What Vogue editor Diana Vreeland was to fashion in the mid-20th century, Dorothy Draper was to interior design: an advocate of rich color, sumptuous fabrics and a touch of eccentricity. Born to wealth, former debutante Draper created a signature style that usually included black-and-white checkerboard floors, baroque mirrors, brightly painted…
“T.I.A.,” mutters Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), slouched across a bar in Sierra Leone. It is 1999. As the West obsesses over Clinton’s blowjob, the West African nation is mired in a savage civil war. Our hero, a world-weary soldier of fortune, has struck up a conversation with Maddy Bowen (Jennifer…
About Will Smith’s estimable talents, there is no doubt. Six Degrees of Separation, Ali…um…the “Parents Just Don’t Understand” video—the man’s got skills to pay the bills, yours and mine and his. That he seldom uses them, or their attendant clout, is dispiriting. This is an actor coming off a streak…
Holy, holy, moly. Go to WaterTower Theatre, if you dare, to witness the “world premiere” of Happy Holi-divas!, a craptacular sleigh ride of Christmas-themed claptrap that will jingle-jangle you into a headache that goes pah-rum-pah-pum-pum on the top of your skull. In one two-hour musical revue, collaborating writers James Paul…
Talladega Nights (Columbia) This cut of Will Ferrell’s NASCAR comedy runs 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and that doesn’t take into account the deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, phony commercials, public-service announcements, and gag reel. A movie that already seemed to be constructed from deleted scenes is well…
Nintendo has achieved the impossible: My 50-year-old, non-gaming father wants a Wii for Christmas. Either I’ve been whisked to Bizarro World, or The House That Mario Built is on to something big. With the release of its oddly monikered next-gen system, Nintendo may just have revolutionized the way America will…
AFI: I Heard a Voice (Interscope) Air Buddies (Disney) Ali Rap (ESPN) The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount) Barnyard (Paramount) The Chronicles of Narnia: Four-Disc Extended Edition (Disney) A Dead Calling (Lions Gate) The Doors (Lions Gate) James Bond: Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 and 4 (MGM) John Wayne…
I’m pissed off at comedian Robert Hawkins. See, his MySpace profile has some crap-ass jokes on it (for example, under favorite television he posts: CSI: Your Granny and Little House on Your Pappy…it’s that kind of thing, many, many times). So I wanted to just blast him not only for…
When you leave the theater after seeing a good movie, you might say, “Wow! That was great.” When you leave the theater after a bad movie, you probably say something like, “There’s no way those traveling pants fit all of those girls,” or “I just think Vin Diesel brought more…
Of all the movies about a carpenter from another world being shown around the holidays, The Day the Earth Stood Still is perhaps the most relevant to our current global political climate. OK, so it’s not about an actual carpenter, but someone who adopts the name Carpenter. The 1951 film…
Before the fuss over Harry Potter corrupting children to pagan ways, much was made of The Chronicles of Narnia being a Christian allegory. Who would have thought? Kids sure don’t; they are above such analysis and petty trifling. At its core Narnia is a simply a collection of fantastic images…
Christmas has never been the idyllic, idealized time of year that we all pretend it is, and no movie ever captured the season’s special blend of stress, therapy fodder and, yes, love, more than National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You all know the story, penned by John Hughes, of Chevy Chase’s…
I’m too old to understand the phenomenon of Disney’s High School Musical, about two teens who meet at karaoke, discover mutual interests and, coincidentally, attend the same school. The only way I knew about it was through the weekly Target circulars in which the soundtrack was consistently on sale. This…
While scads of famous chiseled cheekbones grin from the weight loss section of your local bookstore, there’s one super-celebrity who refuses to endorse the latest “no carbs, no fat, no taste” fad. Despite past pleas from Dr. Atkins, Dr. Ornish and even Suzanne Somers, Santa has maintained his morbidly obese…
One of my first Dallas Observer stories was on an “apparition” of the Virgin Mary that appeared in the bark of a tree in Oak Cliff. Turns out the miracle was the creation of two little girls, but whatever, crowds flocked. Eventually, the family sold the tree to GoldenPalace.com, which…
We’re pretty proud of our comic book collection. It’s modest but well-organized. But the Spinnaker Collection of 17th-century Chinese snuff bottles makes our enthusiasm for obsessive gathering seem comparatively reserved. The bragging rights that came with our near-mint, first-print edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #3 don’t seem as impressive…
I never really understood the whole solstice thing; I only knew I needed to add it to my holiday greetings along with Kwanzaa and Hanukkah. Otherwise, I would be deemed politically incorrect. By whom, I have yet to figure out. If I’m not mistaken, the solstice itself has something to…
Think of how easy it would be to wrap holiday gifts if they could all fit in 9-by-12-inch envelopes. Go ahead. I’ll wait. While you’re at it, take a look at the hundreds of works of art by more than 200 artists from all over the country, Canada, Australia and…
The holidays are great, but if Santa Claus or the Ghost of Christmas Past showed up in my house, I would freak the *%&# out. Judging by the number of charming holiday tales in which people are visited in the night by strange entities, this is a fairly common occurrence…
Some things are meant to make a comeback, while others I’m not too sure about. If they brought back Fruit Wrinkles and Popples, I’d be all about it, but I think Scooby-Doo and the Magic Mystery gang have exceeded their 15 minutes of fame by a few decades now. The…
What does Dweezil Zappa have to prove? He’s already made a name for himself despite the daunting shadow of his father’s legacy. Before he was old enough to vote, Dweezil was an established guitar virtuoso, blossoming briefly into an adorable MTV personality in the late ’80s and appearing more recently…
Ah, those long, lost days of pyromania. Remember when setting stuff on fire was, like, pretty funny and stuff? Nothing was safe in junior high—paper plates, hairspray, small woodland creatures. But now you’re a grown-up, and there are no more various small fires for you. Unless you go to the…
