Like director Brian Levant’s Snow Dogs (2002) and Are We There Yet? (2005), The Spy Next Door is immediately forgettable family entertainment. Jackie Chan, game as ever, stars as Bob Ho, an undercover CIA agent from China posing as a sweater-vested pen importer who offers to mind the three kids of his Albuquerque next-door-neighbor sweetheart, Gillian (Amber Valletta), while she’s…
Cults collide as Peter “Lord of the Rings” Jackson tackles Alice Sebold’s best-selling New Age gothic, the story of a rape and murder and its aftermath, narrated from heaven by its 14-year-old victim. The movie, starring Saoirse Ronan as the teenage Susie, is horrific yet cloying, sometimes poignant and often ridiculous. Published in the aftermath of 9/11, The Lovely Bones…
Allen and Albert Hughes’ fourth film, The Book of Eli, centers on the Christianity that was at the margins of their previous films (Dead Presidents, Menace II Society). As in The Road, The End has terminally desaturated the world’s palette. Only a few tattered product placements have managed to survive. On the road, Denzel Washington’s Eli has become an expert at using his wickedly quick machete arm to ward off roving bands of highwaymen from his precious cargo: the…
Harry Caine, the blind, middle-aged filmmaker in Broken Embraces, admits: “Everything has already happened to me. All that’s left is to enjoy life.” ¡Sí! His own sights set low these days in his latest movie, reformed bad-boy Pedro Almodóvar has at least hit on a vivid metaphor for his diminished condition. Three decades into his career as a name-brand fashioner…
Too much is never enough for fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford, whose debut feature flaunts its capital-A Artiness the way some Napoleonic gym rats flaunt their overdeveloped musculature. He prefers art direction over actual direction, and extravagant surfaces over the lower depths of meaning and emotion. Based on Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, Ford’s A Single Man is nothing if…
Whiskey and women: They’re what country music is all about. Giving a twangy twist to the finer things in life, Lawrence band Deadman Flats serenades fans with bluegrass ditties that celebrate cheap beer and fast cars with seedy charm. Infusing their songs with crass humor and punk fury, members Alex Law, Hank Osterhout, Matt Stambaugh and Pat Watt proudly revel…
Sometimes the best way to move forward is to take a step back. Dale Watson’s sound may influenced by western swing, but don’t call it retro — it’s more like Watson is rescuing Nashville from its own worst impulses by returning to a time before country music lost its way. Unlike trucker-cap-sporting hipsters, Watson has a reverence that abhors irony,…
The members of the Kinetiks firmly believe in the power of motion. With a rhythm section that demands ass shaking and vocals that vibrate with intensity, the Lawrence foursome bridges the gap between the catchy dance-pop of the ’80s and the acerbic alternative rock of the ’90s. Sparkling synthesizer and bouncing bass lines are punctuated with erupting guitars as frontwoman…
It’s a new year, and there’s a new Majestic steak joint at Ninth Street and Broadway. No, not the New Majestic Steakhouse. That’s what former owner Doug Barnard called the legendary old saloon and brothel at 931 Broadway after he took it over in 1993; before Barnard, a couple of ambitious but unsuccessful restaurateurs had operated a place called Fitzpatrick’s…
There is something wonderful about stumbling upon a new alternative country act that gets it right. The Blessed Broke isn’t fancy. Instead, the local duo produces no-frills Americana, avoiding the boozy melodrama of many alternative country bands in favor of stark narrative numbers. Featuring the occasional murder ballad (“Bloody Lafayette”), the Blessed Broke’s self-titled debut is soaked in the gloomy…
What began as bonus material for the Flaming Lips’ album Embryonic blossomed into a reimagining of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Tapping fellow experimental Okies Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the Flaming Lips make glorious, playful hash of the revered 1973 concept album. Where byzantine synth sequences, gospel choirs and histrionic sax solos made up Pink Floyd’s original…
Not many rap artists begin albums by talking about divorce. Never one to shy away from the serious and personal, local wordsmith MilkDrop (also known as John-Alan Suter) raps with equal passion about the city’s hip-hop scene (“Dirty Is”) and fatherhood (“While He Sleeps”). Falling Back to Earth, a follow-up to the prolific MC’s 2009 release, Rise Before the Fall,…
Taylor Holman was walking along East Armour Boulevard and Cherry on Sunday, September 13, when he was shot in the chest with a .22-caliber bullet. The 20-year-old later died at the hospital. For the residents of Hyde Park, the crime was hardly unusual. In the first quarter of 2009, Kansas City police listed the corner of Armour and Troost, a…
Architects, engineers, builders and students used their imaginations and non-perishable food items to build playful sculptures. The exhibit, CANstruction, opens to the public on Friday and benefits Harvesters, the food bank. A preview party (admission: $20) takes place at 5:30 p.m. today Click here to see a slideshow. Categories: News Tags: canstruction, harvesters, Kansas City, kansas city, Marilyn Monroe, union…
Jay Reatard, born Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., was found dead in his home in Memphis around 3:30AM this morning. The cause of his death isn’t known, though Goner Records and Matador Records are reporting that he died in his sleep. Establishing a growing following as an indie-punk garage rocker, Reatard recently signed to Matador records, who released his album Watch…
The Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca made a lot of year-end best-of lists (including mine). Now, the band is willing to let you have some of their music for free. The “Ascending Melody” single is available for download from the band’s website, or you can buy it from Domino. The single has the songs “Ascending Melody” and “Emblem Of The World.”…
You just knew that Pat Robertson would say something stupid about the 7.0 earthquake that killed more than 100,000 people in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. In the video above, Robertson tells the “true story” of the Haitian people swearing “a pact to the devil” to free themselves from French rule. “But ever since, they’ve been cursed by one thing after the other,”…
Architects, engineers and students used their imagination to build sculptures out of non-perishable food items. The exhibit, CANstruction, opens January 15 and benefits Harvesters, the food bank.
The struggle in Hyde Park among Section 8 landlords, renters and homeowners is the subject of this week’s feature story (“Battle on Armour”). One complaint is that some neighborhood residents believe out-of-town landlords are filling buildings with only low-income tenants and creating the perfect conditions to attract crime. Arguing over who’s the best tenant for the boulevard is nothing new….
Ash From Sweat is soon releasing Giant Eyeball’s …could be from the time I messed with Texas. The album is a sprawling double CD that covers four years’ worth of recordings, done all over the city of Denver. The label describes the collection as: Somewhat a concept album about a road trip across the American south defined through classic Greek…
It’s always nice to drink to new beginnings — and Boulevard toasts its first collaboration, appropriately titled Collaboration No. 1, on Monday night at the Oread Hotel’s Bird Dog Bar in Lawrence. Brewmaster Steven Pauwels joins Jean Marie-Rock, brewmaster at the Belgian brewery Orval, to toast the release of the limited-edition Imperial Pilsner from 8 to 10 p.m. The Smokestack…
Inman Police Chief Michael Leland Akins Jr. has been charged with sexually abusing four children under the age of 14 in McPherson County, Kansas. Kansas Attorney General Steve Six announced today that Akins is charged 19 counts of sex crimes and two counts of battery against three girls and a boy between December 2008 and December 2009. Categories: News Tags:…
