courtesy of Open Road Films The latest and maybe final film from director Steven Soderbergh, Side Effects isn’t the movie that it first appears to be. About halfway through, the story pivots and another film emerges. Then a most curious thing happens: It isn’t that movie, either. Rooney Mara (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) […]
Glenn McDonald
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DVD+Digital: Shane Carruth, psychic orchids and Upstream Color
courtesy of Cinedigm Filmmaker Shane Carruth made his bones in the indie film world with the 2004 science fiction puzzle Primer. The ultra-low budget film, concerning a group of engineers who accidentally invent time travel, collected the Grand Jury Prize at that year’s Sundance Film Festival. It’s become something of a legend in filmmaking circles: […]
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DVD+Digital: Cyborgs, Shakespeare and Star Trek: The Next Generation
courtesy of Paramount Home Media If you only pay attention to what cycles around to Redbox, Netflix or your old-school video rental place, you might get the sense that only a handful of new home video titles get released each week. Not so. While the high-profile Hollywood titles get the most attention, new DVDs, Blu-rays […]
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DVD+Digital: Guns, Molls and Gangster Squad
courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures The period L.A. crime drama Gangster Squad — starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn and Emma Stone — is best known for its poor timing. Following the movie theater mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado in July 2012, the release date for Gangster Squad was bumped. The film’s centerpiece action […]
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Earth, interrupted: Oblivion delivers high-grade science fiction spectacle
courtesy of Universal Studios OblivionOpens Friday (see times below) It’s the year 2077. Pilot and technician Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one of the last remaining humans on Earth, which has been decimated by nuclear war with the alien invaders known as the Scavs. Harper and his communications officer Victoria (Andrea Riseborough) live a on […]
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DVD+Digital: Cold feet, Lizzy Caplan and Save the Date
courtesy of IFC Films The indie romantic dramedy Save the Date — new to DVD, Blu-ray and digital this week — starts in awfully familiar territory. Twenty-something Sarah (Lizzy Caplan) is a bookstore clerk and aspiring artist who’s about to have her sketches premiere in a small gallery. Her boyfriend Kevin (Geoffrey Arend, Body of […]
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DVD+Digital: True love, bat demons and The Sorcerer and the White Snake
courtesy of Magnolia Pictures And now for something completely different. A loopy Buddhist fable in the shape of a blockbuster action pic, The Sorcerer and the White Snake features several big-name Hong Kong stars battling snakes, demons and one another in ancient China. The movie was a big hit overseas in 2011 and has finally […]
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Detroit firefighter doc BURN uses grassroots distribution methods
BURN: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit April 10-11, 7:30 p.m. Six Forks Station Cinema It’s not something you necessarily think about when you go to the movies, but getting a film into cinemas for theatrical exhibition is a huge deal. For Hollywood movies, there’s an entire industry dedicated […]
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Jurassic Park 3D keeps the effects in check
courtesy of Universal Pictures Jurassic Park 3DOpens Friday (see times below) If ever there were a film that justified a re-release in 3D format, it’s Steven Spielberg’s dinosaurs-run-amok blockbuster Jurassic Park. In both its visual style and its pulpy adventure spirit, Jurassic Park was pretty much 3D already when it hit theaters 20 years ago. […]
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DVD+Digital: Baseball lore, Jedi masters and Knuckleball
courtesy of FilmBuff Behold the mysterious knuckleball. Unlike baseball’s other pitches — the fastball, the curve, the slider — the knuckleball does not rely on spin and velocity to defeat hitters at the plate. Instead, the knuckleball floats in at a slacker’s pace (60-70 mph, usually, as opposed to the fastball’s 90 mph range) and […]