ON SALE SATURDAY
BILLY IDOL
SATURDAY MAY 25
CHRIS TUCKER SUNDAY MAY 26
CHEAP TRICK, PAT BENATAR & NEIL GIRALDO BOZ SCAGGS WITH DAVE MASON JUNE 22 YES JULY 12 ALABAMA SHAKES JULY 19 THE WAYANS BROTHERS JULY 27 GIPSY KINGS AUGUST 2
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SATURDAY JUNE 8 SUNDAY JUNE 9
JOURNEY AUGUST 28 & 29 JOE SATRIANI WITH STEVE MORSE AUGUST 30 STRAIGHT NO CHASER SEPTEMBER 26 & 27 & 28 FURTHUR OCTOBER 1 & 2 DEPECHE MODE OCTOBER 6 – SOLD OUT –
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[ upcoming ]
may 10: Las Vegas Ride for Reading (RTCSNV.com/Cycling) may 16-19: Helldorado Days Celebration and Rodeo (ElksHelldorado.com)
Photos by RondaChurchill
May 2-8, 2013
Celebrating a successful first year that saw more than 450 performances, The Smith Center for the Performing Arts honored its most important benefactors and community partners during the inaugural Chairman’s Reception on April 24. The invitation-only affair started in the courtyard, where Southern Wine & Spirits served up the signature “Chairman’s Celebration” cocktail. From there, the festivities moved to the Reynolds Hall stage as guests experienced a “Downtown Dine Around,” with food from such restaurants as Hugo’s Cellar, Oscar’s Steakhouse, Radio City Pizza and Triple George Grill. And, of course, there was eclectic entertainment from such artists as Smith Center headliner Clint Holmes, vocalist Susan Anton and a performance by Billy Stritch and Jim Caruso of New York City-based Cast Party.
nspired JOIN US FOR THE 18TH ANNUAL SUSAN G. KOMEN SOUTHERN NEVADA RACE FOR THE CURE速 Online Registration is Now Open! SATURDAY, MAY 4, 2013 FREMONT STREET EXPERIENCE Register TODAY at www.komensouthernnevada.org 702.822.2324
the latest
iHub, which is pushing research and development in pharmaceuticals and startups for medical-device companies. As for Nevada, The Sacramento Bee recently reported that the state’s top psychiatric hospital has shipped out 1,500 patients by bus to other states. This followed nearly 30 percent budget cuts when Nevada already spent only about half as much per capita on mental health services as the national average. These cuts were similar in scope to the ones the Silver State made in higher education. Ah, but we can at least lord it over Arizona, land of anti-immigrant legislation and other lunacy. No, we can’t. Check out AZInnovationChallenge.com. The Arizona Commerce Authority—whose directors range from the state’s seemingly blinkered governor to the owner of the Phoenix Suns—recruits companies and promotes development. We have agencies like that, too. But this one has the Arizona Innovation Challenge, which provides $3 million a year in a competition for technology ventures. Meanwhile, Nevada gave $9 million to an out-of-state ad agency to come up with a slogan: “Nevada. A World Within. A State Apart.” For that, we spent three times what Arizona spends on technology innovation. We could have spent it studying Latin to learn the meaning of caveat emptor.
The Kentucky Derby is May 4, and several casinos are celebrating with events and parties. But the bigger, thematically related news is that the D is hosting the first-ever Sigma Derby tournament on May 3. Sigma Derby is the mechanized horse-racing game that went to the brink of extinction before a couple of casinos decided it was worth keeping. One of them was the D, and the Derby tourney takes it to the next level: It will be wild, whether you play or just watch. The buy-in is $50, and the prize pool is $10,000. The D is also running other race-related promotions, including $6 mint juleps at the Longbar on race day. • Other Derby events include four free racehandicapping seminars. The first is at Palace Station if you can get there by 6 p.m. on May 2. On May 3, Sam’s Town will have a seminar at 4 p.m., while South Point and Sunset Station will both host seminars at 6 p.m. While every sportsbook will show the race on big screens, dedicated viewing parties with free admission have been announced for Arizona Charlie’s Decatur, Golden Nugget and South Point. Make a $20 race wager at South Point to get vouchers for food and drinks at the party. Bet $20 at Charlie’s and get a Kentucky Derby collector’s glass. Jerry’s Nugget will give you a Derby glass for a $10 wager or a T-shirt for a $25 wager on a special parlay card. It’s also selling $2 hand-carved turkey and roast beef track sandwiches. • After discontinuing its $100 loss-rebate offer, Hooters has instituted a solid new playersclub sign-up program. New members can get up to $500 in slot free-play at a rate of $10 in free-play for every 250 points earned. Since it takes $750 in coin-in to accrue 250 points, that’s a bonus of 1.33 percent. The casino has machines that return up to 99.52 percent, so with this add-on you can play video poker at a theoretical return of 100.85 percent. • Are you holding any Canadian dollars? The best place in town to exchange them is the Golden Gate, where you get a 5 percent bonus in slot free-play or table-game match-play, up to a limit of $200 per day. • I never thought I’d be calling a $14 cocktail a deal, but that was before I tried a couple of the specialties on the middle floor of Cosmo’s Chandelier Bar. The Fire Breathing Dragon comes with a nitrogen-treated raspberry that has you breathing smoke when you drink it, and the Verbena is garnished with an edible flower that makes you feel like you’ve just eaten a packet of Pop Rocks. Honestly, drinking these cocktails with a few friends is more fun than going to some shows I’ve been to lately.
Michael Green is a professor of history at the College of Southern Nevada.
Anthony Curtis is the publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor and LasVegasAdvisor.com.
Arizona’s Innovation Challenge rewards fresh thinking, such as MSDx’s work to better monitor multiple sclerosis.
Good Ideas! Elsewhere!
May 2-8, 2013
What Nevada can learn from its neighbors
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nevaDa suPPoseDly has a “cando” spirit. But we don’t do. Any businessperson knows you have to spend money to make money. Nevada claims it has too little of the former with which to do the latter. The rest of the West would disagree. Ever hear of the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative? Check it out at InnovationUtah. com. USTAR, formed in 2006—the year Nevadans elected Governor Jim Gibbons, who was no friend of state government—seeks to build Utah’s “knowledge economy” by investing in the University of Utah and Utah State. It’s based partly on similar programs in other states. USTAR increased funding to the universities to hire better and more important researchers—they brought in people from such Podunk schools as Harvard and MIT—and build better facilities for them. But before you say that’s just more government and money spent on state employees, USTAR also works with businesspeople throughout Utah to help them use the universities’ resources and make the most of new technology. One of the USTAR programs works with more than 40 frms, and the University of Utah’s Energy & Geoscience Institute has 60 companies helping to fnance it and benefting from it. USTAR helps startup companies and works with schoolchildren on science projects. It even has grant programs run through smaller schools such as Dixie State and Weber State.
Nevada’s response is to consider a new higher-education funding formula. The formula purports to help the southern schools, but money will be taken from them and given to the northern colleges. So our institutions continue to compete for whatever drips out of the state spigot instead of collaborating with one another—and with high-tech and other industries—to build the “21st Century Economy” that those of us in higher education are supposed to teach our students to inhabit without the services or skills they need. California has iHub, the California Innovation Hub. Its website at Business.CA.gov/Programs/Innovation.aspx (no “www” frst) calls it “an effort to harness and enhance California’s innovative spirit … by stimulating partnerships, economic development and job creation around specifc research clusters.” Sacramento emphasizes medical technology in a nine-county area that, for example, works with 74 medical and health care information-technology companies, pushing into the future by combining government with business, seeking federal grants and private money, and researching how to connect everybody to needed resources. If you take Interstate 15 south as far as you can, you reach the San Diego
Photo by Balfour Walker
Derby Daze anD PoP rocks
the latest
style
Rachel Moore
Fashion Consultant, 25
Photograph by Zackery Williams
May 2-8, 2013
My fashion motto … comes from Oscar Wilde: “You can never be overdressed or overeducated.”
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My look … is custom made by Elizabeth Celaya, my best friend from fashion school. The six-inch Christian Louboutin heels I have on are killer to walk in, but I say you can never go wrong with a pair of red bottoms. And, the bracelet was made on-set by the owner of the Gypsy Den, KT Cewe. My company … Rachel’s FashioNation focuses on personal shopping and styling for uniforms, editorial layouts and runway shows. I worked as a professional dancer and model, and I was sent all over the world. During that time, I had the opportunity to begin styling costumes for a variety of shows and entertainers. – Jessi C. Acuña
SUMMER SEASON ON SALE MAY 3
PHOTO BY DAVID MCCLISTER
TICKETS STARTING AT $ 24
The Tenors — 6/2
Jewel Greatest Hits Tour — 6/6
“WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC THE ALPOCALYPSE TOUR — 7/6
Dixie’s Tupperware Party — 8/1 - 8/4
PHOTO BY MICHAEL WILSON
An Evening with Lyle Lovett and His Large Band — 8/16
Buddy Guy — 8/22
Jimmy Connors: What it Takes to Win — 8/23
VISIT THESMITHCENTER.COM TO PURCHASE TICKETS. 702.749.2000 | TTY: 800.326.6868 or dial 711 | For group inquiries call 702.749.2348 361 Symphony Park Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89106
An Evening with Willie Nelson & Family — 8/13
The Symphonic Rockshow Featuring Brody Dolyniuk with Yellow Brick Road — 9/6
the Latest
Profile
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‘Who Said Anything About Being Governor?’
Bob Miller talks about life in and out of politics—and about the possibility of another Governor Miller By Matt Jacob
If someone had told 21-yearold Bob Miller that he’d someday be the governor of Nevada, write a book about his life and that a president of the United States [Bill Clinton] would pen the forward, what would’ve been your response? That they need some mental health help, because that would be absolutely inconceivable, ridiculous. When I was appointed justice of the peace, I was about 30 years old, and if you’re in public offce, people say fattering things, like, “You should be governor someday.”
Photo by Anthony Mair
May 2-8, 2013
Sitting in the nondescript conference room of the nondescript Summerlin offce building where he operates his public-affairs consulting business, Nevada’s longest-serving governor is talking about how he can’t believe he’s Nevada’s longest-serving governor. Wasn’t part of the career plan, he says. Not for a second. First thought: Aw-shucks Bob Miller is playing the modesty card. Then Miller, 68, proceeds to recount the early 1980s conversation he had with then-Governor Richard Bryan, who was trying to persuade the young Clark County district attorney to become his right-hand man in Carson City. “Dick Bryan wanted me to run for attorney general, and I declined. I decided to run for D.A. again, and he said, ‘Well, that’s gonna be a problem because no D.A. has ever been re-elected, and you’ll never be governor.’ This was well into my career, and I said, ‘Governor? Who said anything about being governor?’” Second thought: Aw-shucks Bob Miller is speaking with complete sincerity. It’s no doubt the one character trait that most helped the son of a gambling man ascend in 1989 to the state’s highest offce, where he remained for a decade. That improbable journey is detailed in his recently released—and aptly titled— memoir, Son of a Gambling Man: My Journey From a Casino Family to the Governor’s Mansion (St. Martin’s Press, $27).
nightlife
The New Mr. Las Vegas Tiësto takes up residency in Sin City By Deanna Rilling
May 2-8, 2013
Wayne neWton, Celine Dion and Elton John will simply have to make room: Tiësto is moving to the top of Vegas’ marquee. Quite possibly the most famous man in electronic dance music, the Dutch DJ/producer is slated for a whopping 40 dates, including May 3, 5, 18 and 24, at the recently opened Hakkasan and an additional 20 gigs at Wet Republic.
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What kind of experience will you bring to your nights at Hakkasan? I want the Tiësto “Club Life” night to be different than the other nights. There are a lot of big DJs playing at Hakkasan, so I want to make it special. As soon as people enter the club, they feel like, “OK, I’m in Tiësto Land now, Tiësto’s ‘Club Life.’” It’s life as a clubber, and I want it to be glamorous—but not too VIP—still fresh, sexy, lots of energy and people coming together and meeting each other. A ‘social clubbing scene’ is how I try to see it. It’s like those things you have to go to where even if you don’t know the music, you still go to the ‘Club Life’ night to experience it. Of course, the music and the DJ set is most important, but I want it to be a ‘Club Life’ thing where people come party together. What about the custom DJ booth that’s being built just for your nights? I’m working on a special DJ booth, yes, but I can’t really say anything about it yet because we’re still working on it.
Any hints as to what people will see as far as performers, visuals and the like? I have custom-made visuals especially for the night, dancers and performers in special outfts, and we’ll decorate the place completely different. My night is more fashion and art driven—not only highend Dolce & Gabbana/Gucci fashion—but just dressing nice. You don’t have to wear $500 T-shirts. Everybody’s just looking great. Do you think you’ll incorporate some of the creative fan art people have been making? Yes! I’m defnitely going to do that. I want people to bring art and show it, and I’m defnitely going to look into seeing if we can set it up somewhere—when you enter, you can see the art people made, but people can also tell their story in the club. Also the fashion part is very important; they have designers coming in and designing clothes for the staff and for people so they can buy stuff inside. With the current club culture in America, do you think fans sometimes feel isolated because they aren’t part of the VIP crowd? That’s what I try to prevent on my nights. I really want the VIPs to have a good time, but for me the GAs [generaladmission clubbers] are just as important, if not even more important. When I go to Latin America the GAs are all the
way in the back and I don’t like that too much. It’s very important that everybody who comes to a Tiësto show should feel the same. You’re active in the (RED) campaign against AIDS. Since you’ll be in Las Vegas so much, do you have plans for any community-based charity partnerships, maybe a Las Vegas outpost of the Club Life Foundation? I would love to set up something in Vegas for the foundation, because I know Vegas is very glamorous on one side, but there’s also a dark side. I’m going to move there in a few weeks, so I’ll have time to explore Vegas, get to know the city, meet people and try to absorb into the city and get my head around everything,
and I would love to fgure that stuff out. Are there any myths swirling around in the EDM blogs out there that you’d like to dispel, perhaps about not playing Ibiza or the sizable residency contracts here? People in Europe are very disappointed that I’m not playing there [too often] all summer; I’ve been going to Ibiza for the last 12 years, so to not go back there this year is shocking to a lot of people. But I’m just really excited about Las Vegas and a new chapter
in my life, and really try to build something special there and not just coming in there to cash a paycheck—that’s the biggest myth at the moment. People are like, “Oh, you’re just going to Las Vegas to cash in,” and I think that’s the worst thing that people can say. Obviously we’re all getting paid good money, but it’s not just about that: It’s about giving back and investing also in the future and like you said about the Foundation and doing something there. I really want to make it more than just “cashing in on Vegas.” That’s not my goal.
For the complete interview, including why you won’t be seeing Tiësto Soup on store shelves anytime soon, go to VegasSeven.com/Tiesto.
nightlife
parties
palms pool The palms
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Teddy Fujimoto
May 2-8, 2013
May 3 Ditch Fridays ft. Busta Rhymes May 4 After-Fight Party ft. Diddy May 5 Cinco de Mayo
nightlife
parties
liquid Aria
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Bobby Jameidar
May 2-8, 2013
May 4 Steve Powers spins May 5 Social Sundays May 9 The Real House DJs of Las Vegas
nightlife
parties
the Bank Bellagio
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Bobby Jameidar and Tony Tran
May 2-8, 2013
May 3 DJ Ikon spins May 4 DJ EarwaxXx spins May 5 Industry Sundays with DJ Cinco
nightlife
parties
tryst Wynn
[ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Danny Mahoney
May 2-8, 2013
May 2 Manufactured Superstars spin May 4 Jermaine Dupri spins May 9 LA Riots spins
nightlife
parties
1 Oak
The Mirage [ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Amit Dadlaney, Joe Fury and Teddy Fujimoto
May 2-8, 2013
May 3 Pre-Supercross Party May 4 Chris Brown’s birthday celebration May 9 Haute Thursdays
nightlife
parties
marquee
The Cosmopolitan [ Upcoming ]
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See more photos from this gallery at SpyOnVegas.com
Photography by Josh Metz and Toby Acuna
May 2-8, 2013
May 3 Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano spin May 4 Kaskade kicks off Summer Lovin’ May 10 Dash Berlin spins
Gastro Fare. Nurtured Ales. Jukebox Gold.
Dining
drinking
There’s No Need to Crawl The next wave of hotel bars will be front, center and beautiful By Xania Woodman
May 2-8, 2013
➧ What With MgM Grand rolling out the carpet (and blowing out a few walls) for Hakkasan, and Mandalay Bay welcoming the valetadjacent Light to its lineup, hotel bars might be feeling like Cinderella’s stepsisters post-shoeing. Never one to miss an opportunity for reinvention, while all eyes have been on the debutantes, three properties have been toiling away on their center and lobby bars, turning those natural meeting places and pre/post vortexes into destinations in their own right.
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Lucky Bar in Red Rock Resort The beating heart of this casino languished in a “Pardon our dust” coma for too long. Now open, the new Lucky Bar sports a more polished design that allows 360-degree views of the gaming foor. There’s still gaming within this central hub, but the real action is at the bar, where a new menu features signature cocktails, half-bottle club service (you mix your own from individual bottles), access to the wine lists of neighboring restaurants and martinis for two, prepared table side on a guéridon (cart). I’ll order my Bacardi cocktail with the more traditional Bacardi Superior
and grenadine rather than the proffered Dragon Berry and Alizé pomegranate liqueur, but I admire the spirit of reinvention that permeates this whole project. If we’re lucky, the shuttered Cherry nightclub space will be next in line for transformation. The Lobby in The Mirage Fans of the bar and lounge at Kokomo’s might have gone pale at the thought that their beloved perch above the river of humanity that is The Mirage’s main corridor would close along with the venerable but also pretty outdated steak and seafood restaurant. And they might have grown faint when the construction
Swanky additions to the bar landscape: Lucky Bar in Red Rock Resort and Press in Four Seasons (above).
walls went up for celebrity chef Tom Colicchio’s Heritage Steakhouse, slated for a July opening. But they can breathe easy, as those walls spared the Lobby Bar. When I posted up there for a rather excellent Side Car just before UNLVino’s recent Sake Fever by The Mirage pool, my barman explained that the entrance for Heritage Steakhouse will be on the other side of the atrium, by Stack and Japonais—a nice new restaurant row for the property. The
Lobby Bar, at least for now, will remain. Press in Four Seasons Slated for a May 3 opening, Press aims to please. By morning, the new lobby bar, replete with Wi-Fi and oodles of outlets, will feature Lavazza espresso, house-made pastries and freshly squeezed juices. In the afternoon, the space will offer salads and paninis to enjoy over a beer or take to go. But by evening, the transformation to desti-
nation bar is complete. The indoor/outdoor space borders Verandah and the pool area, featuring gas fire pits, trellises strung overhead with festival lighting and tableside service of a small-plates menu that includes throwback ice cream treats. At the bar, the emphasis is on handcrafted cocktails, revised classics, tiki drinks and spiked milkshakes, as well as a garden-to-glass locavore cocktail, featuring Las Vegas Distillery’s unique Rumskey.
PrInce
The Joint, April 26
May 2-8, 2013
“Thank u 4 a funky time,” Prince! Taking the stage with a classic high-collar Prince jacket and curly hair looking like he channeled Jimi Hendrix, The Purple One launched
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JAZZ roots: tHe AMerIcAn sonGBooK
The Smith Center, April 26
into “Let’s Go Crazy” with a packed house shouting an enthusiastic, “Oh no, let’s go!” along with him. “We’re the house band for your party tonight!” he told the audience. His affinity for female musicians was displayed in the form of backing band 3rd Eye Girl—a trio of badass, talented chicks.
Instead of banging out the expected hits, Prince delved into his extensive catalog and less obvious territory for the majority of his set, including “She’s Always in My Hair” from the Revolution era, plus new tracks “Plectrum Electrum” and “FIXURLIFEUP.” The downside of the show was
that with all his guitar shredding and groovy beats it sounded like one of the speakers blew about midway through the set, creating that annoying fuzzy buzz, but it thankfully went unnoticed onstage as he continued for nearly 20 songs. Climbing behind the piano and closing out with “Purple Rain,”
he had the crowd going wild. Making us truly beg for a few minutes for the encore, he then turned it into a full-on dance party. He saved the best for last with “When Doves Cry” and “I Would Die 4 U,” proving that even at age 54, Prince is still one talented “Sexy M.F.” ★★★★✩ – Deanna Rilling
In a scattered homage to a loosely defined idea in the latest installment of the Jazz Roots program, three world-class artists backed by UNLV’s jazz ensemble performed a selection from the generally agreed-upon canon of jazz-heavy popular music that defined the mid20th century. Some novelty pieces, only tangentially connected to that theme, were also performed.
Tony DeSare’s voice nailed the smart and smoky mood in songs including “They Can’t Take that Away From Me” and “Night and Day.” But while his arrangement of Prince’s “Kiss” was well executed, it wasn’t clear if he was going for a lounge hook or making a statement about musical lineage. Then he inexplicably caricatured Elton John in a truncated “Bennie and the Jets.”
Landau Eugene Murphy eased onstage and carried his half of a duet with DeSare in “That’s Life” and made good work of “My Way.” Ann Hampton Callaway’s vocal range and emotive power on pieces from “In A Sentimental Mood” to “How High the Moon” and breathtaking arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” made her performance the night’s standout.
However, her improv, audienceparticipation-songwriting routine produced an admittedly funny, but wildly incongruous piece that had Celine Dion murdering a one-night stand. It must have been a relief to purists when the night closed with DeSare, Murphy and Callaway belting out “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” ★★★★✩ – Kurt Rice
Prince photo by Kevin Mazur
a&e
concerts
A&E
Movies
Meet The Big Wedding’s big cast: Christine Ebersole, Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Ana Ayora, Patricia Rae and Katherine Heigl.
Big Bore
Like real weddings, you sit through the event for the sake of the actors involved
May 2-8, 2013
By Michael Phillips Tribune Newspapers Critic
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The diversions in the ensemble comedy The Big Wedding (that title fat enough for you?) are strictly actor-related, which is usually the case at the movies. For example, the way Diane Keaton selects an asparagus spear at a country club buffet while delivering some dutiful expositional something or other. Or the rumpled panache with which Robert De Niro, playing the Keaton character’s ex-husband, adapts to a different sort of role than he’s used to playing: that of the unreliable horndog trying to get by on charm. The movie’s own brand of charm has its subset of smarm. Part bedroom farce, part hearttugging familial dysfunction, The Big Wedding was adapted by writer-director Justin Zackham from the 2006 French-Swiss co-production Mon Frere se Marie. In the original, a well-to-do Swiss couple’s adopted Vietnamese son is readying a marriage. The son’s birth mother, long out of the picture, travels to reunite with young Vinh for the wedding. Cultural differences and narrative circumstances require Vinh’s adoptive parents, long divorced, to fake that they’re still together. Some aspects of the earlier flm remain; others have been changed or added. In The Big Wedding, De Niro’s Philip Rothesque sculptor character is living with a caterer (Susan Sarandon), a longtime family friend. The adopted Colombian-born son, Alejandro (Ben Barnes), has two siblings, the now-grown children born to De
Niro’s character and Keaton’s. The daughter (Katherine Heigl) has a secret, though the frst sign of fulike symptoms gives it away; the son (Topher Grace), a 29-year-old virgin ready for love, takes one look at Alejandro’s visiting birth sister (Ana Ayora) and thinks, well, it wouldn’t quite be incestuous if ...; meanwhile, everyone’s dithering over the quietly fearsome Catholic presence of Alejandro’s mom. This is an American movie trying, strenuously, to “swing” a little. The slapstick is broad and generally awkward. Five minutes into the picture, Keaton stumbles upon De Niro and Sarandon in a sex act in the kitchen, and it’s like: Whoa. Have we met? Could we get another 10 minutes of setup, please? Hyde Park on Hudson made a similar mistake and never quite recovered. What makes it passably entertaining is the interaction between the stars, usually when the pressure to “deliver” is off, and the banter sticks to a confdential key. Like La Cage aux Folles, The Big Wedding preaches tolerance and understanding. It’s too early to say if director Zackham has real talent, beyond that for assembling an impressive cast. The surest thing that can be said of The Big Wedding is that you’ve seen worse ensemble wedding comedies. But for the record: Jumping the Broom was a lot better. Big Wedding (R) ★★✩✩✩
A&E
movies
Jacked up
This is director Michael Bay’s brain on steroids By Michael Phillips
Tribune Media Services in AmericA, you’re either a “doer” or a “don’t-er.” So says the hostile motivational speaker played by Ken Jeong, one of several supporting sleazebags tipping around the edges of director Michael Bay’s Pain & Gain. What the self-help guru is selling, bodybuilder and gym manager Danny Lugo, played by Mark Wahlberg, is buying with a vengeance. The movie, based on the true story of a truly stupid group of pumped-up kidnappers and killers, wallows in steroidally jacked style and excess. Everything is supersaturated in faming pastels or hot, rich neon. The images are packed with glistening muscle and bright, shiny, superslowmotion struts toward the camera, with something in fames as a backdrop. It’s Bay World. And after an hour of Pain & Gain, it felt more like Pain & Pain. The story’s milieu of Miami bodybuilders, low-level miscreants and assorted human barnacles may be something different for the man behind the Bad Boys larks, Pearl Harbor, Armageddon and the Transformers trilogy. But Bay’s comedies are funnier when they’re funny by accident.
This could’ve been a great black comedy. The script by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely throws in every severed digit, smashed skull and snorted line of cocaine the writers were required to leave out of their Chronicles of Narnia screenplays. Pain & Gain derives from a three-part 1999-2000 Miami New Times series of nonfction articles by Pete Collins. In 1994, Lugo and his hapless colleagues targeted a Sun Gym client for kidnapping and extortion. He was tortured, then crushed by a vehicle and left for dead. But he didn’t die. Others did, later, but not him. The flm takes the usual number of moviemaking liberties. Dwayne Johnson bulls his way through the role of recovering cocaine addict and alcoholic ex-con, alongside Anthony Mackie’s gullible personal trainer. Lugo’s kidnapping victim (fctionalized for the script) is a ColombianAmerican businessman (Tony Shaloub), a smug, insulting specimen, identifed in glaring close-up by the Star of David necklace around his greedy neck. (Nobody, except for Ed Harris’ wily detective, comes
Anthony Mackie, Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson strut through Pain & Gain.
off well in Pain & Gain, but still.) I laughed—once—when, in one of Bay’s many freeze-frames, Mackie’s character is captured with a look of comical horror on his face at the latest unfortunate event in these criminals’ endeavors. Elsewhere, the jokes curdle. Bay’s touch is like granite. The look and nasty, insincere vibe of the picture carries the assurance of every Bay project. I’ll give it that.
Cinematographer Ben Seresin shoots digitally as well as on flm, and the changing stocks and whirling perspectives may not be consistent, but that’s the idea: There’s always something, some grabby fourish or twosecond shift in angle, to divert you from story or character. Composer Steve Jablonsky’s music may as well be scoring Bad Boys 3 or Armageddon 2: Armageddon Outta Here, so heavy-
short reviews
May 2-8, 2013
Oblivion (PG-13) ★★✩✩✩
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In the latest Tom Cruise star vehicle, Jack Harper is a Mr. Fix-It in the year 2077, living and working high above what’s left of Earth after a devastating war with invading aliens. Most of the population has been relocated to a Saturn moon, except for the “scavs” led by Morgan Freeman. Jack knows something’s up when his boss, Sally (Melissa Leo), orders him to stay away from a crash-landing site. Of course he goes and rescues the lone survivor who just happens to be the woman from his dreams. No really. It’s interesting, but very slow.
42 (PG-13) ★★★✩✩
This carefully tended portrait of Jackie Robinson, the man who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, settles for too little. Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman) endures long odds and societal racism to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. Harrison Ford is fun as the general manager who brought him up, Branch Rickey. The film treads too carefully, a primer, a story that protects and enshrines Robinson. It feels like a production watched very carefully by his survivors. Boseman is highly capable, but the filmmakers failed to ask much of him.
Evil Dead (R) ★★✩✩✩
This remake of Sam Raimi’s 1983 cult classic offers plenty of reasons to jump and turn away. Mia (Jane Levy) has quit drugs, and her withdrawal confuses her senses. Her brother and her friends have brought her to the cabin in the woods to cure her. But is she seeing visions of demonic possession, or is this simply the cold turkey playing tricks on her mind? There’s a demon that jumps from human to human, and more splashing of bodily fluids than one knows what to do with. All in all, it’s OK, and likely a franchise ... again.
spirited is its ambient mood. Bay doesn’t have the facility or the interest or, frankly, the moral flmmaking intelligence for real social satire. His idea of funny is a rump-level shot of a stripper getting out of a pool, followed by an abrupt cut to an obese woman’s thighs just as an off-screen character mutters the word “repulsive.” Pain & Gain (R) ★✩✩✩✩
[ by tribune media services ]
The Place Beyond the Pines (R) ★★★★✩
Luke (Ryan Gosling) is a motorcycle stunt performer traveling with a two-bit carnival. Coming through small-town New York, he learns he has fathered a son with a local waitress (Eva Mendes). Luke turns to bank robbery while also trying to establish a relationship with his son. Then, the story switches to the police officer (Bradley Cooper) who is plagued by becoming known as the hero who pursued the “moto-bandit.” It’s a fine film with really solid actors playing well-written, authentic characters.
movies
The Host (PG-13) ★✩✩✩✩
The action is nonstop in this sequel. But do we really want our action to never end? Like, ever? The plot concerns the murder of the Pakistani president, stolen nukes, a frame-up job by COBRA disgracing the Joes. The Joes fight back. Spoiler alert: They win. Sure, there’s Channing Tatum as Duke, Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock and even ole Bruce Willis as the original Joe, but the movie plays out like a video game, and we’ve learned by now that there should be a difference.
This movie version of Stephenie Meyer’s departure from the Twilight series is painful to watch. Earth has been invaded by aliens called Souls. Some Souls called Seekers locate humans to serve as hosts for other Souls. Saoirse Ronan plays Melanie, whose body is sublet by a Soul named Wanderer. Melanie and her Soul become frenemies, and Melanie arm-twists her visitor to return to Melanie’s cave-dwelling survivalist clan. Then Wanderer falls in love with Ian (Jake Abel). And then ... you get the picture. It’s agonizingly slow and just not very good.
Olympus Has Fallen (R) ★★✩✩✩
Admission (PG) ★★★✩✩
Spring Breakers (R) ★★★✩✩
The Croods (PG) ★★✩✩✩
This movie is Die Hard in the White House, where terrorists appear out of nowhere to storm Washington, take over the White House and seize the president (Aaron Eckhart) and most of the cabinet. Their only hope is ex-Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), the only man who knows how to get into the fortified presidential bunker where the hostages are. Banning stabs, shoots and strangles his way through legions of terrorists. There are much better thrillers out there.
Writer-director Harmony Korine is a resolute sleaze monger. This helps Spring Breakers, in which not-so-innocent debauchery turns sociopathic. It’s about four teenage girls, three nasty (Ashley Benson, Vanessa Hudgens and Rachel Korine), one nice (Selena Gomez). Determined to have a memorable vacation, the girls get some spending cash by fake-pistol-waving in a restaurant. But things steadily move into a more dangerous space, with an impressive turn by James Franco as a lively gangsta rapper.
In this fraught romantic comedy, Portia (Tina Fey) is a Princeton University admissions officer with a secret. Her live-in boyfriend, a professor played by Michael Sheen, treats her like a dog—literally. But on a road trip, Portia visits a new-age alternative high school, run by John (Paul Rudd). John believes a promising applicant just might be the same boy that Portia gave up for adoption. Fey and Rudd are smooth as silk together, but the film is only half good.
It’s Ice Age with humans and less ice. The Croods are a brood of cavepeople; there’s Ugg (Nicolas Cage), Ugga (Catherine Keener), Eep (Emma Stone) and some others. Earthquaked out of their dwelling, the Crood brood embarks on a search for a new home. They come across Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a caveboy who knows about fire and has “ideas.” Guy leads the Croods toward a place he calls “Tomorrow” where survival lies. Not a whole lot here, and like most Dreamworks vehicles, it’s way too much.
May 2-8, 2013
★★✩✩✩
99 VEGAS SEVEN
G.I. Joe: Retaliation (PG-13)
7 questions
the most competitive gaming market in the world—the Henderson locals market. The Henderson guests are very, very loyal, and they’re a good group of people. And when they like you, they tell you what you’re doing wrong and they tell you what you’re doing well. If you listen to them, and they listen to you—that’s how we learned about the penny[slot] phenomenon. When you look at the redevelopment of downtown Las Vegas, with the burgeoning Fremont East scene, are you jealous? No, not at all. I love it, because at some point downtown Las Vegas will out-price itself, and it’ll lead to more business in downtown Henderson.
The owner of Nevada’s only all-penny casino on surviving a decade, the allure of downtown Henderson and trusting your gut instinct By Matt Jacob
May 2-8, 2013
Recipe foR small-business success: Take over a failed casino—one that’s been vacant for three years—in a stagnant section of downtown Henderson. Rebrand it the Emerald Island (because your mother’s 100 percent Irish), complete with murals of 17th-century Irish village landscapes and faux stonework. Market it as “Nevada’s only all-penny casino.” Then wait for the money to roll in. OK, maybe that’s not the ideal recipe, but it certainly worked for Tim Brooks, who along with his twin brother, Michael, opened the Emerald Island just west of Water Street in 2003. As it nears its 10th anniversary this month, the 8,500-square-foot casino stands as one of the most popular destinations in downtown Henderson—and a beacon of hope for the area’s future (see Page 30).
VEGAS SEVEN
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You managed Club Fortune casino in Henderson before opening your own place. Why did you make the leap to casino operator, and why did you choose this specifc location? I saw there were a lot of defciencies in the service that people were receiving in locals casinos, and I knew that we could do a better job just by treating the customers better and giving them more. As for
the location, nobody wanted it, and it was a value that we thought we could really turn into something. And it was one of the last—if not the last—nonrestricted gaming licenses that was available in Henderson. On a scale of one to 10, how confdent were you when you opened the doors that you’d make it to your 10-year anniversary? Ten. I didn’t know any bet-
ter. Failure never crossed our minds, because we were just too busy trying to make it work. My brother and I have asked ourselves, “Gee, do you think if we knew then what we know now that we would’ve had the guts to do this? Nah!” Ignorance is bliss. What’s the story behind the Irish landscape murals? A gentleman named Edwin Leishman walked in one night when we were busy remodel-
How does a small-casino operator survive in the 21stcentury Las Vegas Valley? Just by what we’re doing here: treating our customers well. We know we have a niche, so we let the big guys fght it out while we just go about our business. This is probably
What’s the biggest penny jackpot you’ve awarded? $28,000. It was keno. I was asleep at 4 in the morning when I got the call. Whenever the phone rings at 4 in the morning, it’s either a big jackpot or something has gone horrifically wrong. So I was glad to hear it was a big jackpot.
What’s the Strip resort Tim Brooks would buy tomorrow if he could? And who’s the casino boss he most admires? Find out at VegasSeven.com/Brooks.
Photo by Anthony Mair
Tim Brooks
ing the casino, getting it ready to open. We didn’t have anything on the walls—we really didn’t know any better—and he said, “I’m a mural artist.” So we hired him, and we left one night at midnight and came back at 8 in the morning and he had a whole wall done, and it looked beautiful. I hadn’t seen his work. I just took his word. In this business, you’re fed so much information—everything’s data, data, and most of your decisions are, of course, data-driven. But in business in general, your gut instinct is often a good indicator and very rarely lets you down.
You recently purchased the Pinnacle Building on Water Street from the city, with plans to turn the vacant frst foor into an urban lounge. So is it safe to say you expect downtown Henderson to experience a revival similar to that of downtown Las Vegas? Henderson’s redevelopment agency felds calls daily from people interested in doing business in downtown Henderson. All it’s going to take is one good large tenant to come in. … Knowing what I know, if I was a developer, I would be salivating at the opportunities that are going to be available or currently are available in the downtown redevelopment district here. If you think about it, where’s the growth of our Valley going to occur? It’s going to come to east Henderson. But we’re very much invested in downtown Henderson. We’re not going anywhere. We love it here.