According to the movies, Godzilla takes its name from a legendary Japanese sea monster. But according to the man who made those movies, the name’s source was more mundane. Tomoyuki Tanaka, producer of the classic Godzilla films, claims that back in the 1950s, there was a fat, hulking press agent…
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson’s staggering, semifictional account of “a savage journey to the heart of the American Dream,” has proved difficult to translate to the screen. After more than a quarter century–and 20 scripts–since the book’s 1971 publication, Thompson’s countercultural touchstone has finally assumed filmic…
The “Size Does Matter” marketing campaign for Godzilla is far more ingenious than the movie. It’s also highly annoying–and somewhat misleading. After all, as the ads for a new film called Plump Fiction remind us, “Width matters, too.” Perhaps the best thing about the ballyhooed arrival of Godzilla is that…
Danny and Anna, the hero and heroine of Music From Another Room, meet portentously: Danny, at the age of 6, is pressed into service helping his father deliver Anna when her mother (wonderful Brenda Blethyn) goes into labor unexpectedly at a party. The umbilical cord wraps around Anna’s neck, and…
thursday may 28 He cranked out one American classic after another throughout the ’50s. But after 1962’s Night of the Iguana, Tennessee Williams turned from personal expressionism to experimental surrealism, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a single title by the great Mississippian that anyone other than a theater scholar…
There’s a curse on Christopher Wynn’s new play. Four of the show’s seven cast members suffered physical injuries during rehearsal; one of the principals broke the heel off her go-go boot; and, initially, audiences for Bring Me the Head of Jayne Mansfield!, though enthusiastic, were frighteningly small. “Jayne herself has…
Richard Wagner had a way with a saga. Take, for instance, his famed Ring opera cycle, which is slated for performances in Flagstaff this week and next. Here’s what you get: treachery and intrigue among the gods, an evil dwarf, stolen gold, a magic ring, a magic sword, giants, warrior…
Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire is a nearly faultless play, a beautifully written, deeply disturbing pageant of human frailty that builds to a startling climax. None of this is apparent in Phoenix Theatre’s current production. Our oldest local playhouse has fumbled Williams’ prize-winning sex drama so badly that it…
Where was the montage? About halfway through the Brit caper comedy Shooting Fish, lovely young heroine Georgie (Kate Beckinsale) and sensitive young hero Jez (Stuart Townsend) meet outside a club. In the next scene, we see them sitting on the roof of a huge gas tank, talking, as the dawn…
It’s the tail end of the 1996 California primary election, and incumbent Democratic Senator Jay Bulworth (Warren Beatty) is having a nervous breakdown. Sleepless for days, famished, he channel surfs aimlessly in the darkness of his office where, in a rare moment of lucidity, he has an inspiration: He arranges…
Chinese Box arrives with one of the weirdest hybrid pedigrees in living memory. The writing credits include–in addition to the film’s director, Wayne Wang–Jean-Claude Carriere, who worked on most of the best films of Luis Bunuel’s late period (Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Phantom of Liberty, Belle de Jour); classy…
Before trying his hand as a novelist, before winning four Emmys and a variety of other awards for his broadcast journalism, Mark Nykanen was a prep basketball star–one of the state’s leading scorers, he claims–at McClintock High in Tempe. “I got kicked off the team two-thirds of the way through…
Talk about a job that performs itself: Elana Newport is paid to make politicians look stupid. With the comedy troupe Capitol Steps, which performs Saturday, May 23, at the Orpheum, she and a group of her cronies paste politicos in song and dance. “We like to think we’re doing a…
thursday may 21 It’s a safe bet that NBC honcho Don Olmeyer won’t be catching comedian Norm MacDonald’s special show at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21, at the Celebrity Theatre, 440 North 32nd Street. He’s the guy who supposedly was behind firing MacDonald from SNL’s “Weekend Update” for the comic’s…
Nature has been the subject in search of a form in Mayme Kratz’s art for some time now–especially fragments of nature. Since 1991, when she began embedding all sorts of found natural objects in her resin sculptures, the artist has been preoccupied with drawing attention to the smallest of small…
If you go see Arizona Theatre Company’s production of Moliere’s Scapin, you may leave the theater wishing it were possible to stay and, moviehouse fashion, see the play again. That’s mostly because this show is so entertaining, but also because it spins by so fast, you never figured out what…
The Horse Whisperer, the latest film from Robert Redford–and the first of his directorial efforts in which he also stars–could almost serve as a compendium of Redford’s best and worst tendencies. It features his eye for gorgeous, pictorial vistas, his straightforward narrative approach and, most important, his understanding of actors…
One of the few seemingly spontaneous bursts of energy at this year’s Oscar ceremony was provided by motor-mouthing Dutch director Mike van Diem, who seemed genuinely surprised to have won the award for Best Foreign Film for his debut feature, Character. If the commercial popularity and Oscar sweep for Titanic…
Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner, four of 12 children of a Polish-Jewish cobbler who immigrated to Baltimore with his wife in the 1880s, grew up poor and tough in Youngstown, Ohio. Around the turn of the century, after failing bitterly at a variety of family businesses, they scraped together…
thursday may 14 Can you handle cowboy charm first thing in the morning? My hat’s off to you, pardner. You’ll probably want to check out Marshall Trimble at the Scottsdale Mayor and City Council Breakfast. The “Will Rogers of Arizona” spins yarns following a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. Thursday,…
Though Jackie Martling, a.k.a. “The Joke Man,” may be best known as the head writer for The Howard Stern Show, when the weekends come, he works his way across the country doing his own standup act. His gimmick: nonstop dirty jokes. No heartwarming stories of his childhood. No clever word…
Something about Seinfeld unifies people. Just about everybody you meet can carry on a conversation about a favorite episode or two. Sending out your own holiday greetings may remind you of Elaine’s X-rated Christmas cards; losing your car in a parking garage may bring to mind that episode. The weirdness…
