Colette Arrand

Author: Colette Arrand

  • Movie Review: Bending the Rules (2012)

    Movie Review: Bending the Rules (2012)

    Mostly, I’m amazed that movies like Bending the Rules are still made. That its cop is so obviously shady and its lawyer is so annoying and its end boss so predictable—even if the movie tries to surprise you by proffering almost zero clues—is a marvel of cinematic ignorance. Sure, buddy cop movies are still made and renegade cops continue to be a favorite protagonist of the Hollywood machine, but rarely are the nuts and bolts of the genre so evident. That our corrupt police officers are routinely Bostonian with an unbreakable code of honor merely shows the progression we’ve made from the time when our hero was distinguishable from all the other men and women in blue by his wacky floral shirt and the way he waggled his eyebrows at the end of every sentence. It’s so bad that, at one point, the lawyer tells the cop—who is eating a doughnut, of course—that he’s a walking cliche. (more…)

  • Fear of a Ghost Interview: Davey Vega

    Fear of a Ghost Interview: Davey Vega

    “Spitfire.” “The Ace of Anarchy.” To independent wrestling fans living in the Midwest, Davey Vega wears a lot of different masks (well, not literally), but in Cleveland’s Absolute Intense Wrestling he’s a newcomer, a man predominantly known as one half of the Sex Bob-Ombs with his partner Mat Fitchett. This Friday, he steps out of his role as a tag team specialist to take on the phenomenal ACH in round one of the J.T. Lightning Invitational Tournament. Fans who’ve been paying attention to AIW know that ACH is quickly becoming a focal point of the promotion. He recently had a mind-bending 30-minute Iron Man Match with AR Fox at Straight Outta Compton just a month ago—a match that should be in contention for many “Match of the Year” accolades—and, in a post-match speech, ACH made it clear that it is his intention to walk out of Turners Hall this weekend with the JLIT Trophy and a shot at Absolute Champion and TNA stalwart Shiima Xion. Many fans predict that ACH will go far in this weekends tournament, but those same fans may in fact be underestimating Vega. (more…)

  • Fear of a Ghost Interview: Rickey Shane Page

    Fear of a Ghost Interview: Rickey Shane Page

    Most of the time when wrestling fans talk about “underrated wrestlers,” they’re talking about guys who maybe didn’t get much exposure on TV or, if they did, guys who never won WWE or WCW World Heavyweight Championships. Guys like Carlito Caribbean Cool and John Morrison are frequently tagged as underrated because the man upstairs didn’t hand them the ball, preferring the tried and true over something new, but the fact of the matter is that those guys aren’t underrated, not really. It’s tough to be underrated when you’re on TV every week, when you have a company’s second most prestigious title, when you’re doing flashy, show-stealing moves on pay per views and at WrestleMania, and it’s hard to say that somebody hasn’t been given the ball when they’re enjoying the relative fame and fortune that comes along with all that.

    To me, the word “underrated” doesn’t apply to anybody unless you’re talking about somebody working the bingo hall circuit, somebody sweating and bleeding and putting their body on the line before a packed house of 150 people paying $20 for ringside seats. You can look up and down the rosters of CHIKARA and Ring of Honor and debate who among them is most deserving of the crown, but, for my money, Rickey Shane Page may be the most underrated wrestler in America. (more…)

  • Movie Review: The Avengers (2012)

    Movie Review: The Avengers (2012)

    A time-displaced soldier. A Norse god. A playboy billionaire genius. A brilliant scientist who turns into a raging monster when angry. A former Russian spy. An expert marksman. On paper, a team comprised of six individuals this vastly different shouldn’t work. There are egos to deal with, competitive urges, the occasional extinction-level event. Since 1963, the Avengers have walked the very fine line between being Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and Earth’s Largest Screw-Ups. All it took back then was an assortment of popular comic book characters and the retrospectively brilliant idea of bringing a World War II era hero back from the publishing grave. In 2012, to get The Avengers together under the auspices of one movie took a more herculean effort: Five good-to-great movies serving as pretense, an assemblage of the right actors playing the right characters, and the right director at the helm of so much potential chaos. (more…)

  • Stud Stable vs. Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, and the Nasty Boys (9/18/94)

    Stud Stable vs. Dusty Rhodes, Dustin Rhodes, and the Nasty Boys (9/18/94)

    There’s been a lot of talk on TV lately about eras ending. Chris Jericho, for example, is one of the last of an era where wrestlers valued overseas experience and came to places like the WWE ready to go from day one, which is one hell of a specific era. The Hell in a Cell match between Triple H and the Undertaker was billed as an End of an Era match, specifically referring to the Attitude Era that both men were cornerstones of. Right now, John Cena has admitted that the reemergence of Brock Lesnar could lead to the end of his era. For the most part, however, eras are a tough thing to define in wrestling. Even when given names, like the WWF New Generation or the Attitude Era, there are enough holdovers from previous eras that the only real change is in the marketing, the amount of blood, the guys with the top titles. (more…)

  • Movie Review: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

    Movie Review: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

    As an exercise in metatextuality, The Cabin in the Woods really only rises above mere cleverness once, when the small band of attractive college undergraduates gather in the living room of their rustic soon-to-be deathtrap to play a game of truth or dare. The one christened as the dumb blonde of the group is dared to make out with the taxidermied head of a wolf. The wolf—surely a big and bad one, before the axe fell—has teeth so sharp and eyes so bright one is tempted to think its mouth will snap closed, devouring our poor heroine. It’s a nice bit of tension, yes, but its jaws never clamp down. Instead, this young, blonde woman makes out with the head of a dead animal. She has three audiences: Her friends, the men and women watching on monitors from an undisclosed location, and you. Presumably, all three are titillated, and for precisely the same reason: Something pristine, unspoiled, and innocent (remember, blonde hair is a trigger for sympathy) is being deflowered by something wild, merciless, and foreboding. (more…)