Crazy Cinema—Cinema Loco returns to the Gorilla Tango Theater on Friday, Jan. 20. Beginning at 10 p.m., Cinema Loco will unspool a secret movie on the big screen. Neither the audience nor the Gorilla Tango actors will know what the film is in advance. Someone in the audience will be asked to provide a new title for the film, and then it's up to the Cinema Loco crew to improvise new, on-the-spot dialogue for the entire film. This is a one-of-a-kind, never-to-be-repeated comedy event. The rating on this late-night screening is R, so be prepared for some raunchy ribtickling. Tickets are available at www.gorillatango.com or at the Gorilla Tango box office (519 Central NW).

Top 10 DVDs of 2005

As always, the end of the year brings an obligatory rush of “best of” lists. Everything from last year's hairdos to videogames are being placed into numerical order so that you, dear reader, can be at peace with the knowledge that you were into this stuff back when it first became cool. Not to be outdone, my crack team of trained video monkeys and I have buried ourselves deep in the dark catacombs of Burning Paradise Video compiling the official VideoNasty list of the 10 best DVD releases of 2005. Please feel free to adjust your personal tastes accordingly.

Where Chairman Mao meets Uncle Walt

There's a perfect, telling image toward the beginning of Jia Zhangke's quietly poetic drama The World. A phalanx of smartly uniformed security guards tote bottles of water through the scorching desert. The pyramids loom in the background. Several hundred yards later, the desert gives way to the Taj Mahal. Clearly, Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore.

“Four Kings” on NBC

It's been so long since NBC's Thursday night lineup held cultural significance that it's hard to even recall a time when there was a “Must See TV.” Basically, since “Seinfeld” went off the air 7 years ago, NBC has struggled to maintain its Thursday night sitcom block. From “Good Morning Miami” to “Coupling” to (most recently) “Joey,” NBC's Thursday night lineup has proved itself more sitcom killer than ratings winner.

Week in Sloth

The Week in Sloth