliefs
Sweet Beliefs Label: Ever Records Length: LP Release Date: 2006-09-18 Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Sweet Beliefs Whose lovely vocals are these that carve precisely into such a textured mess of sound on Sweet Beliefs? A Paris-based four-piece called Cyann & Ben, and lullaby moments ‘ highlighting hushed harmonies and keys ‘ occur as often…
Living with the Living
Living with the Living Label: Touch & Go Records Length: LP Rated: NONE Release Date: 2007-03-20 Media: CD Format: Album WorkNameSort: Living with the Living In the American underground, Ted Leo is the real deal. Here, his sharp, blue-collar intelligence continues to swirl with that trademark mash of liberating punk & roll, ragged folk pathos…
DRIVE BY ACTIVISM
You don’t just wake up one morning and decide to construct an art car. It just happens. I’ve driven an art car for more than a year now. You’ve probably seen me driving it down the street — Thing Three — you know, the car covered in brightly colored Dr. Seuss characters? And if you…
POLICE BEAT
MARCH 14, 1:03 P.M.: We all know and love the tantalizing, buttery aroma of baking bread that wafts from the Merita bakery near I-4. On this day, the smell drove a suspect or suspects unknown to do bad things. A perp or perps arrived at the bakery in the 4300 block of North Pine Hills…
UP IN THE AIR
If you fly, you want Transportation Security Administration screeners to be happy in their jobs. These are the people charged with making sure someone doesn’t sneak knives, guns or other contraband aboard planes. Many screeners do what they do out of a sense of duty to country, not for the pay, which starts at about…
LETTERS
;Crime is No. 1 ;I was very surprised to see the quotes attributed to me in the Orlando Weekly that suggested that I did not want a full investigation of the shooting New Year’s Eve on Austin Road [“Unhappy New Year’s,” March 15].; ;I said that I wanted the matter fully investigated, but I felt…
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS …
I’ve officially found the laziest kitchen downtown: the staff at Due Amici, the South Orange Avenue joint formerly known as Dan’s Midnite Pizza. Seriously, 30 minutes to heat up a couple of slices and make a panini? Frustrating, considering the restaurant wasn’t packed and the folks behind the counter were text-messaging away. The two slices…
BLISTER
;Love on the rocks, clearly no surprise. But barring the immediate availability of a white patent-leather straitjacket with rhinestones — and a padded room with padded cocktails — I’m going the more obvious route. I’m taking my love — the very same one that business-trip-lied to me, resulting in the most melodrama my mascara could…
SAVAGE LOVE
I am a recently married 30-year-old straight guy. My wife is great, and in fact, I have a baby on the way. My relationship with my wife is a good one. My problem lies with my addiction, if you will, to receiving head from a particular male. He performs his work with a level of…
FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
;ARIES You will soon uncover evidence that a seemingly innocuous hot dog vendor is actually creating an army of cyborgs in the sewer system under the streets. You will also make a citizen’s arrest of a grandmother who’s embezzling money from a children’s charity to support her gambling habit. And you’ll develop the psychic power…
THIS LITTLE UNDERGROUND
In a week just poppin’ with big beats, the dance merchants totally ran things. And without question, the most hyphy display was cheez-tastic troupe Bonde do Role from Brazil at Club Firestone. With their sample-mad brand of funk carioca — an exaggeratedly vulgar explosion of Miami bass, mash-up and Portuguese rap — the spastic trio…
I LOVE TELEVISION
;I would make a super- ;awesome cop. In fact, I’m already so super-awesome I don’t think I should have to take the police test. Why? Because of my extensive TV training! ; ;I watch an ASS-LOAD of cop shows, and as such, I know more about copping than most cops do. For example: I know…
ARTS & CULTURE TO GO
The End of Back to the Future If, like Huey Lewis, you “gotta get back in time,” better hurry — time has run out. Universal recently confirmed the worst-kept secret in Orlando and officially announced the closing of Back to the Future: The Ride. March 30 is the last chance to board a faux DeLorean…
HAPPYTOWN
Are Orlando cops out of control? If you answer “no” to that question, odds are you are not a resident of Parramore or Pine Hills. And there’s a good chance that you are white. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) See, residents of those areas, many of whom are black, think the Orlando Police…
COUNCIL WATCH
;”You are going to be so ; boooooored,” a city staffer breezes by with half a smile on her face. Indeed.; ;Three weeks since the last dais dialogue and one would think that the City Beautiful might have blossomed some gorgeous spring fruit. Instead, the drowsy affair kicked off with an awards presentation (as usual),…
EVERYONE HATES FRED
It was 1998 and a stout, middle-aged accountant had just been elected to the Florida State House, where he would remain for eight years. He had yet to do anything to draw attention to his tenure in the Legislature. That was to be expected; only a few days had elapsed since he’d taken the oath…
SELECTIONS
;Thursday•29; ;Exposed: A 30-Artist Take-over It’s hard not to have a soft spot for “guerrilla” activities in a town held down by too many wet blankets. It’s scary, though, when developers are included in the equation, but that’s Orlando for you, or more specifically it’s par for downtown shapers Craig Ustler and Phil Rampy (who’ve…
CLAIMS TO STAKE
Last September, a new Outback Steakhouse advertisement provided the year’s definitive “Wait, what? Rewind!” television moment for indie-rock connoisseurs. The spot unveiled an altered version of Of Montreal’s psychedelic-dance single “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games,” with its lyrics revamped, its chorus heftily reinforced and its instrumentation Aussied up with tribal rhythms and…
GHOST OF A GENIUS
A very active host of Detroit MCs and producers won’t forget what they owe to J Dilla — if the recently departed hometown luminary isn’t in their album credits, their productions bear his influence and his revered work ethic. In his contributions to hip-hop, Dilla perfected a soulful, hard-snare sound by laboring over the elements…
