29 Mar 2009

Me and You and a Blob of Blue: "Monsters Vs. Aliens" and "The Haunting in Connecticut"

By Mike Schulz

Monsters vs. Aliens' monsters

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS

After a quick, manic prelude that effectively sets the tone for this quick, manic movie, Dreamworks' animated Monsters Vs. Aliens offers what is doubtless the most promising opening credit of the year, wrapping up its recognition of voice-over actors with: " ... and Stephen Colbert as the President." All right!, you think. Success at last!

23 Mar 2009

Love Is a Man and Splintered Thing: "Duplicity" and "I Love You, Man"

By Mike Schulz

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in Duplicity

DUPLICITY

Starting with the film's enticing prelude, which finds Julia Roberts and Clive Owen engaging in the first of several argumentative flirtations in exotic locales, I felt that Duplicity was an intensely sharp, clever, enjoyable movie. It wasn't until its very last shot, though, that I felt it was also a great one.

23 Mar 2009

Apocalypse Nigh: "Knowing," "Waltz with Bashir," and "Brain Dead"

By Mike Schulz

Nicolas Cage and Rose Byrne in Knowing

KNOWING

Knowing, director Alex Proyas' new portents-of-doom thriller starring Nicolas Cage, has an intriguing premise and some enjoyably nightmarish effects. Yet it's still such a shallow and deeply silly piece of work that, even though the movie explores numerology, determinism, and the eternal mysteries of the universe, somehow you just know it's all going to climax with Cage pointing a gun at someone and screaming, "I want my son! Now!!!" The film isn't really a disappointment - lord knows its previews made Knowing look much worse than it is - but its disconcerting blend of high drama and low camp tends to get you giggling at the exact moments you should be taking it the most seriously.

18 Mar 2009

A River Runs Through Us: Water-Themed Movies on Tap for the Environmental Film Festival

By Mike Schulz

image from Grand Canyon Adventure"I think in this country, and particularly for those of us living on a huge river, we take water completely for granted," says Kathryn Allen, chief organizer for the Quad Cities' annual Environmental Film Festival. "We turn on the tap, and it's always there, and it's always drinkable. We don't think about it."

Yet when it came time to schedule features for this year's festival, Allen states that she and fellow event planners were hard-pressed to not think about it.

17 Mar 2009

What's Happenin': March 18 - 31

By Mike Schulz

Ralph Iaccarino - Road to ZionExhibit

The 33rd Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition

Augustana College Art Museum

Saturday, March 28, through Sunday, April 26

 

The 51 artworks included in the 33rd Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition showcase the combined talents of 43 regional artists, 18 of whom reside in the Quad Cities: Leslie Bell, Emily Christenson, Trish DeHeer, William Hannan, Mimzi Haut, Raphael Iaccarino, Katie Kiley, Kelly McGee, Tim Miller, Erik Ohrn, George Olson, Kristin Quinn, Jerry Sergeant, Devandra Shrikhande, Steve Sinner, Dave Sorensen, Douglass Wilming, and Dawn Wohlford-Metallo.

16 Mar 2009

The Family That Slays Together... : "The Last House on the Left," "Miss March," and "Race to Witch Mountain"

By Mike Schulz

Martha MacIsaac in The Last House on the Left

THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT

Seven weeks into its release, the ludicrous, laughable Taken is still in the top five at the box office, and it wasn't until seeing The Last House on the Left that I had a theory as to why: One should never underestimate the cinematic appeal of watching Daddy beat the crap out of his kid's assailants. It's doubtful that director Dennis Iliadis' remake of Wes Craven's grimy 1972 horror show will attract Taken-size crowds, but it, too, frames its nightmare around a brutalized teenage girl whose survival depends on the ass-kicking resourcefulness of her vengeful father (with her mother lending a hand, and a knife, for good measure). The difference between the movies, though, is that The Last House on the Left is actually a pretty good one.

16 Mar 2009

This Boy's Life: "Thom Pain (based on nothing)," at the Harrison Hilltop Theatre through March 21

By Mike Schulz

James Bleecker II in Thom Pain (based on nothing)The Harrison Hilltop Theatre's latest offering is the 65-minute solo presentation Thom Pain (based on nothing). Yet its title seems more than a little inaccurate, because by the time this rather astounding monologue reaches its climax, it seems to have been based on everything: truths and fabrications and suppositions and dreams, and on the audience's expectations and perceptions not only of theatre, but of life itself.

16 Mar 2009

Affair Play: "Murder at the Howard Johnson's," at the Playcrafters Barn Theatre through March 22

By Mike Schulz

Monta Ponsetto, Gary Koos, and Jeff Adamson in Murder at the Howard Johnson'sFew things are tougher, or more pointless, to explain than the reasoning behind why a joke is funny. I think I've got a topper, though: The reasoning for why a joke isn't funny - at least to you - even though a hundred-plus people are roaring at it.

09 Mar 2009

Bard Optimal: "Much Ado About Nothing," at the Village Theatre through March 15

By Mike Schulz

Cait Bodenbender and Aaron E. Sullivan in Much Ado About NothingWith the current Much Ado About Nothing, I've now attended 10 presentations by the classical-theatre troupe the Prenzie Players, and perhaps fittingly, it's maybe the most sheerly Prenzie Prenzie production I've yet seen.

08 Mar 2009

Holding Out for a Hero: "Watchmen"

By Mike Schulz

Billy Crudup in Watchmen

WATCHMEN

In writer Alan Moore's and illustrator Dave Gibbons' graphic novel Watchmen, there's a sequence in which two of its costumed heroes, Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II, break a third - the masked paranoid Rorschach - out of prison. And near the end of the intensely violent rescue, Rorschach delays their escape with a quick trip to the men's room.

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