BOOKS: |
This Book Will Save Your Life, and, whew, not a moment too soon. The writing in A.M. Homes' new novel—about an isolated guy learning to let go and make connections in a collapsing, apocolyptic LA—has been described as both "banal" and "aerodynamic." Critics! Those guys will say anything. If you can't wait for a whole book to save your life, perhaps one of the stories in Joyce Carol Oates' massive collection High Lonesome: Stories 1966-2006 will get the job done more quickly. And since April is Poetry Month, here's a shout-out to Donald Hall and his career retrospective White Apples and the Taste of Stone. If you're gonna read one poetry-career retrospective this century, make it this one.
MOVIES: |
Why must bad titles happen to potentially good movies? Donald Hall's poetry will probably see bigger opening grosses than the unfortunately named Lucky Number Slevin (April 7). Too bad; this movie probably won't save your life, but it looks to be a tight, stylish crime caper with Josh Hartnett, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis as ... well, guess: A.) a burned-out cop on the edge; b.) a masterful hit man. Answer: Does it matter? Silent Hill, a scary movie based on a scary video game, debuts April 21. RV is Barry Sonnenfeld's comedy about a family experiencing a wacky vacation (April 28); Robin Williams stars as Chevy Chase. We hear Rob Schneider has a movie out this month, but, frankly, we'd rather read poetry than get into that.
MUSIC: |
Staff
LOCAL CD: |
LV Grid
Acid Ear (3 stars)
Michael Collinsworth is a one-man electronic band who describes his album as "peppy intellectual inanity ...." Collinsworth is being far too modest. He's put together a tight CD that flows from bouncy fun tunes to dark brooding and back again. There's something here for everyone.
Martin Stein
DVDs |
Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate DVD Collection (G) (3 stars)
$179.88
Planet of the Apes Legacy Boxset (G)
(4 stars)
$49.98
King Kong: 2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition (PG-13) (4 stars)
$30.98
This is a great week to be a primate. Not only has Peter Jackson's epic King Kong hit the streets in a bonus-filled two-disc set, but the vast entirety of Fox's Planet of the Apes sci-fi franchise has also been given the one-stop treatment in a pair of collectors' editions, one more elaborate than the other. In the 14-disc "Ultimate" edition, all of the movies, spin-off TV and animated series, and Tim Burton's 2001 re-imagining of the original, arrive inside a furry bust of Cornelius, the ape so memorably played in 1968 by Roddy McDowell. The "Legacy" collection arrives sans ape head and quite a few of the featurettes included in the "Ultimate" package.
After Universal unleashed a stand-alone DVD package, just ahead of the theatrical release of King Kong, it was difficult to imagine what more could be added to a super-duper collector's edition. Never fear, the two-disc set adds an introduction by Jackson, an infomercial for the Volkswagen Toureg, post-production diaries, a documentary on New York's skyscraper boom of the '30s and a "natural history" of Skull Island. The critics were generally impressed by Jackson's remake, even though it was difficult to ignore the three-hour-plus length and needlessly elaborate backstory. Watching it on the small-screen, however, almost certainly will reduce the impact of the visual experience.
Gary Dretzka