Taken to the Cleaners: Subpar revenge flick will have you begging for mercy

Posted inCulture

Taken to the Cleaners: Subpar revenge flick will have you begging for mercy

Mike Bookey

It says it's from Justin Timberlake. Taken completely lives up to its title. You will feel taken for every penny you spent and every second you wasted sitting through this movie. It definitely will make my top ten worst movie list for 2009. Taken will stretch your patience like a balloon to the popping point. Not to mention the paranoid message it sends to anyone considering a vacation in Europe.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is a retired moody guy with a secret past. It's never clear as to where he retired from. Mercenaries? CIA Black Ops? Secret agent school? He refers to himself as "a preventer," so you be the judge. He wants to become closer to his daughter Kim (Maggie Grace), and then overprotects her, much to the dismay of his ex-wife (Famke Janssen) and her new husband (Xander Berkeley). The first 20 minutes setup of sad divorce woes and cute eye glances between Mills and Kim were way too cute and excruciatingly long. The 50-minute wedding scene in Deer Hunter suddenly didn't seem so bad. A subplot has Mills moonlighting as a bodyguard to Kim's favorite chick rock star, an attempt to bring them all together. But then Kim goes and gets kidnapped on a European trip and Mills has to go all Rambo using his special "skills" to save her from a white slave trade syndicate (of course). So with spy-gizmos, big fists and guns a blazin', Mills heads off to Paris.

Posted inCulture

Scared Skinny: South Korean thriller retread is good for token frights

Mike Bookey

Rub a dub dub. By the time young Emily Browning - the Australian waif who stars in The
Uninvited - sees her 8th or 9th scary, decaying corpse come to life I
begin to wonder if anyone ever considered late-stage anorexia as a
cause for these hallucinations. Between last month's The Unborn
(featuring the sharp-hipped Odette Yustman) and this movie, I am now
certain that a steady diet of pizza and pancakes can ward off ghosts.

Unfortunately
the requisite beanpole heroine isn't the only well-beaten path that
this film walks. Like other post-holiday horror releases we're treated
to basic thriller formulas, teen drinking, PG-13 half-nudity - along
with more scared-stiff and seemingly starving protagonists who should
probably stop at a deli on the way to the police station.

Posted inFood & Drink

Aprรจs-Ski, Central Oregon Style: Slopeside dining at Bachelor’s Clearing Rock

Alice Finer

Let's face it, Bend is no Aspen thankfully and Mt. Bachelor is no Snowmass. Sure, we've got top-tier dining and upscale boutiques in town. But our ski hill is for playing hard and, of course, throwing back a few between runs, but certainly not for posing. The Clearing Rock Bar at Bachelor's West Village Lodge is the perfect metaphor for just how distinctly un-Colorado we are here in Central Oregon. With its friendly staff of locals, utilitarian décor, and predominately beer-drinking crowd (okay, you'll see a few drinks with whipped cream on top here and there), the place smacks more of a watering hole downtown than a place to sip a hot toddy by the fire though such a scenario is attainable if that's your flavor.

Posted inFood & Drink

Aprรจs-Ski, Central Oregon Style: Slopeside dining at Bachelor’s Clearing Rock

Alice Finer

Let’s face it, Bend is no Aspen thankfully and Mt. Bachelor is no Snowmass. Sure, we’ve got top-tier dining and upscale boutiques in town. But our ski hill is for playing hard and, of course, throwing back a few between runs, but certainly not for posing. The Clearing Rock Bar at Bachelor’s West Village Lodge is the perfect metaphor for just how distinctly un-Colorado we are here in Central Oregon. With its friendly staff of locals, utilitarian décor, and predominately beer-drinking crowd (okay, you’ll see a few drinks with whipped cream on top here and there), the place smacks more of a watering hole downtown than a place to sip a hot toddy by the fire though such a scenario is attainable if that’s your flavor.

Posted inMusic

Straight Pimpin’

The Source Staff

 
It's somewhat difficult to take a band with an intentionally goofy
name like The Pimps of Joytime all that seriously. But you should
because the Brooklyn-based troupe can seriously funk your face and ass
right off your body. Seriously. Well, not literally, but you get the
point.

Fronted by guitarist, vocalist and all around studio hound
Brian J, the band, which features a live lineup as culturally diverse
as the band's sound, offers up not just a dance party, but a
sophisticated dance party. Funk-laced music oftentimes runs the risk of
falling back on the conventions of its genre, and while it's usually
skillfully played and danceable, some funk sounds poured straight out
of a can. What the Pimps do is spread their funkiness across a span of
genres including salsa, hip-hop and soul while Brian J ties it all
together in the studio with an edgy modern approach to his production.

Posted inCulture

Our Picks for the Week of 2/4-2/12

The Source Staff

My Own Two Feet

thursday 5
We thought we'd take another stab at
getting the word out about the premiere showing of this snowboard flick
that forsake flashy helicopter shots and snow cat transportation for
simple human power…as in walking and such. A DJ will start spinning
after the screening as ski and snowboard films play in the background
to keep the dance party pumping. Oh, and there's plenty of free stuff
to be given away! 6pm, The Summit Saloon and Stage, 125 NW Oregon Ave.
$6, $10/two.
Reading the Wonder of Kesey's Notion
thursday 5
Here's
something you probably didn't know: one of the greatest American novels
was written and takes place right here in Oregon. We're talking about
none other than Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion and at this
discussion, University of Oregon professor David Scott Arnold takes an
in-depth look at the novel. 6:30pm. Bend Public Library, Brooks Room,
601 NW Wall St.

Posted inNews

Smoked Out: A look at the first month of a smoke-free Oregon

The Source Staff

On the last Friday afternoon of January - which happens to be an unusually warm one - about a dozen folks are lined up at the bar and scattered around the tables of the M&J Tavern on Greenwood. The scene probably would have been the same a year ago. Sports highlights flash across the flat-screen television mounted above the bar as peanuts are consumed steadily and the shells tossed freely to the concrete floor. But what's absent is the smoky haze that once hung around the ceiling of the Greenwood Avenue tavern.

It's been a month since Oregon, like more than 20 states before it,
extended a ban on workplace smoking to include previously exempt
establishments like bars and bowling alleys. The measure, which was
passed by the Oregon Legislature more than a year and a half ago but
just took effect on January 1, is a step forward for Oregon's tobacco
control reputation, but public health and anti-tobacco organizations
say the state has a long way to go.

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