A couple of weeks ago I had a strong wish to see a donkey and a howler monkey. This didn’t come out of nowhere. I was in the middle of reading Beatrice & Virgil, Yann Martel’s strange and compelling short novel in which the title characters are, respectively, a donkey and a howler monkey. The [...]
Possibly the finest hour onscreen for Mickey Mouse was “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” the segment of 1940’s Fantasia in which he played the title role. The episode is a wordless pantomime, which helps a lot for those of us who find the voice of Disney’s signature rodent grating, to the 1897 orchestral program piece by Paul [...]
Several times in the course of Knight and Day, hero Tom Cruise drugs heroine Cameron Diaz or otherwise causes her to lose consciousness. This happens when the two of them are in a crisis, with the bad guys closing in and the chances of escape unpromising. Then Cameron will black out, and wake to find [...]
Andy Garcia has been around movies since the mid-‘80s, playing gangsters, cops and other steely tough guys. My wife has always had a strong aversion to his work, and while I liked some of his early roles, in The Untouchables, for instance, he’s never been a special favorite of mine, either. There’s something generic and [...]
Childplay’s production of Roald Dahl’s modern fairy tale, “The Big Friendly Giant,’’ will run May 1-23 at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The production will be held at 1 and 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays through May 23. “The Big Friendly Giant’’ was adapted by playwright David Wood from Dahl’s original book. Dahl’s [...]
Joel Duke as Oscar Lindquist and Courtney Koford as Charity Hope Valentine star in Tempe Little Theatre’s presentation of the musical ‘Sweet Charity’ at Tempe Center for the Arts, 8 p.m. March 19, 20, 26, 27 and April 2- 3; 2 p.m. March 21, 27, 28 and April 3; and 7 p.m. April 1. Ticket [...]
Tim Burton’s version of Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland is a dazzling 3-D visual spectacle that defines the word “fantastic.” From the moment Alice (played by Mia Wasikowska) descends into the rabbit hole, all things that are the stuff of children’s imaginations and deepest fears are made possible, including talking flowers with human heads, [...]
At McCool’s Bar and Grill, the name isn’t just a fabrication. The owners are longtime Kyrene Corridor residents Craig and Connie McCool. So if you’re looking to support a true mom-and-pop operation, and one that’s extra “cool,” this could be your place. “One of us is always here,” Craig McCool said. “If I’ve got to [...]
Out on DVD this week is Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, a sequel to 2006’s Night at the Museum. In the earlier film, which I missed, Ben Stiller played a new night watchman in the American Museum of Natural History in New York who learns that every night, after closing time, a [...]
There are countless well-loved Christmas movies, but Thanksgiving movies are a rarity. I’m not a much of a fan of 1995’s Home for the Holidays, but I often steer people toward What’s Cooking?, Gurinder Chadha’s delightful, too-little-known 2000 multi-cultural Turkey Day comedy. In case you’ve already seen it, though, here are a few more Thanksgiving [...]