Whether it will be the redheaded stepchild of the Strip is something that time will tell, but the Regional Transportation Commission gives birth July 7 to its own double-decker bus, following a privately owned venture that put rubber to the pavement in May. Unlike the earlier British transplants, the RTC's bus will be covered on top and have air-conditioning. To celebrate the arrival, bibs and baby bottles were sent to media outlets. Here at the Weekly, we quickly filled our bottle with a martini (vodka, not gin; sorry, Oscar) and have attached the bib around the neck of our intern—he's a messy eater.
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Susan Andersen's latest book, Skintight, is about, as near as we can figure, a showgirl who owns a rare baseball and the guy who tries to steal it from her, only to fall in love. But we don't care about that, we only care that it's set in Vegas!
"Celine Dion's voice soared in the air as the cab veered over to the curb, and Treena's head came up as she sauntered over to join him. 'Oh, look,' she said, 'it's the fountain show at Bellagio.' She gave a good-natured shrug. 'Well, it's the tip of it, anyhow. What is that, the theme song from Titanic? I love that song.' She began to sing along as he held the door for her."
"The bouncer at the door had recognized Treena and waved the two of them to the front of the line ... and then added insult to injury by giving them the locals' discount on the cover charge when he'd planned to impress her by buying the VIP package."
"I've lived here thirteen years and have never done a fraction of the tourist things that people come to Las Vegas to do. I haven't been to the top of the Eiffel Tower at the Paris, or seen the Liberace museum. I missed my chance at Siegfried & Roy while there still was a Roy. And I've never been to Hoover Dam."
"'I only ask because I made us a reservation at Lawry's The Prime Rib, and if you've ever been there you probably know you can have anything you want—as long as it's prime rib.'"
DVDs |
Cake Boy (NR) (3 stars)
$16.98
Joe Escalante and Warren Fitzgerald's Cake Boy can be enjoyed as a parody of celebrity chefs and the Food Network, or simply as extremely messy, wacko fun. Selwyn Hillis, a baker of erotic cakes, is allowed to realize his greatest fantasy—participating in an Iron Chef-style cook-off in Paris—but not before coming to terms with a ruthlessly abusive wife, the humiliation of being a roadie for a sadistic rock band, and the misconstrued intentions of a wheelchair-bound stalker. Yup, it's Rocky in an apron. Cake Boy, made specifically for DVD, comes with a free soundtrack CD, including songs from Vandals Escalante and Fitzgerald.
Film Noir Classic Collection: Vol. 2 (NR) (4 stars)
$49.92
The titles in Warners' second five-disc box of tasty noir treats may not be as familiar as those in Vol. 1, but they're every bit as entertaining. Indeed, Born to Kill, Clash by Night, Crossfire, Dillinger and The Narrow Margin almost defined what it meant to be a B-movie when double-features weren't as rare as diamonds in a doughnut. Again, each disc is accompanied by expert commentary from film historians and interviews with such talents as Robert Wise, Peter Bogdanovich, Fritz Lang, Edward Dmytryk, John Milius, William Friedkin and Richard Fleischer. The restorative work is typically excellent, as well.
Point Blank (NR) (4 stars)
$19.97
When Donald E. Westlake writes novels in the voice of Richard Stark, loyal readers know to expect a rough ride. Here, one of the cinema's greatest tough guys, Lee Marvin, played Stark's human killing-machine, Parker. Fresh out of prison, he's seeking revenge on the mobsters and molls who stiffed him out of the $93,000 owed him from a heist ... nothing more, nothing less. John Boorman's neo-noir classic was adapted from Stark's freshman novel, The Hunter, which also provided the source material in 1999 for Payback. All that noisy remake proved was that, while Mel Gibson may be able to take and throw a punch, he's no match for Lee Marvin. But, then, who is?