Author Douglas Adams died at age 49 on May 11, 2001, of a heart attack suffered during a workout at a Santa Barbara, California, gym. His biographer, M.J. Simpson, blamed Adams’ demise in part on his unending battle to get The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on a big screen,…
Most contemporary thrillers aren’t concerned with moral dilemmas; the emphasis is on action and intrigue. The Israeli film Walk on Water — which, conveniently for American audiences, is primarily in English (the rest is in Hebrew and German with English subtitles) — not only raises questions about right and wrong,…
Agent Fox Mulder, the coolly instinctual sleuth of The X-Files, got pretty good at unraveling paranormal mysteries. If only the actor who played him were as adept at solving the riddle of his movie career. David Duchovny’s new vanity project, House of D, is the tortured tale of a 13-year-old…
When was the last time you walked out of a theater feeling shell-shocked, saying to anyone who would listen (in language more profane): “Dude, that was some seriously messed-up stuff!” Not your garden-variety messed-up stuff, mind you, like in Saw. Not the messed-up revelations of political docs. We’re talking the…
It’s a good thing Aaron Coleman is thick-skinned. After all, the 32-year-old tattoo artist’s pugnacious pelt has not only been punished by plenty of pigment, covering his arms, legs and back. But his durable dermis has even withstood all the disdainful dissing both the general public and the art world…
You must, we repeat, must go to the Phoenix Art Museum and see the Impressionist paintings on exhibit for just a few more days. We know what you’re thinking. Impressionist paintings are boring, and those oh-so-pretty depictions of bucolic French landscapes are the sort of art swill your grandma would…
FRI 4/29 Erotic torture, submissive slaves, leather, latex, hot wax to the flesh, and other forms of fetish will arise on “Black Friday,” April 29, at The Sets, 93 East Southern in Tempe. Evoking images fantasized by boys and girls yearning to be bound and gagged, the event, presented by…
FRI 4/29 Analyzing Georgie “El Torito” Garcia Jr.’s boxing style can be as perplexing as a politician’s talking points on tax reform — though with more sudden and painful consequences. The heavyweight Garcia, who brings a 5-0 professional record (with four KOs, including three in the first round) to “Fight…
FRI 4/29 Ten years ago, any place on Grand Avenue was rotting somewhere between a crack house and a whorehouse. The downtown pocket’s metamorphosis from seedy street to ultra-hip arts district has been slow but sweet, thanks largely to First Fridays and the community of artists who have moved into…
FRI 4/29 Loud-ass guitars dealing out sadistic riffs, flailing hair, sweaty bodies and hands raised and locked in the two-finger devil horn salute can only mean one thing. No, not a night with Beavis and Butt-head, fool. It’s the “AZ Blackend Deth HardKore Fest II” on Friday, April 29, at…
Wendy Cashaback is wearing a stiff upper lip these days. She’s also wearing a tiny Danskin dress and flashing a warm smile at everyone who visits her shop, even that creepy guy over by the sex lotions who’s been admiring the fur-lined handcuffs for way too long. When Creepy Guy…
Remember back in the day, when you’d fire up your NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), and instead of hunting ducks or picking flowers, you’d shoot drug dealers? Those were the days. When kiddy games were kiddy games, and adult games were kiddy games as well. The original eight-bit NARC for the…
It’s the bane of my existence, a hideous blight to which I’ve been witness countless times, a painful bore that causes me to shrink in my theater seat each time it waggles its ugly theatrical head. Audience participation gives me gas. It ruins any play, lovely or ugly, and destroys…
THU 21 You don’t get to be Rusty Wallace — with 55 NASCAR Cup career wins in more than 20 years — without being über-competitive. So just because Wallace won’t actually be behind the wheel of his quarter-scale, remote-controlled stock car at the MiniFASTCAR Challenge on Thursday, April 21, he’s…
Even before its publication, Phoenix author Martha Beck’s Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith was causing cramps among Latter-day Saints around the globe. In the memoir, Beck, a life coach and columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine, depicts sacred Mormon ceremonies and accuses her…
“George,” I hear my stepfather, Nick, say to me in my mind, as I ride to the Phoenix Film Festival with my friend Maria, “your SAG card and a token will get you on the subway!” The more I think of this as I sit crunched into Maria’s tiny little…
I knew it was going to be a long night when Koko! The Island Adventures of Miss Koko Neufchatel began with the show’s lone actor dragging a couple of audience members onto the stage to wish them happy birthday. Note to local directors: Theater is not Chuck E. Cheese’s, and…
Among the many mysteries surrounding The Interpreter is the one that finds Sydney Pollack heralded as a major American director, a maker of Serious and Important Movies. His filmography, marked by mawkish mediocrities (Out of Africa, as vibrant as a coffee-table book; The Way We Were, its romance as plausible…
Amanda Peet. Ashton Kutcher. Romantic comedy. Who’d have thought it could work? And yet A Lot Like Love is an entertainment success, a triple threat of fresh writing, inspired directing and, yes, good acting. Fortified with a healthy dose of intelligence, it manages to leap clear across an entire field…
“No more soccer!” declares small-time thug Sing (writer/director/star Stephen Chow) as he vigorously stomps on a child’s ball. In the context of Kung Fu Hustle, it’s a pathetic attempt by Sing to make himself look tough. The larger signal, however, is to followers of Chow’s work — it’s a direct…
Professional volleyball players will do just about anything for their fans. They’ll sign whatever they’re handed, they’ll hang out and party after tournaments, and — if they’re three-time Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly — they’ll even propose for you. “There was a couple from Phoenix who came up to me…
Fox Mulder’s undeniable hotness, er, relentless pursuit of the truth regarding alien existence on Earth kept believers and skeptics alike glued to the tube on Sunday nights for nine years via The X-Files. Dr. Stephen Greer, meanwhile, as the founder and director of the nonprofit organization The Disclosure Project, has…
