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Saturday, January 19, 2013
Film / Film Reviews Weekend Film Reviews: Mama; Rust and Bone
Posted By Matt Brunson on Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Film / Arts Charlotte Film Society screens The Well-Digger's Daughter
Posted By Matt Brunson on Sat, Jan 19, 2013 at 8:00 AM
One of the great two-parters in film history, the 1986 releases Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring found French actor Daniel Auteuil delivering a breakthrough performance as the pathetic farmer Ugolin in these adaptations of a work by author Marcel Pagnol.
Auteuil now turns to another literary Pagnol property, serving as writer, director and star of The Well-Digger's Daughter, a tale in which a widowed laborer is shocked to learn that his oldest daughter is pregnant and will soon become a single mom. Scored by the prolific Alexandre Desplat (nine films in 2012 alone, including Argo and Zero Dark Thirty), this French import is being presented by the Charlotte Film Society as its 2013 opener.
$8 ($5 for CFS members). Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m. Theatre Charlotte, 501 Queens Road. For more information, visit www.charlottefilmsociety.org.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Film / Film News Opening Friday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 9:00 AM
- Indomina Releasing
- LUV
Broken City - Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe
The Last Stand - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Johnny Knoxville
LUV - Common, Danny Glover
Mama - Jessica Chastain, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Rust and Bone - Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Film / Film Reviews Weekend Film Reviews: Zero Dark Thirty; Gangster Squad; The Impossible; Hyde Park on Hudson; Promised Land
Posted By Matt Brunson on Sat, Jan 12, 2013 at 3:06 PM
Click on the title to be taken directly to the review.
- Warner Bros.
- Gangster Squad
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Film / Film News Opening Friday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 10:00 AM
- Open Road Films
- A Haunted House
Gangster Squad - Josh Brolin, Sean Penn
A Haunted House - Marlon Wayans, Cedric the Entertainer
Zero Dark Thirty - Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Ehle
Friday, December 28, 2012
Film / Film Reviews Year-End Film Reviews: The Hobbit, Django Unchained, Les Miserables and 15 more
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 4:45 PM
No new movies are opening in theaters this weekend, so here's a chance to catch up with films still playing. Click on the link to be taken directly to the review.
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Monday, December 24, 2012
Film / Film News Opening Tuesday
Posted By Matt Brunson on Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 10:00 AM
- Universal
- Les Miserables
Django Unchained - Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz
Les Miserables - Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe
Parental Guidance - Billy Crystal, Bette Midler
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Film / Film Reviews Blu-ray Pick: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
Posted By Matt Brunson on Sat, Dec 22, 2012 at 2:09 PM
SANTA CLAUS CONQUERS THE MARTIANS (1964)
**** (for bad-movie buffs)
* (for the rest of humanity)
DIRECTED BY Nicholas Webster
STARS John Call, Bill McCutcheon
By the time Santa Claus Conquers the Martians benefited from national exposure thanks to a 1991 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, aficionados of turkey cinema had already been familiar with this mind-numbing movie for years. A staple at those "worst film festivals" that were in vogue during the late 1970s and early 1980s, this inept achievement nearly rivals Plan 9 from Outer Space and Robot Monster in its overwhelming incompetence at every level.
Long a prisoner of the public-domain realm, the film has finally been accorded a decent release from Kino Lorber, the specialty outfit known more for releasing landmark motion pictures from the likes of Fritz Lang and Buster Keaton than for putting its muscle behind grade-Z efforts. But bless them for taking the time: Santa Claus Conquers the Martians should be, uh, enjoyed by everyone at least one in their lifetimes.
The film concerns itself with the well-meaning but ill-advised scheme by the Martian rulers to kidnap our Santa Claus and make him cheer up the sad little children on the Red Planet (one moppet is played by a 9-year-old Pia Zadora, long before she became a multiple Golden Raspberry Award winner during the 1980s). John Call essays the role of Santa, and his slightly maniacal leer and constant groping of the kids make one long for the days of Miracle on 34th Street's Edmund Gwenn. At any rate, it's not long before our hero is cheering up everyone on Mars with his rancid jokes. One sample offering: "What's soft and round and you put it on a stick and you toast it on a fire and it's green? A Martianmallow!"
Friday, December 21, 2012
Film / Film Reviews Christmas Week Film Reviews: Django Unchained; Les Miserables; Jack Reacher; This Is 40; The Guilt Trip
Posted By Matt Brunson on Fri, Dec 21, 2012 at 5:50 PM
Click on the title to be taken directly to the review.
- The Weinstein Company
- Django Unchained
Django Unchained (opens Tuesday)
Les Miserables (opens Tuesday)
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Film 10 end-of-the-world flicks
Posted By Matt Brunson on Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 8:00 AM
1. Robot Monster (1953). One of the worst movies ever made (no, really), this finds the alien Ro-Man (a guy in a gorilla suit and diving helmet) trying to destroy the last humans on Earth.
2. On the Beach (1959). Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner and a pre-Psycho Anthony Perkins star in this thoughtful film about the aftermath of nuclear war, and the drama surrounding the remaining people waiting for the fallout to drift their way.
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). "We'll meet again. Don't know where, don't know when," croons Vera Lynn as Slim Pickens rides that bomb into oblivion.
4. Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). The worst of the five films in the Planet of the Apes series admittedly has a fantastic ending.
5. Gas! Or, It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It (1970). In this Roger Corman counterculture cheapie, a mysterious gas kills everyone over the age of 25. Far out!
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Question the Queen City: The haunting of Love’s Pass
The railroad pass has claimed at least 14 lives
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Eight (possible) things overheard in Patrick Cannon's prison visitation room
Who goes to see him on weekends? What do they talk about? We have no idea, but we're creative.
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Listen Up: VS Guitar Duo Shreds on 'Local Vibes'
Episode 35
