Results tagged “keanureeves”

The city is experiencing a golden age of naughty puppet films. Hot on the trail of Black Devil Doll is Let My Puppets Come, a fuzzy-felt skeleton pulled from the closet of the late Gerard Damiano (Deep Throat, The Devil In Miss Jones) for The Not-So-Silent Theatre's "Mondo Sexo" this Saturday. If the thought of puppets feels a bit too soft, the very fleshy, very foxy Louise Brooks (Pandora's Box, Diary of a Lost Girl) appears alongside curmudgeonly comedian W.C. Fields (The Bank Dick, You Can't Cheat An Honest Man) next Wednesday at the same locale. And while you're in the neighborhood, swing by the New Beverly for a brand-spankin' new print of The Day The Earth Stood Still (the one with the robot, not Keanu; wait, that doesn't narrow it down!). Given the Bev's massive trailer collection, their accompanying "Sci-Fi and More Trailer Show" should be great fun too. You'll be frozen with terror by this 1950's extravaganz-o-rama, in earth-shattering black & white!

If you are looking for an evening of light entertainment with the whole family, what better choice is there than Doubt? I love priest-rape dramas. Are you like me -- do you marvel at the rare ability of Adam Sandler to not ever make you laugh at anything? Ever. As far as I'm concerned, Keanu Reeves probably would have done a better job of playing the giant robot in The Day the Earth Stood Still than his human counterpart. Yes Man = another slip down the rope for Jim Carrey. The bottom is sneaking up on you, Jim! I wish my life was like Donkey Punch (eg. hot, naked babes on big yachts). Just without all the rape and murder.

Despite sucking and being overwhelmingly patronizing, is looking more and more like a big flop ($4.2M/$37.8M).

In Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood has finally fused his many previous cinema personas into something both grand and elegant. It belongs in the Oscar conversation (plus Clint sings!). Doubt was timelier when it opened onstage years back, but how do you miss anything featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep ( excepted)? The Day the Earth Stood Still might be worth watching if virtually anyone other than Keanu Reeves inhabited the central role. He's a likable schlumpf in a role that demands an actor with a quiet and menacing charisma. Michael Shannon anyone?

Friday night at The Troubadour featured long-time local favorites Earlimart and UK indie pop/rock group The Wedding Present. And, unexpectedly, Keanu Reeves, sitting up in the VIP session, rocking out to the latter. Earlimart went on right at 9 o'clock, with bright, hypnotic images projected on the wall behind them, which included forests, fields, and underwater sequences. An original Ship Collective band whose offshoots/former members include Great Northern and Silversun Pickups, Earlimart are currently back to the basics: talented founders Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray, with a touring drummer. The set included music from their two recent albums Mentor Tormentor and Hymn and Her (Majordomo in Japan), as well as from some oldies like 2004's Trebel and Tremble. Murray is fascinating in her effortless switching from a Christmas-light-strewn keyboard to a low-slung bass guitar, and her mellow vocals are the perfect accompaniment to Espinoza's higher, whispery voice. The combination of Murray's synthesized string sounds and Espinoza's hard-driving guitar are very effective; the dynamics between harder rocking songs like the infectious "Nevermind the Phone Calls" and the pretty "Happy Alone" (reminiscent of Headlights' Kill Them With Kindness) kept the show at a good pace, and is part of what keeps Earlimart interesting and continuously on the radar for indie rock fans, regardless of their lack of a label in the U.S. Steadfast good songwriting refuses to be ignored. Espinoza told the crowd, "You are the reason I live here", and bands like this are the reason many of us live in L.A. (Take that, Pitchfork and Airborne Toxic Event.) Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable set.

The Guitar Center in Northridge is displaying its “Legends Collection” – famous guitars of rock gods. On display will be Eric Clapton’s “Blackie” and Gibson “335,” Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Lenny” and the Edge’s custom Les Paul. Replicas of Clapton’s and Vaughn’s guitars will be for sale – but that won’t guarantee you’ll be able to play like them.

Photo by Sundogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Convincing people to go to a movie theater and see a documentary is a labor of love for me. Folks always protest that they'd rather see something else--something bigger and shinier!--but if they suck it up and buy the ticket for the doc they are invariably happy that they did. This weekend, a truly great documentary unspools in Los Angeles. It's called Young @ Heart and it's about a group of elderly New Englanders who love to sing, well, Coldplay, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, etc. That's right--it's about senior citizens who live to rock. See it.

Molly's Charbroiled Burger, a rickety burger shack on Vine between Selma and Hollywood, is one of those funny little places that is both totally ordinary and totally L.A. -- run by Koreans, with a Mexican line cook, who serve up good old American burgers, fries, hot dogs, burritos, and, um, bulgogi plates. Students at the neighboring film and recording schools swear by the breakfast burritos -- cozy bundles of egg, french-fry hash browns, bacon,...

A bit of happy news for our sister site over in Texas: the Austin Chronicle just named Austinist Best Local "Fun" News Site. Yay for the Ist-iverse! The correct term is babes, sir: "Point Break Live!" -- yes that's right, as in the classic 1991 Patrick Swayze-Keanu Reeves film -- is coming to a stage near you! NBC is leaving its longtime home in Burbank for the greener pastures of Universal City, or Campo...

What if someone made a movie about your high school? Maybe it was a movie about the class that graduated the year before you started school. But even if you didn’t know some of the characters, you are only one degree of separation away. What We Do is Secret, a film about the life and death of Germs frontman Darby Crash, was kind of like that for me. I almost feel like I should recuse myself because I am too close to it to really give it an unbiased review.

Ah, summer is here — summer, and the news that the earth's surface temperature is the highest it's been in 2,000 years. Tra la. Not relishing the idea of a monster utility bill, our thoughts turn to finding a public place where the AC is always set to Meat Locker — the movie theater. So, we trundle on down to the local MegaMechaMoviePlex to see what's playing. Click. The Lake House. Garfield 2. Feh.

Part of an on-going series of posts by people who have never been to our fair city but who want to. This is what they think of when they daydream about LA, this is what they think it's all about.

We tried ignoring this headline and story, but we just couldn't.

KABC has wasted no time in getting the awkward questions, stammered remarks, and best wishes to everyone coming down the red carpet. So far we've already heard them refer to Ben Stiller as "studly", and Naomi Watt's very current gown as "vintage". It's almost too painful to watch, but you know we'll keep doing it.

Speaking of Starring LA, Constantine opens this weekend with Los Angeles, Sunset Boulevard in particular, as it's major backdrop (well when Keanu Reeves isn't spending time in Hell). Hank Steuver in his review of the film says, "Hollywood really believes it's got a lock on the infernal...in the Goth mind-set of who-knows-how-many screenwriters, there can apparently be nothing creepier than a dive/dance bar populated by the demonic undead, in which you'll find your Lestats, your Lost Boys, your Catherine Deneuves."

Then I told [Di Caprio] I had lunch the other day with his next door neighbor in the Hollywood Hills – Joan Linclau, who owns the house just above his. When we visited her out there a couple summers ago, she told us Leo liked to shoot hoops in the wee hours – this she knew because … ahem … she could hear the bouncing ball. The other day, when I asked her about the late night hoop shots, she told me he’d built a full basketball court in its place. Which was quite a production, lights and all. However, she told me that although she was worried at the outset, they've done a great job on the court and that it won’t affect her sleep. And, that “Leo couldn’t have been nicer.” Their neighborhood is pure star-land. Leo lives in Madonna’s old house. On the other side of Joan is Keanu Reeves and one beyond that is Toby Maguire.

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