The Savages
Reviewer’s grade: B Dad doesn’t recognize his own children. Dad writes the word “prick” on the bathroom wall using his own finger and fecal matter. Dad still thinks it’s acceptable to laugh at white men in blackface. In real life, this is the stuff of tragedy, but in “The Savages,” it’s all part of…
There Will Be Blood
t strangely charming; devoted to his young son (newcomer Dillon Freasier), but devoid of heart. Day-Lewis has already earned a Golden Globe for the portrayal; he’s the odds-on favorite to take home the Oscar, and rightly so. The actor is extraordinary, embodying the coiled rage of a caged beast. He is almost matched by Paul…
Update
Wayne DuMond, who made News of the Weird in 1988, was briefly notable in December 2007 as part of the Republican presidential race. DuMond was an Arkansas rape suspect in 1984 (later convicted) when he said that vigilantes castrated him, and the evidence of that wound up in a jar on the desk of the…
Masters of Horror: The V Word
Horror” discs, “The V Word” comes complete with several bonuses, including two behind-the-scenes featurettes (one general, one FX-specific) and a commentary from Dickerson and writer Mick Garris, who also created this popular Showtime series. “?Rod Lott
Turok: Son of Stone
2008 From the ashes of Gold Key Comics (Lord, how I miss them!), the primitive American Indian warrior Turok rises again in “Turok: Son of Stone,” his first animated feature-length film. Other than video games, the character has been moribund of late, so the return is welcome. Even better, the movie’s actually…
Names in the News
Killed by early-morning gunshots in a club in Greensboro, N.C., in December: Mr. Born God Supreme Thompson. Arrested and charged with groping two women in Springfield, Ill., in December: Larry Letcher, 24. The loser of a Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling in December that sought to suppress child pornography found on his computer by a Circuit…
Criss Angel: Mindfreak ” The Complete Season Three
2007/2008 More people may know Criss Angel from his tabloid exploits of late (Cameron Diaz, Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson) than from his actual job: that of a rock-star illusionist in his A&E reality series “Mindfreak.” Growing in popularity, the third season now comes to DVD, with all 20 episodes on three discs. …
Jan. 19, 2008
Camp MacGregor, near El Paso, Texas, 12:30 p.m. This training camp is associated with Fort Bliss, but not part of it. It is the barest of places, windswept, dusty and cold. Humvees patrol the perimeter, guards are posted in front of a mock Iraqi palace made of spray-painted fabric mounted on wooden frames. The soldiers…
Cloverfield
Reviewer’s grade: B+ Godzilla, meet the Blair Witch. As a mash-up of old-fashioned monster flicks and low-budget indie filmmaking, “Cloverfield” hinges on a gimmick, but, as gimmicks go, it’s shlocky fun and “? best of all “? effective. The central conceit is that we watch the events unfold from the limited perspective of a camcorder. Sure,…
Least Competent Criminals
Holdup-Note Blues: Arthur Cheney, 64, was arrested near Marysville, Calif., in December driving a car that had been spotted at a bank robbery. On the center console of the car, officers found a yellow “sticky” note with a handwritten “Robbery 100s and 50s only.” Said an officer, “We call that a clue.” And Orlando Taylor,…
Obsessions
At least a half-dozen groups in five countries are seriously engaged in the quest to show that man can fly through the air and land without a parachute, according to a December New York Times report. “All of this is technically possible,” said a physics professor, referring to the wing suits fliers are testing. “The…
Questionable Judgments
With the American West seemingly under perpetual threat of drought, developer Richard Mladick is nonetheless preparing to build Waveyard, a massive water theme park, near Mesa, Ariz., which will require 50 million gallons of groundwater to open and as much as 100 million gallons annually. Explained Mladick: “I couldn’t imagine raising my kids in an…
KGOU celebrates quarter century as NPR source station
An open house 6 p.m. Friday and staff and volunteer reunion 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday in KGOU’s new campus studio in Copeland Hall will celebrate the public radio station’s first 25 years. Before going public in 1983, KGOU had been a commercial, University of Oklahoma campus rock station since 1970. But a committee…
Swamp Thing: The Series
1990-92/2007 After starring in comic books and two feature films, the scientist-turned-monster known as Swamp Thing made the jump to television in his own cable series, which ran for three years on USA in the early Nineties. Spread across four DVDs, this set presents the first two seasons, in the order they were meant…
Good-fortune graves
Lee Myung-bak was elected president of South Korea in December, with experts in “poonsgoo” (similar to the Chinese feng shui) attributing the victory in part to the favorable location of his ancestors’ graves, which is an important predictor of good fortune. Candidates not so lucky spent part of the campaign moving their ancestors’ remains to…
Quintet of metro art hopefuls showcased in ‘Emergent’ exhibit
For most, the time after college graduation is a struggle to find a job or a direction. Paul Kriley, however, used the summer after graduating to paint a whole new body of work that mixes dreamy symbolism with personal philosophy. “They are large pieces based off of dealing with myself and society through automatic drawing,”…
Annual home and garden show returns to fairgrounds
Stop to smell the roses ” not to mention the lilacs and the daffodils ” as the Oklahoma City Home & Garden Show makes its annual return Friday through Sunday in five buildings at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. More than 400 local and national exhibitors will be on hand for the show, now in its…
Monty Python’s Oklahoma State connection
John Cleese, a member of the famous “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” is getting divorced. Why should this be of interest to Chicken-Fried News readers? Just keep reading. One of the founding members of Monty Python, Cleese might be the most famous British comedian ever. The late Sixties and early Seventies British television show was…
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Reviewer’s grade: D This latest creation from Germany’s Dr. Fecal, Uwe Boll, lives down to its mastermind’s reputation as the worst movie director currently at work. Boll is the black hole of filmmakers “? if a good idea comes near his orbit, it gets consumed in a giant suck and is never seen again.…
Angels & Airwaves – I-Empire
Geffen Tom DeLonge’s post-Blink-182 project of Angels & Airwaves didn’t take long to follow up its 2006 debut. Radio stations still were playing its singles from that when “I-Empire” hit stores. The bleed-over is appropriate, as “I-Empire” doesn’t stray from the sound that made its predecessor so surprisingly winning; in fact, it has the…
Local blues act slated for TV appearance
Oklahoma City alt-blues rock outfit Blake Lankford and the Coats will be making a TV appearance at 10 p.m. Sunday during KOKH-TV Channel 25’s evening sports show, “The Locker Room.” The band plays regularly in the metro at places like:” Route 66 Road House, ” The Office Club and ” Drinkz in Bricktown. According to…
Marco Benevento – Invisible Baby
Hyena Finally, a modern jazz album I can actually stand listening to. Marco Benevento’s “Invisible Baby” is an infectious collection of noisy, glitchy electro-jazz that is both entertaining and ambient. The disc’s third track, “Atari,” sounds like just that: a vintage gaming system gone berserk with weird sounds, pianos and bouncy drums egging…
Latest Religious Messages
More than 5,000 Christians have joined the Hollywood Prayer Network to pray anonymously for the spiritual transformation of certain troubled celebrities, according to a November Chicago Sun-Times report. Also, an “Incognito Prayer Network,” whose members wear “90028” bracelets with Hollywood’s ZIP code, will assign celebrities to members who are touched by a particular star. Even…
The Orphanage
Reviewer’s grade: B Kids say the darndest things, especially imaginary ones. And the invisible Tom
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
ace, the documentary may be about an egotistical hot-sauce salesman named Billy Mitchell defending his world record on the old Donkey Kong arcade game, but really it’s about one man’s need to regain his confidence and self-esteem. That man is Steve Wiebe, a mild-mannered family man and math teacher who’s encountered a few bumps in…
Note by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037
Reviewer’s grade: B+ “Note by Note” explores the creation of a Steinway grand piano by documenting its journey from the forest to the concert hall. From the bending room and the finishing and stringing to the many rounds of tuning, we see the exhaustive work that goes into a fine musical instrument over the…
Five judges mulling fate of death-row inmate claiming ineffective counsel
State prosecutors are willing to give a death-row inmate another chance before a jury. But the inmate would rather let five judges decide his fate. Keary Lamar Littlejohn was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2002 murder of 22-year-old Gregory L. Rogers II, shot at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Northwest Oklahoma City. Prosecutors…
Tis Autumn: The Search for Jackie Paris
Reviewer’s grade: B Writer/director Raymond De Felitta discovered jazz singer Jackie Paris in the early Nineties, almost 40 years after Paris’ small star had set. De Felitta spent the next 10 or so years believing Paris to be dead, until he saw a listing for a Paris performance in The New Yorker. After meeting,…
Exhibit of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos documents life’s triumphs, tragedies
More than 60 years of life caught in the lenses of the world’s best photographers can be seen in a single, awe-inspiring exhibit in Oklahoma City that starts Saturday. The International Photography Hall of Fame is hosting “Capture the Moment: The Pulitzer Prize Photographs,” an expansive array of the very best images from life-changing political,…
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
2008 Based on a book that itself is part of a series nearly 200 titles strong, “Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight” is a spin-off from the enduring “Dungeons & Dragons” role-play gaming franchise. Because the two live-action “D&D” movies went nowhere, this one smartly takes the animated route. The feature-length film sets up an intriguing…
Supreme Court scrutinizing constitutionality of Oklahoma’s execution method
In October 2007, Oklahoma’s execution schedule ground to a halt. Attorney General Drew Edmondson said a case in Kentucky before the U.S. Supreme Court suggested that Oklahoma’s method of execution risks pain. “The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment,” Edmondson said. “The issue before the Supreme Court is what standard defines cruel and unusual.…
MAPS for Hoops’
The Metropolitan Area Projects tax ” or MAPS ” passed in 1993, and the consequences are all around us: new stadiums including the $92 million Ford Center, a new library, a revitalized downtown, a tourist economy. The original tax expired in 1999. “MAPS 2,” or MAPS for Kids, replaced the old MAPS tax in…
Robber the Oklahoma robber
The staff members at CFN love it when the subjects of our rants practically write the script for us. What could be better than a bank robbery committed by a man named Robber? The Tulsa World reported that Robber Earl Smith, 55, was charged recently with the Dec. 27, 2007, robbery of a Bank…
International Finals Rodeo championship emphasizing arena action
Cowboys and cowgirls across the country are putting on their boots and sharpening their spurs to gear up for the International Finals Rodeo championship, which will be held Thursday through Saturday at State Fair Park. It is a year of changes for IFR as the brains behind the rodeo aim for a more viewer-friendly experience.…
The Bucket List
Reviewer’s grade: D There’s a reason theaters offer discounts to senior citizens: because they have to be enticed to come see movies that aren’t worth full price. I think older folks will turn out in droves for “The Bucket List,” expecting a feel-good warm fuzzy from two of America’s most beloved elder actors. …
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
1982/2007 Film studios are in the business of film-selling not filmmaking, and after 25 years, we finally get to see Ridley Scott’s original vision for the legendary future-noir detective epic “Blade Runner.” The film is as beautiful as ever, defying almost every bad Eighties sci-fi trapping, and leaving audiences with even more of…
What Oklahoma does well
I sat down to write a list of famous and distinguished people who have ties to Oklahoma. The list turned out to be too long to print. The state has been a leader in energy for more than a century. Robert S. Kerr, Dean A. McGee, Frank Phillips and T. Boone Pickens have made…
Various artists – WWE Presents Raw Greatest Hits: The Music
Columbia Say it ain’t so, Rick Rubin. You can’t need money that bad, can you? This 15-song’ wait, make that 17-song (two “bonus” tracks, yes!)’ album of “hits” from werestling rockers and rappers packs the worst of more than a dozen ideas into one horrendous heap of a concept. The Rock is simply…
Library to celebrate squirrels with day of fun
Something squirrelly is going on at Southern Oaks Public Library ” namely, observance of Squirrel Appreciation Day. An unofficial holiday started in 2001, the day falls on Jan. 21 of every year, but Southern Oaks will hold its event from 2-4 p.m. Saturday. According to John Hilbert, young adult services librarian, the idea for the…
OKC’s media savvy mayor
Oh, there’s definitely something rising in Oklahoma, but it’s certainly not a for-hire Jimmy Webb song. No, it’s the Q Score of Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett, who’s been making quite the national media rounds lately to promote his million-pound march. Cornett plugged the www.thiscityisgoingonadiet.com Web site ” aimed to convince Oklahoma Cityans to…
OSU Cowgirls reverse Bedlam fortunes
Another women’s Bedlam basketball game, another blowout. Similar to the last 11 encounters, last Saturday’s meeting between the University of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma State University teams ended with the Cowgirls’ resounding 82-63 victory in front of the largest crowd (13,611) ever to witness a women’s sporting event in Oklahoma. It was the first-ever Bedlam…
As I Lay Dying aims for crowd-pleasing live show
San Diego metal marauders As I Lay Dying have returned to Oklahoma City for another ground assault. Since forming in 2001, the band has collected droves of mostly younger metal fans worldwide. “They are just so heavy and loud “¦ and fast,” said Jonathan Meyers, a 14-year-old metro skateboarder. “It’s too heavy for a lot of…
Fight – Eugene S. Robinson
From knife fights in Calcutta to fistfights in the hockey rink, journalist/musician/competitive fighter Eugene S. Robinson delves into the underground world of physical combat in his new book “Fight: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You’d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking.” Robinson will read excerpts and sign copies of…
Cultural Diversity
While European and American TV and film producers take care to have dialogue dubbed into foreign languages using voices that are appropriate for each actor, the dubbing in Poland continues to be done by “lektors” males with smoking-seasoned voices who speak the dialogue of all the characters in a story in the same pitch. The…
Martini party to benefit Untitled gallery
A martini party Thursday night at an Oklahoma City art gallery will help fund new exhibits, so have a cocktail “¦ for art’s sake. While sipping and stirring at “An Urban Affair: Martinis in the Deuce” at Untitled [ArtSpace], 1 N.E. Third, make sure to look beneath your glass, because according to gallery directors, more…
Weird Science: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2
1994/2008 Anyone who was a teenager in the Eighties saw John Hughes’ 1985 comedy “Weird Science” a dozen times. The USA cable series may be another matter, but now that the first two of its five seasons have hit DVD, it’s worthy of discovery. In fact, while the movie’s seams shows today, the series…
Carpenter Square’s ‘Rabbit Hole’ packs emotional wallop
It would be easy to assume that David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Rabbit Hole” would be filled with comically quirky people in skewed worlds. That’s how his hits like “Fuddy Meers” and “Kimberly Akimbo” work. But in “Rabbit Hole,” the surreal world of the play is created by an external event: the accidental killing of a…
Purcell skateboarders get published
Three teenage boys on skateboards in Purcell had to grease a few palms ” and shoes, and blacktop and sidewalks ” to do it, but they managed to acquire some slick notoriety around the small town recently. According to a recent story in The Purcell Register, the boys were caught on tape skateboarding around…
Break dancing not just a sport, but a survival tool
It was 6:52 p.m. on just another Saturday night, and Tha Ha’Stylez Crew was holding one of its regular break dance sessions at Legion Park in El Reno. “This is called El Reno, but they call it El Ghetto,” James Sleeper. “Out there, you’re good at sports or good at school or you fight. Some…
Actor Jeff Daniels moonlights as acoustic guitarist
It’s easy to scoop all actor-turned-musicians and dump them into the same bin. After all, attempts by the likes of Steven Seagal and Keanu Reeves don’t exactly inspire confidence in those who take a musical tangent from Hollywood. But actor Jeff Daniels, who is playing an acoustic show Saturday night at the Sooner Theatre in…
Edwards makes OKC stop on presidential campaign
Looking to get a boost before the Feb. 5 primary, presidential candidate John Edwards made a quick stop in Oklahoma City this afternoon. The former Democratic senator from North Carolina touched down at Wiley Post Airport and briefly met campaign staffers and reporters. “I feel I know a great deal about the problems facing…
