The Movie:
Che Guevara was a revolutionary Marxist leader, who became praised and reviled around the world. He was listed as one of the hundred most influential people in Time magazine and to this day is seen as a symbol of standing up for an ideal and a philosophy. Che is a practically unwatchable half-baked attempt at bringing the man's life to the screen. Written and directed by Josh Evans, the son of famed producer Robert Evans, Che proves that sometimes talent skips a generation.

Eduardo Noriega, normally a fine actor, as seen from his work in Abre Los Ojos and The Devil's Backbone, plays the title character. In this film, Che talks. And talks. And talks. And talks. And never shuts up. The entire film is essentially a series of dialogues between Che and a rotating series of faceless characters. Some of these faceless characters are as historica...Read the entire review

The Movies:
Sylvester Stallone's career has seen a sharp upswing since the one-two punch of Rocky Balboa and Rambo. The latter in particular had fans chomping at the bit, as it heralded the return of the hard "R" action film, reminding everyone just how much fun there you could have while indulging in gratuitous, senseless violence. And more than that, it was just nice to see the beloved character return to the big screen for one last romp that satisfyingly wrapped up the loose ends of the character. Rambo put its predecessors in perspective, proving that one can stage gory action sequences without sacrificing character development and plot. It also tied back in to First Blood, a picture that that has only gotten better with age. To coincide with the release of Rambo on home video, Lionsgate has released the first three Rambo films on Blu-ray.

Read the entire review

The Movie:
Blade Runner is perhaps the most tinkered with film in history. Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, the movie has gone through a 25 year refining process in a story that could only happen in Hollywood. Ridley Scott had a grand vision for the picture, which was his follow-up to the blockbuster Alien. The plot centered around Replicants, bio-mechanoid creations that mimic real humans in almost every way, except for a crippling lack of empathy. Harrison Ford played Rick Deckard, a cop who hunted Replicants, designated a Blade Runner. Almost from the start, troubles plagued the production, as the script went through several drastic rewrites, the budget kept escalating, and a well publicized feud between Ridl...Read the entire review

The Movie:
What would you do for a chance to double your life span? If you could be thirty for decades, would you do it? What if you didn't ask for such a gift, but were given one anyway? And perhaps it's not just eternal youth, but an ever-expanding intellect, unrivaled by any other mind on this earth? What would something like that be worth? Would you kill for the opportunity? And if not you, what about those around you? How safe could you be if the assorted world governments decided that your secret was worth having, no matter what the cost to them--or to you?

Such is the fate of Dominic (Tim Roth), an intellectual nearing the end of his life in pre-World War II Poland. A victim of a lightning strike, Dominic suddenly finds that he is a young man again. Not only that, but he's smarter than he was before, and learning more all the time. The blessings come at a price--Dominic now fi...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Terry Gilliam was once the odd man out in the Monty Python comedy troupe. Working mostly on bizarrely hilarious animations that acted as bridges between skits, Gilliam would occasionally act on screen; but he certainly wasn't as instantly recognizable as Cleese, Idle, Chapman, Jones, or Palin. However, when the group split, it was Gilliam who rose to the highest level of prominence. Sure, the other members all had their levels of success, and none went wanting. But Gilliam went from animator to film visionary, crafting some of the most visually stimulating films of the last thirty years. Works like Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas are both visual marvels and great stories. It hasn't all been rosy, though. Gilliam had a well documented feud with Universal over the release of Brazil, and has seen several p...Read the entire review

The Ballet:
As a sophomore in high school, I was given the opportunity to play Oberon in my school's fall production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Being an inexperienced actor, to be chosen for any part would have been good enough, but to get such an interesting and commanding role left an impression. The director saw something in me that I didn't know was there, and I've never gotten over the acting bug that he instilled in me. I remember sitting backstage before a performance, and listening to the audience shuffle in through the speakers placed in the dressing room. Over the sound of idle chit chat and shuffling feet I heard lovely, one might even say enchanting, music. Curious, I approached the director, who was preoccupied with many more important matters, and asked what the musical selection was. He responded, distractedly, that it was the Midsummer Night's Dream sui...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Recently, thanks to the release of Rambo, people have expressed a newfound appreciation for the bloodthirsty gore of the relentless action flicks of the 80's. Whether or not that means a resurrection for the genre in Hollywood remains to be seen, but it certainly provides for a good opportunity for the studios to re-release such material on DVD and now Blu-ray disc. Fox jumped in with a pair of Schwarzenegger titles, the classic Predator and the less memorable Commando.

Arnold stars as a retired special forces commando named John Matrix. His former colleagues are being brutally and mysteriously murdered by a group of hitmen. John, living peacefully in the mountains with his daughter Jenny (a very young Alyssa Milano), is warned abo...Read the entire review

The Movie:

When you think about rock music's origins, there's one word that is utterly inescapable: Cox. While many look to Elvis Presley, Little Richard, or Chuck Berry as rock's progenitors, their contributions are overshadowed by the work of Dewey Cox. A pioneer in popular music from the 1950's to the 1970's, Cox changed the way we thought about music, about our world, and about our lives. Whether he was protecting the rights of midgets in America, or hopped out of his mind on PCP, Cox always did what he felt, and he always walked hard.

What's that? You're saying you've never heard of Dewey Cox, musical innovator? You're well versed in popular culture and you swear you've never come across such masterpieces as "Guilty As Charged" or "Hole In My Pants?" OK, you...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The concept behind Ridley Scott's Alien was that it was a B-movie treated like an A-list contender. With an attention to detail and distinct visual style, combined with an airtight script and an unforgettable collection of characters, Alien accomplished its goal and set a new benchmark for horror. Predator, on the other hand, was a balls to the wall action flick, and the two films in that series were done with such panache and glee that they quickly became a genre favorite. When the two franchises were combined in a comic book by Dark Horse, fans rejoiced in the inspired match-up of iconic movie monsters. However, after the debut of the comic book in 1990, the Alien series suffered from a pair of subpar entries (while I don't ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
M. Night Shyamalan used to be such a promising filmmaker. His breakthrough picture, The Sixth Sense, was a word of mouth sensation. A Hitchockian horror shocker with a whammy of an ending, the film was a massive success, and made Shyamalan's oft-mocked name a household word. His next release, another pairing with Bruce Willis entitled Unbreakable, was highly marketed, but did less than expected at the box office and received mixed critical reception. However, in the wake of Shyamalan's subsequent releases, Signs, The Village, and Lady In The Water, we can now look back at Unbreakable as the last time Shyamalan bothered to make a film with actual character and a story that wasn't made entirely to support a ridiculous twist ending. If only he could have continued in such a strong vein instead of descending into self-parody.

Bruce Wil...Read the entire review

The Concert:
I love Yes. I have all of their albums, even the ones the band would rather forget (here's looking at you, Talk). I saw them live in 1999, in support of their album The Ladder, and enjoyed it immensely. So I was excited to pop in this 2003 performance from the Montreux Jazz Festival, which featured the classic lineup of the band: Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, and Alan White. Sadly, it seems that in the intervening four years, the band's energy level has waned considerably.

The group performs a combination of new material and old, but the wild energy of their youth are long gone. From the opening guitar of "Siberian Khatru," you can tell the band is playing more slowly, although perhaps with more precision. But the sound is of a band playing without enthusiasm. Perfunctory is a good word to describe their level of commitment.

The ba...Read the entire review

The Concert:
Get ten people. Ask each of them to come up with a list of the most massive and memorable guitar riffs ever recorded. I'll bet that none of them come back without Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water" somewhere on the list, and most likely in one of the top spots. The song is a classic rock staple, and will keep Deep Purple in the cultural memory as long as it gets played.

Now, you may notice that the first line of the song mentions a place called Montreux. This happens to be the very same Montreux that holds a jazz festival every year, and Deep Purple has played there several times. Deep Purple: Live In Montreux 2006 is a record of their most recent performance there.

Be warned, this isn't your mother's Deep Purple. Gone are the two men most responsible for the band's sound: Jon Lord and Ritchie Blackmore. Blackmore had left the band before (most famously to creat...Read the entire review

The Concert:
Gustav Mahler was one of the last "classical" composers. Of course, the term classical is in quotation marks because as any music scholar knows, classical music is a term for music composed between 1730-1820. But Mahler, being a late-era Romantic composer, is more associated with the classical tradition than the modern symphonic trends, especially with his firm grounding in tonality. He's best known for his nine symphonic works (an unfinished tenth has been recorded and others have even tried to finish it), and the second, dubbed "Resurrection," was the most popular during his lifetime, and still maintains a high degree of favor among audiences and musicians alike.

Mahler's second symphony (the title "Resurrection" is often used, but is not actually listed on the sheet music) is a treatise on life, morality, and meaning. Its first movement represents a funeral. It's viol...Read the entire review

The Movie:

I guarantee you the closest shave you'll ever know."
-Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp)

In 1979, acclaimed composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim premiered his newest work, entitled Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The musical was complex, dark, and closer to opera than your classic Broadway musical. The show required a lot of the audience, and initial reactions were less than positive. And yet, the production has grown in esteem and popularity. Director Tim Burton enjoyed the piece from its original debut, to the point where it became his favorite musical. As he put in the liner notes to the soundtrack CD for the film, he felt the character of Sweeney Todd was on the level of a classic Universal monster. And given the success...Read the entire review

The Movie:
What would you do to give your child a better life? We give them shots and vaccinations, make sure they eat right, get exercise and education, but what if you could go further? What if you discovered your child had a debilitating genetic disease? If you could get rid of that before the child is even born, wouldn't you do it? And while you were at it, wouldn't you do a little tweaking to make the child hardier, more attractive, and longer lived? At what point does genetic manipulation go from helpful to harmful? And in a world where the genetically enhanced are the norm, what happens to those born without such assistance? It's these questions that Gattaca asks, and the result is a fascinating tale of human triumph.

Ethan Hawke stars as Vincent Freeman, a child born in a future where genetic enhancements are the norm. Out of idealistic notions of love, his parents cho...Read the entire review

The Movie:
If you didn't know anything about The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (and, let's be honest, most people haven't), you might be drawn in by its title. A western about the life and death of famed outlaw Jesse James would certainly be intriguing to audiences. And when they find out that world class A-list star Brad Pitt is playing the titular James, and up-and-comer Casey Affleck, fresh off of his career defining performance in Gone Baby Gone, is playing his killer, certainly they would take a second look. And when they heard that the supporting cast featured such talents as Mary Louise Parker, Zooey Deschanel, and Sam Rockwell, it would virtually guarantee seats in theaters. So why was the film virtually buried by Warner Bros?

Writer/Director Andrew Dominik (Chopper) did not make a rollicking western yarn, as the above elements mi...Read the entire review

The Movie:
I don't remember how I first heard about Run Lola Run. It seemed like talk of the film was simply in the air around the time of its release. Tom Tykwer's stylistically stunning tale of love and crime took the U.S. by storm in 1999 (the film was released in 1998 in Germany, but didn't reach our shores till the next year), a watershed year for film (the same year as American Beauty, Fight Club, and Eyes Wide Shut, among many other excellent works). The premise was intriguing. The style was dynamic. It felt fresh, new, and interesting. I haven't seen the movie since that time (almost ten years now!), so I was excited to revisit it on Blu-ray disc.

Lola (Franka Potente of Bourne Identity fame in a breakout performance) gets a call from Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu), her lover. Manni works as a courier for a drug lord, but his last drop went wrong....Read the entire review

The Show:
Like many people my age, my first exposure to Sam & Max: Freelance Police was through Lucasarts. Back when the game manufacturer did more than just release endless Star Wars titles, they were a leader in the realm of point and click adventure games. One of their best was a game based around the irreverent and implausible adventures of Sam, a crime-fighting and his psychotic rabbity-thing, Max. At the time, Lucasarts had their own magazine. While it was nothing but a monthly advertisement for their own products, it did contain two-page Sam and Max comic strips, and a little extrapolation from there would lead an industrious young boy to discover the original comics, written and drawn by Steve Purcell.

At some point, in this glut of video games and comic books, Sam and Max were somehow greenlit to star in their very own TV series. The result, Sam and Max: Freela...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Jean Luc Godard is an undisputed master of cinema. His innate understanding of form and content rocketed him to the top of the world film scene when his first movie, Breathless, debuted in 1960. For the next five years, Godard's craft grew exponentially, as he deconstructed genre after genre. Many of these films featured his wife at the time, Anna Karina. But by 1966, despite numerous international accolades and a catalogue of work that would make almost any other filmmaker green with professional jealousy, Godard had lost his way. He intended to adapt the American novel Obsession, which would take him back to the subject of a pair of star crossed, crime-bound lovers that he first examined in Breathless. However, Godard was no longer...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Love him or hate him, Wes Anderson has made his mark on the movies. What started as indie quirk with Bottle Rocket blossomed into a mature and cinematic vision with The Royal Tenenbaums. Since the release of that film, Anderson has perfected his style, to the point where his methods have become identifiable as distinctly Anderson's. Flicks like Napoleon Dynamite are recognizable as (much lesser) imitations of Anderson's technique, but there's nothing like the original. Still, as stylistically sumptuous as The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou was, many people found it to be emotionally disconnected. While I don't share that view, it seems the criticisms made an impact on Anderson, as his latest film, The Darjeeling Limited...Read the entire review

The Movie:

The Coen Brothers have practiced their particular brand of cinematic mayhem for over twenty years. They've jumped genres multiple times, from the crime yarns of Miller's Crossing and Fargo to the absurdism of Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. Each of their works is unique unto itself, creating their own worlds with a cohesive internal sense of logic. But for all of that, practically every Coen film works as part of a larger whole: the sum of the pair's obsessions. However, with the lackluster one-two punch of the aptly titled Intolerable Cruelty and the "good, not great" The Ladykillers, it seemed as if perhaps the Coens were losing their touch. While neither were badly made (although Intolerable Cruelty s...Read the entire review