Ashes of Time Redux
The filming of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 Ashes of Time, an expensive, star-studded wuxia (martial-arts swordplay) saga loosely based on a Louis Cha novel, dragged on for more than a year — so long, in fact, that the director shot Chungking Express during an editing break. On release, Ashes received mixed reviews and…
Cadillac Records
Held together by an awkward voiceover by Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), this chronicle of the history of Chess Records comes off as a made-for-TV movie, despite good intentions. Emphasizing the topsy-turvy relationships between rivals Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Cadillac Records is too concerned with drama…
Nobel Son
A graduate student (Bryan Greenberg) struggles to cope with his egotistical father (Alan Rickman), a chemistry professor who’s just won the Nobel Prize, in this strange neo-murder mystery of sorts. His father is such a prick that when Barkley is kidnapped, he’s more concerned about losing his ransom money than getting his kid back. But…
Punisher: War Zone
It doesn’t really matter if Punisher: War Zone is a sequel to 2004’s The Punisher or a reboot of the franchise. With a drastically different tone than its predecessor, this latest take on Marvel Comics’ grim vigilante tale stands on its own. Where the original Punisher strived for respectability with a top-notch cast and PG-13…
Short Takes
Eyes on the prize Nobel Son star Bryan Greenberg juggles acting and singing Calling from a van on his way to a soundcheck at House of Blues here in Cleveland, Bryan Greenberg admits it's been a struggle trying to pursue a career as both a singer-songwriter and an actor. "A couple of years ago, I…
Elf In Spite Of Himself
Good satire is hard to pull off. It requires the ability to sustain a human connection to what is being satirized while also pointing out its flaws and foibles. This ability to build on the audience's naiveté and step back just in time to comment on the fallout is very rare. As a result, David…
The Italian Job
Every generation has an emblematic screen actor who helps define its era. In Italy, Marcello Mastroianni ruled from the early 1960s until he was supplanted by Giancarlo Giannini in the '70s. The closest Italian cinema has to a Mastroianni or Giannini today is probably Sergio Castellitto. The Wedding Director, Castellitto's latest collaboration with veteran director…
Culture Jamming: Gearheadgame On!
Call of Duty: World at War (Activision) The latest entry in the terrific first-person-shooter series returns to World War II battlegrounds after last year's present-day Modern Warfare outing. And it's an awesome experience. The single-player campaign brings poignancy to a genre usually fixated on body count. Like Modern Warfare, World at War (available for the…
Around Hear: Radio Daze On Tv
The new documentary Radio Daze: Cleveland's FM Air Wars digs up dirt from a time when local radio was so hot, influential and vital that Howard Stern personally visited town to claim a piece of the action. The two-and-half-hour film is an adaptation of the book Radio Daze: Stories From the Front in Cleveland's FM…
Get Out! For The Holidays
Thursday 12.4 THE RADIO CITY CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR Katie Russell pleaded with her mom to enroll her in dance classes when she was in kindergarten. Good call, since the 1999 Medina High School grad is making her Cleveland debut as a Rockette at tonight's opening of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular at PlayhouseSquare. "I've wanted to…
Ludacris And Scott Weiland Lead This Week’s New Releases
Ludacris Theater of the Mind (Disturbing Tha Peace/Def Jam) Ever since his breakthrough role in Crash a few years back, "actor" has replaced "rapper" as Ludacris' top job. Theater of the Mind, his seventh album, is his reminder – to himself and to music fans – where he came from. And, like any self-absorbed Hollywood…
Christmas In C-town
As a struggling musician, singer-songwriter Chris Allen has never had the kind of cash that would enable him to spend lavishly at Christmastime. So one year, his dad suggested he write and record a few yuletide tunes and hand out CDs as gifts. Allen took him up on it. He held a house party with…
Local Reviews
Sindust …Not Trust Mirrors (Sinimin) sindust.com A good two years in the making, Sindust's …Not Trust Mirrors doesn't rewrite the book on hard rock. But the guys deliver a more than solid album that finds the lineup, only recently solidified, coming into its own. "Bottom of My Lungs" has a mid-'90s grunge sound held together…
What Are You Waiting For?
Wallet-friendly restaurants are sitting in a much more enviable position than posh-and-pricey vanity projects. Like $5 mocha fraps and twice-monthly manicures, costly dinners are disappearing faster than you can say "Happy Meal." And the sad truth is, many fine restaurants will close their doors within the next six months. Frank Sterle's Slovenian Country House will…
The Man, J
Early on a cold November night, former Mushroomhead singer Jason Popson rolls into his ex-band's fortified compound, insulated in a black hat and a puffy black jacket. His return isn't a big deal. The real news is that he might stay. Even if he never again works with Mushroomhead – the masked kings of Cleveland…
Against Nature
Among other trends in contemporary art is a notable tendency to stroke and fondle odd bits of material until they die from the excess attention. Cool stuff, no doubt; I'm just saying. As an example, there's the work by artists selected from around the country for the exhibit Hyper-Nature at SPACES gallery. Much of it…
Foodie News
Taste (2317 Lee Rd., 216.932.9100, tastefoodwine.com) has opened in the former home of the Wine Room. While many lament the modifications to the previous tenant's glorious wood bar, Taste is already garnering praise of its own. The expanded footprint allows space for a bar and lounge area, a separate dining room and an open kitchen…
Capsule Reviews Of Current Releases
Australia – Is Baz Luhrmann's sprawling epic Australia a love story? An adventure pic? A war flick? In the grand tradition of old-school Hollywood movies, Luhrmann's $130 million movie is all of these. Set in 1939, on the eve of Australia's involvement in World War II, English aristocrat Sarah Ashley (played with proper stick-up-her-ass form…
The Boss Of You
County Prosecutor Bill Mason has two private e-mail accounts with which he sometimes conducts business, which should make their contents public records. But he's figured out how to keep some of them secret. Mason told The Plain Dealer before the election that he was not opposed to "open discovery," or full disclosure of evidence against…
West’s Side Story
When Kanye West put an end to his college trilogy with last year's Graduation, he wasn't kidding around. Turns out he was more than ready to move on to the real world. On his fourth album, 808s & Heartbreak, West pretty much abandons hip-hop rapping (usually his weakest spot) in favor of R&B singing, with…
Wasted Time
The existence of a book called Spliffigami (Ten Speed Press, 128 pp., paper, 2008) is evidence that it's too easy these days to lay out books and print them on dead trees. Author Chris Stone (really?) doesn't even seem to be attempting humor with his manual on how to roll joints using multiple papers, twisting…
Apollo’s Fire Leads This Week’s Arts Picks
AGAINST THE DOUBLE WHAMMY OF PERVERSION Apollo's Fire rights one of Messiah's wrongs Handel's Messiah has suffered a double whammy of perversion, first by being linked to Christmas instead of Easter, which fits the oratorio better, and second by the "bigger is better" performance standard. As Apollo's Fire music director Jeannette Sorrell notes, the piece…
Speed Thrills
Those who haven't fully discovered Dragonforce's technical, frenetic power metal might assume the U.K. group is a gimmick, particularly based on their outrageous, fantastical album art and image. But the speed-metal band lives and breathes music, practices their craft religiously and spends massive amounts of time on their records. In fact, they spent a year…
This Week’s Concert Picks
More Bounce to the Ounce 2K Sports Bounce Tour at House of Blues on Thursday, Dec. 4 Q-Tip's new CD, The Renaissance, marks the first time the rapper has released an album in nine years. He was all set to release one back in 2002, before his record company pulled the plug on it. With…
Titans Crystal Ball
One of the disadvantages of writing for a weekly publication is the concept of deadline: articles must be submitted a week in advance of publication, so for a sportswriter in particular, this can be an insurmountable burden. It would be like being assigned to write 1000 words on the triumphant reunion of Tin Huey ……
Carrie Rodriguez
Carrie Rodriguez's evolution as a musician has been impressive, starting with classical violin lessons as a child and an eventual scholarship to Oberlin College. But family friend Lyle Lovett derailed Rodriguez's classical ambitions by inspiring her to transfer to Boston's Berklee College of Music and switch from violin to fiddle, and, in turn, from classical…
Peace And Noise
At the very start of Patti Smith: Dream of Life, a documentary about the punk poet, horses gallop in slow motion across the screen. It's an image that references Smith's 1975 debut album, Horses, a still-riveting slice of rock 'n' roll poetry that borrows a stable full of words and sounds from her many influences.…
Chalupaology
Late in the fourth quarter of the Cavs' game against the Milwaukee Bucks on November 11, the team was putting the finishing touches on a 99-93 victory. With less than a minute to go and LeBron coolly dribbling out the clock, the booing began. Another bucket would push the team across the 100-point threshold, earning…
Making The Bland
While driving Monday night, we hit the radio button for 92.3 K-Rock, the alt-rock station, and heard … Blues Traveller? Then later, Peter Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill." Granted, K-Rock hasn't exactly been edgy in recent years – it could make the most die-hard fans sick of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam and the Beastie Boys…
Chad Atkins
After 15 years, Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy has finally arrived. We couldn't think of anyone better to discuss it with than Chad Atkins (a.k.a. "Notquiteaxl"), frontman for Appetite for Destruction, the nation's premier Guns tribute band. They're currently on tour with AC/DC tribute act Back in Black; both bands will be at House of…
