Probably best known in this country for Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, French writer-director Claude Berri has also made numerous comedies in his career, many of them concerning the male species’ desire for companionship and often comical attempts to obtain it. His latest film, The Housekeeper (Une…
Freddy vs. Jason Directed by Ronny Yu. Written by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift, based on characters created by Wes Craven and Victor Miller. Starring Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger, Monica Keena and Kelly Rowland. Opens Friday. Anyone not already a fan of A Nightmare on Elm Street dream-stalker Freddy Krueger…
He knows there are people, too many, who do not like him. He has to know. They’ve told him to his face–the studio executives who slice and snip the scenes he loves the most and suffer his outbursts for it, the directors he’s pushed out of the way so he…
In one boffo two-hour show, Pico de Gallo, now playing at the Ice House Cultural Center in Oak Cliff, the tiny Martice Enterprises acting troupe delivers more sassy, funny, provocative entertainment than many local theaters do with big budgets and huge productions in a whole season. Without even a stage…
Comedian Jeff Dunham is trying to revive the art of ventriloquism. But instead of CPR, he has three puppets. There’s a grumpy old man named Walter, who has “written” a book and hawked rental cars for Hertz; a wacky purple Woozle named Peanut, who’s described as “cool, hip, irreverent”; and…
Thursday, August 14 Mmmmm, boy. Beau Nash is bringing a little bit of Cajun flavor to Big D, and in more ways than one. Tonight the N’awlins Gumbo Kings will be busting out their brand of serious New Orleans jazz in the bar while patrons can work on busting out…
It’s hard to believe that animation and clay–the same media that brought us Mickey Mouse and Gumby–could also spawn the likes of entries from The Spike & Mike Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. They’re hard-core cartoons with blood and boobs and plenty of unmentionables, ones with animation so vulgar,…
8/15 Imagine: In a bold, albeit necessary backlash against one-too-many mind-numbing “blockbuster” summer cinema seasons, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Magnolia Theatre join forces to present a series of films that don’t receive widespread release otherwise…and a revolution of substance over style is sparked. It’s a…
8/15 It’s a tragically different world post-9/8. Used to be that Dallas fans could count on kicking Houston’s butt in football. But that all changed with the Houston Texans’ horrific 19-10 nationally televised victory over the Cowboys last September, the first time an NFL expansion team won its inaugural game…
8/19 I admit to growing up in front of the television. Everything I needed to know I learned from Sesame Street. Of course, that was before CD players and Dr. Phil. But now in the age of self-help, child psychologist Dr. Don MacMannis (also known as Dr. Mac) offers A…
8/15 David Bates could’ve retired young, in the 1960s, living off residuals after his family’s roadside establishment was featured in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. David Bates could’ve retired in the 1970s, living off royalties from his successful stint as the lead singer for the rock band Bread, which later became David…
8/16 This year marks the 50th anniversary of commercial polyester fiber production, according to its maker, DuPont. “From 1995 to 2005, consumption of polyester around the world is expected to more than double–from 17.7 million metric tons to almost 40 million metric tons,” the company says in a news release…
Not to worry. Whenever summer machismo levels threaten to fall below mad-dog range, Hollywood invariably steps in to restore the status quo. Witness S.W.A.T. , a thoroughly unremarkable police action movie starring the magnetic Samuel L. Jackson as L.A.P.D. Sergeant Dan “Hondo” Harrelson, known affectionately to his men as “the…
“Simon must propose to me now,” exclaims pretty, simpleminded Rose (Rose Byrne), “before he meets somebody else or gets to know me better!” Welcome to the none-too-subtly-named Mortmain family, wherein foundering patriarch James (Bill Nighy)–for all symbolic definitions a dead writer–has been allowing his prolonged delusions of literary grandeur to…
Ah, Paris–City of Light, of Love, of Liver Damage and Lung Cancer. C’est formidable, non? Who in need of a posh vacation would turn down the opportunity to luxuriate in its finest hotels, to stuff oneself with sumptuous snails and to work on a terribly flat romantic drama called Le…
Military clerk Ray Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is something of a modern-day Sergeant Bilko. Anything you need, he can get. Any scam that’s possible, he’ll run. Never mind the bumbling Colonel Berman (Ed Harris) who ostensibly runs the unit–Elwood has him wrapped around his finger. There’s just one major difference between…
If the comedy High School Hellcats in Heels were ice cream, it would be cherry bubble gum with licorice chips. If it were a sweater, it would be fuzzy pink angora over a pointy D-cup. And if it really were a B-movie from the 1950s, it would star Mamie Van…
We once dated a guy who told us his favorite movie was Disney’s Alice in Wonderland. We thought that was cute, admiring how sensitive and vulnerable he seemed because of this, and it made us very happy. That is until, of course, he spouted that obligatory phrase used by all…
Thursday, August 7 Comedian Daniel Tosh has accomplished many of the same things as others in his craft: Comedy Central specials, late-night TV show appearances, tours of college campuses and comedy clubs and competing on Funny Money on the Game Show Network. But he has done something few others have.Tosh…
We are adamant in our loathing of washed-up celebs supplementing their poorly invested past earnings with new-fangled careers or self-deprecating ventures. Take, for instance, “celebrity” one-on-ones like Willis vs. Vanilla Ice or Vince Neill’s stint on The Surreal Life. We don’t really care who’d win in a fight, nor do…
8/9 Listen up, freebie addicts. The Viva Dallas! Hispanic Expo is this weekend, and it has great potential to be a pack rat and knickknack-junky heaven. A variety of more than 250 local employers, health professionals, university representatives and other education-related organizations, not to mention tons of vendors vying for…
8/9 What’s a hard-core local sports fan to do at a dire time like this? The Hatcher-less Stars are still “on ice.” (I kill me.) For a while, Cowboys training camp is about as exciting as training camp can realistically get, the Rangers are the Rangers and Dirk Nowitski has…
