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 -- …
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 …
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 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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …