With ‘Frasier’ leaving building, TV is a little dumber
The end of Frasier Crane brings home that TV can’t do smart people good. In the TV universe, the intelligentsia is a tiny minority in a population of Gilligans and Seinfelds. “Frasier” proved a refreshing exception, and its Thursday finale sweeps off not one, but two smarty-pants from the schedule…
LEAVE ROOM IN YOUR SCHEDULE TO SEE “PANIC”
Hype is building around “Panic Room,” which is unfortunate, because it’s a very good movie. Deceptively restrained in its environs and plot lines, the thriller simply boils down to a woman and her daughter trapped in their home with three male intruders. The distance between setup and conflict is a…
POUNDSTONE: FORGIVENESS AFTER THE FALL
[MRF1] KARL MONDON/Times [JEN2] See POUNDSTONE, Page 2 “You don’t stand up for a felon, you idiots.” Bay Area audiences may not have the fine manners to show up on time for an 8 p.m. show, but they do have the heart to forgive. Stepping on-stage to a sold-out, standing-ovation…
REVIEW: FOR A VAMPIRE STORY, “QUEEN” IS A BIT ANEMIC
“Queen of the Damned” tells you what it’s like to be a vampire. Actually, it gives you a sense of what it’s like to sleep 200 years in a crypt. Despite blood-slurping, a Goth rock score and even the chilling resurrection of Aaliyah as the title character, this third installment…
REVIEW: “JOHN Q.” ODS ON MORAL, MEDICAL ISSUES
“John Q.” is so earnest and well-meaning, and so stocked with talent, that you almost forget the sheer, ponderous awfulness of its script. Once you leave the theater and the charismatic, benign influence of Denzel Washington, you realize your goodwill has been horribly hijacked. Taken hostage might be a good…
“BLACK HAWK” A STRONG DOSE OF HISTORY
The Black Hawk is a helicopter, the apotheosis of America’s muscular might, technological supremacy and military invulnerability. This aura of invincibility took a shattering, lethal blow when Somalia militiamen shot down not one but two UH-60L Black Hawks on Oct. 3, 1993. Famine and warlords intercepting emergency food supplies had…
Time-travel plots bring out the earthy humor in films
I have not yet fathomed the causal link between time travel and bowel movements. Then again, I have not yet determined the causal link between bowel movements and Hollywood entertainment _ metaphorical parallels, yes, but not the direct link that other minds (and apparently other body parts) have fathomed. Two…
NO KISSES FOR “KATE & LEOPOLD”; EVEN SOME LAST-MINUTE TINKERING IS UNLIKELY TO SAVE THIS SOULLESS ROMANTIC COMEDY SET WITHIN A TIME-TRAVEL FRAMEWORK
It’s Christmas, so maybe in the game of bait-and-switch, you actually get a better present. Unlikely in the case of “Kate & Leopold,” however. The version screened to sneak-preview audiences and critics has gone through last-minute editing (some merciful: more on that later). But post-production magic probably can’t fix the…
DECADES LATER, RETURNED TO SENDER
The return address read “Alex Gibson, 32268741 455, Air Squadron, APO San Francisco, USA.” Cara Addison of Rossmoor took one look at the envelope addressed to her maiden name — Cara Gibson — and thought, “‘Oh my gosh, has my brother flipped? He’s reliving the war.’” When she opened to…
A SHOW WITH STRINGS ATTACHED; A TWIST OF FATE, AND A LARGE HEAP OF CREATIVE JUICES, HELP BRING THE WORLD OF PUPPETRY TO ADULTS
NO LONGER considered the exclusive province of children, puppetry has entered the world of adults. From a simple napkin to elaborate larger-than-life creations, puppets have breathed wondrous new life into film, theater, opera and other genres, for works ranging from the mainstream to the avant-garde. With artists crossing geographic and…