Kevin Smith’s supposed comedy, Cop Out, aims to be a big-budget action movie but falls flat with a potentially talented but ultimately disappointing cast. Combine Smith’s lackluster directing efforts with a poor script written by Mark and Robb Cullen and mediocre performances by both Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and you have a two-hour long movie that feels more like four, with only a handful of scenes that are laugh-out-loud-worthy.
Arts & Entertainment
Keep up to date on local art, new albums, and everything entertainment-related.
CD REVIEWS: Holly Miranda: The Magician’s Private Library
Holly Miranda is better known as the frontwoman for The Jealous Girlfriends, a Brooklyn-based rock band. Now flying solo, the indie-pop newcomer’s full-length debut, The Magician’s Private Library, shows that she’s got a flavour of her own. Produced by Dave Siteck of TV on the Radio, the album was reportedly recorded primarily between 7 p.
CD REVIEWS: Rebecca Ramone: The Flood
Rebecca Ramone’s debut EP, The Flood, doesn’t start with a bang. Instead, the opening track features a repeating blues riff beneath Ramone’s delicate-yet-strong voice. The song shifts when the blues riff accelerates, hitting a grungy overdrive with thrashing symbols.
Far from home and close to danger in the Gaza Strip
Rachel, a new documentary from French-Israeli director Simone Bitton, tells the story of Rachel Corrine, an American activist who was killed while attempting to prevent the bulldozing of a Palestinian home in 2003. To this day Israel denies responsibility for her death, claiming the bulldozer operator’s line of sight was obstructed by the mound of dirt that crushed her.
Valentine’s Day sucks
On Friday, I lost a bet with an A&E editor. Two days later, I was by myself, waiting in a long line of moon-eyed couples at the AMC Forum, ready to review Garry Marshall’s newest film, Love, Actually II. Wait, no, that was the working title. I mean Valentine’s Day, starring everyone you would expect.
Colm Tóibín, the award-winning Irish writer, on crafting prose
Colm Tóibín is a writer fascinated by other writers. Tóibín, the award-winning Irish journalist and author, first considered writing a novel after reading the work of other journalists who wrote fiction: Ernest Hemingway, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, and V.
Fear and loathing just outside of Las Vegas
It’s been said that there’s only two different types of stories: either the protagonist leaves his or her old life, or someone new enters it. Oversimplified? Yes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any truth to it. In the case of Saint John of Las Vegas, it’s both.
CD REVIEWS: Hot Chip: One Life Stand
Hot Chip’s soft electropop is anything but middle of the road – it’s love or hate. One Life Stand is their fourth studio album, and is a mixed bag of standout tracks and one-listen flops. The album begins with a strong opening track called “Thieves in the Night,” which starts off sounding like Coldplay’s X&Y era.
POP RHETORIC: A Show of Patriotism
As the Vancouver Winter Olympics get underway, Canada’s national pride is glowing with the prospect of success. After months of commercials and merchandise sales leading up to the games. the moment we’d all been waiting for finally came. Given the fatal crash of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili earlier that day, the mood was both respectfully sombre and giddy with excitement for the upcoming games.
A group of Jolly Rogers take the stage in The Pirates of Penzance
The McGill Savoy Society’s presentation of The Pirates of Penzance both delights and entrances the audience with light-hearted charm. The Pirates of Penzance, or, The Slave of Duty is a late 19th-century comic opera, featuring the work of Gilbert & Sullivan.
