In addition to his quirky roles in past and current films (like Hot Tub Time Machine and Alice in Wonderland) Crispin Glover has embarked on his own trilogy of movies beginning with What Is It? (2005) and It Is Fine! Everything is Fine (2007). The third installment Glover plans to direct, partially using his house located outside of Prague. “I moved into this 16th century chateau and next door was a stable for horses that I’ve reconverted into a small studio,” Glover tells Free Press Houston by phone from the Czech Republic. “I like sets,” Glover continues, elaborating on his ... Read More »

By Alan Smithee Conservative talk show host, former Houston City Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem Michael Berry opened his mouth and, once again, hurt the image of the City of Houston. On his show last week Berry was answering a caller that he described as “belligerent” who asked about a planned Islamic Cultural Center that was recently approved for construction near ground zero. Instead of responding that he feels that opening a Cultural Center so close to the site of the World Trade Centers might allow for dialogue on Islam, the perceptions of Islam in the west as well as extremism ... Read More »

“Why? Why would a nice guy like you want to kill a genius? Feeling pretty good, huh? Why? Do you know that the man really likes you? He likes you. He really likes you. But he’s got something in mind for you. Aren’t you curious about that? I’m curious. I’m very curious. Are you curious? There’s something happening out here, man. You know something, man? I know something you that you don’t know. That’s right, Jack. The man is clear in his mind, but his soul is mad. Oh, yeah. He’s dying, I think. He hates all this. He hates ... Read More »

I went to sleep the other night with the radio locked on Coast to Coast AM, with thoughts of genetically modified foods and aliens from other dimensions drifting through my dreams only to wake up to the Home and Garden show. The first thing I heard was “I picked the caterpillar off the leaf and threw it on the ant bed.” The announcer retorts laughingly “That cruel.” “Put them ants to work,” replies the caller. Honestly the imagery of this live radio conversation that has broken through the fog of my hypnopompic dreariness is worthy of Bunuel and Peckinpah combined. ... Read More »

One of my favorite shows on Adult Swim is “Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!” which for those of you who don’t know, is a bizarre, skit-based, variety show created by comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Heidecker and Wareheim act out dozens of strange and hilarious characters but there are also a good amount of celebrity cameos including John C. Reilly as the flaky, absent-minded, Dr. Steve Brule. “Brule’s Rules” is a recurring segment on the show during which Reilly’s character passes on nuggets of weird wisdom to viewers. Brule’s awkward dialogue and goofy antics make him one ... Read More »

Where does one start with Sex and the City 2? The absurd notions of privilege or the total disregard for world politics would be a good place to begin. Yet we’re talking about a review proof movie, one aimed at a core audience as comic book movies are to easy lays, as attractive as horror films are to gore hounds. The producers have modeled a spear of gaucheness and thrust it into the heart of cinema. For a film that runs two-and-a-half hours I could’ve used more than a minute of cameos by the likes of Miley Cyrus or Penelope ... Read More »

by Andrea Afra Looking around the dining room at Fountain View Cafe, I said to my husband, “Notice anything about this place?” “You mean how homogenized it is?” “Yep.” Sometimes, when dining in particular regions of Houston, such as Tanglewood, one finds that the majority of the patrons, if not all, are Caucasians (like me, but I’m 1/16th Cherokee Indian so…I kid). After being married to an Arab for nearly ten years, you start noticing these things when you realize, “That’s funny, my spouse is the only customer in here that would get extra scrutiny at the airport.” It’s true. ... Read More »

The Virginian, Season One, offers above average entertainment. Considering the complete first season contains 30 episodes that run around 75-minutes each that amounts to nearly 40 hours of viewing pleasure. Besides that fact consider that The Virginian is based on a prototype western novel that features a lead character with no name, thus his nom de plume Virginian. When the television version premiered in the early 60s there had already been silent films and two sound films that had portrayed this character, and with top actors of the time like Gary Cooper (1929) and Joel McCrea (1946). Over it’s nine-season ... Read More »

Years ago I worked with this guy who’d made a short film in college about these old dudes who built boats in the Carolinas. Even though I only watched this short doc once I will forever remember a line one of the guys said. “There are three products that you can buy that do what they’re made to do. Geritol, STP, and Camel non-filter cigarettes.” MacGruger is a film that aspires towards that statement. In other words this genre film, parody spoof of spy thriller plus a SNL skit spin-off film (Lorne Michaels gets a producer credit and a million ... Read More »

By Alan Smithee Over at the Chron they are reporting about a block of 14,000 absentee RV owners up around Lake Livingston who are skewing the politics Republican. The problem, as the local Dems see it, is that since the vast majority of the people who are registered to vote at the address of the RV camp don’t actually live in Texas well, it kind of seems like voter fraud which is something that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot takes very seriously. So seriously that he spent $1.4 million in Federal crime fighting funds to prosecute people taking their neighbors ... Read More »