Planet Bard: NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage, reviewed.

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Kevin Spacey and Annabel Scholey in the Bridge Theatre Project's Richard III.

Over on The Dissolve today, I review the documentary-with-pretentious-title NOW: In the Wings on a World Stage, about the Bridge Theatre Project's globetrotting Sam Mendes-directed, Kevin Spacey-starring Richard III.

I couldn't use this in my review, but it demonstrates the Herculean rigor of my research and/or how much of my own time I'm willing to waste: In one of the film's performance clips we hear Spacey conclude a speech, “Counting myself but bad ‘til I be best.” I just saw Richard III at the Folger Theater a few months back (here's my review), and I didn't remember that line. Turns out it belongs to Richard III but comes from Henry VI, Part 3, suggesting Mendes & Co. incorporated some material from other plays into their text, a common practice. The film never mentions they did it, though.

Minutes after we watch Spacey do the line in performance, we see a rehearsal clip where he delivers it in a dead-on impersonation of President Clinton.

French (Double) Dip: Brick Mansions, reviewed.

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David Belle and Paul Walker in Brick Mansions, a not-as-good remake of the French action film District B13.

When I was sixth grade I was in a terrible musical wherein the lady who would become, some years later, my first real girlfriend sang a song called "It always sounds better in French."

My review of Brick Mansions, the subpar American remake of the Francophone parkour movie District B13, is on The Village Voice now. Rest in peace, Paul Walker.

The Prince of Wails: Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, reviewed.

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Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Edward Gero in Henry IV, Part 1.

That's Edward Gero as King Henry IV. I found out only the other day he was in Die Hard 2: Die Harder, a film I loved in 1990 but which has not aged as well as Die Hard or even Die Hard with a Vengeance. I probably didn't talk about him enough in my tangled but enthusiastic Washington City Paper review of both parts of the Shakespeare Theatre's Company's new, Michael Kahn-directed repertory of Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2.

The Chimes at Midnight, Orson Welles' 1965 compression of the Henriad, which I probably spent too much real estate on in the review, is officially, criminally out-of-print, but you can watch it in its entirety for the time being on YouTube. Do.

Closely Watched Trains: Last Passenger, reviewed.

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Dougray Scott and Kara Tointon in Last Passenger.

My review of Omid Nooshin's Last Passenger, a microbudget runaway-train thriller from Britain, is on The Dissolve today. Stars the reductively-named Scotsman Dougray Scott, the Man Who Woulda Been Wolverine.

In Arms' Way: Golda's Balcony and Moth, reviewed.

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Tovah Feldshuh as Golda Meir.

I review Golda's Balcony, William Gibson's 2003 solo play about the life of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and the U.S. premiere of Australian playwright Declan Greene's Moth in today's Washington City Paper, available wherever finer alt-weeklies are given away for free. Read all about 'em.

This Bud's For You: Kid Cannabis, reviewed.

Jonathan Daniel Brown (center, with glasses) plays real-life pot smuggler Nate Norman in Kid Cannabis.

John Stockwell's Kid Cannabis is a pretty good comedy about the intersection of youth and vice and enterprise and a so-so true-crime movie and a reasonably good coming-of-age flick. It's a lot more than you expect from a film called Kid Cannabis, certainly. Reviewed for The Dissolve.

Please Hammer Girl Don't Hurt 'Em: The Flat Circle of Screen Violence

The same weekend I saw both Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Raid 2 -- prompting this piece for NPR Monkey See -- my pal Glen Weldon showed me the mostly-animated G.I. Joe episode of Community. The show got a lot of mileage out of the fact that nobody ever got killed in that war cartoon, wherein an elite American military unit fought a uniformed army of terrorists to a stalemate every 21 minutes using ray guns. 

The G.I. Joe comic book, meanwhile, took a realistic approach to firearms. Characters sometimes got killed, too, although not very often. It didn't get me hooked on guns, thankfully, but it got me hooked on comics. It was also pretty clearly a gateway drug to more sophisticated depictions of violence in movies and TV.

Touchable: No God, No Master, reviewed.

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Handle with Care: Cool Hand David Strathairn defuses a package bomb in No God, No Master.

Terry Green's low-budget, high-ambition Prohibition-era conspiracy thriller No God, No Master isn't quite The Untouchables, but then again, what is? I admired the movie's overreach in my review for The Dissolve.

Ray Wise is in the film, too. I met him in 2004 or 2005 when he appeared in a short film directed by a pal of mine. He very kindly indulged my request for Paul Verhoeven stories. Nice guy.