I know, I know - I've already referenced this Andrew O'Hehir essay on the crapitude of Christian movies here at The Big Screen. I should quit while I'm ahead - which is something people always say right before they refuse …

“Change lives through film.” Now there's a catchphrase we can all abide by. No organization in our town does more to promote cineliteracy among youth than The Media Arts Center San Diego. In addition to the Latino Film Festival and …

“I’ve never been pro-war,” says local filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith, whose Korean War documentary Hold at All Costs airs tonight on KPBS (more Reader coverage of the film here). “I participated in protests against the Vietnam War. And when I was …

Long before Courage: The Cowardly Dog debuted on Nickelodeon, this 1958 ad -- heralding another lily-livered pooch -- appeared in the pages of the South Carolina Spartanberg Herald-Journal. Disney films are primers for children on adult neuroses. Here's hoping that …

Writer-director Glenn Palmedo-Smith’s Hold at All Costs asks the United States military to do the impossible: Learn from its mistakes. Billed as “The story of forgotten soldiers in a forgotten battle of a forgotten war,” the Korean war documentary details …

Okay, so The Hollywood Reporter is suggesting that this red-band trailer for David Fincher's remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was supposedly recorded illegally in Europe and then uploaded to YouTube for your viewing pleasure, is actually …

Here is actor Corey Stoll playing a young and very dreamy Ernest Hemingway in Midnight in Paris: Here is an actual photo of Hemingway beside the same image of Stoll: And here is Stoll sans coiffure. My poor wife went …

Another in our "Better than its rep" movie reviews -- Queen of the Damned -- you know, the Anne Rice/vampire flick that DOESN'T have Tom Cruise OR Brad Pitt -- surprised me. It's got a lot of flaws - but …

When Mr. Marks brought the grumpy on Top Gun, he of course did not neglect to mention the whole "gay way" thing. Which pretty much necessitates a mention of this classic bit from the Tarantino School of Acting Like You're …

Look, I don't get out much, so I don't know if maybe everybody has made the observation that Midnight in Paris is basically Woody Allen's Inception. But in case they haven't, I will.

I always said the only way you'd get me to sit through Top Gun again is if a paycheck was involved. For the past two summers it's been my pleasure to team with CommCinema outdoor movies to show films free …

Don't forget, The Hangover Part 2 opens today! Some people are getting all wistful, but this little-seen poster series should clear up any lingering concerns.

The Citizen Kane of rock & roll movies, almost literally - even the framing sequence evokes Kane, with a present-day reporter charged with the task of rediscovering the rise and fall of a long-gone Ziggy Stardust-type rocker. Christian Bale is …

This week, bold Reader critic David Elliott steers his dinghy directly into the path of the Black Pearl, reviewing Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Midnight in Paris, Last Night, and L'Amour Fou. And new in the listings: Skateland. …

As long as we've been kvetching about Titanic and Albert Brooks, here's a little bit of Internet genius that brings them together again for the first time.

Blade Runner is the anti-Star Wars, the most visually dazzling science-fiction film since Lang’s Metropolis. George Lucas used desaturated colors and weatherbeaten space ships to make his toy future appear bleak and lived-in. It was his answer to the candy-color …

A friend forwarded me an early draft of the Farrelly Brothers‘ (There's Something About Mary) screenplay for their hotly anticipated revisionist cinematic treatise, The Three Stooges. The project was (at least according to a 20th Century Fox press release) “written …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5LkDNu8bVU ...who can explain them? I mean, they give us The Rules of the Game... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxs4P6u1EiI ...and then they fall all over themselves for Jerry Lewis. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN16NZk0oUo They give the Palme D'Or to a solemn work of religious exploration like …

Joseph Brooks, commercial-jingle tunesmith, director, screenwriter, and composer of one of the more pestiferous pop tunes of this or any lifetime -- and accused casting-couch rapist -- is dead of an apparent suicide. He was 73. Brooks began his musical …

(Yeah, yeah, they didn't have 'em pose on the red carpet. Kudos. But the little ones saw it already in Cannes - did they really need to do the paparazzi walk at the premiere?)

I’m a big fan of filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. Not so much his mainstream fare (Hellboy, Mimic, Blade II, et al), but his more personal works such as Pan’s Labyrinth and Devil’s Backbone, for which he even designed the more …

This didn't take long. Less than one month after Osama bin Laden succumbed to ballistic trauma, Columbia Pictures has acquired the rights to a big screen biopic. According to a studio press release, Oscar®-winners Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, director …

Sophie Monk likes the anonymity her time spent in the United States affords her. The chart-topping Australian pop-singer and model-turned-actress can’t walk through the streets of her home town without being swamped by adoring fans, but in SoCal the perfect …

Reader stringer Ken Harrison notes the closing of UltraStar's four-plex at Flower Hill Mall. Now, he writes, "North County residents between south Carlsbad and Carmel Valley will be without a multiplex movie theater." Dark times. Speaking of dark times, The …

This isn't any kind of review, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Hangover Part 2 features more penises than any other wide-release film you will see this year.

FINALLY ON DVD: WONDERWALL (1968) – LOST PSYCHEDELIC CLASSIC WITH MUSIC BY GEORGE HARRISON, RINGO STAR, PETER TORK, ERIC CLAPTON, AND MORE Recently, I watched the wonky 1968 Wonderwall movie DVD, with music by George Harrison and psychedelic visual design …

Donald Krim (1945 - 2011) I have been wanting to post these vintage Metropolis ads for several days, but other, more pertinent stories kept them on the back burner. Today, news arrived that Donald Krim, president of Kino International, had …

On Friday, the Wife and I visited Cinema Under the Stars for a screening of Billy Wilder's "Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy" (as host Ralph DeLauro put it) The Seven Year Itch, starring Marilyn Monroe and someone else. (Actually, Tom Ewell …

One-shot writer, director Leonard Kastle, 82, died on Wednesday at his home in Westerlo, N.Y. He may have been a one-hit wonder, but oh what a hit it was! At the time of its limited release, the low-budget indie The …

1980: Bob Fosse, All that Jazz http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C74Pae3PpMo&feature=related 1989: Steven Soderbergh: Sex, Lies, and Videotape http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxdQQpJ9t-4 1990: David Lynch, Wild at Heart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQwumNQL9E&feature=related 1991: Joel and Ethan Coen, Barton Fink http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK0WjWlVO9w 1994: Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZBfmBvvotE 2003: Gus Van Sant, …

What reasonable explanation could a filmmaker possibly provide for an abandoned tire suddenly coming to life, rising from its desert graveyard and going on a killing spree? There’s nuclear fallout, but that’s so 1950s, and zombies or a pretty face …

I’d give Shellhead2 a higher rating than the first installment, mainly on the strength of the performances, which transcend the odds by holding their own against the utterly massive layers of visual FX. Mickey Rourke follows up his Award-driven Wrestler …

Good times.

Wow. Just wow. Can you imagine a Hollywood screenwriter of today taking the time to write a furious letter to a just-started alternative weekly newspaper? But here's Paul Shrader, fresh off the success of Taxi Driver, letting Reader critic Duncan …

I have been an avid Burl Stiff watcher since I first set foot in San Diego twelve years ago. That has been true even though my only cinematic connection with him was at a couple of screenings during my stint …

No, not really. But there is news! Back in 2008, Reader writer Josh Board attended a party at director James Cameron's Malibu mansion. Board reported: "My girlfriend went into Cameron’s “screening room,” as everyone called it. I’d call it a …

Do the Biblical math: Evangelist Harold Camping + The Scriptures = The end of the world as we know it. I was in my fallout shelter last night speaking with L. Ron Hubbard on the wireless direct from the planet …

Get out your white smocks and tuning forks. The UCSD Arts Library will present what's being billed as an "Impromptu Sci-Fi Radio & Film Laboratory." The one-day event will run from 11 am-5 pm this Saturday at the Geisel Library's …

Priest really was chock full of cliched goodness...besides slumming graybeards, it also included "Beast who enters scene and roars." Is anyone else tired of this? I mean after LOTR's Cave Troll... ...Avatar's Thanator... ...Star Trek's ice monster thingy... ...and on …

Summer camp was a real thrill, let me tell you. Seven hours a day trapped in a clammy forest preserve, plagued by hordes of carniverous mosquitos the size of Stuka dive bombers, and nothing to sustain me but musty baloney …

Man, I can hardly find a single positive word about this movie online, and I’m frankly mystified. Given one of the most dubious and potentially pointless tasks in movie history, “Make a sequel to Donnie Darko,” I feel the filmmakers …

You know, I was gonna write a thinky sort of post about Lars Von Trier's "I understand Hitler" press conference in Cannes, but really, the only thing that must be said is that someone needs to do a "Hitler reacts …

This week, David Elliott looks long into The Beaver, My Perestroika, The Robber, and Henry's Crime. Plus capsule reviews of Soul Surfer, Priest, The First Grader, Forks Over Knives, and The Double Hour.

Three short plays authored by Hollywood heavyweights Woody Allen, Elaine May, and Ethan Coen will be making their way to Broadway this fall. Relatively Speaking unites two brilliant, pioneering stand-up comics and straight-faced Coen for an evening of what Woody …

Good times.

File under: what a drag it is getting old. This is turning out to be something of a rich vein. So without further ado, four more late-career curiosities from the stars of the screen: Max Von Sydow in Judge Dredd! …

THE MIDWAY Drive-In was constructed in 1947 at the intersection of Midway Drive and Sports Arena Boulevard, back when the Boulevard was still Frontier Street and Navy barracks stood on acreage later occupied by a FedMart. The Midway Drive-In Theatre …

We now know the reason Maria Shriver packed her bags and moved out of her Brentwood mansion. According to the Los Angeles Times, just one week after announcing her split from Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Sperminator has publicly confessed to fathering …

This is one of the saddest days of my adult life. Jerry Lewis has been with me for as long as I can remember. With his yacht docked in San Diego, he's practically my neighbor. My first introduction came when …

Watching Christopher Plummer gibber his way through his role in Priest... ...I found myself thinking back on other wondrous performances from the lions of the theatrical tradition. These are just a few that spring to mind: Laurence Olivier in the …

Good times.

July 29, 1983, Ken Cinema: First Known “Shadowcast” Fan Participation at a screening of Phantom of the Paradise! The Rocky Horror Picture debuted as a midnight movie at OB’s Strand Theater in 1977 – soon enough, devotional fans were showing …

Art Power was my old deejay name. ArtPower! is UCSD's creative collective to showcase music, dance, film, exhibition and food. This Tuesday evening is their fourth annual Press Rewind, a one-night exhibition of the early short films by three talked-about …

May 1959: While Elvis Presley’s popularity in the U.S. was arguably at its all-time peak, Mexico was in the midst of a huge anti-Elvis backlash. Tijuana tabloids called him a racist and homosexual, after the singer reportedly told gossip columnist …

Dolores Fuller, erstwhile galpal (both on and offscreen) of legendary cross-dressing, grade-Z "director" Ed Wood, died Monday after suffering from a long illness. She was 88. She first met her misguided guiding spirit while answering a casting call for a …

BLACK CAESAR (1973) I've only seen a few vintage "blaxploitation" films, so bear in mind that my POV here is far different from that of devotional (and well-informed) fans who frequent the many websites focusing on this genre, which flourished …

Mel Gibson, the original soul surfer, stars as a beleaguered, hopelessly depressed executive who finds redemption through a discarded beaver hand puppet. Embarrassing autobiographical angst or confirmation that Mel's agent is a vengeful Jew with a funny bone? As if …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/may/29/25184/ With Legoland having unveiled its new Star Wars display, and the Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, it’s a good time to be fool for the Force. Man of a thousand bands Rob Crow has referenced SW …

Wow. A five-genre pileup. Let’s make a list: 1: A buddy cop movie, complete with a hero (Paul Bettany, who never seems to tire of these religious-type gigs) who gets told to turn in his badge because he wants to …

Well, as Twain said, it's difference of opinion that makes horse races. Actually, I agree with my esteemed colleague (see his post) about a lot of Ferrell's cinematic output; I found Talledega Nights mostly painful, except of course for the …

Caught a screening of L'Amour Four, the somber, at times impervious documentary about Yves Saint Laurent commissioned by his partner of fifty years Pierre Bergé. It opens exclusively on May 27 at Landmark's Ken Cinema. Perhaps it's the lack of …

Spotted on the Cars 2 display in the lobby of AMC's Mission Valley 20: Well, I guess it is the most famous car in the world... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGHwlExcaqU "Are you ready?" "Is the Popemobile Catholic?"

In the past, the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor has been bestowed upon the likes of comic legends Richard Pryor, Jonathan Winters, Lily Tomlin, Carl Reiner, George Carlin, and Steve Martin. This year's honor goes to Will Ferrell. …

THE DAY CHUCK NORRIS CAME TO THE PALMS HOTEL ON 12TH AND ISLAND (and Jennifer O’Neal, too!!) A Force of One is a Chuck Norris/Jennifer O’Neal thriller with Chuck kicking ass all over downtown San Diego, circa 1979. Some shots …

Good times.

WICKED WICKED, 1973: TCM has been showing the weirdest 1973 psycho killer film, Wicked Wicked. It takes place at the historic (and reportedly haunted) Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, set up in the flick to be a somewhat seedy …

What's wrong with contemporary cinema? Slob comedies, comic book atrocities, and dialog-driven animation are poised to break box office records this summer and Albert Brooks can't get arrested in Hollywood. Why isn't Albert Brooks making three movies a year? Surely …

This week in the Reader, John Rubio reviews Everything Must Go, Hesher, and Bridesmaids. Plus capsule listings of The Bang Bang Club, Insidious, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, and POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever …

Last October, Variety announced that Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story of Anvil) was set to write and direct a biopic based on the life of Herve Villechaize, Ricardo Montalban's assistant, Tattoo, on Fantasy Island. Gervasi conducted the last interview with …

Good thing Marks got that Texas Chainsaw Massacre post up; it was starting to get mighty Jesus-y up in here. Let me help bring the tone down a notch with this excerpt from Jeffrey Sconce's Sleaze Artists: Cinema at the …

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Tobe Hooper's ultra low budget 1974 horror opus, has generated three sequels, a remake, a prequel, a video game, and countless imitations, as well as holding the dubious distinction of giving rise to the foulest genre …

One more word on Christian movies and I'll stop. (Maybe we can talk about Tyler Perry next!) This trailer for Courageous ran before Soul Surfer. It's from the makers of Fireproof, which was not a movie so much as an …

“You give and take away/You give and take away/Still I choose to say/Blessed be Your name.” That’s a line from the song that gets sung during the Sunday morning church scene near the beginning of Soul Surfer, and it’s a …

Bethany Hamilton made national headlines on October 31, 2003 when a 14-foot tiger shark bit off the 13-year-old Hawaiian surfer’s arm. Instead of having its world premiere on the Christian Broadcasting Network, this faith-based biopic erroneously found its way to …

Just two weeks after the royal wedding (and their 25th wedding anniversary), America's power couple, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, have decided to separate. It was a union of opposing political parties and many were shocked that the marriage lasted …

Oh, Lordy. "Somewhere in space, this may all be happening right now" is a long, long way from "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." For me, the most interesting thing about this godawful trailer is the …

I'm a big fan of minimalist movie posters. This one, Ibrahim Youssef's Kill Bill Vol. 2 is flat-out amazing, don't you think? Yeah, you need to have seen the film to really get the reference, but if you hadn't seen …

I’m thirteen years old and Groucho Marx is coming to Evanston, Illinois to perform “An Evening With“ at Northwestern University. Nothing will keep me away. A friend’s older brother and one of his fellow upperclassmen offer to drop the two …

I've been spending far too much time on Google Newspapers pouring through back editions in search of vintage movie ads. Dig deep enough and you will eventually hit paydirt. This ad from the June 9, 1963 edition of The Lakeland …

It's not just about theme parks and penguin cams anymore as the newly formed SeaWorld Pictures today announced the hatching of “Turtle: The Incredible Journey.” The 3D family documentary is directed by "National Geographic Explorer’s" Nick Stringer. The 81-minute-long feature …