“My name is David Wong. I once saw a man’s kidneys grow tentacles,” intones our genial narrator and protagonist (the heretofore unknown Chase Williamson) who boasts psychic abilities that include communicating with the dead. He and his best bud, John (Rob Mayes, MTV’s The American Mall), operate as freelance ghostbusters when they’re not beer-drinking slackers. […]
comedy
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Dead in France
If more proof is needed — it’s not — the exploding heads, shoulder-stabbings and a good ol’ Wilhelm scream should do the trick later. Directed and co-written by Kris McManus, the UK film centers around Charles (Brian Levine, who co-wrote), a lonely hit man who’s not only a virgin, but never even kissed a woman. […]
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Heroic hangover
Brian Winkeler, a writer, and Robert Wilson IV, an artist, were patrons of New World Comics, 6219 N. Meridian. Store owner Brian Berlin thought the two should meet. Soon after a fateful lunch outing, the plot and characters for Knuckleheads, a quirky series of their own, was born. Winkeler said they loosely adapted the concept […]
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Stitches
The title refers to the booze-soaked, foul-mouthed, likely STD-infected clown (British stand-up comedian Ross Noble) who meets an early, accidental demise while performing at an only child’s 10th birthday party. Because that’s what happens when kids tie your shoelaces together, causing you to trip and fall face-first into the butcher knife left precariously pointing upward […]
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How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life
That she should be honored to be subservient. That a 28-year-old blonde bombshell would have trouble landing a beau until some 51-year-old man came sliming along. I’m being harsh, but this Dean Martin/Stella Stevens pairing — now part of the burned-on-demand Sony Pictures Choice Collection — engages in all of these and more. I wasn’t […]
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Enlightened: The Complete First Season
This is not to denigrate her Oscar-nominated turn as 1991’s Rambling Rose or her work as muse to David Lynch, most notably in Blue Velvet or Wild at Heart — all solid and accomplished. It’s just that her role here as Amy Jellicoe is the most complex and multilayered character she’s been given. Amy represents […]
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Mind your ‘Mannerly’
Carpenter Square Theatre is out to make upstanding ladies and gents of you all. Jeffrey Hatcher’s comedy, Mrs. Mannerly, harkens back to a time when lessons in etiquette were in their final throes. Set in Steubenville, Ohio, in 1967, Mannerly tells the story of a 10-yearold boy under the tutelage of one Mrs. Mannerly, a […]
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Best in Show
Although set amid the fictional Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show in Philadelphia, the comedy is really concerned with five sets of the contestants’ owners, including — but not limited to — a longtime married couple (Catherine O’Hara and co-writer Eugene Levy), two gay men (Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins) and a lonely woodsman (Guest). […]
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Sushi Girl
After six years in prison, the newly sprung Fish (Noah Hathaway, Troll) may be spurned by his family, but is welcomed back with open arms and a party thrown by the devious Duke (Tony Todd, Final Destination 5). Also invited to the exclusive event — a yakuza-style dining experience of eating sushi off a naked […]
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Bath Salt Zombies
Set in New York City, the film imagines such a huge crackdown on “bath salts” — a real-life drug currently making headlines for its zombie-like effects on users — that one enterprising chemist has synthesized it in cigarette form. Smoking it, however, proves even more addictive than usual, causing withdrawal symptoms so bad “it will […]