Email Author David Theis

1994 Stories by David Theis

• The Sucking Game

  published November 17, 1994

  The nation can rest easy now; another burning question has been answered. Tom Cruise can play a vampire, and he can do so well enough that you... More >>

• Dummy Love

  published November 10, 1994

  In the night of this night, the people of the lost world emerge from the bayou weed patches and the four-bit flops, out of the jungles and from... More >>

• The Lost Houston of Sig Byrd

  published November 10, 1994

  On a recent Saturday, a couple of firemen were washing a truck outside the fire station on downtown's western edge. It was a hot day and they were... More >>

• Making Change

  published November 3, 1994

  Here's another independent filmmaker's dream come true. Like Hal Hartley, Richard Linklater and Richard Rodriguez before them, Kevin Smith... More >>

• Love Crimes

  published October 27, 1994

  Before beginning the review proper, I should confess to not remembering the title of the new Warren Beatty/Annette Bening film, which I only... More >>

• Love Madness

  published October 20, 1994

  It's gratifying to see that the late Tony Richardson's final film, Blue Sky, is so complex, adult and moving. To see, in other words, that... More >>

• Pulped Fiction

  published October 13, 1994

  Quentin Tarantino's opening move in Pulp Fiction is so similar to its Natural Born Killers counterpart that you're reminded that Tarantino,... More >>

• The Sound of Muzak

  published October 6, 1994

  With the release of the Houston-filmed Jason's Lyric, the wave of black movies that began with She's Gotta Have It has well and truly ended. The... More >>

• Sins of the Brother

  published September 15, 1994

  Current-events inspired movies usually fail to live up to the drama that provoked them. In part, that's because they usually appear on television,... More >>

• Zydeco Blues

  published September 8, 1994

  It's 10 p.m. on an August Saturday night at the Continental Zydeco Lounge and the band, Jabo and the Southside Playboys, has just finished setting... More >>

• A Sad Fate

  published September 8, 1994

  It would be hard to overstate the ineptitude of Steve Martin's new film, A Simple Twist of Fate, so I won't try. The poor, misshapen thing speaks... More >>

• End Games

  published September 8, 1994

  This has been a strong year for first-time independent filmmakers. David O. Russell's Spanking the Monkey was one of 1994's pleasant surprises;... More >>

• Media Mad

  published September 1, 1994

  Forget James Brown. Oliver Stone is the hardest-working man in show business. He's directed nine films since 1986's Salvador, and in each of them... More >>

• Mao Mania

  published August 25, 1994

  In China, The Blue Kite has provoked a political backlash for its bleak depiction of the "anti-Rightist" campaigns of the 1950s as well as of the... More >>

• Surface matter

  published August 18, 1994

  Whit Stillman's debut film, Metropolitan, made many a top-10 list in 1990. With its nuanced, self-aware and hyper-verbal characters, it displayed... More >>

• Spy Games

  published August 11, 1994

  First, the good news. Clear and Present Danger is much easier to take than its predecessor, Patriot Games, though history and casting keep it from... More >>

• British India

  published August 4, 1994

  It was inevitable, I suppose, that India's frenzied level of movie-making would begin to follow Indian immigration to the U.S. and the U.K. Here,... More >>

• It's a Wonderful Lottery

  published August 4, 1994

  Judging by the films he's made -- most particularly his latest, It Could Happen To You -- Andrew Bergman is no relation whatsoever to the great... More >>

• Survival of the Strongest

  published July 28, 1994

  It's a Monday night at the Gold's Gym at the Fuqua exit off 45 South, and Anthony Clark of Pasadena is inside, training with a little circle of... More >>

• Rockets Redux

  published July 28, 1994

  Paranoid Houstonians such as yourself and myself may be forgiven for wondering if Clutch City (a phrase that, ohmigod, is starting to worm its way... More >>

• Living With Lies

  published July 21, 1994

  True Lies is a film whose best moments are not given away by its trailer, which promises only a dated combination of Walter Mitty and... More >>

• Gotta Dance

  published July 14, 1994

  That's Entertainment comes back, bouncingly, for a second encore That's Entertainment III didn't sound like an appealing prospect. Part two... More >>

• Good Combination

  published July 7, 1994

  As its title indicates, Combination Platter fits nicely into the Chinese-American food-film genre, joining Dim Sum, Eat a Bowl of Tea and The... More >>

• No Bang, No Bing, No Boom

  published July 7, 1994

  I wish I could've seen the looks on the suits' faces at MGM, the studio behind Blown Away, when they first saw Speed. We were robbed, they must... More >>

• Robot Man

  published June 30, 1994

  The apartment belonging to Jim Dabbs is just one among the thousands on the city's southwest side, and as you drive through his complex's access... More >>