Sexually frustrated yentas of America have been heard. The movie adaptation of E L James’s S&M manual for bored middle-class housewives, Fifty Shades of Grey, is set to arrive on Valentine’s Day, 2015, and Hollywood …

Occasionally one comes to an interview over-prepared. Such was the case with Gabriel Iglesias, the comedian who recently visited San Diego on a leg of the promotional tour for his first big screen comedy concert, …

Local “surfumentarians” and co-founders of the San Diego Surf Film Festival, Pierce and Petra Kavanagh, will premiere their latest film, What the Sea Gives Me, Saturday, July 19 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, La …

“Do you think it will be a 35mm nitrate print?” five-year-old Winnie Lickona joked while en route to Reading Cinemas Grossmont Theatre for last Sunday morning’s presentation of A Hard Day’s Night. “Oh, Winnie,” laughed …

Panahi appears suddenly and unexpectedly halfway through the film. His arrival is the most dazzling in-camera special effect of the year.

“Twelve Years in the Making!” Sounds more like a tagline from a Hollywood biblical epic, not Boyhood, the latest, commendably ambitious film from director Richard Linklater. I know what you’re thinking. Would it really have …

Just as sure as the turning of the Earth, the geek squad at The Big Screen works day and night to keep up with the latest advancements in technology. Today, it’s my pleasure to introduce …

It wasn’t the first time I saw a movie twice in a theater. That distinction goes to The Parent Trap. With two Hayley Mills vying for my pre-pubescent attention, it’s easy to understand. But Planet …

Do you see spots before your eyes? Do you feel any rabbit inclinations? Is multiplication your strong suit? Have you recently paid a visit to San Marcos? Good gwacious! You could be suffering from rabbititis …

Has it really been 50 years since I strong-armed my mother into taking me to the Varsity Theatre in Evanston, IL, for a Saturday afternoon matinee of A Hard Day’s Night? The place was packed …

Fueled by implausibility, and for a good portion of the ride much better for it, Bong-Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer posits a nonstop, Earth-encircling train containing the microcosmic survivors of a society killed off by a global …

Fox 5’s Josh Board loves OPP: Other People’s Popcorn. How do you know when Josh is at a screening? Walk into the auditorium carrying a Coke and a bag of corn and within seconds there’ll …

My last vacation occurred two weeks after 9/11, when I flew to Chicago to bury my mother. The time was right to spend a few days in another town kicking the crummy dust of San …

Coming soon to a Red Box near you: The blah Bull! The redundant Bull! Martin Guigui’s The Bronx Bull! From the looks of the trailer, the only thing this has in common with Raging Bull …

My late uncle, Fred Karmel, once dared to argue the merits of letterboxing with me. “I paid a lot of money for that 25-inch Zenith, Scotty,” Freddy grumbled, “and I’ll be goddamned if I’m not …

San Diego’s Arab Film Festival is holding a mid-year event this Saturday night at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The evening of Arab culture features dinner, music, an art exhibit, and a new film by …

“You’ll get to know God in the land of the damned,” mutters one of the vast array of scumbags on tap in Amat Escalante’s shocking crime drama Heli, opening Friday exclusively at the Media Arts …

Will Eubank stopped by the Holman...err, the Manchester Grand Hyatt last week to talk up his anything-but-sophomoric sophomore feature, The Signal, a mind (and genre) bending, eye-stretcher of a thriller that takes full advantage of …

One sweet, one sour. Let’s open on bitterness. This is in regards to the movie review by Scott Marks on May 29 (Run Toward Danger). As usual, the facts about the Vietnam War are misconstrued. …

Other than films screened at the Digital Gym and San Diego Latino Film Festival, it’s been too long since The Big Screen has plugged any of the more academic pursuits put forth by the Media …

The San Diego High School of International Studies Film Festival offers its students the chance to see their work projected on a big screen, and you’re invited to take part in the excitement. The fifth …

The first-annual Taiwan Cinema Spotlight takes center stage this Thursday at the Museum of Photographic Arts. The three-day/three-film event, a joint effort by the Taiwan Academy, Pacific Arts Movement, and MoPA, showcases the work of …

Make no mistake about it: when you see a film at an AMC Theatre, chances are you are not getting the full picture. Case in point, auditorium #9 at AMC Mission Valley. The masking was …

The cynic inside me has grudgingly accepted the fool notion of young men and women enlisting to kill in the name of peace, but why would a civilian war correspondent risk life and limb to …

[Annotations appear in brackets.] Some nights, quality just won’t do, and last night was one of them. There are a couple of file boxes buried in my closet — bursting with DVD titles unfit to …

Instead of surrealist spinnings along the lines of Luis Buñuel’s Belle du Jour, spend the four seasons in a suite at the Four Seasons with a high-school harlot in Francois Ozon’s Young & Beautiful. The …

A judge on Monday ordered an investigation into the whereabouts of the ailing Casey Kasem — backwards-counting deejay, eximious cartoon voice-artist, and the geometric centroid of Jerry Lewis’s MDA “Love Triangle” — presumably whisked from …

Groucho, Chico, Harpo, and Sig Ruman in 35mm!? Whatever you do, don’t slow those nags down next Monday night when all horse-drawn carriages lead to Landmark’s Ken Cinema for the San Diego Opera’s deluxe benefit …

It was three years ago today, Jim Holman gave us license to play! Thanks, boss! Ditto to you, Ernie Grimm. The smartest thing you gents ever did was not giving me an office. I work …

My old pal Pat Sherman at The La Jolla Light broke the story. Two La Jolla businessmen, Adolfo Fastlicht and Carlos Wellman, announced their company, Boffo Cinemas, is set to open a new seven-screen luxury …

The news is not so Grrrrrrrrreat! Lee Marshall, the voice of Kellogg’s cereal advertising mascot Tony the Tiger, is dead. Lee Marshall died of esophageal cancer on April 26 at a Santa Monica hospital. He …

The San Diego Film Critics Society held its quasi-annual awards luncheon yesterday at the Blind Lady Ale House on Adams Avenue. Why do they call it the Blind Lady? Because only Helen Keller would put …

Academy Award–nominated filmmaker David O. Russell will be at the International Bipolar Foundation's (IBPF) fifth-annual gala fundraiser this Saturday night to accept their Hope Award. IBPF will host “Behind the Mask: Phantom of the Opera …

The last time mainstream audiences were locked in a one-character/fixed-setting experiment along this line, it was called Buried. Better to ride shotgun with Tom Hardy in high-octane mode in Locke than be trapped in a …

It’s long been my hope that Landmark’s Ken Cinema would throw in an occasional family film to introduce a new generation of moviegoers to single-screen living. While it’s a private rental and not on the …

The past three films I’ve seen at Edwards Mira Mesa have all been presented in the miracle of Letterbox! Instead of snugly cinched borders, the picture played center-screen with enough black at the head and …

A letter from the enemy: “I would like to complain about your movie reviewer, Scott Marks. He reviewed the movie Walking with the Enemy in this issue (April 24). That was some piece of jackass …

Mark Freeman has been making movies for over three decades. This weekend, the award-winning documentarian, college professor, and all-around hometown film treasure unveils his latest work, Rasa Dari Tari/Soul of Dance at the San Diego …

May Day! May Day! The second annual Workers Film Festival returns to the Media Arts Center Digital Gym starting this Friday. No heavy lifting required: the mission of this weekend’s three-day celebration of labor is …

With Dean Cundey comes a 24-carat-history of cinema. Forty years of irreproachable artistry and over eighty credits under his belt have earned the prolific cinematographer a place in the pantheon of contemporary shooters. He followed …

Landmark Cinemas and the Berkun Family Trust have reached an agreement. Our town’s last remaining single-screen theatre is and will remain a Landmark. The following letter just arrived from Mr. Ted Mundorff, CEO Landmark Theatres: …

Jennifer Baichwal would loved to have been alongside co-director Edward Burtynsky when he introduced their latest collaboration, Watermark, at The Ken last night, but it was her daughter’s birthday. Joined by Baichwal’s husband, cinematographer Nick …

The personal appearances just keep coming at Landmark. First Charlie Siskel in La Jolla and now Edward Burtynsky in Kensington. Director/executive producer and photographer/artist Edward Burtynsky will be at The Ken on Sunday, April 20 …

Charlie Siskel — who, along with John Maloof, produced and directed the documentary Finding Vivian Maier — will stop by the Landmark La Jolla Village Cinemas this weekend for a pair of audience Q & …

The Loma Theatre marquee came into view while snaking up Rosecrans en route to a meeting with members of the family that owns The Ken Cinema. Now Playing: “Barnes & Noble” and “10% Off On …

A little over an hour after watching Marlon Wayans demystify Fox5’s Raoul Martinez’s Clark Kent complex found me poolside at the W waiting to speak with a member of one of comedy’s reigning royal families. …

First the San Diego Opera and now this. Here’s what’s known: I have it on good authority that Landmark Cinemas, the company that operates the theatre, was not able to renew the lease on San …

Sunday began with a prophetic Facebook post. Big Screen devotee Rob “Colonna” Martinez placed an article on my wall from the December 15, 1959 issue of Time magazine that dished the backstory on a drunken …

Director David Gordon Green is currently out promoting Joe, a rich, atmospheric comedy noir starring Nicolas Cage as a backwoods professional tree-poisoner and Tye Sheridan as the teenage boy in need of protection from a …

Pit anywhere from 5 to 15 thugs against one lone tough and instead of a dogpile, the bad guys line up like they’re in a bakery waiting for their numbers to be called. (Don’t any …