22 Aug 2010

Gone to Seed: "The Switch," "Eat Pray Love," and "Nanny McPhee Returns"

By Mike Schulz

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston in The SwitchTHE SWITCH

Since it's a romantic comedy starring Jennifer Aniston that actually doesn't suck, it's temping to overrate The Switch, which opens with Aniston's Kassie preparing to be artificially inseminated, and BFF Wally (Jason Bateman) - who secretly loves her - swapping her sperm donor's donation for one of his own.

22 Aug 2010

Jaws. Lots and Lots of Jaws: "Piranha 3D," "Clary Illian: A Year in the Life," and "From the Badlands to Alcatraz"

By Mike Schulz

Jerry O'Connell in Piranha 3DPIRANHA 3D

Alexandre Aja's Piranha 3D puts you in the unexpected position of actively rooting for the piranha, not because the effects are all that great (they're actually pretty awful), but because more flesh for the fish means fewer irritating humans to put up with.

17 Aug 2010

What's Happenin': Fall, 2010

By Mike Schulz

The River Is LifeMovie

The River Is Life

Veterans Memorial Park

Saturday, August 28, 8 p.m.

 

In describing his documentary adventure The River Is Life - in which two intrepid buddies kayak 2,300 miles down the Mississippi River - filmmaker Phillip Hullquist says that the movie follows him and fellow traveler Ryan Jeanes "from black bears in the north to gators in the south." He also says that his films "tend to be about things people would love to do, but are letting some reason, real or imaginary, hold them back."

For my part, black bears and gators are exactly the reasons I'd never kayak down the Mississippi, but Hullquist is clearly made of stronger stuff than I.

15 Aug 2010

Ex Men (and a Woman) United: "Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World" and "The Expendables"

By Mike Schulz

Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Scott Pilgrim Vs. the WorldSCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Is there any working film director who adores actors more than Edgar Wright? I ask this after recently viewing (for maybe the sixth time) the British helmer's action spoof Hot Fuzz and (for maybe the millionth) the untouchable zombie satire Shaun of the Dead, comedies with the rare distinction of being populated entirely with sharp, funny performers; even the walk-ons - or, in Shaun's case, the lurch- and stumble-ons - are charismatic. And after seeing the director's latest, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, I think a wholly reasonable case can be made for Wright being the best friend that anyone with a SAG card and a dream could ever hope for. You could fill 110 movies with the joyous onslaught of personality on display in this movie's 110 minutes.

12 Aug 2010

Travelin' Band: Creedence Clearwater Revisited, August 21 at River Roots Live

By Mike Schulz

Creedence Clearwater RevisitedThe idea, says former Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook, began simply enough.

"Back in the mid-'90s, I relocated from southern California up to Lake Tahoe in northern Nevada, and Doug [Clifford, Creedence's former percussionist] had been living there with his family for 15, 20 years. We hadn't lived in the same area for decades, and we started hanging out every day, and playing music, and just talking about how much fun it was, and how it felt to play together again.

"So we were bound to get into trouble," says Cook with a laugh. "And goodness, look what happened."

09 Aug 2010

Beat(en) Cops: "The Other Guys"

By Mike Schulz

Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell in The Other GuysTHE OTHER GUYS

I'm not going to pretend that I understood the crime plot in director Adam McKay's The Other Guys, which concerns Wall Street chicanery, bureaucratic red tape, a pension-fund swindle, and a suicide or a murder, though I'm hesitant to state exactly which. Seriously, when did goofy-ass Will Ferrell comedies get so complicated?

09 Aug 2010

Happy Feet / Glum Defeat: "Step Up 3D" and "Charlie St. Cloud"

By Mike Schulz

Step Up 3DSTEP UP 3D

From its opening, outdoor melee, in which we're assaulted by soap bubbles and multi-colored balloons, to its jaw-dropping dance-off finale, which suggests a mass seizure titled Attack of the TRON Clones, Step Up 3D is proudly, even profoundly, ridiculous.

04 Aug 2010

The Soul of "Wit": Lora Adams on the Curtainbox Theatre Company's Cancer Drama, and Her Own Struggles with the Disease

By Mike Schulz

Corinne Johnson in the Curtainbox Theatre Company's Wit(Author's note: I'm a proud ensemble member of the Curtainbox Theatre Company, and along with interviewee Lora Adams, am serving as co-associate producer on Wit.)

 

"When you hear that word - cancer - it's very surreal," says WQPT-TV Director of Marketing Lora Adams, regarding her 2008 diagnosis with the disease. "There's a moment when the reality of it not being a television show, or not happening to somebody else's family, has to sort of settle in. You have that moment of 'Holy crap.' And then once that happens, you move forward."

03 Aug 2010

What's Happenin': August 3 - August 18, 2010

By Mike Schulz

The Harrison Hilltop Theatre's poster for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeTheatre

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Harrison Hilltop Theatre

Thursday, August 12, through Saturday, August 28

Timber Lake Playhouse

Thursday, August 12, through Sunday, August 22

 

Yup, you read that correctly: Davenport's Harrison Hilltop Theatre and Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse will both open productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on August 12. And this is one of those times when stepping down from my theatre-reviewer tenure seems like the stupidest decision on Earth, because I can't think of many other musicals I'd be quite so excited to see in two separate venues over the same weekend.

01 Aug 2010

Guess-Who's Coming to Dinner: "The Kids Are All Right" and "Dinner for Schmucks"

By Mike Schulz

Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Josh Hutcherson, Mia Wasikowska, and Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All RightTHE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT

In general terms, explaining what director Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right is "about" is a pretty easy task: 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) - the children of a contented and devoted lesbian couple (Annette Bening's Nic and Julianne Moore's Jules) - arrange a first meeting with their shared sperm-donor father (Mark Ruffalo's Paul), and through several more meetings, watch as his casually disruptive presence gradually, irrevocably alters their family dynamic. Yet while this is an accurate, if simplified, plot synopsis, it doesn't come remotely close to explaining what this buoyant, original, altogether extraordinary dramatic comedy is actually about.

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