Television commercials are interesting things — often, they serve the intended purpose of getting consumers to buy a product or service. But sometimes, they do one better and become a part of popular culture. If you’ve watched a good amount of television in the last few years, you’ve probably seen…
Was it just the summer before last that Santiago Calatrava brought his genius for form to Denver International Airport with design proposals for a dramatic bridge, a theatrical train station and a sculptural hotel, all in his signature white-on-white style? Yes, it was (“Taking Off,” August 5, 2010). I’ve met…
Cats. There’s not much of a plot to Cats. You meet the Jellicles, with their cheerful faces and bright black eyes, who dance “under the light of the Jellicle moon”; the Ming-vase-smashing cat burglars, Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer; fat, elegant, gentleman’s club-haunting Bustopher Jones; and contrary-minded Rum Tum Tugger. The show’s…
Tsui Hark’s visually sumptuous Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a strong comeback for the veteran Hong Kong wuxia-maker. Magnificent and cheesy, the latest and most proudly absurd of Chinese historical spectaculars, Detective Dee is a cinematic comic book for people who are sick of the…
At the time of this writing, the Oakland Athletics sit at a distant third in the American League West, eighteen games behind the Texas Rangers managed by Ron Washington, once the first-base coach under A’s wonderboy Billy Beane. The A’s have not had a winning season since making the playoffs…
John Sayles’s Amigo aspires to educate more than entertain, but it’s no less engrossing for that. Torn from the pages of history, if not those of Sayles’s recently published, epic turn-of-the-twentieth-century novel A Moment in the Sun, the movie harks back to America’s first real imperial adventure: the bloody pacification…
Many people think of farce as a lesser genre than tragedy or even thoughtful comedy, because with farce there’s no focus on theme, subtext or characterization. But putting together a workable farce takes a lot of wit and ingenuity. Every piece of action has to be perfectly timed so that…
Drive, the film by Nicolas Winding Refn starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver so smooth you start to think he has some form of learning disability, is a perfect cinematic representation of “cool.” (Read our review of Drive) It oozes that shit, both in its underbelly of tone and…
The International Film Series grew a little this year. To inaugurate new secondary digs in the University of Colorado’s state-of-the-art Visual Arts Center, director Pablo Kjolseth chose to fill the VAC’s auditorium seats with a documentary series that runs concurrently with regular IFS screening at Muenzinger Auditorium. Part of his…
Remember when your parents had “the sex talk” with you? Maybe you were lucky and skipped that awkwardness altogether, and learned about doing it from pros like Brenda and Dylan on Beverly Hills 90210, like we did. But what about before the before-the-sex part? When and how did you learn…
Fifty years ago this week, a modest black-and-white movie about pool sharks and the people who back them, love them or break their thumbs had its world premiere in Washington, D.C. The initial critical reception was mixed, but over time, The Hustler would be recognized as a classic, a startling…
Yesterday marked the official ownership transition at Grand Mesa’s Powderhorn Resort: Andy Daly and brothers Ken and Tom Gart bought the ski area at auction on August 4 for just $577,500, plus an additional 700-acre development tract below the resort for $825,000, spending a total of $1.4 million and announcing…
It looks like DVD releases are taking the week off anything worthwhile, but thankfully, everything else is picking up the slack as we start the long historical non-fiction countdown to Christmas. There’s a new book about the assassination of President Garfield, as well as one by science-fiction author Neal Stephenson,…
Angela Larson and Michaele Keyes. The front space at Spark is usually subdivided into two rooms, but for the current pairing, the walls have been pushed back, and the combined area functions as a single gallery. Still, the two shows on display, Angela Larson: Vanishing and Michaele Keyes: Pursuing Motion,…
What has been the former home for a six-foot skateboard mini-ramp, a thrift shop and the coolest garage sale you’ve ever seen now houses 5280 Fitness. Located in the neighboring building of Thrifty Stick Board Shop at 55 South Broadway, 5280 Fitness will be the new option for any sports…
Ahoy, mateys! In case ye landlubbers and scalawags are unaware, today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Founded in 1995 by Oregonians John Baur and Mark Summers — also known as Ol’ Chumbucket and Cap’n Slappy, respectively — the parodic holiday has grown into something of a worldwide phenomenon…
Hey Netflix, er, Qwikster, er, Reed Hastings: Here’s the deal. You can’t send me an “I’m sorry I broke up with you” letter, when I have already broken up with you. After the July announcement that consumers (you know, those people who pay you money for your stuff) would see…
Colorado companies cleaned up at this weekend’s fifth annual IF3 International Freeski Film Festival in Montreal, with Boulder-based Sweetgrass Productions taking Best Cinematography for Solitaire, Denver-based Level 1 Productions winning Best Editing for After Dark, and Boulder-based Stept Productions claiming Best Jib Movie for Weight (the Boulder premiere of Weight…
It would seem the ’90s are going to come back, whether we like it or not. This apparently doesn’t just mean flannel shirts and Velcro shoes; the recently opened Tradesmart, 8500 West Crestline Avenue in Littleton, hopes to also bring you the shopping experience you might remember from that decade…
If you’re looking for the perfect date-night destination, keep on looking. Love, Sex & the Second City isn’t a show for a first date — because it’s about first dates and why we never make it to that second one… or the third…or the fourth. Love, Sex & the Second…
If you think Third Friday is an invention of the Art District on Santa Fe, think again. You can give them credit, perhaps, and Santa Fe will be aglow with happenings tonight. But that doesn’t explain the profusion of excellent shows opening tonight in other gallery districts all over town…
It’s been 40 years since the original Straw Dogs starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George was released, and in the updated version being released tonight, rural England has been replaced with the South, giving the whole thing a red state vs. blue state feel from the start. It’s also kind…
