Author: Jae-Ha Kim

Q101 Twisted 8 Ball (featuring Blink-182, 311, Bush, Sum 41, Puddle of Mudd, Alien Ant Farm, Pete Yorn and the Crystal Method)

Jae-Ha Kim

Just before Blink-182 stepped on stage to headline the Q101 Twisted 8 Ball Thursday night at the United Center, Barry Williams–best known to pop culture fans as the eldest son on “The Brady Bunch”–weaved through the audience making like Eminem. “Will the real Greg Brady please stand up?” Williams chanted as he hopped around on stage. It was a funny moment, but what followed next was weird in the context of a holiday rock show. Q101 personality Mancow Muller appeared onstage to introduce the Portage, Ind., honor guard. The men stood at attention as Wayne Messmer sang a searing rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner.” And then one of Muller’s cohorts led the crowd in a chant of “USA!”

Assassination characters on target in ‘Bangkok’

Jae-Ha Kim

Kong is a deaf-mute assassin unable to hear his victims begging for mercy or the cacophonous roar of his gun as he completes his assignments. He quickly and meticulously silences his victims in “Bangkok Dangerous,” a beautiful, gory film in which there are no heroes–just bad guys and not-quite-as-bad guys. Directed and written by twins Oxide and Danny Pang, the film assaults your senses with its stylized brutality. Set in Bangkok, the picture depicts the squalor of the characters’ lives. There is no beauty in this Bangkok–just dank despair.

Five Questions with … Irma P. Hall

Jae-Ha Kim

Five years ago, Irma P. Hall made a name for herself playing a blind woman named Aunt T in “A Family Thing.” She’s playing another character named Aunt T, only this time it’s a cartoon voice on “A Rugrats Kwanzaa.” The 66-year-old South Side resident, who is best known for her touching role as Big Mama in “Soul Food,” doesn’t consider herself an actress, but rather a former teacher who happens to act.

Guys and Dolls: Speaking of Chicago with Maurice Hines

Jae-Ha Kim

Maurice Hines is a phenomenally talented dancer. But leave him alone in a room with two telephones and call waiting and he’s all thumbs. “I am so sorry,” Hines apologizes, after accidentally disconnecting one reporter while finishing up a call with another. “I never know what I’m doing. All the hotel phones have different buttons!”

Company can’t quite pull off stage ‘Miracle’

Jae-Ha Kim

Doris Walker is not a happy woman when we meet her in “Miracle on 34th Street.” Abandoned by her husband, she juggles her career as an events coordinator at Macy’s while raising a precocious daughter, who is growing up to be just like her. Doris has no time for a social life or, apparently, shopping. She is frazzled, tired and–even sadder for a Macy’s employee–badly dressed. But who’s got the time to take advantage of an employee discount when you’ve got “a holiday to run,” as Doris points out.

‘Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes’ (2001)

Jae-Ha Kim

The dancer is fetching in her slinky bra and harem pants. She has a splash of bright pink lipstick on her puckered lips and she pirouettes prettily for the audience. Unfortunately for the men in the audience, this isn’t one of the leggy, yet wholesome Rockettes kicking up her heels in this number. Rather, it’s a dancer dressed as a ballerina bear in the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular starring the Rockettes” currently running at the Rosemont Theatre.

“Out Cold” — A boring snowboarding comedy

Jae-Ha Kim

What could have been a cute comedy is hidden way, way below the surface of “Out Cold.” Just as the film teases its teen audience with the promise of almost but not-quite-there female nudity, this PG-13 movie dances with the possibility of being engaging. But a recurring cruel streak and a cliched, boring script that clumsily attempts to parody “Fight Club” and “Casablanca” trips up the fun.

‘Chop Suey’ is a feast for the eyes

Jae-Ha Kim

The camera is focused on a group of young friends. Each is more handsome than the next. They have the kind of hard, fit bodies you only find at the Olympics or on the cover of GQ magazine. As moviegoers watch the men, filmmaker Bruce Weber relays the story on how he, at their age, was too embarrassed to change clothes in front of other boys in the locker room. He wistfully admits, “We sometimes photograph things we can never be.”

Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

Jae-Ha Kim

Previous productions of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” didn’t seem as fun or entertaining as the current incarnation, now in an open run at the Royal George Theatre. Granted, this staging of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is much scaled down from the 1993 production starring Donny Osmond at the Chicago Theatre. But this version–the first non-touring commercial production to be granted rights for use of updated material–has a good time interpreting Lloyd Webber’s kitsch.

Speaking of Chicago with Margaret Cho

Jae-Ha Kim

Growing up, Margaret Cho had no pop culture role models. So, she selected Olivia Newton-John as her idol, even though the “Grease” star was about as white as they come. “She was Australian and foreign, so I identified with her,” says Cho. “Besides, she was so beautiful I wanted to be her. Everyone did.”

‘N Sync’s Lance Bass ‘On the Line’ in his first film

Jae-Ha Kim

Envy me, girls. I am in Lance Bass’s hotel room and guess what? He happens to be here, too.
Never mind that we’re surrounded by his assistant, makeup artist, a handful of publicists and a photographer. I think I saw love in his eyes. OK, maybe it was just the sunlight reflecting from the windows of the W Hotel on Lake Shore Drive. But the point is, Bass–one-fifth of the phenomenally popular boy band ‘N Sync–is so charming he can even make cranky reporters smile.

‘Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade’ a war movie without any heroes

Jae-Ha Kim

What if Japan had been occupied by Nazi Germany after World War II? “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade” explores this possibility by presenting an alternative nation. In this Japanese animated film, Tokyo is dark, bleak and industrial. The city is a war zone, with the police and military battling a small but well-trained group of elite terrorists who negotiate their way through the city’s sewer system. They employ women and children to act as decoys. They have all been trained to believe there is honor in dying for their cause.

Can you steer clear of the SAT? Some students work around a test many deplore

Jae-Ha Kim

Here’s how Katharine Callard outsmarted the SATs: She chose a college that didn’t require them. That’s right: She didn’t sweat those SAT prep classes, and she got into Hampshire College anyway. Of course, as a straight-A student at the top-notch Latin School of Chicago, Callard had a pretty good idea of her ability to do well in college.