I’ve never been to this venue but its reputation has me intrigued. I’ve heard it’s quite an experience. I’ve also been told it’s worth it to pay the extra price for a VIP ticket, so I bought one. The price was $22 dollars, along with a $2 dollar processing fee. Included in the cost will be a drink, popcorn and a reserved seat I chose myself on the El Capitan website.
After seeing the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland decked out in Nightmare style, I wanted to see this movie again, especially with the added effects. You can enjoy them too, as the film will be playing there from the 16th to the 22nd. You’ll have another opportunity on the 30th and on Halloween night. Wouldn’t that be an ideal way to get your tricks and treat!
This weeks got some interesting choices to consider. The Duchess although a bit depressing, has been getting great reviews and is being call Knightley’s best work yet. Plus, Fiennes’ always makes an interesting villain. Appaloosa, an Ed Harris’ cowboy film, is worth your time, if you like watching Viggo on a horse, shooting up shit (which I do, I absolutely do). Ghost Town is surprisingly a fun, entertaining comedy. Possibly not one of the best of the year, but if you’re looking for something enjoyable and not too heavy, this is definitely a great pick (check out the full ScreenCrave review here). As for Hounddog, Igor, My Best Friend’s Girl, or Lakeview Terrace, you’re on your own there.
Here is this week’s movie releases with cast and crew information, review, tickets, and trailers… enjoy!
The man who shot Chinatown, John A. Alonzo, also shot the charmingly whimsical Harold and Maude, that perennial favourite with adolescent Bud Cort (death-obsessed and generally weird) becoming best friends with peppery old Ruth Gordon (essential viewing - if it’s so far passed you by, check the trailer). Alonzo (1934-2001) also shot such classics as Vanishing Point, Wattstax, Farewell My Lovely, Bad News Bears, Tom Horn, Scarface, Overboard, Steel Magnolias and, ahem, Star Trek: Generations. He was also the director of FM (1978), a slice of the late 70s LA rock radio scene (with a Steely Dan theme song!)Expect luminaries from throughout his career (tho maybe not the Dan) to pop up in this documentary tribute, and a host of great clips.
Wong Kar-Wai is the internationally-acclaimed director of Chungking Express, In the Mood For Love and, most recently, My Blueberry Nights. His cinema is characterized by loneliness, introspection and musings on memory and the impossibility of love. The setting is most usually 1960s or 1990s Hong Kong; despite departures for South America (Happy Together) and the future (2046) the real most apparently anomalous entry in his filmography is Ashes of Time, a martial arts film set in the timeless fantasy world of the jianghu. In fact, its protagonists share many of the same preoccupations as his contemporary characters, and the film pays no more than lip-service to the conventions of the genre. A newly restored, re-edited and rescored version, Ashes of Time Redux will be released in October and in support of its North American theatrical debut, Wong met with several journalists last week for roundtable discussions at the Beverly-Wilshire.
I understand that the process of going back to this film was initially based on a desire to restore it; I was wondering where along the line you decided actually to do more than that, with the re-edit, rescore and coloring and so forth, or whether these changes were always part of your intention.
This month at Arclight Cinemas, the American Film Institute presents its usual assortment of films (less so than other months), though the month of September brings several Director’s Screenings as well.
Choke - September 22nd at 8PM. Q&A with director Clark Gregg and actors Brad William Henke and Bijou Phillips.
Miracle at St. Anna - September 25th at 7:30PM. Q&A with actors Derek Luke, Laz Alonso, and Omar Benson Miller. (NOTE: Although under the AFI’s Directors Series list, Spike Lee is not scheduled to attend.)
I know that I tend to review some pretty random films and urge you to watch all of them, but honestly I would call video rental spots near your house to make sure that they had this particular movie stocked for you. Out of everything I would suggest you watching or wearing, please heed this advice. I would give you my number so you could call me, at which point I would put the phone to the television so you could hear the dialogue of this movie.
The 2006 masterpiece, Blood Diamond, is arguably the most compelling film of our time. Set during the Sierra Leone Civil War, the movie depicts the horrifying realities (such as the brutal amputation of limbs to stop people from voting) that are symptomatic of conflicts in war-torn Africa diamond mining. As Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Danny Archer, so eloquently states, “In America it’s bling-bling, but out here it’s bling-bang.” I had little prior knowledge about conflict diamonds before watching Blood Diamond and I was able to learn so much from this film. DiCaprio’s performance in the film is breathtaking and enough to make me move him up to the greatest actor of our time status in my book. Now, go see it!
Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was for almost his entire career the enfant terrible of British cinema: his homoerotic feature debut Sebastiane (1976), a retelling of the saint’s story in Latin no less; his punk “celebration” of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee (1977); and his high-camp adaptation of The Tempest (1979) had all raised serious eyebrows; elsewhere, however, they were a cause for celebration that here was a hope for the moribund British film industry, defiantly homosexual, defiantly artistic, and defiantly personal.
Jarman’s films were the antithesis of most British cinema, never mind the product from Hollywood, but there were those who feared his first venture into establishment-funded film-making (courtesy of the British Film Institute) would result in a sell-out costume drama. They needn’t have worried: Caravaggio is no conventional biopic but rather a meditation on the artist and his life, the conflicts therein, and the parallels to be found with the modern world and with Jarman himself as an artist.
Leave it to those crafty Coen Brothers to follow up their Oscar winning No Country for Old Men with a dark comedy worthy of being called an instant Cult classic. Burn After Reading is their new film and it’s bound to leave you with plenty of laughs, gasps and mysterious questions. Like just what exactly was that big purple thing? I’d tell you myself, but as you know if you read these movie reviews, I try not to give to much away.
Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt are perfectly cast as two bumbling local gym employees who “accidentally” stumble across a disgruntled ex CIA worker’s (John Malkovich) private memoirs. Foolishly thinking they have uncovered some government secrets, these two newbie opportunist set in motion a chain of events that includes, blackmail, conspiracy, murder and mayhem. Let’s not forget about the other players including George Clooney, who gives us a happily married Federal Marshall, but an even happier philanderer. 2008’s Best supporting Actress winner Tilda Swinton also excels here as the coldest pediatrician/wife you may ever meet. Not to worry though, this is a comedy at heart and the laughs are plentiful.
Veteran actor Michael Douglas is set to play the flamboyant Polish-Italian pianist, Liberace in a biopic that Steven Soderbergh is busy developing. Soderbergh is also hoping to play Matt Damon to play Scott Thorson, who sued Liberace for palimony in 1982 after claiming they were lovers. Liberace, also known as Wlazdiu Valentino Liberace (bet you didn’t know that) never refused to acknowledge his homosexuality, even up until his death in 1987 due to aids. Currently, there is no release date scheduled.
For those that didn’t see Dark Night (so sue me) and even for those who did, comes some great news. Warner Bros. is set to re-release their money making machine, err, movie in January on IMAX, conveniently in time for Academy Award voting season. The blockbuster sequel to Batman has brought in about $512 million domestically and $440 million internationally. It has been ranked to date as the second highest grossing movie ever, after “Titanic.”
Wong Kar-Wai is the internationally-acclaimed director of Chungking Express, In the Mood For Love and, most recently, My Blueberry Nights. His cinema is characterized by loneliness, introspection and musings on memory and the impossibility of love. The setting is most usually 1960s or 1990s Hong Kong; despite departures for South America (Happy Together) and the future (2046) the real most apparently anomalous entry in his filmography is Ashes of Time, a martial arts film set in the timeless fantasy world of the 
Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was for almost his entire career the enfant terrible of British cinema: his homoerotic feature debut 
