Reviewers’ grade: C A suspense-thriller does not need big plot twists to work its nail-biting magic; half the fun can be watching the inevitable unfold. Still, predictability isn’t much of a selling point, and chances are you’ll figure out the central mystery of “Fracture” long before its midway point. Anthony Hopkins does a variation […]
Arts & Culture
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One place where “separate but equal” lives on (for potty users, anyway)
Afghan nationals who work at NATO’s Kandahar Airfield must use their own “separate but equal” toilet facilities, according to a March dispatch in Toronto’s Globe & Mail. The American officer in charge of administrative contracts said the policy was based on hygiene, in that some locals customarily stand on toilet seats and then squat down, […]
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Re-Animator
Stuart Gordon’s 1985 cult smash “Re-Animator” has been released several times before on DVD, but I doubt it could get more definitive than this new two-disc set. Even after two decades, the film’s groundbreaking mix of horror and humor still plays outlandish. Jeffrey Combs triumphs — and typecasts himself —? as Dr. Herbert West, […]
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In the Land of Women
Reviewers’ grade: D+ With a title like that, this could only be a horror movie, right? If only. No, it’s a touchy-feely series of anecdotes about a writer of soft-core porn who is dumped by his movie-star girlfriend and soon after moves to Michigan to care for his loony grandmother and write a great novel. […]
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Least competent criminals
Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested in San Marcos, Texas, in January after being caught allegedly robbing coin-change machines at an apartment complex, and police subsequently found apartment guides for several cities in their van, along with a half-ton of quarters ($18,700). Kevin Russell, 21, was arrested in Hobart, Ind., in February when he went to […]
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Recurring themes
Traditional Chinese celebrations have been mentioned several times in News of the Weird, including the annual Tombsweeping Festival in April, which calls on people to visit relatives’ graves and leave offerings that will improve the afterlives of the deceased. Actual objects (such as jewelry and money) are no longer required, as paper representations are considered […]
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Compelling Explanations
“(Death row) is the calmest place I’ve ever been in,” said convicted murderer Paul John Fitzpatrick in March to a judge in Largo, Fla., hoping to avoid a mere life sentence, which would place him in the general prison population. “I probably found the most peace I’ve ever had in my whole life (in his […]
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Michael Shayne Mysteries: Volume 1 2007
These days, Michael Shayne is all but forgotten, but at one time he was among the coolest things going in crime fiction “? so much so that 20th Century Fox bankrolled a series of feature films featuring Brett Halliday’s detective character. Four of these 12 genial crime dramas are collected in the two-disc “Michael Shayne […]
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Perfect Stranger
bisi) seeks incriminating e-mails by hacking into Hill’s computer. The movie ladles on increasingly ludicrous plot and backstory. While it all leads to a preposterous climax, director James Foley deserves some credit for ratcheting up the tension as Rowena edges closer to Hill. R “?Phil Bacharach View trailer
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Pathfinder
Reviewers’ grade: C- The Indians take on the Vikings in this pulpy, Conan-esque historical mishmash. Karl Urban stars as Ghost, a Viking child left behind on a raid to Vineland. He’s brought up by Indians and when the Vikings return 15 years later to show what pillage idiots they are, Ghost lays into them. […]