



My nephew Bernie and my niece Jaime horsing around at Jaime's birthday party this summer. Photo galleries just posted of Jaime's birthday party from July and Bernie's birthday party from August.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I went to see the new documentary "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Dollars."
And after seeing it, I'm not quite sure what to make of what I saw.
"The King of Kong" focuses on an aging sub-culture obsessed with arcade games of yesteryear -- games such as Frogger, Galaga and Donkey Kong. These folks don't play the games on their computers or TV. Instead, they play them on the original arcade machines that made the games popular, either at gaming arcades or in their garages.
Ultimately, the documentary focuses on the world's top two Donkey Kong players (Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe) and their battle for the top score. But first the arcade gaming sub-culture is examined in quite a bit of detail, some it directly relevant to the Donkey Kong top score battle and some of it not.
And throughout the film, there are "spectator-sport" close-ups of various Donkey Kong screens with challenges and near-deaths. Fortunately, director Seth Gordon intermixes light-hearted humor along the way via eccentricities and behaviors of the documentary's subjects.
As the documentary kicks into full gear, most of the background personalities and situations take a back seat to the two main Donkey Kong players. The documentary hones in on their lives, their families and their respective obsessions to be #1.
By this point, the film gets more black-and-white about the two middle-aged challengers, settling into a good-guy vs. not-so-good-guy battle. While I wanted to experience the thrill of competition, I wasn't quite fully engrossed.
Maybe video games aren't quite the ideal spectator sport for this reviewer.
Charles Bronson would be proud.
In the new film The Brave One, it's two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster in a story that's quite reminiscent of Bronson's 1974 Death Wish.
Foster's character, Erica Bain, is the personality behind a melancholic talk radio program that depicts the darker aspects of a moody, personified New York City. As the movie begins, we see and hear this program but only in stark contrast to the happiness of Bain, deeply in love with her fiance, David (well-played by Nadeem Andrews of TV's Lost).
Within the first 10 or 15 minutes of the film, though, Bain's world is turned upside down when she and her fiance are brutally and viciously attacked by several thugs in Central Park.
How Bain carries on in her world turned upside down is the story being told in The Brave One.
Foster carries the movie with ease. She brings a depth to the role of Bain that easily solicits empathy from the viewer. Bain is pretty much walking through life unsettled throughout most of the film -- and this unsettledness triggers a lot of suspense and more than a few jolts and surprises.
Another big plus for the movie is Terrance Howard (2006 Academy Award nominee for Hustle & Flow) as a detective investigating a rash of recent vigilante-style killings.
At the end of the day, The Brave One is clearly big-budget Hollywood entertainment. While it may not get strong marks for originality, it does get strong marks for execution -- in more ways than one.
I've watched the dog about a million times. He barks at the waves and then jumps back when they wash up on the pier... When I got to the dog, it wasn't dog-paddling anymore... I realized I was not going in (to shore) without that dog... That dog is that guy's best friend.Full story here.
As technology grows and our world shrinks we often become overwhelmed with all of the information and activity around us. In my photos I strive to slow things down and emphasize the simple grandeur of the world in which we live.A special thanks to Casey for allowing me to share several of his photos, below.
As the opening play of the 41st season of the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Alan Bennett's multiply-honored "The History Boys" doesn't quite rise to the top of the class.
And that's really disappointing, given a fundamentally good story with underlying messages that were evidently heard and appreciated as the Broadway production earned a 2006 Tony Award for Best Play.
"The History Boys" is the story of eight unruly, bright, talented and funny working class students in the north of Thatcher-era England hoping to pass their exams and secure undergraduate places for themselves at prestigious schools.
Along the way, they deal with faculty members possessing differing styles -- mainly Hector, a rambunctious, fervent teacher of language and poetry who attempts to ignite the boys' passion for knowledge and for life, and Irwin, a new teacher intent on helping the boys test well.
While the cast members offer strong individual performances, there are some distracting issues with the direction and staging of the production.
The eight classmates are presented as too much of an ensemble for the audience to be able to appreciate the individual characters. And this escalates into more of an issue as the story advances in the second act.
The rich story and dialog would have been complemented by rich, detailed sets -- or contrasted by minimalistic sets -- but the middle-of-the-road sets used give the production an inadequate feeling.
The show is presented in a very episodic -- and distracting -- style, with loud early-80's music interjected in an uncreative 'blackout/set change' manner that makes the play seem all the more episodic.
Overall, "The History Boys" doesn't quite pass the test.
"The History Boys" plays through September 30 at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in Webster Groves.