Entries
The Ten Commandments of Hollywood trailers
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Americans have good reason to give thanks this President's Day
Audiences refuse to swallow "Beautiful Creatures" 'caster' oil
Beautiful Creatures didn't crack this weekend's top five at the box office. It barely took in $10 million. No sequels! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYCDEsersw The film's young star, Andy of Mayberry facsimile Alden Ehrenreich, was "discovered" by Spielberg at a friend's daughter's Bat …
Truth in advertising: Woody plugs Groucho
I saw Groucho Marx perform in person. Allow me to take a moment to stick my tongue out at you unfortunates who can't claim the same. It was a few months shy of my Bar Mitzvah when Groucho agreed to …
Interview: Director Ric Roman Waugh rats on Snitch
Ric Roman Waugh is a wow of a salesman. I'm generally a fan of The Rock, but it's been some time since a Dwayne Johnson film held this much promise. After speaking with its passionate and knowledgeable ex-stuntman turned writer/director …
Trailer Park: Escape from Planet Earth
How many acts of cinematic theft can you pack into one trailer?
Let's take a look! Beloved super-dude appears before huge crowd of adoring fans and kisses a baby. Wow, haven't seen that since Megamind! http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/15/40221/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/15/40220/ Oh, look: it turns out that we've got all this really cool technology, not because …
Review: A Good Day to Die Hard
Note to franchise: drop dead already!
The third act plays out inside the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, but take my word for it: A Good Day to Die Hard is a bigger disaster than the 1986 meltdown. Other than Bruce Willis reprising the role as John …
New movies opening this week
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/15/40217/ If the above image does not convince you to see the senior-center documentary short "King's Point," I'm not sure we can be friends any more. Look, I'm not a fool. I know you're probably not thinking, "Woo-hoo! Friday night! …
Interview: Cult director Don Coscarelli
Don Coscarelli first terrified audiences in 1979 with a flying sphere in Phantasm. Since then he has directed only ten films and four of them have the word “Phantasm” in their title. It’s not all horror for the director as …
How did San Diego go from two dozen drive-in theaters to only two?
Hint: The murder of a future SD Mayor's brother had a lot to do with it
The Reader's Don Bauder has an excellent new story about former San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor's recent legal tribulations: "Mayor Mo" stole $2 million from late husband's foundation. While O’Connor may have been one of the city’s better Mayors, I’ve …
Now hear this: Marty announces His next offering
Just in time for Valentine's Day!
http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/14/40161/ The next film by Andrew Lau, writer and director of Infernal Affairs, will be produced by Martin Scorsese, the man who won His only Academy Award by remaking the Hong Kong action film as The Departed. How's that for …
Appreciation: Castle Freak
In praise of low-budget, lowbrow, minor collaborations
Nobody, I think, is going to argue that Castle Freak represents the finest execution of the the "H.P. Lovecraft to Stuart Gordon to Jeffery Combs" combination; that honor pretty clearly goes to Re-Animator. But a passing mention of Castle Freak …
Product placement: John Wayne Organic Beef Jerky
From the man who died with 40 lbs. of impacted feces in his colon comes a new taste treat! There's a little bit of Duke's "natural flavoring" in every bite of John Wayne Organic Beef Jerky. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/14/40149/ John Wayne Organic …
Trailer Park: The Internship
I don't think they're even trying any more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a8DjuGlVknQ Just. Wow. What is the sound of one film pandering? Let's begin. Vince Vaughn is 42. Owen Wilson is 44. But for the sake of The Internship, they might as well be a couple of Foxy Grampas, looking to …
My funky valentines
February holidays suck. All I can think of is how white and unloved I am. Happy VD from your pals at The Big Screen. Here are a few favorites to help get you through this day where commercialism and forced …
Records Collecting Dust: a film about the music that changed our lives
Documentary features members of Black Flag, The Locust, Hot Snakes, Heroin, Sleep, the Jesus Lizard, Drive Like Jehu, and many more.
Local musicians Jason Blackmore (Otro, Rats Eyes, Sirhan Sirhan, Molly McGuire) and David Robles (Wha?, Marsupials) posted a trailer today for their pending documentary Records Collecting Dust - Volume One: the California Edition. Simply described as “a film about the …
Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Club raffling off tickets to Comic-Con
A 1 in 6,500 chance to win
Ten bucks, one-tenth of a Frankiln, could net you a pair of tickets to this year's Comic-Con. That's all it will cost to purchase a raffle ticket from Torrey Pines (La Jolla) Rotary Foundation to win two passes to Comic-Con …
San Diego Film Critics live to die hard another day
Mid-meeting robbery occurs in Mission Valley Mall food court
I kinda’ like it when my colleagues at the San Diego Film Critics Society holler at me. It’s when they scream inside a food court that I find it so unnerving. Such was the case during last night’s meeting at …
Old movie stars never die...
...they just come back as grizzled versions of themselves.
Well, Bullet to the Head and Stand Up Guys and The Last Stand sure seem to be making the case against old folks gettin' out of their easy chairs and up on the big screen. But dammit, we won't really …
Trailer Park: Beautiful Creatures
OMG, you guys.
The good times roll on Friday. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8C-wk5XfpE Whoa. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/12/40000/ "I'm not saying that George Harrison and Liberace ever partied with Hugh Hefner. I'm saying that if they did, this ensemble would have been the offspring of whatever clothes wound up …
Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
Matthew beat me to it with this brilliant evisceration of Spielberg's latest ploy to ensure his place in the history books. Looks like Steve is on his way to being voted Best Director of the Year. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/feb/12/39998/