Film Review

It’s hard to get excited about a film that draws inspiration from an ad slogan, but then those meager expectations just might be why “What Happens in Vegas” seems so much better than it is.

Ditto for Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz, a coupling that sounds like trouble but actually ignites some sparks. They sizzle even when the script by Dana Fox fizzles.

Film Review

It’s hard not to think of a young Steven Spielberg while watching “Son of Rambow,” the enchanting story of a fatherless British boy finding solace and friendship in his love of movies.

Like the man behind “Jaws” and “E.T.,” 11-year-old Will Proudfoot believes the best way to deal with life’s frustrations is to disappear into his vivid imagination. There, he is the hero of his own life, confronting and conquering monsters and villains, altercations he transforms into the brightly colored illustrations that fill his beloved journal.

Since the age of 21, Paul Thompson has used medication and therapy to deal with his schizophrenia. He desperately needed both of them, but they failed to give him what he wanted.

“You don’t get a sense of structure,” says Thompson. “That’s sadly lacking in the psychiatric circles. You have so much time on your hands and you tend to dwell on your illness. The entire day revolved around the negativity of my illness.”

This cycle continued until Thompson, along with three other like-minded patients, did what any artist would do when confronted with a dire outlook on life: He started a band.

Tons of theater for you, from the rock epic "Jesus Christ Superstar" to the Oscar Wilde's classic "The Importance of Being Earnest." But, if you're in the mood for something more timely, run down to Brookline to see Barbara Walters (yes, the one you're thinking of) return to her birthplace to sign her autobiography. But don't try to ask her anything. All you'll get is a death stare.

It had been a long time since Newton’s Hankus Netsky played at his one-time favorite Cambridge club, Ryles. Back in the days when he lived two blocks from the Inman Square hot spot, he and his group, the Klezmer Conservatory Band, felt right at home there.

 “We’d play upstairs at Ryles every two or three months,” he says of his traditional Yiddish band that he founded in 1980, “and it was always a big Cambridge event. But we eventually got too big to play there. We were 15 people!”

 Netsky still fronts the KCB, and he supervises a klezmer band at Hampshire College, and coaches one at Wesleyan, where he got his Ph.D in ethnomusicology. But he’s also performing a variety of other styles and sounds of music in a number of different settings.

Film Review

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a tin can! No, it’s Iron Man!

Yes, Iron Man, faster than a speeding snail, louder than Metallica, and able to leap salvage yards in a single bound. Armed with powers far beyond just a bucket of bolts, Iron Man, disguised as brash playboy and arms manufacturer Tony Stark, fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American military complex.

Wait, wait, wait! Iron Man? Didn’t he rust out during the Nixon administration?

Well, yes. But now he’s rebuffed, re-plated and doing his part to promote recycling by filling his lead boots with a rehabbed actor.