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 […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inCulture
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.
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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.
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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 […]
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DVD+Digital: Crime thrillers, Swedish gangsters and Easy Money
courtesy of the Weinstein Company Johan “JW” Westlund, ace student at the Stockholm School of Economics, likes to take risks. A poor kid from the Swedish equivalent of Iowa, JW hobnobs with the capital city rich kids, pretending to a wealth he doesn’t have and lying to everyone he knows. He’s the Talented Mr. Ripley […]
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Beat connection: A scattered but satisfying On the Road
On the Road Opens Friday (see times below) It’s said that God protects drunks, fools and little children. If so, He must have been working overtime during Jack Kerouac’s prime rambling days, at least as depicted in On the Road, the new film adaptation of Kerouac’s most famous book.
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DVD+Digital: Terence Malick, deep focus and Badlands
courtesy of the Criterion Collection One of the more auspicious debuts in film history, the 1973 drama Badlands was director Terrence Malick’s first project after film school. Loosely based on the real-life killing spree of Charles Starkweather in 1958, it stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as Kit and Holly, two young lovers on the […]
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