Entertainment
Cypress Hill concert film relives group's symphonic first — performing with an orchestra in London
“We always try to make a place where we can constantly be creative in,” says Cypress Hill’s B-Real. He’s talking about his downtown studio, where the bandmates have done most of their recording for the last decade.
If anything, it’s certainly cozy. He’s huddled on a black leather couch alongside his longtime friends and group members during a Zoom interview. Eric Bobo leans into the camera from his right, donning a leather jacket and hiding his eyes beneath a bucket hat and black sunglasses combo. Sen Dog is on his left, looking as calm as ever and grinning from time to time. DJ Lord hangs over the couch’s edge, his hat leaning off to the side.
The walls behind them are adorned with photos and platinum records collected during their nearly 40-year-long careers. A lighter flick echoes as B-Real sparks up a joint and takes a puff.
The group’s latest endeavor takes them to the world of concert films, but with a twist.
Maybe you remember sinking into a recliner and kicking up your feet sometime during ‘95. You grab the remote, flick over to Fox, and tune into the latest episode of “The Simpsons.” This episode brings viewers to the summer music festival “Hullabalooza,” where Marge and Co. stumble upon some backstage shenanigans.
“Hello, bands,” shouts an impatient stage manager, “Who is playing with the London Symphony Orchestra?”
The camera pans to Cypress Hill, who whisper among themselves: “Aye man, did we order an orchestra?”
Eric Bobo, left, B-Real, DJ Lord and Sen Dog of Cypress Hill.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
“Yeah, yeah, we think we did,” says a yellow-cartoon version of B-Real. “Do you know ‘Insane in the Brain’?”
“We mostly know classical… but we could give it a shot,” a violinist responds. What ensues is an iconic clip of them dancing around to a symphonic version of the song.
It’s a hilarious moment in television history that easily could have been lost to time. But thanks to DJ Muggs, the idea stuck with the members for a long time. It floated around for a while, but gained momentum after their East Coast peers, Wu-Tang Clan, took on an orchestral performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in 2021.
“We were kind of like, ‘Well, if they did it, let’s do it,’ ” B-Real joked. “We thank “The Simpsons” for writing that, because it became a part of our history, and now even more so.”
The group began gearing up for something special, performing “Black Sunday” in full with the Colorado Symphony in July 2023 for its 30th anniversary and going on to do four more symphonic shows. They also rehearsed with the LSO themselves, a “surreal” moment that “no rapper ever thinks they’re going to have.”
On July 10, 2024, their work led them to the Royal Albert Hall. In unfamiliar territory, the four stood dressed head-to-toe in black suits, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, playing to a sold-out crowd of more than 5,000 fans.
“It was like one of those ‘what the f—” moments like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe this is happening,’ ” B-Real said. “When we started over 30 years ago, there was no way you could tell me that we would ever be doing anything with a symphony, let alone LSO.”
The show was a huge success, and they got away with only one “f— up” that B-Real promises he covered up very well: “I won’t let no one know where that’s at!”
“We’re just glad that it worked,” he said, laughing. “Especially being in the suits and performing all this stuff and not being able to move around with the energy that we normally move around with.”
Translating it to the screen went smoothly, as members routinely received “dailies” of production to render their opinions on. But, as Bobo admits, “they really nailed it… we were blown away from the first cut.”
“When you’re working with a great team, it makes it a lot easier,” Lord chimes in, as Bobo takes a second to light up. “It was a mutual respect.”
The coordination and seamless production can really be seen in the final product. As was overheard during a restroom conversation at an early premier: “Holy s—, I should’ve canceled my trip to Tokyo and been there… but watching it feels like I’m there anyways!”
It’s an astonishing version of an already critically acclaimed album. B-Real and Sen Dog jam at the front of the stage, while DJ Lord rips away at his turntable and Bobo beats up on the drums. At the orchestra’s front is Troy Miller, who commands his musicians like an army. Noticeably, he can’t stop smiling while elegantly waving around his baton.
Fans are invited to stand up and dance along, which is equally admirable and hilarious. There’s something undeniably funny about watching people wriggle around beneath the red velvet curtains of their box seats, shouting back and forth with the group. In a 154-year-old venue that demands etiquette, it’s a testimony to Cypress Hill’s ever-alluring sound.
DJ Lord, left, B-Real, Sen Dog and Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill.
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
Core songs now sound completely different: Funky classics like “Dr. Greenthumb” turn dark and mysterious with a symphonic backing. Cypress Hill even performs “Cuban Necktie,” a relentless song that gets even more intense with violins carrying B-Real’s cadence between bars.
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the performance, however, is that no member lighted up a joint during the entire show. B-Real chalks it up to the “prestige and history” of the venue and respecting its rules. Even during rehearsals, they’d make sure to go outside when smoking.
“During our first rehearsal together, when the LSO people were starting to come, they immediately smelled the weed and said, ‘Oh, they’re here!’ ” Bobo recalls, distinguishing their words in his attempt at a posh British accent.
Of course, in London where weed still remains illegal, they were sometimes “chastised” by passersby but “we didn’t give a f—, ‘cause this is what we do!”
Fans of the group can catch the entire performance as “ Black Sunday Live at the Royal Albert Hall” makes a limited theatrical run in the U.S. on March 30 and 31 and April 2. They’ll have to wait until June 6 to get their hands on its CD, LP and cassette physical release.
Someday, Angelenos might just be able to see it in person, as Cypress Hill has been actively conversing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic about bringing the show home. The two have struggled to actually lock anything in, but giving L.A. fans that experience “is the play.”
In the meantime, a Spanish-language album is seemingly on the horizon. Perhaps even another Cypress Hill album or EP, but “it won’t necessarily be hip-hop.”
“We feel like we’ve done enough hip-hop for a f—ing lifetime,” B-Real says. “We love it, but as a group, as a band, we feel like we can snap into anything. And that’s what we’re going to do, is snap into anything.”
Movie Reviews
Movie Review: ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ might have just redeemed the live-action adaptation
Ever wanted to soar through the skies on the back of a friendly dragon? The new “How to Train Your Dragon” may be the ticket, from a decidedly safer, though possibly still vertigo-inducing, distance.
This live-action adaption of the underdog adventure story sends the audience cascading through the clouds with the teenage Viking boy Hiccup and his dragon friend Toothless. It’s the kind of immersive sensation and giddy wish fulfillment that might just have you forgetting momentarily to breathe and, maybe more importantly, that you’re still in a movie theater. Credit to veteran cinematographer Bill Pope, no stranger to fantasy worlds, whether it’s “The Matrix” or “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.”
“How to Train Your Dragon” doesn’t stray far from the original, from shots to story beats. Gerard Butler once again plays Berk’s Chief Stoick the Vast. The new Hiccup, actor Mason Thames, even sounds a bit like Jay Baruchel. But unlike so many live-action remakes of animated films, it also doesn’t feel superfluous, or, worse, like a poor imitation of its predecessor that trades the magic of animation for photorealism.
Perhaps that’s because filmmaker Dean DeBlois, who made the three animated films, stayed in the director’s chair. Who better to kill their darlings than the one who brought them to the screen in the first place? And, crucially, to know where live-action might actually enhance the fabric of the world created by author Cressida Cowell.
It helps that dragon technology has come a long way since, say, “DragonHeart.” These fire-breathing CG creatures feel disarmingly real. And though it might look like “Lord of the Rings” or “Game of Thrones,” the tone stays light enough for younger filmgoers. There are a few intense sequences, but none that takes it any further than the animated film did 15 years ago.
“How to Train Your Dragon” does start a little slow, however, which is odd because it also begins with a fiery battle between the Vikings and the dragons on the Isle of Berk. There’s a lot of exposition and introduction that needs to happen before you can just give yourself over to the story. In this more multicultural version, the warriors on Berk have been recruited from tribes around the globe to try to defeat the dragons.
Hiccup is a Viking nepo baby. As the chief’s son, he sits in a place of privilege, but he’s also a general outcast in this world of ruthless warriors — skinny and weak, he just longs to be part of the action, not sharpening the weapons. Killing dragons is currency in this society, and his crush Astrid happens to be one of the most promising up-and-comers. His sole champion is Gobber , the blacksmith and dragon slayer teacher, who convinces the chief to give the clever Hiccup a shot.
The film finds its internal engine when Hiccup finds Toothless, the wide-eyed “Night Fury” dragon whom he can’t bring himself to kill. Instead, he decides to study this discovery, who he finds is not as nearly fearsome as everyone assumes. “How to Train Your Dragon” teaches empathy and ingenuity without a sermon.
Thames, a teenager himself, is the perfect embodiment of adolescent awkwardness and boldness. You can have all the cute dragons you want, but the audience would be lost if the human conduit to the relationship isn’t up to the task. Butler seems to be having a good time, resplendent in fur and chest-thumping ideas about ancient duties. And Parker gives Astrid a relatable depth — the best in the bunch who is outshone in an unequal fight.
Kids deserve movies that are made on the biggest possible canvas. “How to Train Your Dragon” is one that’s worth the trip to the theater. It might just spark some young imaginations, whether it’s to go back and read the books or dream up their own worlds. And, chances are, no one is going to be yelling “chicken jockey.”
“How to Train Your Dragon,” a Universal Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for “sequences of intense action and peril.” Running time: 125 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Entertainment
Review: Hugh Jackman brings jokes, drama and John Denver to opening night at the Hollywood Bowl
Strumming a black acoustic guitar to match his black tuxedo pants and jacket, Hugh Jackman strolled onto the stage of the Hollywood Bowl and let the audience know precisely what it was in for.
“Little bit of Neil Diamond,” he said as the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra revved up the go-go self-improvement jive of “Crunchy Granola Suite.”
A dedicated student of showbiz history, the Australian singer and actor was starting his concert Saturday night just as Diamond did half a century ago at the Greek Theatre gig famously captured on his classic “Hot August Night” LP.
Yet Diamond was just one of the flamboyant showmen Jackman aspired to emulate as he headlined the opening night of the Bowl’s 2025 season. Later in the concert, the 56-year-old sang a medley of tunes by Peter Allen, the Australian songwriter and Manhattan bon vivant whom Jackman portrayed on Broadway in 2003 in “The Boy From Oz.” And then there was P.T. Barnum, whose career as a maker of spectacle inspired the 2017 blockbuster “The Greatest Showman,” which starred Jackman as Barnum and spawned a surprise-hit soundtrack that went quadruple-platinum.
“There’s 17,000 of you, and if any of you did not see ‘The Greatest Showman,’ you might be thinking right now: This guy is super-confident,” Jackman told the crowd, panting ever so slightly after he sang the movie’s title song, which has more than 625 million streams on Spotify.
The success of “Showman” notwithstanding, Jackman’s brand of stage-and-screen razzle-dazzle feels fairly rare in pop music these days among male performers. (The theater-kid moment that helped make “Wicked” a phenomenon was almost exclusively engineered — and has almost exclusively benefited — women such as Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Chappell Roan and Laufey.) What makes Jackman’s jazz-handing even more remarkable is that to many he’s best known as the extravagantly mutton-chopped Wolverine character from the Marvel movies.
Before Jackman’s performance on Saturday, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Wilkins, played a brief set of orchestral music that included selections from John Ottman’s score for “X2: X-Men United.”
The ascent of Benson Boone, with his mustache and his backflips, suggests that Jackman may yet find inheritors to carry on the tradition he himself was bequeathed by Diamond and the rest. But of course that assumes that Jackman is looking to pass the baton, which was not at all the impression you got from his spirited and athletic 90-minute show at the Bowl.
In addition to stuff from “The Greatest Showman” and a swinging tribute to Frank Sinatra, he did a second Diamond tune — “Sweet Caroline,” naturally, which he said figures into an upcoming movie in which he plays a Diamond impersonator — and a couple of Jean Valjean’s numbers from “Les Misérables,” which Jackman sang in the 2012 movie adaptation that earned him an Academy Award nomination for lead actor. (With an Emmy, a Grammy and two Tonys to his name, he’s an Oscar win away from EGOT status.)
Hugh Jackman with members of the L.A. Phil’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles on Saturday night.
(Timothy Norris)
For “You Will Be Found,” from “Dear Evan Hansen,” he sat down behind a grand piano and accompanied himself for a bit; for the motor-mouthed “Ya Got Trouble,” from “The Music Man” — the first show he ever did as a high school kid, he pointed out — he came out into the crowd, weaving among the Bowl’s boxes and interacting with audience members as he sang.
“I just saw a lot of friends as I went through,” he said when he returned to the stage. “Hello, Melissa Etheridge and Linda. Hello, Jess Platt. Hi, Steph, hi, David, hi, Sophia, hi, Orlando — so many friends. Very difficult to say hello to friends and still do that dialogue.” He was panting again, this time more showily. “It’s like 53 degrees and I’m sweating.”
The show’s comedic centerpiece was a version of John Denver’s “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” that Jackman remade to celebrate his roots as an “Aussie boy.” There were good-natured jokes about shark attacks and koalas and Margot Robbie, as well as a few pointed political gibes, one about how “our leaders aren’t 100 years old” — “I’m moving on from that joke fast,” he added — and another that rhymed “Life down under is really quite fun” with “I never have to worry: Does that guy have a gun?”
The emotional centerpiece, meanwhile, was “Showman’s” “A Million Dreams,” for which the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was joined by 18 members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. The song itself is pretty cringe, with a lyric bogged down by cliches and a melody you’ve heard a zillion times before. But Jackman sold its corny idealism with a huckster’s sincerity you couldn’t help but buy.
The first reviews for the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris are starting to roll in ahead of its worldwide release later this month.
While it’s unlikely to have the sort of impact on the sport’s popularity that Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive has – after all, it’s not like fans are going to be able to see Pitt’s Sonny Hayes on-track week-in, week-out – the action shots and presence of a number of real life F1 stars should help it pack a punch.
Lewis Hamilton was attached to the film in an oversight role as an executive producer to help get the details of the sport as close to real life as possible, with the trailers showing some incredible onboard shots.
F1 drivers and personnel were treated to a private screening of the finished movie ahead of last month’s Monaco Grand Prix, and now, a number of critics have cast their verdict, with reviews so far rather positive.
READ MORE: Monaco Grand Prix winner Lando Norris offers verdict on future Indy 500 attempt
F1 movie reviews
Variety’s Jazz Tangcay tweeted after a screening: “WOW! [The F1 movie] is an action-packed thrilling look at the world of F1 racing, with lots of grit. The sound, score and cinematography are flawless. Damson Idris and Brad Pitt are great! Absolutely Obsessedddddd”
Meanwhile, the magazine’s awards editor Clayton Davis added: “F1 the Movie is the Jerry and Joe Show! Bruckheimer and Kosinski really do make audacious entertainment together. Academy…don’t do Claudio Miranda dirty again on this one. Brad Pitt and Damson Idris shine brightest when sharing the screen. Race to see this one in IMAX.”
The film was also compared to Joseph Kosinski and Jerry Bruckheimer’s 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, one of the biggest cinematic success stories since cinemas reopened following the Covid-19 pandemic.
Erik Davis of Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes wrote on social media: “Joseph Kosinski’s F1 the Movie hits the gas and doesn’t stop. The races are epic, the sound design, editing, cinematography, performances and music are all top notch. You definitely feel shades of Top Gun: Maverick in that it plays like an old school summer blockbuster. What a ride.”
F1 will be released worldwide on 25 June.
READ MORE: Max Verstappen hit with huge F1 penalty after ridiculous crash
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