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ARGO (R) Ben Affleck’s career revival
continues with his best directing effort
yet, despite his snub by the Academy.
Revealing the once classified story
of how the CIA rescued six American
hostages in the midst of the Iranian
Revolution, Golden Globe winner and
Academy Award nominee Argo is both
an intriguing modern history lesson, a
compelling, old-fashioned Hollywood
thriller and a strong contender for Best
Picture. (Cine)
• BROKEN CITY (R) Is anyone else
feeling like if you’ve seen one political-
crime thriller, you’ve seen them all?
(Anybody else remember 1996's City
Half?) Diehard fans of Mark Wahlberg,
Russell Crowe or Catherine Zeta-Jones
(I guess there’s at least one person who
has to watch everything she appears
in) will be pleasantly met with a routine
political thriller about ex-cop-turned-
private eye, Billy Taggart (Wahlberg),
discovering a deeper, darker scandal
(but not too deep or too dark) after
being hired by Mayor Nick Hostetler
(Crowe) to find out with whom his
wife (CZJ) is sleeping. The cast,
which includes Barry Pepper and Kyle
Chandler, makes the dramatic machina
tions of Allen Hughes’ first directorial
effort sans brother Albert seem a lot
more interesting, but so many better
films are in theaters right now. Why
waste time on an average flick you’ve
essentially seen several times before?
CASTLE IN THE SKY (PG) 1986.
The Studio Ghibli Film Series returns,
bringing four fresh classics from
legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao
Miyazaki to the big screen (on fresh
35mm prints!). In Miyazaki’s third
feature (and the first to be produced
and released by Studio Ghibli), Castle
in the Sky, a young boy and girl seek
a floating castle while trying to escape
air-pirates. The 2003 Disney re-release
features the voices of Anna Paquin,
James Van Der Beek, Cloris Leachman,
Mark Hamill, Mandy Patinkin and Andy
Dick! (Cine)
DJANGO UNCHAINED (R) Not many
auteurs can take an academic cinematic
exercise and turn it into one of the
year’s most entertaining spectacles like
Quentin Tarantino can. Slave Django
(Jamie Foxx) is freed by dentist-
turned-bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz
(Golden Globe nominee Christoph
Waltz, the single greatest gift QT has
given American movie audiences).
Together the duo hunts bad guys and
seeks Django’s wife, Broomhilda (Kerry
Washington), who belongs to planta
tion owner Calvin Candie (Golden
Globe nominee Leonardo DiCaprio).
For a critically acclaimed award nomi
nee, Django Unchained is an ultravio-
lent blast.
FLIGHT(R) Robert Zemeckis returns
to live action movies for adults (since
2000’s Cast Away) with this Denzel
Washington-starring, after-work special
about alcoholism dressed up as an
airplane crash drama. Captain Whip
Whitaker (Washington) may be a great
pilot, but he’s not such a great guy. Yet
while hungover, still drunk and high on
coke, Whitaker saves most of the 102
souls on flight 227 after a mechani
cal failure requires him to pull off an
unconventional crash landing.
GANGSTER SQUAD (R) For anybody
lamenting about a lack of Dick Tracy
meets The Untouchables period mob
flicks, Gangster Squad will fill that
rather peculiar hole in your life. Former
boxer turned mob kingpin Mickey
Cohen (an almost out-of-control Sean
Penn, who’s under so much makeup
he resembles a Dick Tracy villain) is
trying to take control of Los Angeles.
Police Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) enlists
several officers, led by Sergeant John
O’Mara (Josh Brolin), to fight fire with
criminal fire. Based on a true story,
Gangster Squad feels as if it were
ripped from the pages of a pulpy crime
magazine like True Detective.
THE GUILT TRIP (PG-13) Certainly
not as laughless as its trailers suggest,
The Guilt Trip mines some genuine
comic chemistry between its leads,
Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand, as
Andy Brewster, a son traveling across
the country with his mother, Joyce.
The many car-bound scenes featuring
just the two stars generate the movie's
biggest laughs. Unfortunately, Andy
and Joyce make some excruciating pit
stops that fall back on the sitcomishly
simple gags like a Texan eating contest.
HANSEL AND GRETEL WITCH
HUNTERS (PG-13) After surviving
their childhood encounter with a witch,
grown up Hansel and Gretel (Academy
Award nominee Jeremy Renner and
Bond Girl Gemma Arterton) now hunt
witches internationally. With the Blood
Moon on the rise, a new evil threatens
that also could hold the key to the sib
lings’ secretive past.
HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE
TAIGA (NR) Legendary German film
maker Werner Herzog codirected his
latest nature documentary with Dmitry
Vasyukov. In Bakhtia, the heart of the
Siberian Taiga, live approximately 300
villagers conducting their lives nearly
exactly the same way their ancestors
did 100 years ago.
A HAUNTED HOUSE (R) Marlon
Wayans can be a pretty funny guy, and
we already know from Requiem fora
Dream that he can act when he’s try
ing. Found footage spoof, A Haunted
House, occasionally works, mostly
because Wayans acts like a normal,
albeit egregiously silly guy. Wayans’
Malcolm invites his girlfriend, Kisha
(Essence Atkins), to move in with him.
Unfortunately, Kisha brings a ghostly
presence with her, eventually becoming
possessed.
HERE COMES THE BOOM (PG-13)
Adam Sandler’s made plenty of pic
tures worse than this Kevin James
vehicle about outlandish ways to save
education. James' Scott Voss is a high
school biology teacher who turns to
MMA to fund the extracurriculars at his
struggling school. The supporting cast
includes Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler
and real life MMA fighter Bas Rutten.
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED
JOURNEY (PG-13) How comforting it
is to return to Middle-earth, especially
with Peter Jackson (he replaced origi
nal director Guillermo del Toro, who
retained a co-writing credit with Lord
of the Rings Oscar winners Jackson,
Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens).
Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) is
asked by the wizard Gandalf the Grey
(Ian McKellan) to join a company of
Dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield
(Richard Armitage). Jackson and his
writing cohort have expanded Tolkien’s
single novel into three films by adding
sequences from the series’ appendices,
a decision that allows this first film
to be paced a bit logily in getting the
company on the road.
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (PG) Unlike
the superior ParaNorman, which was
a genuinely, safely frightening family
horror flick, Hotel Transylvania is an
amusing, run-of-the-mill animated
family movie where the main characters
are harmless monsters. (The lesson
that monsters aren't dangerous is a
terrible, hazardous message to teach
children.)
THE IMPOSSIBLE (PG-13) Juan
Antonio Bayona, director of the fantas
tic Spanish horror film, The Orphanage,
returns with this re-telling of the story
of a vacationing British family caught
in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor play
the parents of three sons who are sepa
rated from each other in the chaotic
aftermath of the water surge.
JACK REACHER (PG-13) The epi
sodic exploits of Lee Child’s popular
literary character, a former Military
Policeman turned drifter, would make a
better television series than movie fran
chise, but star Tom Cruise and writer-
director Christopher McQuarrie (an
Academy Award winner for his Usual
Suspects script) pull off the big-screen
feat as entertainingly as possible.
JOHN DIES AT THE END (R) Genre
fan favorite filmmaker Don Coscarelli
(the Phantasm franchise, The
Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep) adapts
Cracker/writer David Wong’s Internet
sensation-turned-bestseller. Two
slackers, David (Chase Williamson)
and John (Rob Mayes), do battle with
forces from another dimension, thanks
to a strange new street drug.
KNIFE FIGHT (NR) Rob Lowe stars
as a political strategist considering
taking the high road while taking care
of his three clients. “West Wing” fans
will be excited about Lowe’s reunion
with Richard Schiff. The rest of the cast
cast (including “Once Upon a Time’”s
Jennifer Morrison, Jamie Chung,
“Modern Family’”s Julie Bowen, Carrie-
Anne Moss, Saffron Burrows, Amanda
Crew, Eric “Will” McCormack and
Garbage’s Shirley Manson) is good, if a
bit television heavy.
•THE LAST STAND (R) Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s return to the big
screen as an action lead isn’t among
the charismatic muscle man’s top
flicks, but this High Noon on steroids
is more amusing than most modern
action movies. Arnold stars as Sheriff
Ray Owens, whose small town stands
between a fugitive drug lord and
Mexico. Standing with the sheriff are
his inexperienced staff of oddballs—
the trusty deputy (Luis Guzman, who is
always good to lighten the mood), the
young female office (Jaimie Alexander),
a bad boy trying to make good
(Rodrigo Santoro) and the local gun
“collector” (Johnny Knoxville).
LES MISERABLES (PG-13) Golden
Globe winner for best musical, Les
Miserables harks back to the 1960s,
when colossal musical adaptations
were the rule, not the exception. (Four
of the decade’s 10 Best Picture winners
were musical adaptations.) Parolee
Jean Valjean (Golden Globe winner
Hugh Jackman) attempts to make up
for his past crimes by raising Cosette
(Amanda Seyfried), the daughter of a
fallen young woman named Fantine
(Golden Globe winner Anne Hathaway).
Constantly on Valjean’s heels is
Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe),
who will not give up the chase for this
parole violator.
LIFE OF PI (PG) The imaginatively
conceived and beautifully told work
of art created by Brokeback Mountain
Oscar winner Ang Lee, who certainly
deserves the noms he received for Best
Picture and Best Director, reminded me
of the many, smal I joys that add up to
make the life of Pi. (Cine)
LINCOLN (PG-13) Historical biopics
do not come much more perfect than
Steven Spielberg’s take on our 16th
president’s struggle to end slavery by
way of the 13th Amendment. Rather
than tell Abraham Lincoln's life story,
screenwriter Tony Kushner chose
the ideal, earth-shattering month
upon which to focus. He populates
Spielberg’s 19th-century hallways with
living, breathing figures of American
history like William Seward and
Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris), but the
film will be remembered and lauded
as another platform from which Daniel
Day-Lewis can solidify his claim to the
title of greatest living actor.
• MAMA (PG-13) As much of a horror
movie fan as yours truly is, the ghostly
stories often favored by Spanish film
makers are not my subgenre of choice.
In Mama, produced by Guillermo del
Toro and based on a short expanded by
writer-director Andres Muschietti, two
young girls are found in a cabin, where
they have lived alone for five years.
Unfortunately, when Annabel and Lucas
(Academy Award nominee Jessica
Chastain and Nicolaj Coster-Waldau)
get Victoria and Lily home, they dis
cover the two girls were not alone in
the woods, and they’ve brought their
rather angry “Mama" with them. The
buildup is slow and foreboding, but the
final act asks far too much of its CGI
creature, whose overly digital appear
ance elicits more giggles than screams.
When coupled with Don’t Be Afraid of
the Dark, Mama sucks a bit more wind
out of del Toro’s producing sails; so
long as summer's Pacific Rim doesn't
dim his writing-directing luster, every
thing should be okay.
MAMA AFRICA (NR) 2011. Mika
Kaurismaki directs this documentary
about the life of Miriam Makeba, a
Grammy-winning African singer and
civil rights activist who was the first
artist to bring African music into
American popular music. She toured
with Paul Simon on his “Graceland
Tour,” performed with many other
American musicians and around the
world.
MOVIE 43 (R) Who isn’t in this
proudly raunchy comedy? Emma
Stone, Hugh Jackman, Naomi Watts,
Chloe Grace Moretz, Elizabeth Banks
(who also directs), Gerard Butler,
Kristen Bell, Anna Faris, Chris Pratt,
Kate Winslet, Josh Duhamel, Halle
Berry, Richard Gere, Uma Thurman,
Seann William Scott, Jason Sudeikis,
Liev Schreiber, Terrence Howard,
Johnny Knoxville and many more
star in this interconnected series of
short films helmed by twelve directors
including the good, James Gunn, and
the eh, Brett Ratner.
MR. SMITH GOES TO
WASHINGTON (NR) 1939. Jimmy
Stewart stars as the titular Mr. Smith,
Jeff, a naive young scoutmaster
overmatched by the veteran senators
(like Claude Rains’ Joseph Paine) and
corrupt political bosses (like Edward
Arnold’s Jim Taylor), when he is
appointed to fill the seat of a recently
deceased congressman. Fortunately,
CINEMAS
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CINE • 234 W. Hancock Ave. • 706-353-3343 • www.athenscine.com
GEORGIA MUSEUM OF ART • (UGA Campus) 90 Carlton St.
• 706-542-GMOA • www.uga.edu/gamuseum/calendar/films.html
TATE STUDENT CENTER • (JGA Campus) 45 Baxter St.
• 706-542-6396 • www.union.uga.edu/movies
BEECHWOOD STADIUM CINEMAS II • 196 Alps Rd.
• 706-546-1011 • www.georgiatheatrecompany.com
CARMIKE 12 • 1570 Lexington Rd. • 706-354-0016
• www.carmike.com
GEORGIA SQUARE VALUE CINEMAS 5 • 3710 Atlanta Hwy
• 706-548-3426 • www.georgiatheatrecompany.com
Yeah? Well, you’re all cattle and no hat.
Jeff has the help of pretty young assis
tant, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur).
(UGA Tate Theatre)
PARENTAL GUIDANCE (PG) Billy
Crystal and Bette Midler star as old-
school grandparents forced to care for
their decidedly 21st-century grandchil
dren. Director Andy Fickman’s filmog
raphy is more weak (The Game Plan,
Race to Witch Mountain) than bad (You
Again): I did enjoy his Amanda Bynes
cross-dressing comedy, She’s the Man.
Splash Academy Award nominees
Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are
credited with the rewrite. With Marisa
Tomei, Bailee Madison (the young
Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark star is a
boon) and Tom Everett Scott.
< PARKER (R) Taylor Hackford (Ray)
directs Jason Statham in a sort of mod
ern day Robin Hood crime thriller—he
steals but never from anyone who
needs the money—that also features
Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis and
Nick Nolte. I like the stonily charis
matic Brit enough to retain a vague
interest, but JLo’s presence bodes ill.
I figure the filmmakers have the hope
this movie, based on the books by
Donald E. Westlake (written under the
pseudonym Richard Stark), is the start
of a new Statham franchise.
PHANTOM OF THE MALL: ERIC’S
REVENGE (R) 1989. Few images from
my days of skulking the video store
aisles, studying VHS covers of horror
movie classics like The DeadPitand
Frankenhooker, stands out like the
melted face framed by a mall backdrop
that signified Phantom of the Mall:
Eric’s Revenge. Thanks to Bad Movie
Night, this burned-in memory of my
adolescence returns as a shopping
center is terrorized by a badly burned
teenager. With Pauly Shore, Morgan
Fairchild and horror icon Ken Foree.
(Cine)
PITCH PERFECT (PG-13) Infectious
is the best word to describe this a
cappella college comedy Pitch Perfect.
It's understandable that many, many
people, especially males, are going
to see the “Glee”-ful previews or read
the synopsis and instantly decide,
“I’m out." That rush to judgment will
deprive them of a decidedly anti-“Glee”
experience. (UGA Tate Theatre)
RACE 2 (NR) The fourth highest
grossing Bollywood hit of 2008 (it
has a total lifetime worldwide gross of
106 crore!) gets its inevitable (I guess)
sequel. Ranvir Singh (Saif Ali Khan)
must traverse the Turkish Indian mafia
in his quest to avenge the death of his
partner-lover Sonia (Bipasha Basu).
The poster for this foreign action crime
thriller has a Fast and Furious look
to match its plot description. Original
directors Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla
and Mastan Alibhai Burmawalla return.
RED DAWN (PG-13) This preposter
ous movie borne of the Cold War fears
and tensions of the 1980s need not
have been remade. This new Dawn
simply lacks the indelible, if absurd,
moments from the original, making
it hard to imagine future audiences
marveling at the new cast as we do the
original’s “once was-ers” nearly 30
years later. Red Dawn Reduxfails to
rouse feelings of patriotism or jingo
ism and will not be remembered come
2014.
THE ROOM (R) 2003. Tommy Wiseau
returns once again as the unpredict
able, inexplicable Johnny in this cult
classic. Part of Bad Movie Night. (Cine)
• SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (R)
Athens has been waiting for the arrival
of David 0. Russell’s multiple Academy
Award nominee, and the dram-rom-
com does everything but disappoint.
Pat (Academy Award nominee Bradley
Cooper) has just been released from
a state mental hospital after a violent
incident involving his estranged wife
and another man. Maybe too soon
after coming home, Pat meets Tiffany
(Academy Award nominee and Golden
14 FLAGPOLE.COM • JANUARY 23, 2013