Kill Bill Vol. 2 is such a hairpin turn away from the amusing but disappointing first chapter of Quentin Tarantino's epic that unsuspecting moviegoers can almost be forgiven for the knee-jerk negative response it is sure to elicit.
Tami Fertig:
Arab Strap
Cherubs
Imagine this: a sweet and simple guitar melody floating lazily atop the slow and steady beat of a drum machine -- over and over and over again.
The Whole Ten Yards
Starring Bruce Willis, Matthew PerryDirected by Howard DeutchRated PG-13
Every time I try to say something substantive about The Whole Ten Yards, the only thing that can come out of my mouth are variations on "it was a pile of crap." Director Howard Deutch gives us a barrage of ethnic jokes, repeated slapping and Matthew Perry waving his arms around and falling down, and leaves it up to the marketing department to make the movie seem funny.
Ben Kweller
On My Way
Ben Kweller wrote his first album during puberty, lived his adolescence in a recording studio and now, at 22, professes to know life's transcendental truths.
And yet another trainwreck for Kevin Spacey. In the tradition of perfectly respectable actors taking a step or 10 in the wrong direction, our man Kev follows K-Pax, Pay it Forward and The Life of David Gale with further punishment for unsuspecting moviegoers in the heartbreakingly vapid The United States of Leland. Spacey knows it's a bust and can't even show his face; on the movie poster, the man labeled as Kevin Spacey is not in fact Kevin Spacey, but the lesser known actor Martin Donovan -- who spends the entire movie making a big stink just because someone up and knifed his autistic son.
San Antonio, TX. The Alamo story has graced film reels more than a dozen times. It's Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie and Colonel Travis: add a few more ingredients, stir and repeat.
Coheed and Cambria is "progressive rock, definitely not run-of-the-mill." Occasionally lumped into emo, or emo-core, the group's rock stylings are comparable to those of close friends and frequent tourmates, Thursday and Thrice.
As it is at any concert featuring a band that has recently been on Total Request Live, the average age of those attending the Simple Plan show couldn't have been over 16, and that's including the small upstairs 21-and-over bar area.
For their third visit to Philadelphia, Broken Social Scene invited their brass section (members of Stars, the night's opening act) on stage for a sultry night of indie rock.
Lou Reed
Animal Serenade
Warner Brothers
Lou Reed's 5,000th live album, Animal Serenade, shows that the 62-year-old legend can still put on a great show.
There are things out there that go bump in the night," quips Professor Bruttenholm (John Hurt). "We are the ones who bump back." No, this isn't your average weekend-drunken-sorority-girl- hook-up; it's Guillermo del Toro's above average comic-to-movie film Hellboy. Mix two parts X-Men, two parts Men In Black technology and a sprinkle of The Hulk's big buff looks, and you have the recipe that not only looks good but doesn't leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Based on Mike Mignola's comic book series, Hellboy opens in 1944 as the Nazis, led by Grigori Rasputin, attempt to open a portal to another dimension.
We're all relatively acquainted with the slew of coming-of-age teen comedies wherein implausibly attractive high school students overcome the bounds of social status, find love and provide a fortune cookie-sized moral to the tune of "Teenage Wasteland." The recipe works, though it usually makes for movies so saccharine that diabetics crumple to the floor of America's movie theaters.
Dave Scher wishes people would dance at shows like they used to. One half of the duo that makes up California-based All Night Radio, Scher remembers his upbringing in Long Beach, California as a time when people danced at shows.
Tami Fertig:
The Magnetic Fields
Get Lost
Lest we forget, Magnetic Fields mastermind Stephin Merritt was making records long before 69 Love Songs. That one was okay, but c'mon.