Results tagged “war”

Maybe it's because I love war movies. Maybe it's because I love George Clooney. But The Men Who Stare at Goats, based on a book by Jon Ronson and directed by Grant Heslov (a distant relative-of-a-relative by marriage, but that's not really pertinent), was definitely on my list of most-anticipated movies of 2009. The film, which is based on more truth than you'd like to believe (a paraphrase of the opening title card), follows a reporter's quest to learn more about an elite group of psychic soldiers, nicknamed "Jedi warriors," also features (as Allison so eloquently put it in today's CinePhillyist) "Obi-Won, Kaiser Soze, and The Dude"—a cast list that at once made me giddy with anticipation and totally nervous that the movie wouldn't do its cast justice.

We didn't know how frequently politics and video games collided, but GamePolitics has schooled us. In fact, they covered a protest on Saturday at the US Army Experience Center in Franklin Mills. Protesters were rallying against the use of gaming consoles like the Microsoft Xbox 360 to recruit would-be soldiers. The protesters have their own blog here. Apparently, the center uses the gaming consoles to draw in potential teenage recruits. The anti-war protesters think this gives the children a false sense that war is as "virtual" as the video games. Seven were peacefully arrested after the protest continued beyond its scheduled length. GamePolitics provided solid as-it-happened coverage via their Twitter account, @GamePolitics.

There's something immensely satisfying about a well-constructed play—something that ensures that you will like the play, even if you don't enjoy every moment of it.

The Headless Woman

Just in case there was any doubt left, yes, Robert Downey is in blackface for almost the entirety of Tropic Thunder. And no, I didn't feel guilty about laughing at him. That's because Downey, who plays the Russel Crowe-like Kirk Lazarus, is laughing at himself. It's a ridiculous premise: a multi-time Oscar winner, Lazarus undergoes controversial (you don't say!) skin pigmentation-altering surgery to play the African-American sergeant of the American platoon featured in the Vietnam War-era film-within-a-film, also dubbed Tropic Thunder, that he is filming alongside action star Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), hip-hop artist Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), and up-and-comer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel). So "Method" is his acting that Lazarus refuses to drop character, vacillating between truly stubborn and genuinely confused, often putting him at odds with the African-American Chino, who is upset that "they had one good part in there for a black man, and they gave it to "Crocodile Dundee!" (Lazarus's rebuttal is one of the best lines in the movie, thanks in no small part to Downey's delivery.)

Yesterday's ran a rather long piece called "How Do You Prove You're a Jew?", and while it may seem an unconventional topic for a manners column, I'd like to expound a bit upon it. Have no fear: even if you don't have the time or the inclination to read the original Gershom Gorenberg essay, I'm only using it as a jumping-off point for this column, and I promise not to allude to anything that would only be understood if you did read it.

On Saturday, members of the Philadelphia Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), set off to march twenty-five miles from the National Constitution Center to Valley Forge National Historical Park, "to show support for veterans and service members testifying at Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan," an IVAW event occurring in Washington, D.C. March 13-16. The event gets its name from a quote by Thomas Paine, who said that winter soldiers are those who stand up for their country even in its darkest hours, and will be an opportunity for veterans who served in both locations to give "an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground" in the Middle Eastern war zones.

A steaming hot pile of our favorite things from around the internets.

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

Berks County is featured in one the strangest hauntings regarding road-related weirdness. At Hawk Sanctuary Mountain there is a legend that a shining, ten-feet tall apparition spooks drivers travelling along the two-road lane which ascends the mountain. The mountain, situated between Ecksville and Bailey's Crossing, is also allegedly haunted by the spirits of settlers who were killed by Indians during the 1700s. Meanwhile Bristol - located in the extreme south of Bucks County, northeast of Philly - is also haunted by a road specter. Midnight Mary is the name given to the female ghost that lurks around Bordertown Road. Like a majority of classic phantom hitchhiker tales, Mary, often dressed in white, and usually dripping wet, often vanishes from the backseat of vehicles. Legend claims that the woman died in a car accident when she was travelling home from a prom with her boyfriend. Strangely, although her boyfriend's body was dredged from the murky waters, her body was never found, and yet her drenched form is often observed walking into Manor Lake.

You guys picked the items in this list - which made this post a lot easier to write! And we thank you for that, because we're really kind of burning out on this whole "a list every weekday of December" thing. Why did we decide to do this again?

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend.

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Most Likely to Rule: The Rape of Europa - Joan Allen narrates a documentary about the art destroyed and displaced by the Nazis during WWII, and the attempts - which began then and are still going on today - by museum officials and art historians to rescue and return said art. Sounds totally fascinating, and the reviews are very good. And given the slim pickings this...

Just in time for tonight's party (will you be there?), Phillyist adds another new writer to the mix, this one the very talented—and extensively published—Joshua Valocchi. We'd like to emphasize that we brought him on as a writer long before he said nice things about Editor Jill's place of employment in a Philadelphia Weekly article, and that said article has nothing to do with his new position on the staff. Although Editor Jill may just...

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this holiday weekend (all of these movies open today). Most Likely to Rule: I'm Not There - An "unconventional" biopic of Bob Dylan wherein six different actors play him at various stages in his career. Said actors include Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, and Heath Ledger. Also in the cast (but not playing Bob) are David Cross, Bruce Greenwood, and Julianne Moore. We could see how this...

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the...

When Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales was originally screened at Cannes, the buzz was extraordinarily negative. The word was that the movie was a great big mess - ridiculous and nonsensical. I didn't want to believe it. I really enjoyed Kelly's amazing indie/romance/sci-fi flick Donnie Darko. I thought maybe people were reacting to Southland Tales the way that some had reacted to The Fountain: they were confused by it because they hadn't looked hard enough...

What's new and/or interesting in Philly theaters this weekend. Finishing the Game - We posted the preview for this one a ways back. It's a mockumentary about director Robert Clouse's attempt to finish the film Game of Death after the untimely death of its star, Bruce Lee. In Finishing the Game, Clouse starts a frantic search for an impersonator to replace Lee, and much wackiness and Hollywood satire ensue. Sounds like fun, but keep in...

Fun around town, for $10 or less:

The Attorney General's Office has accused Former State Rep. Frank LaGrotta of giving his relatives fake jobs in order to pay them thousands in taxpayer dollars. A cheval-de-frise (an iron-tipped log that's placed in a riverbed along with many others in order to gore the hulls of enemy warships) was recently found at the bottom of the Delaware River at the Sunoco Logistics pier in South Philadelphia. It's a relic from the mid-1770s, and...

The best of the internet, chopped into tiny bits and grilled for your enjoyment. In honor of Veteran's Day, Cinematical offers us their Seven Favorite War Veteran Characters. Turns out the Movie Blog isn't going away after all! Wow, Winona Ryder is going to play Spock's mom in the new Star Trek movie. Game|Life has the list of nominees for the Spike TV Video Game Awards, which isn't surprising, as Game|Life's Chris Kohler was on...

What's new and/or interesting on TV this week.

"Officers from the State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement in Philadelphia conducted a special underage drinking detail in the Lincoln Financial Field parking lot" before the Temple-Penn State football game Saturday and arrested 31 underage tailgaters, as well as one more for presenting false identification. City police were trying to break up a dispute between two rival groups of young men in Gray's Ferry Saturday night when the young men opened fire on...

Let me just start off by saying that there is a lot of talent onstage during Being Alive. Let me follow that up by saying all the talent in the world can't save a bad show. It's not bad, I think, because Sondheim is some kind of holy, un-adaptable composer, whose music should never, never, ever be taken out of context, as some have suggested. In fact, more than a few revues have been built...

A tall, icy glass of our favorite internet junk, just for you. A handy list for frequenters of fast food restaurants like ourselves: The 88 Fast Food Items Most Likely To Kill You. We're pleased to say that most of these are from places we don't ever go to. But we're depressed to see McDonalds' fries and Burger King's chicken fries included. We love those! (Via Sarah) And speaking of unhealthy foods, how about some...