15 Apr 2012

Biting (Off) the Hand That Feeds You: "The Cabin in the Woods," "The Three Stooges," "The Raid: Redemption," and "Lockout"

By Mike Schulz

Fran Kranz, Chris Hemsworth, and Anna Hutchison in The Cabin in the WoodsTHE CABIN IN THE WOODS

Hollywood's been leading toward it for decades, and with the blithely enjoyable, exceedingly clever The Cabin in the Woods, it's finally happened: A movie has been released in which practically everything about it - its plot, its twists, its performers, its characters, its themes, its jokes - could be considered a spoiler.

10 Apr 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, April 12, through Wednesday, April 25

By Mike Schulz

Big Bill MorganfieldMusic

Big Bill Morganfield

The Muddy Waters

Friday, April 20, 9 p.m.

 

Legendary blues musician McKinley Morganfield, better known by his nickname Muddy Waters, was born on April 4, 1913. Some 99 years and two weeks after his birth, the late great's son Big Bill Morganfield will not only headline a local blues concert on April 20, but a concert taking place at the Bettendorf venue called The Muddy Waters. Man, that's some kind of birthday acknowledgment. For my dad's last birthday, I got him socks.

08 Apr 2012

Up for a Slice: "American Reunion"

By Mike Schulz

Eugene Levy and Jason Biggs in American ReunionAMERICAN REUNION

You know that feeling you get when you receive a Facebook friend request from someone you went to high school with, and you don't quite recognize the name, and a smile slowly forms as you think, "Oh, ye-e-eah ... that guy!" That, in a nutshell, was my reaction to American Reunion, the third big-screen sequel to the beloved coming-of-age slapstick American Pie, and easily the most endearing of the lot. It took me a while to succumb to the movie's charms, but in the end I not only liked it; I would've happily "liked" it.

05 Apr 2012

Fairly Stale Fairy Tale: "Mirror Mirror," "Jeff, Who Lives at Home," and "Wrath of the Titans"

By Mike Schulz

Julia Roberts and Lilly Collins in Mirror MirrorMIRROR MIRROR

Mirror Mirror is a slightly modernized, family-comedy version of the Snow White fairy tale, and offhand, I can think of few directors less suited to the material than this film's Tarsem Singh, the music-video veteran whose big-screen credits include those wildly baroque (and decidedly adult) spectacles The Cell and Immortals. Yet every once in a while, when a director is spectacularly wrong for a project, the results can be much more interesting than if he were right for it, and that certainly seems the case here; this aimless, pointless little trifle is mostly a drag, but I can only imagine how deadening it might've been without Singh at the helm.

28 Mar 2012

To Bee or Not to Bee? Definitely Bee: "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee," at the Prospect Park Auditorium through April 1

By Mike Schulz

Tyler Finley, Christine Goodall, Troy Stark, and Dan Pepper in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeI attended Quad City Music Guild's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on Monday, and before proceeding, it's important to stress that the performance I saw was actually a dress rehearsal that took place three nights before the show's official opening.

It's only important to stress this, however, as a means of suggesting just how sensational this charming, wonderfully well-sung, awfully funny production will be by the time paying customers see it.

27 Mar 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, March 29, through Wednesday, April 11

By Mike Schulz

Local HMusic

Local H

Rock Island Brewing Company

Friday, April 6, 9p.m.

 

Before embarking on an East Coast tour that takes the duo to New York, Massachusetts, and Delaware, the alternative rockers of Local H will, on April 6, play a concert at the Rock Island Brewing Company.

Rock Island? Hey, that's where I live! "Rock Island! Woo-hoo! Ye-e-e-e-ea-a-ah-h!!!"

Sorry. Just thought it'd be fun to act like one of those concertgoers who does that sort of thing.

25 Mar 2012

Assassin Nation: "The Hunger Games"

By Mike Schulz

Elizabeth Banks and Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger GamesAs you're probably aware, director Gary Ross' The Hunger Games is the movie version of the first in a trio of wildly popular young-adult novels by author Suzanne Collins. And perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the film, among the many compliments it deserves, is that unlike with the Harry Potter and Twilight screen adaptations, at no point are viewers such as myself punished for being too blasé or lazy to have read the book.

20 Mar 2012

Getting High School: "21 Jump Street" and "Casa de Mi Padre"

By Mike Schulz

Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street21 JUMP STREET

As an undercover police officer who, in 21 Jump Street, can say to his platonic partner "I cherish you, man" in a way that's both hysterical and intensely touching, Jonah Hill possesses a rare gift for completely unembarrassed sincerity. By now, it should go without saying that Hill is a sensational verbal comedian and a fearless physical one. But as in his bro-mantic scenes opposite Michael Cera in Superbad, the actor brings to this action comedy something few others would think to: absolute honesty and emotional transparency. Hill is funny as hell here, but his character is never a joke.

13 Mar 2012

What's Happenin': Thursday, March 15, through Wednesday, March 28

By Mike Schulz

Jessica Denney and Pat Flaherty rehearse Mr. MarmaladeTheatre

Mr. Marmalade

Village Theatre

Thursday, March 22, through Sunday, April 1

 

Mr. Marmalade, which Davenport's New Ground Theatre will stage from March 22 through April 1, is a comedy about a four-year-old girl named Lucy and her imaginary playmate of the show's title. A businessman with bipolar disorder, a porn addiction, and a considerable cocaine problem, Mr. Marmalade tends to ignore Lucy as much as her one-night-stand-seeking single mother does, frequently leaving Lucy alone to contend with her suicidal five-year-old friend and ... .

A-a-a-and I've just lost at least half of you, haven't I?

11 Mar 2012

One-Shot Wonder: "Silent House," "John Carter," and "A Thousand Words"

By Mike Schulz

Elizabeth Olsen in Silent HouseSILENT HOUSE

It's entirely possible that you'll need to have seen an awful lot of horror movies - particularly an awful lot of awful horror movies - to be jazzed by Silent House, considering that it's basically just 90 minutes of a young woman being terrorized by barely glimpsed figures and startling noises in her family's lakeside summer home. (Contrary to the title, this house is anything but silent.) Yet if you can get past the paper-thin storyline and a climax that's less "Aa-a-a!!!" than "Hu-u-uh?!?", the movie proves to be a terrifically nerve-racking and utterly fascinating scare flick, because from first shot to last, the action not only takes place in real time, but seems to have been filmed in one continuous take.

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