About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2011)
Some releases may not be showing locally this week. 127 HOURS (R) Another excellent film from Oscar-winning direclor Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionairei). 127Hours fells the remarkable survival story of Aron Ralston, an avid out- doorsman -who whittled off his arm to escape dying in a canyon near Moab. UT. (Sorry, if you didn't know Ralston’s well-publicized fate, but trust me when l say you want to know what the movie has in store for you. It gets gruesome.) Recently nominated for six Academy Awards. 127 Hours is fhe best film of 2010 Athens had to wait until 2011 to see. ANOTHER YEAR (PG-13) The incredible Mike Leigh (NaW?d. Secrets & Lies, Topsy Turvy, Vera Drake. Happy-Go-Lucky) returns! Spend four seasons in the life of the happily mar ried Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) and their miserable circle of friends and family. Leigh has had more critically welcomed films than Another Year, but the film, starring the - usual crew of Leigh regulars sounds exactly like what I would expect from the veteran British filmmaker. BIG MOMMAS: LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON (PG-13) FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Marlin Lawrence) dons his fat suit again in the third (how can that be?) entry in the Big Momma's House franchise. Now both Big Momma and Charmaine AKA Trent (Brandon T. Jackson) must infiltrate an all girls performing arts school to catch a mur derer. Faizon Love plays Kurtis Kool, former Run-D.M.C. roadie and present school security guard that becomes smitten with Big Momma. Director John Whitesell also directed Big Momma's House 2. With Emily Rios, Portia Doubleday (Youth in Revolt) and Michelle Ang. BLACK SWAN (R) Great does not begin to describe Black Swan nor does it do this complex film justice. Let’s call Black Swan what it is: stunning, original, another imperfect masterpiece from filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (The »Vresllei). Aging ballerina Nina Sayers (Natalie Portman) finally lands a lead as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake But as the pressure mounts. Nina begins to suspect that the pretty new dancer, Lily (Mila Kunis). is out to Single White Female her. Or are her suspicions those of a raving lunatic raised by a mad woman. Nina's mother Erica (Barbara Hershey). on the verge of utter self- destruction? THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (PG) Foxs first entry since snatching up the rights to the popular C.S. Lewis franchise after Walt Disney dropped it, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, hereby known as Narnia 3. continues the series’ downward spiral since the first entry. The Lion, the Wilch, and the Wardrobe. THE COMPANY MEN (R) TV mega producer John Wells ('ER,‘ “The West Wing”) makes his feature fiim debut with this timely drama Three men— Bobby Walker. Gene McClary and Phil Woodward (Oscar winners Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones)—deal with losing their jobs in the present recession and the effects on their wives, lives and communities Talk about a cast. Besides the three stars, Kevin Costner, Craig T. Nelson. Maria Bello and Rosemarie Dewitt are also Company Men. THE DILEMMA (PG-13) The Dilemma, the first comedy from direc tor Ron Howard since 1999’s Edtv; has aspirations to be more than a silly slapstick farce. When the guy in imbroglio is played by Vince Vaughn, who is nearly always better than his chosen material, and the filmmaker is an acclaimed Oscar winner, you hope for a bit more than poorly ejited, sophomoric gags. With Howard at the helm, The Dilemma delivers its share of actual human drama as Ronny Valentine (Vaughn) agonizes over tell ing his best friend Nick (Kevin James) that his wife, Geneva (Winona Ryder), is screwing around with a tattooed softie named Zip (Channing Tatum). DUE DATE (R) After the big-time breakthrough of The Hangover, direc lor Todd Phillips (Road Trip) returns • with this comedy about a soon-to-be father, Peter Highman (Robert Downey. Jr.), who must hitch a ride with aspiring actor. Ethan Tremblay (Zack Galifinakias). if he wants to make it to his child’s birth on time. Something feels off in the trailer for this seem ingly funny comedy. With Michelle Monaghan. Juliette Lewis. Danny McBride. Jamie Foxx, RZA and Alan Arkin. THE EAGLE (PG-13) See Movie Pick. THE FIGHTER (R) Mark Wahlberg stars as boxer "Irish’ Micky Ward, whose brother, Dick Eklund (Christian Bale), helped him tram before going pro in the 1930s. Seeking to rehab his image after that awful I Heart Huckabees footage went viral a few years back. David 0. Russell took over this project that Darren Aronofsky was prepping prior to The Wrestler I won der how welcoming the set was. with the combination of notorious hotheads Russell and Bale. With Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. FRESH (NR) 2009. Fresh celebrates those persons who are concerned about the transformation of our agri cultural system. Featured in the doc are urban farmer/activist. Will Allen, who won MacArthur’s 2008 Genius Award; sustainable farmer/entrepre neur. Joel Salatin, a familiar name to those who read Michael Pollans The Omnivore's Dilemma, and supermarket owner. David Ball, a real life David to Wal-Mart's Goliath. Athens’ own food activists will participate in a panel dis- cussfon between showings. Proceeds from the screening will benefit Slow Food Athens. GNOMEO& JULIET (G) This backyard version of Romeo and Juliet definitely succeeds in its cuteness quotient. The two battling terracotta clans, the Reds and the Blues, contain enough distinctive-looking members. Too bad the movie doesn’t do a better job establishing this colorful retinue beyond a montage of here and there. Instead, we focus on the blossoming romance between star-crossed lovers, Gnomeo (v. James McAvoy). son of Lady Blueberry (v. Maggie Smith), and Juliet (v. Emily Blunt), beloved daugh ter of Lord Redbrick (v. Michael Caine). THE GREEN HORNET (PG-13) More unconventional on paper than Ang Lee's Hulk, The Green Hornet is an interesting entry in the overpopulated, same-y superhero genre. The original 1930s radio serial created by George W. Trendle begat a 1940s film serial and 1960s television program star ring Bruce Lee before spawning this latest, strangest adaptation, directed by French visualist Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and written by slacker star Seth , Rogen and his Superbad partner Evan Goldberg What is stranger still is that this unconventional production never really goes beyond convention, and the fun movie is no worse for it. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (PG) Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver (Jack Black) is shipwrecked on the island of Lilliput, in fhe middle of the Bermuda Triangle, where he towers over the natives. Though they first imprison him. he soon becomes a favorite, helping scheme to defeat the Lilliputian rivals, the Blefuscudians. One of my favorite books by one of my favorite satirists gets the new treatment, but I am not excited, though the cowriting credit for Nicholas Stoller (Get Him to the Greek) intrigues. Directed by Monsters vs. Miens co-director Rob Letterman. With Emily Blunt and Jason Segel. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 1 (PG-13) I cannot find fault with this flawless penultimate installment of the stalwart franchise. The three young leads have matured tremendously as actors; Emma Watson has improved vastly since the game-changing third film Director David Yates continues to bring Rowling’s magical world to rousing, tangible life. The landscapes of the hopeless, doomed, lonely HP7.1 resembled a post-apocalypse and con jured up the highest possible praise; if reminded me of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and The Empire Strikes Back. HELLA-BIG SHOW (NR) Grab your camcorders' Braindead Genious pres ents VHS: Videographer’s Hella-Big Show, your chance to get your amateur, aspiring or professional work on a local big screen on a monthly basis. If you're interested in submitting your original work or just want more information, contact vhsfest@gmail.com. I AM NUMBER FOUR (PG-13) Nine alien teens escape their dying planet and travel to Earth. Here they are hunted by one of their native enemies. Three have already been killed. John Smith (Alex Pettyfer. Beastly), liv ing the life of a normal high school student is the fourth. I Am Number Four also stars “Glee' s Dianna Agron. Timothy ’The Man’ Olyphant and Kevin Durand. Disturbia's D.J. Caruso and ’Smallville”s Alfred Gough and Miles Millar adapt disgraced memoirist James Frey’s YA novel. JUST GO WITH IT (PG-13) Adam Sandler is a hard guy not to like whether or not you think his movies are funny. Unfortunately, in his lat est movie, he is neither likable nor funny. A plastic surgeon, Dr. Danny Maccabee, seduces women by faking that he is in a horrible marriage. When he meets a gorgeous, younger, middle school math teacher. Palmer (swimsuit model Brooklyn Decker), he decides he is ready lo settle down. Unfortunately, she discovers his fake wedding band, leading Danny to concoct the least plausible, dumbest plan ever. So he can be with Palmer forever, he fakes an entire family, using his stalwart assis tant. Katherine (Jennifer Aniston' and her two kids (scene stealer Madison Bailee and Griffin Gluck). JUSTIN BIEBER: NEVER SAY NEVER (G) Justin Bieber: Never Say Never perfectly provides the necessary ratio of hair flips, musical perfor mances and backstage insight to stave off the most fatal symptoms of the Bieber fever raging through the world's tweens. (According to the movie, the pandemic has now spread to men and women both older and younger.) Parents and guardians might gain sume valuable insight into their child's condition and also leave humming hideously catchy tunes like “Baby.’ Step Up 2 and 3D director Jon Chu gets the most out of both the concert footage and the overplayed melodrama of Bieber's swollen vocal cords leading up to THE BIGGEST SHOW OF HIS LIFE. You might not respect the teen age pop sensation from., shudder.. Canada, but he’s damn hard not to like. Warning: appearances by Miley Cyrus and Jaden Smith might leave some adults shaking their head at the slate of youth and fame in ouj society. THE KING’S SPEECH (R) To combat a nervous stammer. King George VI (Colin Firth), AKA Bertie, works with an unorthodox speech therapist. Lionel Logue (Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush). Director Tom Hooper helmed HBO's excellent “John Adams’ and Elizabeth I. This historical picture is shaping up to be Firth's best Oscar shot yet; the trailer predicts a winner. With Helena Bonham Carter as George's daughter Queen Elizabeth II. Guy Pearce as Edward VIII, Michael Gambon as King George V and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. THE MECHANIC (R) Jason Statham gets his Bronson on in this remake. Elite hit man Arthur Bishop (Statham) takes an apprentice. Steve McKenna (Ben Foster), under his wing. Complications arise after learning McKenna has connections to an earlier target I really like the idea of the up- and-coming Foster as an assassin-in- training. and I’ve watched enough crap with Statham to brave another. MEETING ANDREI TARKOVSKY (NR) 2008. Student filmmaker Dmitry Trakovsky celebrates the 20th anni versary of the death of his favorite filmmaker, Andrei Tarkovsky (Solaris), by seeking his legacy through fifteen interviews in California. Italy, Sweden and, finally, Russia. Trakovsky flies across the world to come closer to understanding Tarkovsky's declaration that death does not exist MEGAMIND(PG) MegamindwW- tily tweaks the superhero genre witn enough ingenuity and crafty celebrity voice-work to save a parent’s week end trip to the movies. Dreamworks' Megamind could not stand up to the real costumed heroes like Pixar's The Incredibles, but the superhero satire would make a capable animated sidekick. NO STRINGS ATTACHED (R) Could No Strings Mtached be this year's Valentine's Daft It does star Ashton Kutcher, is helmed by a washed-up “comedy’ director (Ivan Reilman), and is really, really poorly written. Two friends (so the movie calls them despite their only having met three times), Emma and Adam (Natalie Portman and Kutcher), engage in a strictly sexual relationship that leads lo love. I wish comedy writers would learn raunch is not funny for raunch’s sake alone. Haw language and sexual frankness needs lo be an endemic part of the characters, not just shoehorned into a flawed romantic comedy script because it's the hip thing to do. THE RITE (PG-13) Based on journal ist Mat? Baglio's book, California priest Gary Thomas (Colin O'Donoghue) is sent to Rome by his bishop to be trained as an exorcist. While at the Vatican's exorcism school, he encoun ters demonic forces, and his views on the spiritual battle between good and evil change. Director Mikael H^fstrflm earned good reviews for his last horror movie. 1403 Writer Michael Petroni created the short-lived NBC series, “Miracles.' ROMAN DE GARE (R) 2007 In writer-director Claude Lelouch's latest film, a popular author (Fanny Ardant) and her ghost writer peruse unlikely sources for characters for a new book. Jean-Pierre Jeunet regular Dominique Pinon gets a rare, deserved star turn. Audrey Dana was nominated for tf\ MOVIE LISTINGS Schedules often change after our deadline. Please call ahead! ACC LIBRARY (706-613-3650) What Are Dreams? (NR) 7:00 (Th. 2/17) CINE (706-353-3343) Another Year (PG-13) 4:30 (ends Th. 2/24), 7:15 (W. 2/16 & Th. 2/17) Athens Jewish Film Festival (NR) (Sa. 2/19-Tu. 2/22) Blue Valentine (R) 5:00, 7:30. 9:45 (W. 2/16 & Th. 2/17), 7:15 (F. 2/18-Th. 2/24) The Fighter (R) 9:30 (W. 2/16 & Th. 2/17), 9:45 (F. 2/18-Th. 2/24) (no 9:45 show Su. 2/19), 2:00 (Sa. 2/19 & Su. 2/20) Fresh (NR) 5:00, 7:00 (F. 2/18) Oscar Nominated Short Films: Animation (NR) 9:30 (F. 2/18 & W. 2/23), 2:15, 4:15 (Sa. 2/19), 5:15 (W. 2/23 & Th. 2/24) Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action (NR) 6:15 (Sa. 2/19). 7:15 (W. 2/23 & Th. 2/24) The Room (R) Midnight (F. 2/18) Videographei's Hella-Big Show (NR) 9:00 (Th. 2/17) UGA TATE CENTER THEATER (706-542-6396) Due Date (R) 3:00, 6:00, 9:00 (F. 2/18-Su. 2/20) Planes, Trains and Automobiles (NR) 8:00 (Th. 2/17) Roman de Care (French Film Festival) (R) 8:00 (Th. 2/17) Accurate movie times for ti.e CARMIKE 12 (706-354-0016), BEECHWOOD STADIUM 11 (706-546-1011) and GEORGIA SQUARE 5 (706-548-3426} cinemas are not available by press time. Visit www.flagpole.com for updated times. - Cesar Award for Most Promising Actress. Part of the French Film Festival, Roman de Gare will be intro duced by French film specialist Richard Neupert, coordinator of the film studies program in the UGA department of theatre and film studies. THE ROOMMATE (PG-13) Sure The Roommate is a Single White Female rip-off, but moving the psychotic action to freshman year of college was a brilliant move. Too bad that's where any brilliance the movie could have achieved ends thanks to the poor scripting prowess of firsi lime writer Sonny Mallhi (producer of genre efforts both successful. The Strangers, and not, Shutter and Possession) SANCTUM (R) What slowly starts out as the worst film of 2C11 eventually settles down to be a decent, trapped in a cave genre effort. A group of cave divers led by Frank (Richard Roxburgh) are trapped tar below the surface after a storm closes oft their only known means of egress. Thankfully, Frank’s one badass caving vet. who will stop at nothing to get his son (Rhys Wakefield) to safety. TRUE GRIT (PG-13) To help distance their new film from the John Wayne classic, Joel and Ethan Coen are call ing it a new adaptation of the novel by Charles Podis rather than a remake A young girl (Hailee Steinfeld) hires gruff U S. Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn (Jefl Bridges) lo help find the man who killed her father I am quite thrilled to see Bridges' take on Wayne's iconic role as directed by the Coens With Matt Damon as La Boeuf and Josh Brolin as Tom Chaney. UNKNOWN (PG-13) Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) awakens from a coma to discover Dr. Martin Harris already exists, and no one. not even his wife (January Jones, “Mad Men’), believes him. How do you prove you are who you say you are when someone else says they are you? Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, which I liked) hopes Neeson can light up January like he did in Taken. VANISHING ON 7TH STREET (R) Detroit residents start to disappear dur ing a blackout. The surviving citizens (Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo and more) hole up in a tavern named “Sonny’s* as the threat ening darkness approaches. The prem ise concocted by screenwriter Andrew Jaswinski (TV movies ‘Backwoods’ and "Xtra Credit’) sounds very Stephen King-y, territory in which direclor Brad Anderson snould be very comfortable Early reviews have been mixed. THE WHALE WARRIOR (NR) 2008. The Whale Warrior: Pirate for the Sea takes a deeper look at Captain Paul Watson, the star of Animal Planet's "Whale Wars 1 ’ The film is part of the Animal Voices Film Festival, spon sored by UGA’s Speak Out for Species. Students for Environmental Action, and the UGA Law Student Animal Legal Defense Fund Chapter. A discussion will be led by Lori Marino, Ph D., Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, and Carrie Packwood Freeman, Ph D. Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgia State University. Visit ww.v uga edu/sos/lilmfest. WHAT ARE DREAMS? (NR) 2009 What are dreams? This documentary originally airing on NOVA in November 2009, attempts to as it looks at the research of the world's leading dream researchers as they experiment to unlock the secrets of sleep and dreaming. Watch scientists like MIT's Matthew Wilson “eavesdrop" on the dreams of rats (crazy, huh?), investi gate sleepwalking cats (what 7 !), and try to figure out what, if anything, is wrong with (hose rare people that don t ever dream. Drew Wheeler 12 FLAGPOLE.COM-FEBRUARY 16, 2011
