Summer Movie Attendance Drops for the Fourth Straight Year
Will this year's continuing decline in movie theatre attendance be viewed as a symbol of discretionary spending on the part of thoughtful moviegoers finally fed up with the vapid, effects-driven dung Hollywood has splattered across multiplex screens for lo these …
Feature: Local Company 3D Film Factory Looks to the Future
Keith Driver with 3D Film Factory camera rig. Keith Driver has a word for anyone who thinks 3D filmmaking is a passing fad. “Joe Six-Pack, living in his double-wide, can go down to Wal-Mart, buy a 3D TV, put it …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for Blackthorn
Hoo boy - a sequel to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. If nothing else, they've got guts - almost as much guts as it must have taken Coppola to make Godfather III. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4SgoLvj6FQ Look, I get the appeal. The …
Tracking Simian Reactions to San Diego Zoo's Screening of Rise of the Planet of the Apes
"Intriguing. Not at nuanced as Project Nim, but still, some food for thought there. I give it a thumbs-up, because I have an opposable thumb, you see. In fact, I've got four." "Meh. Sad to see my people relegated to …
Vera Farmiga Takes To (And Talks Up) Higher Ground
Vera Farmiga calls her first shot at directing, “One of those curve balls life throws at you that you either choose to catch or duck.” Higher Ground, opening Friday at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas, was adapted from Carolyn S. Briggs’ spiritual …
Lawsuit from LucasFilms in 3...2...1...
This just landed in my inbox...it's an ad for an iPad keyboard case. That "R" looks a little familiar, no? To say nothing of that trooper fellow... Aw, what am I saying? Lucas wouldn't sue over something like that, would …
Comment: Colombiana
Over at New York Magazine, Kyle Buchanan makes a good point about the wasting away of female action stars, most recently manifested by Zoe Saldana in Colombiana. As he puts it, "Saldana's a talented actress who can sell ferocity with …
Free Outdoor Screening of Avatar Saturday Night
It's going to be a perfect night to get lost in a long movie under the stars. The Liberty Station website lists the TRT of tonight's installment of Summer Movie Mania as 5 to 10 pm. Is that with or …
Short Takes: Colombiana
With Angelina Jolie far too eminent to lower herself to grace yet another gratuitous female-empowerment blockbuster, it’s up to Zoe Saldana, an actress Hollywood can’t quite pigeonhole, to this time enact revenge against the male aggressors. The opening sequence -- …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for Hysteria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnwougM4sYo So here we have Hysteria, a film named after lady troubles - "hysteria" translating, of course, as "from the womb." Poor ladies and their nervous conditions. If only there was some way to bring them relief. Basically, a film …
Aretha Franklin Blocks Release of Never-Before-Seen Sydney Pollack Documentary
Recorded live over two nights at at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles in January 1972, Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace went Double Platinum and remains her biggest selling album to date. A four-man 16mm film crew, led …
(More) Reviews!
Look, it's late August. Movies are released on weekends like this one because, well, they have to release something, don't they? So yeah — Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, written but not directed by creepmeister Guillermo Del Toro. That's …
Reviews!
This is getting silly. I swear these weren't there a day or two ago. But be that as it may, you need to read: David Elliott pumps up The Whistleblower, Salvation Boulevard, and Crime After Crime, but lets One Day, …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scy56-_mr3k Okay people, think product placement. Those heads don't just light themselves on fire, you know. We got bills to pay. What's that, Susan? You've got something? Let's take a look... Perfect. Let's break for lunch.
Dig a Hole: Jimmy Kimmel's Uncle, Frank Potenza
Every obituary I've read of Frank Potenza invariably includes the word "beloved" in the opening paragraph. It's a privilege to echo the sentiment and follow the flock for a change. Earnestly blithe former New York City cop, Frank Potenza, best …
Local Drummer Featured in New Documentary
The New Regime has released a 24 minute documentary on the making of the new album Speak Through The White Noise. The piece chronicles 22-year-old Ilan Rubin's journey from being in Lostprophets to joining Nine Inch Nails, all the while …
Local Singer & Ramona Footage in Quiet Riot Documentary Film
The Quiet Riot documentary film partially shot at Ramona Mainstage on January 28, featuring San Diegan singer Mark Huff as their new frontman, will be released in early 2012. A YouTube trailer for Well Now You’re Here There’s No Way …
Local Oscar-Winner Cameron Crowe Commandeers Pearl Jam Twenty
Homegrown filmmaker Cameron Crowe, writer/director of Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire, has announced the release of his first feature length rockumentary, Pearl Jam Twenty. The film chronicles how Pearl Jam managed to survive all of rock's pitfalls to become one …
Sunday Sunday! Sunday! Cinema as NASCAR-Event Sponsor
The fact that "rear-engine, fuel-injected funny car" has become part of this media-addicted sportsophobe's pop-culture lexicon is a testament to the nimble persistence with which rapid-fire announcer Jan Gabriel and the folks at Smokin' US30 Dragstrip kept their radio and …
France, home of "The Three Musketeers"
No, I'm not exactly sure what the quotation marks around "The Three Musketeers" are supposed to signify. Why don't we ask these fellows? What's that? Take a closer look at the fine print on the left? Okay... France, France...I feel …
Today in Disputable Claims: "The fans have spoken!"
Did this dude grow a metal beard and get metal wrinkles under his eyes when he got old, or was he made that way? Discuss. Press release just came in announcing Transformers: Dark of the Moon's triumphant return to IMAX …
Overheard at Disney: "Hey guys, remember when we were cool?"
Had occasion recently to watch the better-than-decent documentary The Pixar Story. I saw it on Netflix, but of course, it's also on the morally ambiguous YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgpKWdIGl-c&feature=related At any rate, there's a lot of talk about Disney in there. Not …
Video Tyme: Premiere of The Super Dentists Strike Back at Vista's Krikorian Theater
Well, that was fun! Following the Super Dentists' Super Car to the Theater! http://vimeo.com/28027126 Interview with supporting cast members Brandon Rowley and Ron Gay! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsfOXczHnkg As he mentioned, Rowley starred in the Super Dentists' first film, way back in 2004: …
Sean Penn Cannot Tell A Lie, Takes Ax to Malick's The Tree of Life
Used to be an actor went public with negative feelings concerning a project they were involved in and s/he wasn't long for a career in Tinseltown. Sean Penn's refreshingly candid thumbnail assessment of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life was …
Local Premiere: The Super Dentists Strike Back
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4u0YjLUBmA Tomorrow morning, Vista’s Krikorian Theater will play host to the sold-out, red-carpet premiere of The Super Dentists Strike Back, the latest project from the pediatric dentistry and orthodontics practice of Drs. Nazli Keri and Kami Hoss. (Your humble correspondent …
Short Takes: Fright Night
Was this remake really necessary? A one-mile square housing development situated in the middle of the Las Vegas desert is now the setting for a digitized-facelift of Tom Holland’s ho-hum 1985 cult horror item. No one believes Anton Yelchin’s claim …
That's it, I quit.*
Some days you wake up, and the sun is shining, and the breeze is blowing, and the birds are singing, and your hangover is slightly less brutal than usual, and you think, "By God, there are a lot of problems …
Dig A Hole: Raúl Ruiz
Acclaimed Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz has died from a pulmonary infection. According to Daniel Yates' IMDB mini-biography, "Ruiz has proved one of the most exciting and innovative filmmakers of recent years, providing more intellectual fun and artistic experimentation, shot for …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for The Woman in Black: Daniel Radcliffe Stars in Rise of the Planet of the Tiny Toy Apes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arixaTWmIA0&feature=youtu.be Okay, let's try to ignore the silly, overdone "Unsuspecting city person visits spooky, haunted country house, discovers horrific crime that was once committed there" storyline in the trailer, and concentrate instead on the terrifying toys. These too are faintly …
John Waters Offers Advice to "The Loyal-to-Jerry MDA Kids"
America's fair-haired Potentate of Putrescence, John Waters, has at last decided to go public with his feelings concerning the MDA's heartless treatment of ousted Chairman of the Board and former Telethon host Jerry Lewis. The author/director shared his thoughts on …
Short Takes: Conan the Barbarian
Leo Howard plays the callow Conan. The opening passage, with a tough, near-mute little scrapper (Leo Howard as “Young Conan”) beating the snot out of every adult the script throws him, held promise. There’s the reasonably engaging running-of-the-egg procession (contestants …
Anatomy of a Press Photo: You guys, Terminator 5 is going to be SO awesome...
I'm guessing that instead of asking, "Sarah Connor?" she'll just go with "Mommy?" which totally ups the fear factor.
Casting Will Ferrell's Prom Photo
So this bit of olde-timey goodness started floating around the Internet while I was sick a-bed... That such a photo should come out during a summer that sees both Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone in starring roles is hardly accidental, …
Disney Exec Has a Word for Their Product
Andy Hendrickson: Enemy of Cinema! "Bullshit." That's what Disney Animation Studios chief technical officer Andy Hendrickson has to say about the outlandish concept of people actually wanting to see a movie for its story. Sadly, his comments, delivered at last …
Neil Kendricks' 9th Annual alt.pictureshows Returns to MCASD La Jolla
For three hours (7 - 10 p.m.) on Thursday, August 25, La Jolla's Museum of Contemporary Art reconfigures to become an indoor and outdoor film installation. It's what Sammy Davis, Jr. would have called an art happening, dig? This is …
Billy Crystal Ready to Return as Oscars Host
Leave it to a fan to pose the one question everybody is dying to ask Billy Crystal. During a Q&A following the 20th Anniversary screening of City Slickers at Santa Monica's Aero Theatre, the subject turned to the Oscars. According …
Locally Produced Hollies Documentary Gets BigScreen Debut Sept. 22
David Peck's local Reelin' In The Years Productions maintains an archive of over 10,000 filmed musical performances, as well as representing others with footage to license for broadcast or video releases. VH1 probably couldn't make shows like I Love the …
Freedom Writer Erin Gruwell In Person at Sunday's Jewish Film Festival Kick-Off Event
Many of you will remember the name Erin Gruwell from her New York Times bestseller, The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. The marquee-broadening title was later …
Interview: Former La Jollan Yoav Potash, Director of Crime After Crime
Yoav Potash, the crusading filmmaker behind the new documentary Crime After Crime, grew up in La Jolla. And he discovered his gift for storytelling as a third-grader at La Jolla Elementary School. For an assignment, he created The Three Cool …
Anatomy of a Press Photo: Contagion Poster
I haven't heard much about this new movie Contagion, but apparently, the disease has the power to transform Gwyneth Paltrow into Tilda Swinton. Weird.
Lucas Parts with 40 Additional Hours for Star Wars Blu-ray
His beneficence, Star Wars' star whore George Lucas, has decided to bless his minions -- and make a few million mansion payments -- by bestowing upon them 40 additional hours of heretofore unseen (irrelevant?) material for the September 16 release …
La Paloma Debuts Local Steve White Documentary Tonight, Aug. 14
The documentary film Steve White: Painting The World With Music will debut tonight, August 14, at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, screening at 9:00pm. The film spotlights local musician Steve White, who passed away in April. The singer-songwriter was …
Latino Film Festival Presents Que Viva! Cine Latino Free Outdoor Series
Pictured:Gael García Bernal in Even the Rain Technically, the San Diego Latino Film Festival won't come our way again until March. What with the ongoing Cinema en tu Idioma screenings and now the 5th Annual Que Viva! Cine Latino outdoor …
Review: 30 Minutes or Less
Photo at left: McBride Fine. I will sit up in my sickbed just long enough to let y'all know about this here new movie that's coming out today. Just don't expect much more than a numbered list. I'm still puzzling …
Danny Baldwin Rates the Cinépolis Experience
No sooner was the ink dry on my piece welcoming Danny Baldwin to the San Diego Film Critics Society, than the following impassioned plea appeared in my mailbox. Danny Baldwin was a former AMC projectionist and the current author of …
San Diego Film Critics Society Welcomes Three New Members
Anders Wright, president of The San Diego Film Critics Society, announced this week that three new members have been added to the roster. Danny Baldwin, Josh Board, and Glenn Heath Jr. all made the cut, raising the current membership to …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
I've got a raging sinus infection, so I've got even less to offer than usual, but there is this.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngIMH6J43UI Anybody up for making "Punching the Pope" the new "Jumping the Shark"? No? How 'bout just making it the new …
Short Takes: Final Destination 5
Same carnage, different kids. This time the torture-porn embraces alternative forms of medicine like acupuncture and laser surgery. (If you have a thing about eyes, it’s best to close yours.) There’s a a terrific mounting sight gag (did you hear …
Review: The Help
In order to keep their families disease-free, the young white ladies of Jackson, Mississippi (c.1960) get behind a Colored bathroom bill and construct outdoor facilities so as to avoid sharing a seat with their domestics. As a result, future feminist …
Comedians Rally to Support Former Telethon Host Jerry Lewis
Last week it was my sad duty to report Jerry Lewis' ouster as the National Chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. According to the MDA, Jerry's participation in the annual Labor Day Telethon (that he created some sixty years ago …
Empire of Silver: Vistas Aplenty
My Empire of Silver capsule review should be up in a bit, but in the meantime, I'd like to take a moment to wonder why American filmmakers seem to have lost the art of the dramatic long shot. I think …
A Closer Look at the Trailer for One Day: The Many Faces of Anne Hathaway
It's quite a challenge for any makeup artist - depicting an actress over a twenty-year period, the way they do in One Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLUWHW5NxwI What struck me was how many other actresses they managed to make Anne Hathaway remind me …
"How do you get to make a movie?"
That was the question my son asked me last night before I headed out to Empire of Silver. While I waited for the movie to start, a movie fun fact informed me that, at least in Michael Bay's case, you …
While We're At It...
Regal Entertainment Group is making a plea for relevance in the age of Netflix. "There are millions of stories to be told," reads the text on the big screen. "Stories of heroes and legends," etc., etc. But as the action …
A Complete List of the Movie Categories on AMC's "Where Movies Live" Ad Page
Action Adventure, Blockbuster, Bollywood, Chick Flick, Comedy, Cop Buddy Picture, Documentary, Dramedy, Fantasy, Horror, Remake, Rom Com, Superhero, Teen Angst, Thriller. Fascinating. Teen Angst gets its own category, as does Superhero, Remake, Chick Flick, and Cop Buddy Picture. The difference …
En Garde: An Interview with The Guard Writer & Director John Michael McDonagh
John Michael McDonagh Get ready for a film that puts this summer's colorless comic book adaptations and gross-out comedies to shame. The Guard stars Brendan Gleeson as Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a small town cop assigned to crack a ring of …
REJECTED — My Failed Entry for the 2011 San Diego 48-Hour Film Project Competition*
Apologies for the late blog-start today - I was recovering from my mad weekend of making my entry for the San Diego 48 Hour Film Project. The rule, as you may have surmised, is that the entire film has to …
Never Mind The Muppets, Here's Starship!
Seriously, fellas? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4YhbpuGdwQ Is this to be my generation's fate? To have the really crappy songs of its youth stuffed back down its throat without the merest dollop of irony to ease the passage? I mean, "We Built This City" …
Bootleg Super 8 Screener Has Howard Stern's Name On It
Could it be? The last honest man left in broadcasting guilty of electronic copyright infringement?! A copy of JJ Abrahms Super8 containing an "H Stern" watermark has surfaced on illegal internet sites. While I'd pay anything to see a police …
Latino Film Festival's Cinema en tu Idioma Series Runs All Week
David Rasche and Cristina Lago star in *Blue Eyes* We've hit a good patch! What with The Guard, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Another Earth, Midnight in Paris, and Le Quattro Volte currently playing neighborhood screens, there's something …
Free Outdoor Screening of Disney's Tangled Tonight
Why not take advantage of KUSI meteorologist Leslie Lopez's forecast for perfect outdoor movie-viewing weather and bring the family (and blankets and lawn chairs) to Carmel Valley for tonight's free screening of Disney's Tangled? I'll be your projectionist for the …
Review: The Devil's Double
In 1987, an Iraqi army lieutenant named Latif Yahia was summoned to Saddam Hussein’s palace and ordered to serve as a body double for Saddam’s monstrous son Uday. What a great premise for a movie: an existential crisis – as …
Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Let me begin by saying that I cannot tell you my least favorite and favorite lines in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, because I don't want to spoil things for you. But I can tell you that the …
Kids Today
Now get off my lawn! Okay, so I guess it's understandable that the 10:35 a.m. show of Empire of Silver at Mission Valley AMC should have an unresolvable technical glitch - namely, that the subtitles at the bottom of the …
Joe Walker on Editing YouTube Documentary Life in a Day
With Netflix and Red Box both entering the film distribution market, it's a wonder that it took YouTube so long to find its way to the big screen. YouTube partnered with Ridley Scott's company Scott Free and director Kevin Macdonald …
Ack! Catwoman!
So the filmblogging universe is dutifully trotting out this still of Anne Hathaway (?) as Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. And while we here at Big Screen hate to seem catty (seewhatididthere), we are inclined to note that that …
Oprah Winfrey to Receive Oscar's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
Oscar periodically bestows the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award upon individuals "in the motion picture industry whose humanitarian efforts have brought credit to the industry." Furthermore, honorary statuettes are awarded for "extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state …
Never mind the Killer Elite, here's the Scorpions!
Okay, just one more and I'll lay off the snark. But the full trailer for Killer Elite just came over the wire, and I'll be dipped if they don't use the Scorpions' "Rock You Like A Hurricane" as the musical …
Anatomy of a Press Photo: Evolution of Superman
Remember Christopher Reeve? Bright colors, spandex, Truth, Justice, and the American Way? Dude owned it. So then they tried the reboot, and apparently, they decided the bright red "S" was a little too...what's the word...comic-booky. "Too much like a superhero …
Anatomy of a Press Photo: Immortals Armor
Oh, yeah - badASS. Though I'm not quite sure why we're going the whole "nipples on the batsuit" route... And I know that this Henry Cavill dude is going to be playing Superman soon... ...but the cape thing is a …
Jerry Lewis Out as MDA Chairman and Telethon Host
My favorite TV show of all-time was canceled. We all knew it couldn't last forever, but who would have thought Jerry Lewis' departure from the Muscular Dystrophy Association's Annual Labor Day Telethon that he created would get ugly. It was …
Reviews!
Set phasers to Ornery. Oh, my. David Elliott has a thing or two to say about Cowboys & Aliens -- none of 'em good, but all of 'em entertaining. Here is a sample: "Ah, [Harrison] Ford - the smoking brand …
Apes on the Brain
I pricked my finger and took a blood oath never to break an embargo by revealing my true feelings for a film before it opens. Something tells me 2oth Century Fox won't mind the following breach. Rise of the Planet …
Anatomy of a Press Photo: First Look at John Cusack in The Raven
A little peek behind the scenes at the studio... Okay, so here's the high concept, people. Edgar Allan Poe wrote detective stories with a gruesome twist, right? So we're gonna do a film with a serial killer acting out Poe's …
Why Movies Suck
Newsflash: humor is powerful stuff. Seriously, though: long before I'd ever heard of Rupert Murdoch or NewsCorp - heck, long before cell phones, hackable or otherwise, were even invented - I knew that the New York Post was a lousy …
The Dangers of Hanging Around White People, Illustrated (Yet Again)
Look, we've all heard that The Black Guy Dies First. It's all part of The Man's plan. But it was still pretty insane to see a film like X-Men: First Class, which was little more than a minority empowerment story …
$20 Million Persuades Jennifer Lopez to Stick With American Idol
Fran Leibowitz once said, "If you're going to watch TV, watch TV." It's amazing how a comment made in passing on Late Night with David Letterman had the power to change the way I look at things. These eight words, …
Locally Shot Transvestite Documentary on DVD
"We finished our sixth film, all shot in San Diego," says Scumbag Movies co-owner Leia Gadow. "We're doing a limited DVD release, available through our website [http://www.scumbagmovies.com] with four different covers, each hand silk screened by the filmmakers." The documentary, …
Review: The Smurfs
I remember re-writing the narration in my head the first time I saw the trailer: “From Raja Gosnell, the Academy Award-slighted ‘director’ of such box office (s)hits as Big Momma’s House, two steaming helpings of Scooby-Doo, and a movie in …
Cinematographer's Notebook: Deep Focus
You know, this whole essay about Orson Welles's groundbreaking work in cinematic composition during the making of Citizen Kane is very well done. But I think the image above, taken from the upcoming art-house entry Shark Night 3D, illustrates the …
Bane: the Baddies Weigh In [SPOILER?]
Your Summer of Superheroes may be winding to a close, but it's never too soon to start thinking about Your Next Summer of Superheroes! The Dark Knight Rises, July 20, 2012!
Annals of Product Placement: The Dark Knight Rises [SPOILER]
Poor Bane. Looks like the Batsuit can get a mite whiffy under the arm... On the one hand, we're a little surprised to see an auteur like Chris Nolan taking such a mercenary approach to merchandising. On the other, kudos …