Underworld

In the 1996 British movie Trainspotting, heroin addict hero Marc Renton, played by Ewan McGregor, comes to the realization that the rock music of his youth has given way to a brave new sound. "Music is changing," he decides. "The world is changing. " The song that leads Renton to this conclusion is a cacophonous dance track - "Born Slippy," by the trance-pop trio Underworld - that retains the character of rock and points the way to an electronic-music future. Aided by Trainspotting's success, "Born Slippy" became an international club anthem, appeared on dozens of electronica compilations, and led the media to hype Underworld as one of the British dance acts most likely to change the pop music world as we know it. But a funny thing happened to the members of Underworld - who play the Electric Factory tomorrow night - on the way to world domination: They decided they weren't in such a big hurry to get there.

Antonio "Tony Bananas" Caponigro whacked Angelo Bruno. Frank "Funzi" Tieri offed Caponigro and his brother-in-law, Alfred Salerno. Raymond "Long John" Martorano and Al Daidone popped John McCullough. Frank Narducci zipped Philip "Chicken Man" Testa. Testa's son, Salvatore, did Narducci. And "Little Nicky" Scarfo hit Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso and stuck a knife in the guts of some poor schlub in a South Philadelphia diner. This Mafia armageddon turns up in a most unlikely place, Channel 12, in one-hour programs tomorrow, Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. The WHYY-TV series is called Mobfathers, and it's a disjointed production, fascinating and informative one minute, confusing and overly graphic the next.

The original death-dealer is back. After taking a break from the third Underworld film, Kate Beckinsale zips into the full-body black leather sheath once again to play Selene, the trigger-happy supernatural sheriff who targets werewolves, humans, and even her own kind, vampires. You want a herd thinned, Selene's your girl. As this sequel begins, Selene has been cryogenically frozen for 12 years, as humans have been systematically purging the world of the spookier species who have lived among them for centuries.

According to Underworld, there is war afoot, or should I say underfoot. A conflict between mystical vampires and werewolves is being waged in the subways, the vacant basements, and the gloomy mansions of a dark, rainy city, and while there are plenty of nods to and downright thievery from films such as those in the Blade and Crow series, fans of bloodsuckers and human-mongrel crossbreeds will agree, this DVD definitely doesn't lack for bite....

It's curious that Curio Theatre wasn't too intimidated by the Wilma Theater's 2008 production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice to produce it itself. That earlier version, with its Barrymore-winning original music, sun-bleached set, and stylized direction, set a standard that this small, new-ish, low-budget West Philly company would have a rough time matching. Even curiouser? Curio's production, under the direction of Liz Carlson, gets at the heart of Ruhl's work, humanizing it, bringing its tragic elements to the fore, and making the Wilma's production seem downright aloof.

This time, might the story come out differently? So says your brain at every encounter with Orpheus and Eurydice - even in an Opera Company of Philadelphia rehearsal room. This time, Eurydice won't die on her wedding day. And then she does. But when her husband Orpheus goes to the underworld to retrieve her, he won't ruin his second chance with a forbidden backward glance. And then he does. "Nobody outsmarts death. You can't negotiate the deaths of others," said director Robert Driver.

As Orpheus leads Eurydice out of the underworld, she's the one who messes up her own resurrection in the new Sarah Ruhl retelling of the famous Greek legend, titled Eurydice. During the hopeful trudge when Orpheus is given a second chance at happiness by retrieving his snake-bitten wife from the Lord of the Underworld's clutches, he violates the rules of the game by looking back at her. This time, he does so only after she calls his name. OK, I've given away the ending, but it's justified here, because the play, which closes Aug. 26 at New York City's Second Stage, doesn't arrive at Philadelphia's Wilma Theater until April 2008.

The thing about David Cronenberg is that while he may be artsy, he's never fartsy. No matter what high-falutin' idea or theme he may be rolling out, you can always count on Cronenberg to blow up somebody's head or show some slimy thing crawling beneath someone's flesh. In his Russian mafia underworld saga, "Eastern Promises," Cronenburg plays around with a motif that's officially reached trend status - in a world riven by violence and nearly lost to madness, some men are still decent enough to be moved by the life of an innocent child, our dim hope for the future (see also "Children of Men," and last week's "Shoot 'Em Up")

Christmas marks a year since James "Whitey" Bulger, Boston's most elusive gangster, skipped town to avoid charges that he extorted millions from a network of bookies, loan sharks and drug dealers. When Bulger vanished just days before a massive federal indictment, Whitey watchers throughout New England cracked wise about his future stake in lottery winnings that he had been paid: $119,408 a year. His "Mass Millions" prize, won in 1991, was slated to last through 2010. Now, Scroogelike in this holiday season, comes the U.S. attorney, who late last month won a decisive round in a legal battle to reroute Bulger's bounty into government hands.

Jailed mobster George Borgesi had hoped to be awaiting his release to a halfway house about now, wrapping up a 14-year prison sentence stemming from his conviction in 2001. Instead, Borgesi, 48, sits in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia awaiting trial on new racketeering charges along with reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi, who is his uncle, and several other top associates. One of those associates, however, may not be at the defense table when the case is presented to a jury next year.

Underworld Awakening , with Kate Beckinsale back in the role of vampire avenger Selene, awoke to the top spot in the weekend's box-office sweepstakes, with total receipts of $25.4 million in the United States and Canada, according to studio estimates. Beckinsale appeared in the first two installments of the undead franchise, but sat out the third. In Underworld Awakening , the fourth in the series, Beckinsale returns as Selene, newly thawed and cranky after 12 years of cryogenic freezing.

The original death-dealer is back. After taking a break from the third Underworld film, Kate Beckinsale zips into the full-body black leather sheath once again to play Selene, the trigger-happy supernatural sheriff who targets werewolves, humans, and even her own kind, vampires. You want a herd thinned, Selene's your girl. As this sequel begins, Selene has been cryogenically frozen for 12 years, as humans have been systematically purging the world of the spookier species who have lived among them for centuries.

It's curious that Curio Theatre wasn't too intimidated by the Wilma Theater's 2008 production of Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice to produce it itself. That earlier version, with its Barrymore-winning original music, sun-bleached set, and stylized direction, set a standard that this small, new-ish, low-budget West Philly company would have a rough time matching. Even curiouser? Curio's production, under the direction of Liz Carlson, gets at the heart of Ruhl's work, humanizing it, bringing its tragic elements to the fore, and making the Wilma's production seem downright aloof.

Jailed mobster George Borgesi had hoped to be awaiting his release to a halfway house about now, wrapping up a 14-year prison sentence stemming from his conviction in 2001. Instead, Borgesi, 48, sits in the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia awaiting trial on new racketeering charges along with reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi, who is his uncle, and several other top associates. One of those associates, however, may not be at the defense table when the case is presented to a jury next year.

This time, might the story come out differently? So says your brain at every encounter with Orpheus and Eurydice - even in an Opera Company of Philadelphia rehearsal room. This time, Eurydice won't die on her wedding day. And then she does. But when her husband Orpheus goes to the underworld to retrieve her, he won't ruin his second chance with a forbidden backward glance. And then he does. "Nobody outsmarts death. You can't negotiate the deaths of others," said director Robert Driver.

Gruesome dismemberment, death by fire, by machete, by gunshots in the face. International conspiracy and conspiracy theories and theorists. Voodoo herbs. Plots and counterplots. Emeralds. The shooter on the grassy knoll. Hippies, Black Panthers, and the CIA. Castro. Papa Doc. Hip Nixon. Paranoid Hoover. Wacko Howard Hughes. Dead King. Dead Kennedys. And all this is a historical romance, "much less frenetic than previous books. " It is if you believe James Ellroy, the accomplished writer whose novel Blood's a Rover appears this week.

Guy Ritchie makes movies that zoom. The gangland Britspeak is pumped up, profane. The action flashes forward, then roars into reverse. All parties concerned appear to be having a gas - even as bullets fly, bad guys (and good) are beaten to a pulp, and suckers get taken for every cent. The problem with Ritchie - recently exed from a certain one-named pop diva - is that he keeps making the same movie. Like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels , Ritchie's RocknRolla is set in the London underworld.

Charles Brown, 34, a city sewer inspector, spends his days crawling in and out of Philadelphia's plumbing. Winifred Lutz, 66, a distinguished sculptor and professor emeritus at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, spends her days creating high-concept art. Adam Levine, 50, an environmental historian, spends his days thinking, writing and consulting on urban watersheds. What on earth do these three people have in common? The ghost creeks of Philadelphia. Brown, Lutz and Levine have all contributed to a project designed to raise awareness and appreciation of the hundreds of waterways that run through the city.

The thing about David Cronenberg is that while he may be artsy, he's never fartsy. No matter what high-falutin' idea or theme he may be rolling out, you can always count on Cronenberg to blow up somebody's head or show some slimy thing crawling beneath someone's flesh. In his Russian mafia underworld saga, "Eastern Promises," Cronenburg plays around with a motif that's officially reached trend status - in a world riven by violence and nearly lost to madness, some men are still decent enough to be moved by the life of an innocent child, our dim hope for the future (see also "Children of Men," and last week's "Shoot 'Em Up")

As Orpheus leads Eurydice out of the underworld, she's the one who messes up her own resurrection in the new Sarah Ruhl retelling of the famous Greek legend, titled Eurydice. During the hopeful trudge when Orpheus is given a second chance at happiness by retrieving his snake-bitten wife from the Lord of the Underworld's clutches, he violates the rules of the game by looking back at her. This time, he does so only after she calls his name. OK, I've given away the ending, but it's justified here, because the play, which closes Aug. 26 at New York City's Second Stage, doesn't arrive at Philadelphia's Wilma Theater until April 2008.