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The Doors: Live at the Bowl

by Buck Quigley
Fans of the legendary LA band the Doors will need a little patience at the start of this documentary. For the gazillionth time, keyboardist Ray Manzarek waxes philosophical in front of a camera and microphone about just how cool and important his band was. Guitarist Robbie Krieger joins in as they reminisce about this historic show that took place on July 5, 1968, at the Hollywood Bowl. Drummer John Densmore is also interviewed separately—suggesting that after all these years, he still feels a level of irritation toward his former bandmates. He bitches how the band never made set lists, this prominent gig being no exception. To make matters worse, he adds, frontman Jim Morrison was tripping on LSD during the show. One wonders if Densmore ever understood what his band was all about. Among others interviewed are the Chambers Brothers, the acid-soul performers who opened the show, riding on their hit “Time Has Come Today.”

More Than Me

by M. Faust
Best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1995 through 1998, Jim Breuer has been a standup comic since the 1980s, In 2008, he was preparing to hit the road for his first tour of the decade. But he was worried about his father, who at the age of 84 seemed to be sinking into a dark place. So Breuer decided to take his dad with him, knowing that he was going to have to be his caretaker as well.

Snitch

by M. Faust
Just when it was starting to look like Dwayne “The Rock®” Johnson was going back to professional wrestling for good (and after last year’s dire Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, who could blame him?), he’s back in theaters with four movies in the next three months. It’s fortunate that Snitch is the first of the pack, as it’s likely to be the best of the bunch, and it would be sad if this earnest and exciting crime drama got lost in the dust.

Koch

by George Sax
If Ed Koch were to ask you, “How’m I doin’?,” his trademark public query, you could accurately tell him he’s doing pretty well. After all, how many former New York City mayors are the subject of a docu-biopic in national distribution? The very fact that Neil Barsky’s Koch is opening this week in Buffalo and other US locales is testimony to its subject’s high profile over the last 35 years. His only challenger for such prominence is another Big Apple chief exec, Rudy Giuliani, and he’s far more provocative and disliked.



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