Mr. Marks handled the news beautifully. I don't have much to add, except to say that I chuckled when Lucas said, "It occurred to me one day that the perfect person to take over the company was Kathy. It's just …

Why can't this post be about 10 new Gene Hackman films opening next year instead of a tidbit found on TMZ? No offense to Harvey Levin and the gang, but if they produce a film starring a finer actor currently …

Last year you learned how to transform a bottle of fake blood and a pair of sunglasses into The Godfather's Moe Green. This year, why not go dressed as America's favorite sociopathic Taxi Driver, Travis Bickle? Here's all you do! …

Who cares if the planned sequel sucks? George sold out his fans for $4 billion bucks!

The Force is now with the house the mouse built and that means 2015 will see the first of many Disneyfied Star Wars reboots. Someone call Hayden Christensen and tell him that his career has suddenly been taken off hold. …

"Fun Size" fits all...except its target demographic

Nickelodeon Movies presents a politically incorrect, "hard PG-13" theatrical release that can't possibly air unedited on its parent cable channel. Where's the closest multiplex? Instead of going to a hot boy’s Halloween party, Wren (Victoria Justice) is ordered to take …

I dunno, guys — some people are all, "Hey, that's in pretty poor taste," but I'm feeling like there's maybe something to work with here... James Bond...Britain's greatest living weapon...sent back in time...to assassinate George Washington and the rest of …

"Chasing Mavericks" star pays visit to San Diego

Jonny Weston. The name alone oozes all-American appeal (and marquee value). Charleston, South Carolina native Jonny Weston "grew up surfing." For his first studio film, Weston stars in the biopic of real-life of wave whiz, Jay Moriarty. Weston initially turned …

Warning: Review includes some mild spoilers and speculation that will probably prove so dead-on accurate as to spoil a main aspect of the proposed sequel

WARNING - this review assumes the reader has already seen the flick, in case you want to avoid a few mild spoilers... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/28/34558/ Didn't like the Amazing Spider-Man as much as the three Tobey Maguire flicks, but it wasn't a …

Publicly-collaborated series of ten short films on Egypt's Jan 25 revolution

18 Days speaks to the 18 days beginning from the January 25 revolution in Egypt against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In 18 Days, ten directors, six writers, twenty actors, and a number of small film crews volunteered to create ten …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_QqA0sDMec&feature=watch-vrec Wow. That was unscary. The only reason for noticing? One more for the ever-growing gallery of horror-film creepy-children's art. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/26/34407/

Gene Shalit faces a charge of driving to endanger after the retired Today Show movie critic introduced his car to a utility pole before coming to a stop against a home. OMG! reports the 86-year-old Shalit told Lennox, Massachusetts police …

Other websites have already reported that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be strapping on the ol' loincloth and once more taking up the savage sword of Conan. I couldn't be more pleased. I love a good legend-past-his-prime flick, as long as it …

This week's big opening is Cloud Atlas, a multi-character, multi-narrative collaboration between the enormously gifted Tom Twkwer and the at times entertaining Wachowski Brothers. After struggling with some of the film's high concepts, Mr. L concludes, "the grand-scale visuals are …

THE GOOD The oh-so-weird 1973 psycho killer film Wicked Wicked takes place at the historic (and reportedly haunted) Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego, set up in the flick to be a somewhat seedy residential hotel. Almost the whole movie …

Hitchcock and bull.

Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas notwithstanding, it is seldom you'll catch me watching let alone writing about a made-for-TV movie. The term itself is an oxymoron and one I haven't had much use for in decades. CBS …

David France’s documentary about the advancements made in AIDS research, composed almost entirely of archival footage, is not much to look at. Even harder to endure are images of the ravaged victims, which are at times as excruciating to watch …

Um, guys? If they pull this one off, I'll eat my spun-sugar hat. It starts off okay...I like the "more than a myth" line at the top, the way it harkens to his Norse heritage. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/24/34318/ But it quickly goes...awry. …

Ageless movie star Tom Cruise is suing the publishers of Life & Style and InTouch for suggesting that he has abandoned his daughter Suri. That's all well and good, but the real news comes from Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields, a …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/24/34248/ You are looking at an original UNITED ARTISTS TRANSAMERCA watering can from the early '70's. The design is patterned after the "tire track" logo that opened UNITED ARTISTS films from 1968 to 1980. This watering can is EXTREMELY RARE …

Why does this mural located on 6th at C mock me? Am I to be mocked? http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/23/34229/ Who better to welcome new citizens to sunny San Diego than a clinically depressed and emotionally tortured soul like Montgomery Clift? Whenever out …

Okay, I lied a little - the latest iteration of Animal Farm doesn't have a trailer yet. But yesterday's Internet was all abuzz over Andy Serkis' announcement that he intended to direct a motion capture version of George Orwell's famous …

Dammit, I want to see Fun Size! I am nothing if not a Johnny Knoxville completest. Who says I only like subtitled movies? While it looks to be a safe distance from cinema, for some dumb reason, I laughed during …

I have yet to attend one of National Theatre Live's presentations, but my pal Jean Lowerison, theater critic for SDGLN , is absolutely bonkers over their productions. This is the Gaslamp's fourth season of NT Live, a group dedicated to …

Married man has fiance!

This winner of the this year's best "Gee, I didn't know it was loaded" excuse goes to born-againer Dinesh D'Souza, co-director of 2012's biggest grossing documentary, 2016: Obama's America. While attending a conference on Christian values in late September, D'Souza …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/19/33866/ Ha, ha, look at those dwarves! Such funny-looking fellows, with their bulbous noses and their huge beards and their...waitaminute. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/19/33867/ Looks like somebody's been dwarfscaping with the sheep shears again.

Why are movie tickets so expensive? At the risk of sounding crotchety, I have to complain that they used to be $3.50 two decades ago. Now it costs nearly $12 to see a movie, at night, on a weekend. Good …

Let's close the week with a handful of 3D oddities from the copyright snubbing folks at YouTube. All of the clips are presented in the anaglyph (red & blue) 3D. If you didn't get 3D specs when you purchased The …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ4QJCjvN8c "I get it, Dad. I will never do anything new or different." "Good man, Thunk." This, this is why Red Staters say that Hollywood hates America. Never leave the cave! First animated film to reference Platonic imagery, or just …

Alex Cross is a detective whose powers of deduction border on the clairvoyant; he can look at your shirt and tell you what you’re having for dinner tomorrow night. Alex Cross is novelist James Patterson’s third big screen outing for …

Goodness, but there are a lot of movies out there. Halloween, just in time for Halloween! No, not the new Halloween, the old Halloween. The one with the William Shatner mask. Terrifying. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/19/33850/ High Noon! Either the most American or …

A bit of an odd week; still, let's have at it. Aaron Paul and Mary Elizabeth Winstead get drunk in Smashed, but while the film shows the downside of having your wife be your best drinking buddy (especially when she …

Wanna' have fun? Go see Here Comes the Boom only pretend it's called The Passion of the Kevin James. It's as much a Christ parable as Raging Bull only "director" Frank Coraci doesn't know it. (And speaking of Marty, when …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s Set faces to quizzical, Mr. Hanks: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/18/33814/ And if the guy who fell in love with the script looks this confused, what hope is there for the rest of us? And by the by, Mr. Hanks, it's not the …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/17/33748/

10.) You have zero interest in seeing what it would have been like had Walt Disney produced a live-action Nazi drama in the 1960’s. (The Incredible Journey? The Absent Minded Oberführer? Emil and the Schutzstaffel?) 9.) Who wants to see …

The crowd was particularly restless during last night's screening of Alex Cross, the first actor-for-hire job Tyler Perry has accepted. It remains unclear what exactly the woman seated to my left had in her purse. All I know is it …

I don't care that this has already been posted on every site everywhere. It made me laugh, and so I'm posting it here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llyq-zyE-wU&feature=relmfu

Hey kids! Did you know that the director of Spider-Man — no, not that Spider-Man, the first one, with Tobey and Kirsten — got his start with a little low-budget horror-gore film called The Evil Dead? It's true! And of …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/16/33689/ I've been on a John Wayne jag of late, trying my best to catch up on what remains of the few post-Stagecoach pictures that heretofore have escaped my critical gaze. For some reason I had it in my head …

You can call it Pac-Arts, or you can call it SDAFF, but "as a kind request" please do not refer to the newly dubbed Pacific Arts Movement as PAM. "I never grew up thinking I was going to run a …

"I have waited 42 years for Jesus Christ Superstar to play arenas in the UK, and it is great to finally see the show as it was originally intended, as an arena rock opera,” says Andrew Lloyd Webber of a …

The San Diego Museum of Art (1450 El Prado) is screening Nosferatu and Shadows and Fog as part of their German Expressionism series, which has included Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari On Friday, November 2, the Museum will …

Bear with me on this one, people... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGs4CjeJiJQ&feature=player_embedded Astonishingly, folks are calling movie star Brad Pitt's ad for Chanel No. 5 "nonsensical," and not just because it's a man pitching a woman's fragrance. For many, the nonsense stems from the …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMWrZmD0AN4 A few thoughts: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/15/33572/ Man, I had no idea Michelle Williams needed the work this badly. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/15/33573/ Man, Andrew McCarthy isn't aging too well, is he? http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/15/33574/ Man, I had no idea Sean Bean needed the work this badly. …

Tom Cruise will give up his desperate attempts to turn the works of a sci-fi writer into an accepted religion the day I stop watching movies. Never happen. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/15/33562/ Reports that Cruise will leave Scientology in order to win back …

Matt drew review duty for Seven Psychopaths while I was fortunate enough to spend some time with the film’s writer/director, Martin McDonagh, when he paid a recent visit to San Diego. Remember In Bruges, the nasty film noir comedy that …

So don't even bother with this until after you've seen the film. But after you've seen the film — you know, when you're enjoying a snifter of XO Cognac by the fire and busting out your back issues of Les …

Autumn, and there's magic in the air...hey, here's The Illusionist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ojY3IAsO4&feature=related And as you well remember, the Hollywood law of two was in full effect for this one: here's The Prestige? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVTl90m1Auk&feature=related And of course, we all remember the sorcerers …

Aw - who's more adorable? I think it's fair to say that Seven Psychopaths is this week's big winner, no matter how many Oscars Argo winds up winning. Yeah, simultaneously exploiting and subverting the genre has been done before, but …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/11/33398/ Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day, the film account of Led Zeppelin's 2007 reunion concert at London's 02 Arena, will open on 1,500 screens in 40 markets worldwide on Wednesday, October 17, including several local theaters. Mission Valley 20 - 1640 …

Attention filmmakers! The Roots Factory (1878 Main Street) and The Barrio Logan Arts District are accepting independent short film submissions for their first annual Barrio Film Fest until October 31. “The Barrio Film Festival is seeking conscious short films that …

With the Saw franchise desperately in need of a creative miter box to guide it through a new sequel, this will mark our second Jigsaw-less Halloween. This season, screams will be heard emanating from multiplexes showing Sinister. In order to …

I love this shot of Natalie Portman on the set of Terrence Malick's Significant Whispers (not its real title). http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/11/33365/ So much effort being expended in the effort to make a beautiful and glamorous Hollywood star look like a slightly …

First shot of Scarlett Johansson in the trailer: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/11/33357/ I mean, I guess it's a step up from her introduction in Lost in Translation, because it is a nice dress... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/11/33358/ And it's certainly reminiscent of her work in The …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT6e0bRbgU8 First reaction: Man, Hannibal Lecter has really let himself go. Maybe it's time to lay off the liver and Chianti, pal. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/11/33350/ OH SNAP, etc. But seriously, folks: Anthony Hopkins is a distinguished actor who can play high and …

What do you mean "Reader employees and their families are not eligible?" to win the Deluxe Anniversary Blu-ray Combo Pack with DVD, Digital Copy, Ultraviolet Set? Damn it to hell! Wait a minute? It's the Spielberg movie and not a …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/10/33299/ Debbie Reynolds and I go way back. Sort of... Believe me when I tell you that I have seen Do It Debbie's Way, an exercise video she produced in the mid '80's, more times than I have Citizen Kane. …

Oh, my God. What have I done? http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/09/33249/ When I first interviewed horror film aficionado and first-time filmmaker Paul Blevins way back in May, he expressed interest in renting a theatre to screen his cinematic creation, True Love Zombie, for …

On Thursday, October 25 at 8 p.m. Tijuana-based electronica artists Nortec Collective perform a live, self-styled version of the Iron Fist soundtrack during the screening by "blending traditional Mexican music with contemporary beats." The campy drama Iron Fist is "Gabriel …

You can watch clips of The Marx Bros. in Horse Feathers starting here, but if you want to cut to the "Columbo" Day chase, here's Chico's fractured English tribute to Chris: "Christopher Columbo he write the Queen of Spain a …

So last week, the Internet was all grumpy about the long-rumored Hungry Hungry Hippos movie actually getting greenlit. Not me, though. Hippos are awesome - simultaneously comical and terrifying. Hungry, hungry hippos? Oh, yeah: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/08/33131/ I mean, that last shot …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/08/33124/ Last night's 35mm presentation of Butter was in uniform focus throughout. The pre-show aneurism had nothing to do with Jennifer Deering or her Johnny-on-the spot staff at Reading Cinemas Town Square who were there to greet us both coming …

There are times that even I don't have the heart to use my "dig a hole" catchphrase. While we never went bowling or to a movie together, I knew Gloria Penner and was fortunate enough to have worked with her …

This weekend South Bay Drive-In (2170 Coronado Ave) screens 6 movies. Frankenweenie, Looper, and Taken 2 will play at 8 p.m. and again at 11:30 and 11:55 respectively. Dredd, Resident Evil: Retribution, and House at the End of the Street …

Santee Drive-In* (10990 North Woodside Ave) is screening Hotel Transylvania (PG) and Taken 2 (PG-13) at 8 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. You can read Scott Marks' review of Taken 2 here. When I saw the trailer, I just thought: This …

Some directors deserve the utmost respect. Even if a screener of the latest Carlos Saura film appeared in my mailbox, I'd still wait and watch it on a big screen. The wait is over. Flamenco, Flamenco, a stunning study of …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32901/ The ceiling of MoPA's Joan and Irwin Jacobs Theatre will cast its twinkle light on a crop of San Diego premiers when the museum once again plays host to the German Currents Film Festival. The sensational news is 75% …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32873/ Studios want critics to see children's films with an audience, generally at 10am on a Saturday morning at Edwards Mira Mesa. It's a strange custom, as if the sound of children's laughter will somehow add an additional star to …

Seeing Scott's illustration on his Taken 2 review... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32861/ ...reminded me of this shot from 2009's little-seen The International... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32862/ ...which in turn put me in mind of this bit from the upcoming Bond film, Skyfall... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32864/ At least Bond …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/04/32859/ Okay, so don't probably read this unless you've seen the film and feel like jawing about it... But this piece about how wonderfully smart Looper is stuck in my craw, because... ...why do loopers exist? Because it's so hard …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/03/32803/ Label: Licensed Hugo Automation Style: Short sleeve graphic tee Color: Black Sizes: Small to 3XL Cost: $16.07 on eBay http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/03/32804/ Label: When? Style: American Apparel athletic tee Color: Blue or gray Sizes: Small to 2XL Cost: $26.99 at Skreened …

Fans with short attention spans will applaud director Olivier Megaton’s inability to hold an image on screen for more than 10 seconds, but devotees of the original, of which I am one, will wonder where the thrills went in this …

Today is moving day and while making one last pass at the dumpster, I noticed that a neighbor had cleansed his video collection. Come on now, it's gonna be a nice day!

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/02/32709/ In an interview with writer Bob Colacello, fashion editor Diana Vreeland summed up what it means to be a visionary trendsetter: “You’re not supposed to give people what they want, you supposed to give them what they don’t know …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/01/32628/ I hear he's pretty sensitive about the Crow thing.

This just arrived, FedEx: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/01/32615/ Let's zoom in on that tag (which is not, of course, censored in the movie): http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/oct/01/32616/ The theft of Woody Harrelson's beloved Shih Tzu is, of course, what serves as the bloody, beating heart of …

Why is it that regurgitated sputum like American Pie Reunion is released on 3,192 screens while a congenial, handsomely-cast, and thoroughly engaging film like 10 Years gets dumped with zero fanfare on one screen at Horton Plaza? You think that …

Hopefully, enough days have passed since last week's celebration of Yom Kippur and this post will count against next year's entry in The Book of Life. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32431/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32422/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32423/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32424/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32425/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32505/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32494/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32426/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32428/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32487/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32429/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32430/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32486/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2012/sep/28/32432/ …