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 […]
Glenn McDonald
Posted inFilm & Television
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 […]
Posted inCulture
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. […]
Posted inCulture
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. A scattered but earnest transposition of […]
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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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DVD+Digital: Sholem Aleichem, Mark Twain and Laughing in the Darkness
courtesy of Docudrama Films The well-made 90-minute film documentary may be mankind’s most efficient mode of communication. When put together by skilled filmmakers, the feature-length documentary can convey quite massive amounts of information while providing wit and heart and functioning as, you know, a movie. Such is the case with the historical documentary Sholem Aleichem: […]
Posted inFilm & Television
The West Memphis Three are free … what about the real killer?
West of Memphis opens Friday (see times below) Our rating: In 1993, three young boys were found brutally murdered in the small community of West Memphis, Ark. In the maelstrom of initial disclosures and media coverage, it was reported that the bodies found in a drainage ditch showed signs of ritual murder. The community panicked, […]
Posted inCulture
A gorgeous but flimsy Oz
Courtesy of The Walt Disney Company Oz the Great and Powerful** starsOpens FridayIn the opening scenes of Oz the Great and Powerful, director Sam Raimi’s pretty but rickety prequel to The Wizard of Oz, huckster stage magician Oscar Diggs (James Franco) is preparing for his show with traveling circus. The year is 1905. The place […]
