In response, for this summer’s The Hangover Part III, director Todd Phillips and the gang did something totally different. Complained the multiplex populace, “It’s not enough like the first one!” America, you fickle, fickle bastard. What’s funny about the whole thing is that both sequels are, well, funny. Yet The Hangover Part III just can’t […]
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Shiver
That’s where the fun of Shiver starts. That’s where the fun of Shiver stops. In Portland, a killer (John Jarratt, Wolf Creek) who calls himself The Gryphon (sounds like “Griffin”) delights in offing women and, as the aforementioned line has it, keeps their heads in jars as trophies. His latest target is a secretary […]
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Room 237
Only the first of these is true. Just don’t tell the unseen interviewees of Room 237, Rodney Ascher’s extraordinary documentary about all the crazy conspiracy theories surrounding Kubrick’s 1980 horror classic, The Shining. You’ve heard about The Shining, right? It’s the film that Kubrick loaded with subliminal messages and made synchronic when simultaneously played forward […]
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Not Over It yet
The world of emo has changed a lot over time, and Evan Weiss — the man behind Into It. Over It. — has been there to witness a lot of it. “It’s grown from us playing in warehouses and basements to us being able to play in venues and tour nationwide on the strength of this […]
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Frame of mind
Brian Haas wasn’t always a jazz musician. The Tulsa native and Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey ringleader was instead trained from a young age to play classical piano. Even within the more structured confines of classical music, though, Haas has always been an improviser at heart. “I would always get super nervous before competitions or recitals,” […]
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Captain Phillips
The British-born director always had a penchant for going against the mostly jingoistic American style of docudrama filmmaking — where we absolutely at all times need a bad guy who goes against our collective nationalist ideals to root against — with films such as the 9/11-based United 93, which presented the hijackers in a very […]
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French connection
Certain elements of garage punks Crooked Bangs might not be the ones you’d normally expect. The trio has its roots down in the Live Music Capital of the World in Austin, Tex., but there’s a certain je ne sais quoi to what they do. “People are like, ‘You aren’t singing in English, are you?’” guitarist […]
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The Amityville Horror Trilogy
Based on a supposedly true story, 1979’s The Amityville Horror pits newlyweds George and Kathleen Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder, respectively) against a Long Island lakeside home that’s one mean sonofabitch. No sooner have they moved in with their towheaded tots when strange things start to happen: voices at night, a roomful of flies, […]
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House of Wax
I also recall loving the movie, which continues to this day, especially its famous scene of the paddle ball seemingly bursting through the screen and toward our faces. It’s a superb effect lost on previous home-video releases; absent of another theatrical re-release, Warner Bros.’ new Blu-ray of House of Wax is as close as you’re […]
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In the House
High school literature teacher Germain (Fabrice Luchini, Ozon’s Potiche) is fed up with the student body at large, but impressed with the quality of writing by 16-year-old Claude (Ernst Umhauer, The Monk). For an early assignment, the student turns in a rather voyeuristic, true story about visiting the home of his awkward classmate, Rapha (newcomer […]