02 Jul 2015

He Be Back: "Terminator Genisys," "Magic Mike XXL," and "Me & Earl & the Dying Girl"

By Mike Schulz

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator GenisysTERMINATOR GENISYS

Following some requisite, necessary backstory, Terminator Genisys opens in 2029 Los Angeles, where resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) transports fellow revolutionary Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) to 1984, where he's to hopefully prevent global apocalypse and protect John's mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) from a murderous robot (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Upon arriving, however, Kyle finds that Sarah doesn't need saving and the robot isn't murderous, so off they go to 2017, where the planet is still imperiled, and John Connor himself proves to be the source of the planet's eventual ruin. After one of these whisks through the decades, Kyle says, "Time travel makes my head hurt," and time-travel movies generally make my head hurt, too. But for a fifth installment in an increasingly confounding series, this particular time-travel movie is actually a fair bit of fun.

28 Jun 2015

Fuzzy and Furry: "Ted 2" and "Max"

By Mike Schulz

Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane-ish in Ted 2TED 2

Every fan of Family Guy knows that when he wants to, Seth MacFarlane can be really offensive. (I am in no way a fan of Family Guy, and even I know that.) But the biggest problem with MacFarlane's Ted 2 - which is likely to at least occasionally infuriate anyone who isn't a white, straight alpha-bro - isn't that it's offensive; it's that it's too often sincere. This is a movie in which Morgan Freeman, as a benevolent civil-rights attorney, invokes the 16th Amendment and the Emancipation Proclamation when arguing for the rights of a talking teddy bear, with the scene's moved onlookers and swelling score matching him in earnestness and integrity. My audience, meanwhile, watched and listened to Freeman's impassioned oration in what felt like stunned silence. Can MacFarlane possibly be serious about this - that his foul-mouthed teddy's rights are equal to those of hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised human beings? And if he's not serious, why isn't this scene in any way funny?

23 Jun 2015

What's Happenin': Thursday, June 25, through Wednesday, July 8

By Mike Schulz

The Stooges Brass BandMusic

"A Taste of New Orleans" featuring the Stooges Brass Band

RME Courtyard

Wednesday, July 8

 

On July 8, Davenport's River Music Experience presents a mid-week happening titled "A Taste of New Orleans," featuring an informative workshop on the city's rich musical history and the Woodfire Grill selling delicious Cajun appetizers and entrées. But the event's spiciest treat will likely be its RME Courtyard performance by the jazz, hip-hop, funk, and R&B artists of the Stooges Brass Band, and I gotta say, ga lee! I'm getting major freesons knowing they'll be bag daer! Weh!

Yeah, I'm pretty fluent in the Cajun dialect. You'd never guess I was actually of German and Danish descent, would you? [Editor's note: We guessed, Mike.]

22 Jun 2015

Varied Treasure: "How I Became a Pirate," at the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse through July 11

By Mike Schulz

Cody King, Antoinette Holman, Chris Galvan, Janos Horvath, Brad Hauskins, Deanna Collins, and Ben Klocke in How I Became a PirateHow long does it take for an area production to become legendary? In the case of the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's How I Became a Pirate, I'd say about one week, because after the show's debut staging in 2013, that's how long it took four adult patrons, individually, to tell me it was maybe the best family musical they'd ever seen.

20 Jun 2015

Emotion Picture: "Inside Out"

By Mike Schulz

Inside OutINSIDE OUT

There appear to be two ideal ways to discuss, in review form, Pixar's hugely entertaining animated comedy Inside Out. One is through something short and sweet that suggests the experience of director Pete Docter's hilarious, incredibly sophisticated charmer without giving away all of its best jokes and most trenchant observations. The other is through a dissertation of some 20,000 words that digs deeply into the rather staggering psychological nuance of this thing, with lengthy footnotes exploring, say, The Role of Abstract Thought in the Prepubescent Female Psyche, or The Singular Comedic Melancholia of Phyllis from The Office. I'm opting for short(-ish) and sweet. And you're welcome.

20 Jun 2015

Life's a Beach, Then You Get Meds: "Love & Mercy" and "Dope"

By Mike Schulz

Paul Dano in Love & MercyLOVE & MERCY

Receiving a wide national release on the same weekend as Inside Out's debut, director Bill Pohlad's Love & Mercy is also an exploration of the brain - specifically, the brain of Beach Boys wunderkind Brian Wilson, alternately portrayed by Paul Dano (during the film's Pet Sounds-era 1960s sequences) and John Cusack (during Wilson's heavily-, and incorrectly-, medicated period in the late 1980s). And rather astonishingly for a work of its type, it boasts numerous scenes in which it really, truly feels like we're allowed to roam around in a legendary musician's head, feeling what he feels and, even more importantly, hearing what he hears.

15 Jun 2015

Just for the Mel of It: "Young Frankenstein," at the Prospect Park Auditorium through June 21

By Mike Schulz

Nate Karstens, Abbey Donohoe, and Ian Sodawasser in Young FrankensteinOn at least three occasions during Thursday's preview performance, Quad City Music Guild's Young Frankenstein achieved a transcendent silliness - the kind you get with stunning regularity in Mel Brooks' film-spoof inspiration. If you include everything said and done by Nate Karstens' hunchback Igor, it was more like 203 occasions, but in the spirit of this tasty musical confection, let's save the sweetest for dessert.

14 Jun 2015

Dino Might: "Jurassic World" and "D-Day: Normandy 1944"

By Mike Schulz

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard in Jurassic WorldJURASSIC WORLD

Hopefully it won't happen for many, many years. But when Steven Spielberg eventually passes away, will any of us be allowed to notice?

09 Jun 2015

What's Happenin': Thursday, June 11, through Wednesday, June 24

By Mike Schulz

MusicMarchfourth!

MarchFourth!

The Redstone Room

Thursday, June 18, 7:30 p.m.

 

According to Iowa City's Little Village magazine, "Some mad scientist somewhere took a bunch of marching-band geeks who died in a bus crash outside his castle, reassembled their bodies, laid them out on a platform, zapped it with a lightning bolt, and brought them back to life as a monster, all the while cackling as he admired his creation."

That's author Yale Cohn's description of the high-energy, genre-defying musical powerhouses of MarchFourth!, who'll be bringing their traveling party to Davenport's Redstone Room on June 18. But your confusion is understandable if you thought that opening paragraph was actually meant for the What's Happenin' below.

05 Jun 2015

CIA / ESP / WTF: "Spy," "Insidious: Chapter 3," and "Entourage"

By Mike Schulz

Melissa McCarthy, Jason Statham, and Jamie Denbo in SpySPY

Writer/director Paul Feig's Spy opens with an incredibly funny gross joke involving a sneeze, closes with an incredibly funny reveal involving a one-night stand, and somehow manages to stay incredibly funny - in addition to smart and clever and sweet - for most of the two hours in between. It's an action spoof about a gifted yet timidly self-conscious CIA desk jockey (Melissa McCarthy) who finally gets to release her inner Jane Bond, but the numerous vehicular chases and shoot-outs and danglings from helicopters are practically beside the point. Here, the comedy is the action.

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