Theater/Film Reviews
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Tooth Fairy
With a wrestler known as the Rock turning hockey player, several cute kids, Julie Andrews as Spenser's Fairie Queen come to 21st-century life and a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, who mine the same slag pile for more repetitive nonsense in every one of their many movies, what arrives in "Tooth Fairy" is
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Romeo and Juliet
It's probably the greatest love story ever written. It's surely the play that more people know, or know a line from, than any other. It's "Romeo and Juliet," of course, and it receives a rich, charming, delightful production from the Black Rep. It opened Friday at the Grandel Theatre, where it will run through
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[title of show]
Cute and clever, filled with inside theater references and jokes, and highly entertaining, "[title of show]" opened in the Studio Theatre of the Rep last night, showing off Ben Nordstrom in a brilliant performance. It will run through Jan. 31, and it's a fine choice for the dreary days of January. The title is, of
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A Single Man
A directorial debut for outstanding fashion designer Tom Ford gives us "A Single Man," a film so gorgeous, so impeccable that it sometimes looks like an ad for Gucci, where Ford spent many years as creative director. But actor Colin Firth, equally impeccable, offers a dazzling performance as George, the title character, still mourning and
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The Lovely Bones
Alice Sebold's novel, "The Lovely Bones," showed skillful plotting in the fact that Susie Salmon was the narrator in a story of her own murder. Moving it to the big screen was a foregone conclusion, and here it is, largely disappointing. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens wrote the screenplay, and Peter Jackson directed, but it
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The Book of Eli
Another post-Apocalyptic tale of a weary, wasted wanderer in a colorless, featureless desert housing some colorless, featureless people, reminiscent of "The Road," "Mad Max" and others. This time Denzel Washington is the heroic, extra-taciturn Eli, who carries a large, extremely sharp knife and and an equally large book, reading one to justify what he is
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Grease
Very few, if any, of the singers and dancers who cavorted on the Fox Theatre stage last night had even been born when "Grease" opened in New York 38 years ago come Valentine's Day, and none of them experienced a place like the mythical Rydell, itself loosely based on a Chicago high school in the
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Love Story
Harry and Joan are married, and their relationship reflects many others. It's a solid marriage, but they snipe at one another, or correct one another, and sometimes act as though they're in a constant argument. When Joan criticizes Harry for his comments, his answer is that he's just making conversation. That's part of "Love Story,"
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The 39 Steps
Paul DeBoy may be the hero of "The 39 Steps," which opened last night on the Rep Main Stage, and his performance is deft, properly nuanced and excellent, but it's the other three cast members — Tyrone Mitchell Henderson, Michael Keyloun and Marina Squerciati — that collaborate to make the splendid Hitchcock spoof into
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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
There's more than one way to make a movie, especially if you have the imagination and talent of Terry Gilliam. During the production of his "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," his star, Heath Ledger, died. Many directors would have abandoned the project. Gilliam found a way to complete it, convincing three of Ledger's friends