“We must keep the atmosphere electrified!” announces creepy Igor in reference to an abominable experiment in Van Helsing, but he could be appraising the entirety of this enormous event movie. Breathless cutting, nonstop special effects and a pummeling soundtrack camouflage very silly plotting and mediocre-to-sappy dialogue — and yet the…
The setting: an institutional high school in the affluent suburbs. The protagonists: two boys — intelligent, charming and smoldering — with typical suburban lives, including intact families and plenty of spending money. The plot: carnage. Assembling pipe bombs from ingredients purchased at Home Depot and commandeering shotguns slipped from the…
That sound you hear is the stampeding feet of millions of pubescent and prepubescent girls, racing to movie theaters this weekend to catch sisters Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen in their first feature film since 1995’s It Takes Two. The Olsen twins began their acting careers at the age of nine…
Jake Flake’s always up for a good poem — a good cowboy poem, that is. As the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, the 69-year-old Republican has been known to filibuster — figuratively, of course — a legislative session with some spoken word born on the range. “Talking in…
Sun 5/9 Despite their five-game win streak, as well as a likely berth in the Arena Football League playoffs, the Arizona Rattlers will play what may be their final home game of the season at America West Arena on Sunday, May 9, against their Western Division rivals, the San Jose…
Sat 5/8 The heart of rock ‘n’ roll is still beating. Feel the love this Saturday, May 8, when the third annual “Music for a Cure” resonates with sound (13 local bands on three stages) and vision (all proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation). Sharing the benefit…
You could be the lucky winner of a pair of tickets to the Dave Matthews Band concert at Cricket Pavilion on August 24. Count the number of silver 1800 bottles that appear in this Cinco de Mayo Guide and e-mail your guess to tickets@newtimes.com. Winners must be 21 or older…
Reviews by Gina Cavallo Collins and Kathleen Vanesian “Double Vision” at the Phoenix Art Museum: There’s a surprising harmony among the works of San Antonio artist Constance Lowe and Los Angeles artist Alicia Beach in their joint exhibition. Both manage to tame bright colors into soft, psychedelic tones. Both start…
Thursday, April 29 Shakespeare scholars love this labor lost. Touted as the Bard’s great lost — and possibly last — drama, Cardenio surfaces this weekend at the Tempe Performing Arts Center. The Southwest Shakespeare Company makes something old new again, presenting the Southwestern première of the work, also known as…
Pantyhose with cotton crotches, old cut-up tablecloths, Hopalong Cassidy, Cesar Romero. Yup, Mesa Contemporary Arts certainly has selected a strange mixture of materials and subject matter for its “Two-Person National” exhibition, purportedly its very last before MCA bids adieu to its old location in Mesa Arts Center’s venerable Leave It…
Rated PG-13.
“Thirteen is The Big Lie!” declares Daniel Waters, about midway through a dual interview with him and his brother, Mark. He’s referring to the acclaimed teen drama from 2003, and it’s a fairly cocky assertion. But if you’ve ever been asked by a teen girl, “What’s your damage?” you can…
Pour a couple of old-fashioneds into the average golf historian, and it won’t be long until he gets misty-eyed over Robert Tyre Jones Jr. Jones not only ruled golf in the 1920s, the fellow will tell you; he also epitomized the gentlemanly ideal of the old Scottish game, transplanted to…
Some people talk with their hands; dancers talk with their arms and bellies and sacroiliacs. Listen as 30 dance groups use body language to communicate their emotions for motion at the fifth annual “Celebration of Dance.” The show’s producer and director Helena Saraydarian, whose credits include music videos, TV and…
4/30-5/5 Ask 10 revelers what event Cinco de Mayo pays homage to and, chances are, 11 of them would have no idea. Why sweat the details when the party extends from one end of the Valley to the other, and even underwater? The action promises to be bigger, better and…
Sat 5/1 In a battle for Valley skateboard supremacy, who’s shredding who this Saturday, May 1, when two of the state’s newer skate parks — in Chandler and Glendale — host their first contests? If you’re looking for humility, don’t ask CJ Cowie of Industrial Skate & Boards, co-sponsor of…
Laws of Attraction is the kind of film you might mistake for “cute” or “charming” at first glance. Maybe you will open the paper and spot the ad with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore canoodling and think to yourself how nice it would be to see James Bond defrosting indie…
If another long week’s got you stressed, a visit to the Phoenix Airport Marriott for this weekend’s fourth annual Valley of the Sun Tattoo & Piercing Jamboree — where it’s a good thing to be on pins and needles — might be in order. “It really is just a place…
Fri 4/30 At 22, Zachary Yoshioka would be the youngest working director in Hollywood, by far. As it is, he’s ASU’s only filmmaker with 14 movies and music videos on his rsum — and a legion of low-budget cinemaniacs yearning for him to make it big. “I’d love a picture…
4/29-5/23 When Icarus donned wings to reach the sun, the gods rewarded his boldness by throwing him back to earth. Varekai, the latest incarnation of the famed Cirque du Soleil, reveals what happens when he lands. The word “varekai” (ver•ay•’kie) means “wherever” in the language of the Gypsies. Based on…
In his new book, Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America, journalist Jonathan Rauch argues that same-sex marriage is a social policy issue, and not about insurance benefits or sex. Rauch, a former Phoenician, swears that legally wed gays will strengthen the…
What a shame that most stage fans will probably miss Hale Center Theatre’s Over the River and Through the Woods rather than drive the dozens of miles to this shiny new playhouse in (gasp!) far-off Gilbert. Joe DiPietro’s bittersweet, sometimes witty comedy is enlivened by a topnotch cast that reads…
