04 Jan 2011

What's Happenin': Tuesday, January 4, through Wednesday, January 19

By Mike Schulz

Clay Cook Vs. Levi LowreyMusic

Clay Cook Vs. Levi Lowrey

The Redstone Room

Thursday, January 13, 8 p.m.

 

Now that the warm-hearted spirit of the holidays is over, we can finally get back to some good, old-fashioned, American brawling. With that, I present what is sure to be the acoustic grudge match of 2011: January 13's Clay Cook Vs. Levi Lowrey concert at the Redstone Room! Prepare for a nasty, no-holds-barred, folk-rock battle royale in this presentation by Dirty Water Events - hell, even the presenters' name is nasty!

03 Jan 2011

The Flicks Are All Right: Mike Schulz's 10 Most Enjoyable Movies of 2010

By Mike Schulz

Justin Timberlake and Jesse Eisenberg in The Social NetworkBefore commencing with the annual fawning, I thought I'd begin by exercising one of my God-given rights as a reviewer: the right to bitch about the sorry state of movies. I think it's supposed to go something like this:

Boy, are the movies in a sorry state!

03 Jan 2011

The Other Guys: 140 Movies Not on 2010's 10-Best List

By Mike Schulz

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg in The Other GuysRunners-Up to the 10 Favorites: Exit Through the Gift Shop, Fair Game, Get Him to the Greek, The Ghost Writer, I Am Love, Inception, The Other Guys, Restrepo, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, Waiting for "Superman."

Runners-Up to Those Runners-Up: Babies, Brooklyn's Finest, Despicable Me, Going the Distance, Hot Tub Time Machine, The Karate Kid, The King's Speech, Megamind, Please Give, The Town.

And Since it Was Such a Good Year ... : Cyrus, Easy A, For Colored Girls, Iron Man 2, It's Kind of a Funny Story, Ramona & Beezus, Salt, Tangled, Unstoppable, Youth in Revolt.

30 Dec 2010

My House, My Ruler: "The King's Speech," "Little Fockers," and "Gulliver's Travels"

By Mike Schulz

Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in The King's SpeechTHE KING'S SPEECH

A tony odd-couple comedy in the guise of a historical prestige pic, The King's Speech boasts a pair of exceptional performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, and is a terrific amount of fun. But am I alone in thinking that its central storyline is the least interesting thing about it?

23 Dec 2010

Hello. My Name Is Mattie Ross. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die.: "True Grit" and "Yogi Bear"

By Mike Schulz

Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld in True GritTRUE GRIT

Over the course of their careers, the films of Joel and Ethan Coen have, of course, inspired a wide variety of responses: amusement (and quite a lot of it), excitement, fascination, terror, confusion, astonishment, mortification. (Oh, the depressing spectacle of Intolerable Cruelty ... .) But while we audiences have laughed and gasped and occasionally scratched our heads, we haven't, prior to the Coen brothers' True Grit, been moved to tears by scenes of unbridled yet honestly earned sentiment. Guess we can now scratch that one off the list, too.

21 Dec 2010

What's Happenin' on New Year's Eve, 2010

By Mike Schulz

Family Groove Company @ The Redstone Room"Happy Holidays, Jeff!"

"Happy Holidays to you, Mike. So, what do you have planned for New Year's?"

"I was actually thinking about hopping around, checking out some music ... ."

"Uh huh."

"But I just put together our annual 'What's Happenin' on New Year's Eve' piece, and I'm starting to reconsider that idea."

"Too much hopping?"

"Yeah. Looks like I'd be hopping to more than 40 different places."

20 Dec 2010

Curtain Call: Mike Schulz and Thom White Discuss Area Theatre in 2010

By Mike Schulz

Joseph Obleton, Fred Harris, Jr., Renaud Haymon, Reggie Jarrell, and Shanna Cramer in the Playcrafters Barn Theatre's FencesAs we've come to annually expect, there was practically no end to the highlights from this past year in area theatre.

19 Dec 2010

En Pointe, on Edge: "Black Swan" and "The Fighter"

By Mike Schulz

Natalie Portman in Black SwanBLACK SWAN

In director Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, the first words we hear are uttered by professional ballet dancer Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman), who tells her mother, "I had the craziest dream last night." And for the next 105 minutes, the movie unfurls like a crazy dream itself - a crazy, fascinating, terrifying, exhilarating dream that you have no desire to wake from. You can label the film a psychological drama, or a hallucinogenic thriller, or an art-house horror flick, and each would be appropriate. But none of those tags really hints at how much delectable fun Black Swan is. As with a dream that you want to return to the moment you wake up, you want to experience the intoxicating, rapturous weirdness of Aronofsky's vision all over again the minute the end credits start to roll.

19 Dec 2010

Shallow Brooks: "How Do You Know" and "Tron: Legacy"

By Mike Schulz

Reese Witherspoon and Paul Rudd in How Do You KnowHOW DO YOU KNOW

There's actually quite a bit of good to be said about writer/director James L. Brooks' How Do You Know, not least of which is that it's nowhere near as unbearable as Brooks' last offering, 2004's Spanglish. Unfortunately, that's not the same as saying the movie itself is good.

12 Dec 2010

Lewis and Lark: "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and "The Tourist"

By Mike Schulz

Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes, and Georgie Henley in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn TreaderTHE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER

In the third cinematic installment of C.S. Lewis' Narnia series, the cumbersomely titled The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we're introduced to a character new to the franchise - a grouchy little snot named Eustace Scrubb. The pre-adolescent cousin to the young heroes of 2005's The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe and 2008's Prince Caspian, this kid, played by Will Poulter, is truly a piece of work - closed-minded, miserly, cowardly, and prone to explosively motor-mouthed bouts of hysteria. With his constantly knit brow and the voice of an aggrieved, middle-aged schoolmarm, Poulter's Eustace is about the most obnoxious, potentially alienating figure that you could ever imagine popping into this fantasy saga. He's also so side-splittingly funny that he almost singlehandedly makes Dawn Treader not just enjoyable, but easily the most surprising screen Narnia to date.

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