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BATMAN:
THE MOVIE
(Leslie H. Martinson, USA 1966) “The legendary
character, which was created in the thirties by comic
book genius Bob Kane, had already been the star of a
few serials when some clever TV execs put together an
intentionally campy, self-derisory, ultra-hip series
starring the hilariously deadpan Adam West as the Not-So-Dark
Knight. And between the first two seasons, they made
this full-length movie, which is simply the best super-hero
movie ever made. What's so great about the 1966 picture
is that it's aware of how ridiculous it would be for
grown men to dress up in costumes to fight crime. Hence,
they don't try to actually make Batman dark or cool
but just have fun with the idea of a quirky billionaire
who puts on colourful spandex. In the movie, you got
all four of Batman's worse enemies united to take over
the world: the playful Joker (Caesar Romero), the sultry
Catwoman (Julie Newmar), the sneaky Penguin (Burgess
Meredith) and the arrogant Riddler (Frank Gorshin).
Their evil plan: to dehydrate the members of the United
Nations and ask for a hefty ransom! And then there's
the whole 60s thing, from the brightly coloured sets
and costumes to the cheeky double entendres, the pop
art "Bam", "Pow!" effects and the
extremely groovy Neal Hefti score. Batman: the Movie
is to super-hero movies what Austin Powers is to espionage
films or what Scream is to slasher flicks. It's one
of the most refreshing films ever made.”—Kevin
N. Laforest, Montreal Film Journal. FREE for members.
Memberships available for $3.00 at the door. (PG) 105
min. Aug. 25
THE
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE PRINCE CASPIAN
(Andrew Adamson, USA 2008) “Prince Caspian, the
second entry in the Chronicles of Narnia series, is
a glorious medieval war movie. It's about war as the
ultimate pitch of conflict that tries men's souls, and
women's, too, in director-co-writer Andrew Adamson's
liberated, post-feminist rendering of C.S. Lewis' novel.
The battle between good and evil couldn't be more clearly
drawn. But the movie also depicts the fluidity of change
in every sphere of life, public or private, from a household
of siblings to a civilization nearing Armageddon. The
Pevensies, the four children from The Lion, the Witch
and the Wardrobe, return from England to their beloved
fairy-tale kingdom of Narnia. They find it under the
boot of a human race called the Telmarines, who invaded
it centuries earlier and have attempted to exterminate
its native creatures of wonder: dwarves, Minotaurs,
fauns, satyrs, centaurs and talking animals of all species.
Adamson makes it all vivid and dynamic.”—Michael
Sragrow, Baltimore Sun. 143 min. (PG) Aug. 2-4, 7
DARKMAN
(Sam Raimi, USA 1990) “Writer-director Sam Raimi
(The Evil Dead and its sequels) hit the big time with
this 1990 fantasy-thriller about a scientist (Liam Neeson)
disfigured by villains who transforms himself into a
grisly avenger, unable to feel pain and getting angrier
by the minute. Raimi's flair for jazzy visual effects
and extravagant action sequences, combined with direction
that's full of punch and energy, makes this the best
pop roller-coaster ride around. Unlike Tim Burton's
Batman, this shows a sensibility that really likes and
understands comic books (although echoes of such film
classics as Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of
Notre Dame aren't far behind, and be prepared for a
fair amount of nastiness and gore). Frances McDormand
plays the hero's dour girlfriend, and Raimi collaborated
with Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, and Joshua
Goldin on the script.”—Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader. 94 min. (14A) Aug. 3, 5
ENCOUNTERS
AT THE END OF THE WORLD
(Werner Herzog, USA 2007) “Werner Herzog is a
stranger in a strange land as soon as he gets out of
bed in the morning: in this travelogue of Antarctica,
his perverse curiosity and zest for the harshest extremes
of nature transform what might have been a standard
TV special into an idiosyncratic expression of wonder.
Cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger (Invincible, Grizzly
Man, Rescue Dawn) captures images of raw beauty—crystalline
snowscapes, black bubbles roiling under sheets of ice.
Yet Herzog is just as fascinated by the people who inhabit
this polar wilderness, from a forklift driver reared
on the Iliad and Odyssey to a scientific researcher
hooked on 50s doomsday sci-fi movies to a linguist watching
the world's languages dwindle. There are penguins, to
be sure, but Herzog is characteristically most interested
in the one that inexplicably heads for the mountains,
toward certain death..”--J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader.
100 min. (G) Aug. 27-29
THE
EVIL DEAD
(Sam Raimi, USA 1981) “Raimi’s first feature,
a sensationally bad-taste effort which narrates the
rapid decline into demonic mental and physical possession
of a clean-cut, all-American holiday party holed up
in a mountain Tennessee retreat. The woods come alive,
devils possess the living, and Tom Sullivan’s
amazing make-up effects climax with a final, fiery exorcism
which makes George Romero look like Playschool.”—Steve
Grant, Time Out. PRISTINE 35mm PRINT! 85 min. (R) Aug.
6
FEAR
AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS
(Terry Gilliam, USA 1998) “While on assignment
in Las Vegs in 1971, sportswriter/gonzo journalist Dr.
Raoul Duke (Johnny Depp) spends a few days exploring
the city in a drug-induced haze, accompanied by his
edgy, three hundred pound Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo
(Benicio Del Toro). They observe all of the greed, lust,
hatred and absurdity that America has degenerated into
and infiltrate the madness that is causing the country
to tear out its own heart. They act -- without hesitation
– in the most obvious, vulgar, obnoxious and aggressive
ways possible. But it is this complete and total excess
that is their salvation. Based on Hunter s. Thompson’s
literary classic, Fear and Loathing is far and away
Terry Gilliam’s most American film. The acting,
especially on Johnny Depp’s part, is superb. Every
character in the film is absolutely intense, and the
cameo appearances of people like Gary Busey, Cameron
Diaz, Ellen Barkin and Christina Ricci only add to the
all too American insanity by triggering various synapses
in our collective pop culture consciousness.”—Simon
Ennis, Festival Magazine. 117 min. (R) Aug. 28
FOR
A FEW DOLLARS MORE
(Sergio Leone, Italy 1965) It doesn’t come much
better than a widescreen Technicolor western on the
big screen with music by Ennio Morricone. Especially
when it’s the story of an uneasy alliance between
the bounty-hunting Man With No Name (Clint Eastwood)
and a gunslinger (Lee Van Cleef) both after the same
bad guy (Gian Maria Volonte) whose gang includes a hunchback
played by the legendary Klaus Kinski. 129 min. (PG)
Aug. 7
FORGETTING
SARAH MARSHALL
(Nicholas Stoller, USA 2008) “Actor Jason Segel
is no Adonis. We learn this from an early and already
notorious scene in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in which
the titular TV star (Kristen Bell) dumps our hero, Peter
Bretter, played by Segel (also the film’s writer),
as he stands completely nude in the kitchen of their
apartment, weeping and begging her to stay. And yet,
despite his distinctly average-guy physique, Peter still
manages to seduce (by my count) five exceptionally beautiful
women over the course of the film. Because this isn’t
the real world: this is producer Judd Apatow’s
world, in which the crotch-scratching schlub is king
and it’s only a matter of time before even the
most glamorous females fall under his slovenly spell.
From its opening montage of slacker Peter mooching through
an average day, Sarah Marshall is textbook Apatow, replete
with all the embarrassments and cringeworthy mishaps
that audiences have come to expect. It sports a cavalcade
of scene-stealing cameos from regular alumni like Jonah
Hill, Bill Hader and, most memorably, Paul Rudd as archetypal
surf-burnout Kunu. The fresh face is Russell Brand,
typecast as self-absorbed, sex-obsessed but oddly lovable
rock legend Aldous Snow, the unwelcome hypotenuse in
Peter and Sarah’s love triangle.”—Tom
Huddleston, Time Out New York. 110 min. (18A) Aug. 17,
19
THE
400 BLOWS
(Francois Truffaut, France 1959) “The 400 Blows
still resonates through Truffaut's isolation of essential
details, which stand out with the focus of unblemished
memory: that ancient, gouged, chalk-coated classroom
that's seen a thousand wiseasses sent to its corner;
the horror of impending discipline as a teacher's called
into the hallway; the tactile, gasping chill from the
milk that Antoine quaffs from a stolen bottle during
a night on the street. It is the nature of the film
for those who love it to recognize themselves in it,
and so it never fully recedes into history. A remarkable
confluence of talents are at work here: Cinematographer
Henri Decae gets the coldness of Parisian dawns and
Christmas displays in black-and-white widescreen; Jean
Constantin's score meshes pluck and sad swoon; and there
is 14-year-old Jean-Pierre Léaud, appearing here
for the first time as Antoine (he'll never be so withdrawn
again). The film was Truffaut's arrival, a triumph of
publicity at 1959 Cannes, the loudest early success
of the loose confederation of New Wave filmmakers, and
a milestone in autobiographical cinema.”—Nick
Pinkerton, Village Voice. In French with subtitles.
98 min. (PG) NEW 35mm PRINT! Aug. 24-26
GET
SMART
(Peter Segal, USA 2008) “As old Broadway shows
are revived, new Broadway shows get spun from old movies
so that new movies may be fashioned from ancient TV
series. It’s an iron law of the culture industry
that turns out to be a pleasant surprise in the case
of Get Smart, the late-60s sitcom retooled as a vehicle
for Steve Carell. The most successful of the half-dozen
spy shows that materialized in 1965, the original Get
Smart was distinguished less by its absurdist attitude
than by its catch phrases and casting. Standup comedian
Don Adams drew on his nightclub William Powell impersonation
to play Maxwell Smart, the dense, inept, officious Agent
86. No less deadpan or baroquely bumbling than the Adams
original, Carell’s Smart is actually smarter.
He’s also more lovably neurotic — a know-it-all
intelligence analyst obsessed with his weight who dreams
of becoming a real spy. As directed by Peter Segal,
Get Smart redux is less a parody of a genre that had
already passed into self-parody many moons before the
TV show was in reruns, and more an all-purpose (and
often quite funny) goofball action comedy in which ridiculous
banter alternates with slapstick car chases and midair
stunts.”—J. Hoberman, Village Voice. 109
min. (PG) Aug. 8-11, 14
GHOST
WORLD
(Terry Zwigoff, USA 2001) “Funny, original, superbly
played, written and directed, Ghost World (by Terry
Zwigoff, the director of Crumb) is the best depiction
of adolescent insecurity, eccentricity and egomania
since Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Thora Birch is
even more impressive here than she was as Kevin Spacey’s
daughter in American Beauty. With her geeky glasses,
her Louise Brooks bob, her over-voluptuous body that
bulges in both the right and wrong places, she physically
embodies adolescent awkwardness, simultaneously attractive
and repulsive. A must-see fim. With Scarlett Johansson,
Brad Renfro and Steve Buscemi in a career-defining performance
as Birch’s grown-up male doppelganger, the perpetual
outsider who has never really been able to fit into
society. His interaction with her is the heart and soul
of the movie.”—Peter Roffman, Festival Magazine.
111 min. (14A) Aug. 2, 5.
THE
GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
(Sergio Leone, Italy 1966) “Hard to tell who’s
good, bad or ugly in this bitterly cynical portrait
of America during the Civil War, with the three leads
(Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee van Cleef) indulging
in ruthless violence and self-help as they search for
a buried fortune. Nevertheless, for all its shortcomings
as a study in relative morality, Leone’s final
Dollars Western delights through its subversive, operatic
parody of genre conventions, undercutting heroism by
means of black comedy and over-the-top compositions,
all deep focus and zooms. And Morricone’s score
is as powerful as always. It’s enormous fun.”
–Geoff Andrew, Time Out. 162 min. (PG) Aug. 10
GONZO:
THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON
(Alex Gibney, USA 2008) “Even if Alex Gibney’s
new documentary, Gonzo, were not subtitled “The
Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” there
would be little doubt about its subject. Thompson, who
committed suicide in 2005, survives to some degree in
the popular imagination because of his self-burnished
reputation for wild excess. Embodied on the screen by
Bill Murray (in Art Linson ‘s underrated Where
the Buffalo roam from 1980) and Johnny Depp (in Terry
Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas from
1998) and travestied as the conspiratorial Uncle Duke
in Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” comic
strip, Thompson remains a durable icon of countercultural
bad craziness. Gonzo, Thompson’s symbol for which
was a two-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button, denotes
a drug-fueled, madcap libertarianism, a pursuit of freedom
to the very edge of good sense and beyond. But as Thompson
first used the word, gonzo was an aurally suggestive,
semantically vague adjective, and the noun it modified
was, above all, journalist. And it is to Mr. Gibney’s
great credit that while he pays due attention to the
outsize, cartoonish celebrity persona Thompson fell
back on when his literary powers began to wane, this
film concentrates on the bold, innovative journalism
that secured Thompson’s reputation and assures
his immortality. At his best he was braver, funnier
and more ruthlessly honest than just about any other
magazine writer, and Gonzo confirms his place in the
great American parade of cranks, renegades and sages
— that is, in the best, most disreputable corner
of our literary pantheon.”—A.O. Scott, The
New York Times. 117 min. (14A) Aug. 27, 28
HELLBOY
II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
(Guillermo Del Toro, USA 2008) “Curmudgeonly,
cantankerous, cigar-chomping Hellboy is a cross between
a 40s noir detective and a burning fireplace, but he's
also cool enough to make Hellboy II: The Golden Army
the hipster's hit of the summer. Yes, Catholic imagery
has always run rampant through helmer Guillermo del
Toro's movies, including Pan's Labyrinth, which he made
in between the two Hellboy entries, but he's really
an evangelist of fanboy excess: He'll be making fantasy-horror
acolytes out of the heretofore unconverted. In a previous
life, del Toro might have been a maker of clocks --
clocks inhabited by gargoyles instead of cuckoos, and
which exploded on the hour. But there's a precision
to the visual ornateness of Hellboy II that exceeds
even that of its predecessor. It's certainly a more
deliberately (and successfully) funny movie, thanks
largely to the dryly ironic Hellboy -- Ron Perlman,
who returns with the rest of the cast, and without whom
an onscreen Hellboy would have been almost unthinkable.
Based on the comicbooks by del Toro's co-scripter, Mike
Mignola, the reason the movie plays so well is rooted
in del Toro's rococo instincts for the stylishly creepy
and crawlingly macabre, his clockmaker's preoccupation
with detail, and a flair for combining state-of-the-art
technology with his taste for the antique, the gothic,
the Catholic. Not to disparage the f/x guys, but what's
onscreen in Hellboy II is all about the seismic eruptions
in del Toro's head. Comparing his work to most fantasy
cinema is like comparing cave drawings to the Cathedral
of Cologne.”—John Anderson, Variety. 119
min. (14A) Aug. 22-26
HOTSHOTS!
PART DEUX
(Jim Abrahams, USA 1993) “Is nothing sacred to
the makers of Hot Shots! Part Deux? Nope. Not a thing.
In their latest sendup of Hollywood-style heroics, the
team behind this deliciously silly satire takes aim
at every imaginable target from Sea Hunt to Saddam Hussein
(who is revealed, at least by this account, to have
a fondness for chintz). And the comic carnage doesn't
stop there: Hot Shots! also trifles with hit films from
The Wizard of Oz to Basic Instinct, along the way revealing
the secret of The Crying Game. Don't even consider seeing
it unless you can find humour in a line like this: "These
men have taken a vow of celibacy, like their fathers
and their fathers before them."—Janet Maslin,
The New York Times. 88 min. (14A) Aug. 20
THE
INCREDIBLE HULK
(Louis Leterrier, USA 2008) “Five years after
Ang Lee attempted a stylistically and narratively daring
reimagining of what a comic-book movie could be (an
example that tanked disastrously at the box office),
the big green gamma-guy returns to the screen in a purer,
more unadulterated, vastly more entertaining form. Suddenly,
the Hulk feels really, truly incredible. That's thanks
to two key aspects of the film: Ed Norton's performance,
which recalls, in all the right ways, the peripatetic
Samaritan-cum-golem of the televised characterization
and the seamless inclusion of brief yet integral snippets
of Marvel Comics mythology into the film's main tale.
But most importantly, Leterrier's film begins with one
helluva bang (courtesy of Stark Industries, natch) and,
like the Hulk's alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, it never
stops moving. At the film's core, under its rippling
CGI/motion-capture musculature, lies the classic dramatic
crucible of unrequited love, unaided and unabetted by
the necessity of constant flight and persistent pursuit.
Norton's necessarily repressed genius pines for but
cannot safely be with his one true love, Betty Ross
(Liv Tyler), not only because any uptick in his heartbeat
might trigger the beast within, but also because (wouldn't
you know it) she's the daughter of scheming military
brasshole General "Thunderbolt" Ross (William
Hurt), who dreams, Mabuse-like, of creating an army
of hulking super-soldiers.”—Marc Savlov,
Austin Chronicle. 112 min. (PG) Aug. 1-4, 6
IRON
MAN
(Jon Favreau, USA 2008) "Downey is—as he
is in most of the film—a marvel to watch here,
his body a shimmying human jello mold as he tries to
get the hang of his newly jet-propelled hands and feet,
his face a kaleidoscope of exhilaration and terror.
He's like a kid without training wheels for the first
time, but also like a man newly resolved to make something
meaningful out of his life. As Downey's dutiful, waiting-to-be-unbuttoned
girl Friday, Gwyneth Paltrow is particularly appealing,
while the ever-reliable Jeff Bridges manages to invest
a glimmer of conflicted humanity in a role that all
but comes with "Villain" stamped on its forehead.
Even when the plot of Iron Man kowtows to convention,
the movie's personality—hip to the times without
ever resorting to self-congratulatory snark—keeps
it zipping along. Rarer than a grown man in a rocket
suit, it's a summer blockbuster that comes to entertain
first and shill second."--Scott Foundas, Village
Voice. 125 min. (PG) Aug. 1-5
THE
KILLER
(John Woo, Hong Kong 1989) “The most dementedly
elegiac thriller you’ve ever seen, distilling
a lifetime’s enthusiasm for American and French
film noir. Exquisitely-tailored contract killer Jeff
(Chow Yun-Fat, Hong Kong’s finest actor) accidentally
damages the sight of nightclub singer Jennie while blasting
a dozen gangsters to kingdom come. He befriends the
near-blind girl, and decides to take One Last Job to
finance the cornea graft she needs. Meanwhile he is
stalked by a misfit cop (Danny Lee), who eventually
falls in love with him and winds up fighting alongside
him. There are half-a-dozen mega-massacres along the
way, plus extraordinary spasms of sentimentality, romance
and soul-searching. The tone is hysterical from start
to finish, but Woo’s lush visual stylings and
taste for baroque detail give the whole thing an improbably
serene air of abstraction.” –Tony Rayns,
Time Out. In Cantonese with subtitles. 109 min. (R)
Aug. 31
KIT
KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL
(Patricia Rozema, USA 2008) “Kit is the enterprising
girl-reporter-in-training poppet from 1934 Cincinnati
who represents Depression-era America. But Kit Kittredge
is also a smart, playful, informative pleasure in its
own right — a gently thoughtful, audience-appropriate
entertainment (directed by Mansfield Park’s Patricia
Rozema) that assembles swell actors to play colourful
characters who don't shy away from depicting serious
hard times. Little Miss Sunshine’s redoubtable
Abigail Breslin is swellest of all in the title role,
believable (and admirable) as an unpretentious go-getter
with an open mind; when not helping Mama (Julia Ormond)
open their house to boarders, she investigates a local
crime. Others in the nabe include Max Thieriot as a
hunky young hobo, a perfectly cast Wallace Shawn as
a newspaper editor, and, for screwball spin, Stanley
Tucci and Joan Cusack as a traveling magician and a
motoring librarian. The latter is, actually, hell on
wheels.”—Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment
Weekly. 100 min. (G) Aug. 10, 11
KUNG
FU PANDA
(Mark Osborne/John Stevenson, USA 2008) “Taking
as its source the same Hong Kong martial-arts films
that inspired Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kung Fu
Panda provides a master course in cunning visual art
and ultra-satisfying entertainment. In a way, the live-action
chop-socky films of the 70s were already animated. Their
whirling, exhausting, body-punishing stunt scenes tested
an audience's credulity; surely real people were incapable
of these athletic graces. (But they were, because of
the severe training the actors had undergone since childhood.)
Kung Fu Panda has fun with the conventions of these
old films, but it honors the ethic and dedication behind
them; it's true to the Shaolin spirit. The movie also
follows a precept of animation that stretches back to
Gertie the Dinosaur, Krazy Kat and Mickey Mouse, through
the classic Warner Bros. cartoons and up to Disney's
The Lion King, Pixar's A Bug's Life and of course Happy
Feet: stick to animals. When stylized artfully, they
have so much more wit and personality than mere human
beings. Not having to attempt a duplication of reality
liberates a good animator's imagination. In KFP you'll
see this in the spectacular fight scenes, but also in
the character sketching, in the subtlety of glances
and gestures.”—Richard Corliss, Time Magazine.
92 min. (PG) Aug. 30, 31
MANHATTAN
(Woody Allen, USA 1979) “The New York City that
Woody so tediously defended in Annie Hall was in crisis.
And so he imagined an improved version. More than that,
he cast this shining city in the form of those movies
that he might have seen as a child in Coney Island—freeing
the visions that he sensed to be locked up in the silver
screen. In a way, Manhattan is Allen's personal Purple
Rose of Cairo—the movie in which he successfully
projects himself into Hollywood make-believe. It's his
version of an Astaire and Rogers musical, as romantic
as Casablanca, as slickly metropolitan as Sweet Smell
of Success. It's also as haunting a celebration of the
transitory as a Lumiére actualité.”—J.Hoberman,
Village Voice. With Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael
Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep. 98 min. (R)
Aug. 18, 19
MONGOL
(Sergei Bodrov, Germany/Kazkhstan/Russia/Mongolia 2007)
“Encompassing shifting tribal alliances, a love
story for the ages and a sworn friendship transformed
into enmity, Mongol traces the formative years of legendary
warrior Genghis Khan. Spanning his life from age 9 in
1172 through 1206, when the feuding nomadic clans united
under his leadership, this Central Asia-set historical
epic boasts breathtaking landscapes, dazzling cinematography,
bloody battles and unique traditions. The beautifully
mounted first entry in a proposed trilogy, shot on locations
in Kazakhstan and the Chinese province of Inner Mongolia,
captures the nomadic lifestyle of the 12th century and
the harsh climate and varying terrain of the Mongolian
steppe, a place where a man’s not a man without
a horse. It also introduces a strong, resourceful female
character: Borte, first wife and lifelong adviser to
the man born as Temudgin.”—Alissa Simon,
Variety. In Mongolian with subtitles. 125 min. (14A)
Aug. 8-12
MY
WINNIPEG
(Guy Maddin, Canada 2007) “Mock-heroic yet still
lyrical, faux-mythic but honest too, uniquely and absurdly
and often hilariously Canadian, My Winnipeg is like
no documentary you’ve ever seen. Only Guy Maddin,
reared in the frigid city that doubles as his inspiration
and his prison, could have made this film. It’s
not exactly satire, although it has satire’s bite,
and not really a mockumentary, although mock it surely
does. Instead, there’s art in this artful dodge,
and a genuineness that goes beyond the elegiac longing
engrained in every Maddin picture. And perhaps only
we in the true north can fully appreciate it, can locate,
somewhere in the nexus between the outrageous fiction
and the twisted fact, its magnetic pole, the force-field
that draws us in – huddled together and laughing,
not least at ourselves.”—Rick Groen, The
Globe and Mail. 80 min. (14A) Aug. 29-31
OZ/DARKSIDE
(Victor Fleming, USA 1939) Syncronicity is the key.
Do you follow me, along the yellow brick road? THE DARK
SIDE OF THE MOON. Money in Oz. After a nasty neighbour
tries to have her dog Toto put to sleep, Dorothy decides
to run away with Toto. A tornado appears and carries
them to the magical land of Oz. A good witch, a wicked
witch, a scarecrow, tin man, cowardly lion, monkeys
with wings and a wizard are just some of the folk she
meets on her journey. 101 min (14A) Aug. 8
THE
ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
(Jim Sharman, USA 1975) Let’s Do The Time Warp
Again! After Janet accepts Brad’s marriage proposal,
the happy couple drive away from Denton, Ohio, only
to get lost in the rain. They stumble upon the castle
of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite who is holding
the annual convention of visitors from the planet Transsexual.
Frank-N-Furter announces that he is returning to the
galaxy Transylvania. Riff Raff the butler and Magenta
the maid declare that they have plans of their own.
(An audience participation with live cast “Excited
Mental state” Warning: Cast uses foul language)
100 min. (14A) Aug. 29
SEX
AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE
(Michael Patrick King, USA 2008) “The movie version
of Sex and the City, written and directed by Michael
Patrick King (always the show's savviest writer), is
2 hours and 22 minutes of love, tears, fashion, depression,
lavish vacation, good sex, bad sex, and supreme tenderness.
It's as long as five series episodes, a big sweet tasty
layer cake stuffed with zingers and soul and dirty-down
verve (it's not above having one of the girls poop her
pants). Given the running time, though, not that much
happens, and what does has several shades more gravitas.
That's as it should be. We want Sex and the City on
the big screen to be true to the show yet to feel more
like a movie. And it does. Now that Carrie and her crew
have left the bittersweet college of cosmo hedonism,
the film treats them, shrewdly, as cynical wised-up
fortysomethings facing life on the other side of the
adult divide. The movie is about the situations Carrie
can't just write off with a quip.”—Owen
Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly. 144 min. (18A) Aug.
15-19
SPACEBALLS
(Mel Brooks, USA 1987) “Spaceballs is weirdly
effective as a distillation of the entire Star Wars
trilogy plot: Luke Skywalker and Han Solo become one
character, Lone Starr (Bill Pullman, a more game actor
than he’s often given credit for); he is accompanied
by Barf (John Candy), a talking variation on a wookie,
and they rescue Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) from
Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis). Ewok and Jawa DNA is combined
to form the chattering, helpful “dinks,”
and Brooks himself provides some Yoda with a smattering
of Obi-Wan as the sage Yogurt. The comedy in Spaceballs,
at its best, plays like the action in Star Wars, awakening
a sense of pure enjoyment of movies — the kinds
of movies you once enjoyed and are secretly hoping to
enjoy again.”—Jesse Hassenger, Filmcritic.com
92 min. (PG) Aug. 20, 21
TEENAGE
MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: THE MOVIE
(Steve Barron, USA/Hong Kong 1990) “The delightful
offspring of a marriage made in heaven -- Hong Kong's
Golden Harvest Films and Jim Henson's Muppetry --is
this live-action romp based on Kevin Eastman and Peter
Laird's comic-book characters, scripted by Todd W. Langen
and Bobby Herbeck (with a goofy wit that suggests pseudonymous
contributions to the dialogue by Thomas Pynchon), and
directed with skill and assurance by Steve Barron. The
plot involves a TV investigative reporter (Judith Hoag),
a rise in thievery in Manhattan occasioned by a teenage
gang known as the Foot (masterminded and exploited by
a ninja villain called the Shredder), and the noble
adversaries of the thieves -- four teenage turtles and
their rat ninja master who dwell in the sewer system,
grown to abnormal size through exposure to radioactivity.
Also involved is the reporter's son (Michael Turney),
split between no less than three rival father figures,
and an independent vigilante (Elias Koteas) who joins
the turtles. The results are high-spirited martial arts
and comedy, with heavy doses of Star Wars and Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs and music by M.C. Hammer, Johnny
Kemp, Hi Tek 3, and Orchestra on the Half Shell.”—Jonathan
Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader. 92 min. (PG) Aug. 16, 17
TEENAGE
MUTANT NINJA TURTLES II: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE
(Michael Pressman, USA/Hong Kong 1991) “The first
Turtles film aroused a ridiculous controversy over how,
because they ate pizza and grew big and strong from
radioactive ooze, the Turtles were not healthy role-models.
Perhaps in response, this sequel's 'plot' centres on
saving the city from that self-same ooze. The original
fell between two age groups: the late teens and gonzo
students at whom the 1984 comic book was aimed, and
the tiny tots who enjoyed the subsequent TV cartoons.
The sequel drags the target audience back towards the
latter, with toned-down violence, a terrifically funny
cameo from two retarded mutant Muppets, and a terrifically
crass cameo from the similarly retarded Vanilla Ice.
It does, however, retain the essential elements that
first turned the world Turtle - the affectionate squabbling
between the four, the pantomime villains, the cracking
one-liners - and the bigger budget is a blessing.”—Dominic
Wells, Time Out. 87 min. (PG) Aug. 23, 24
THE
VISITOR
(Thomas McCarthy, USA 2008) “Early in The Visitor,
Tom McCarthy’s second film as writer and director
(the first was The Station Agent), it seems inevitable
that something will come along to shake Walter (Richard
Jenkins) out of his malaise. And sure enough, when he
reluctantly travels to New York to deliver a paper at
a conference, Walter finds that the Manhattan apartment
he keeps but rarely visits has been surreptitiously
rented to Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a drummer from Syria,
and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend,
who sells handmade jewelry at flea markets. Walter’s
initial dismay and irritation gives way to an instinctive
flicker of compassion, and he invites the couple to
stay, at least for a short while. The curious thing
about The Visitor is that even as it goes more or less
where you think it will, it still manages to surprise
you along the way. Much as The Station Agent nimbly
evaded the obstacles of cuteness and willful eccentricity
it had strewn in its own path, so does The Visitor,
with impressive grace and understatement, resist potential
triteness and phony uplift. “— A. O. Scott,
The New York Times. 103 min. (PG) Aug. 12, 13
THE
WACKNESS
(Jonathan Levine, USA 2008) “Sunday mornings don't
usually go down with standing ovations, but The Wackness
inspired a packed Sundance house to forget their Saturday-night
pains and stand up and cheer.??A rollicking performance
by Ben Kingsley as a pothead psychiatrist would steal
the show in lesser films, but The Wackness is not overpowered:
It rips in all aspects, compliments of talented writer-director
Jonathan Levine. ??Generically, it's a rite-of-summer-passage
yarn, but The Wackness bursts the form. It's hard to
envision The Wackness not winning the Audience Award
[It did]. ?In this 1994-set piece, recent high-school
grad Luke (Josh Peck) sells weed and yearns to get laid.
He trades grass for therapy from a drug-fuddled shrink
(Kingsley) who exhorts him to sew his wild oats, albeit
in more colourful language. The former-Deadhead doc
doesn't realize that Luke's lust is for his nubile stepdaughter
(Olivia Thirlby). A precocious classmate of Luke's,
she's the kind of girl who, seemingly, has stepped out
of his steamiest masturbatory fantasies. Both a comedy
of manners of the Upper East Side, as well as a raw
romantic roundelay, The Wackness is a tightly packed
entertainment.”—Duane Byrge, Hollywood Reporter.
98 min. (14A) Aug. 22, 23, 26
WANTED
(Timur Bekmambetov, USA 2008) “Russian director
Timur Bekmambetov obviously flunked physics at school.
On second thought, based on the mystical science of
his bullet-bending new thriller Wanted, it's possible
the guy is a real Einstein. Maybe he's discovered hitherto
unknown loopholes to natural laws. The Kazakhstan-born
Bekmambetov, whose previous films Night Watch and Day
Watch set records in Russia and won admirers elsewhere,
is no deer in Tinseltown's headlights. He hasn't just
made a thriller with Wanted, he's redefined the genre.
The action scenes will goose people the same way The
Matrix did a decade ago, when the Wachowski Bros. introduced
"bullet time" to turn physics into a stunt
actor. Bekmambetov's slugs, fired with furious intent
by James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie and other members of
Wanted's blue-chip cast, look like they came out of
a Looney Tunes cartoon. Depending on their whim, these
bullets are able to turn corners, pass in slo-mo through
skulls and also fly with unerring accuracy from distances
only a mind reader could fathom. But who wants to quibble
over physics or logic when the magic is this mesmerizing?”—Peter
Howell, Toronto Star. 109 min. (18A) Aug. 27, 29-31
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