Newspaper Page Text
Some releases may not be showing locally this week.
• indicates new review
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, UGATate Theatre)
BROKEN CITY (R) 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), discover
ing 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.
> BULLET TO THE HEAD (R) A
cop and a hitman (Sylvester Stallone
and new Conan, Jason Momoa)
team up after their partners are killed.
Sly attempts to build on his Rocky/
Rambo/Expendables comeback with
a new movie from Walter Hill (whose
The Warriors is the coolest movie not
made by John Carpenter; the rest of
Hill’s filmography does not shine as
brightly). I would like to have seen
what original director Wayne Kramer
(based on his Running Scared] could
have fashioned from this material.
CAMPUS MOVIE FEST (NR)
Campus Movie Fest, the world’s largest
student film festival, comes to Athens
as students compete to film a movie in
a week. It started Wednesday, Jan. 16,
when students took a MacBook Pro or
iPad 2 and a Panasonic HD camcorder
and filmed their five-minute-or-less
story, and culminates on Thursday,
Jan. 31. Featured categories include
Best Picture, Best Drama and Best
Comedy. Be at the Tate Center on Jan.
31 to enjoy the results. (UGATate
Theatre)
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 (Leonardo
DiCaprio). For a critically acclaimed
award nominee, Django Unchained is
an ultraviolent 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 mechanical
failure requires a 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) 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.
• HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH
HUNTERS (R) Wondering how Hansel
& Gretel: Witch Hunters made it to
theaters is a far more interesting way
to spend the action fairy tale’s sub-
90-minute runtime. The fabled origin
of Hansel and Gretel is well-known.
Two kids are left alone in the forest
and stumble upon a witch’s candy
house; the kids kill the witch. Dead
SnoWs Tommy Wirkola imagines what
happens next, as Hansel and Gretel
(Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton)
grow up to be traveling hunters of
deadly witches.
A HAUNTED HOUSE (R) Marlon
Wayans can be a pretty funny guy, and
we already know from Requiem tor a
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.
THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT
2: GHOSTS OF GEORGIA (R) The
Haunting in Connecticut franchises
with this Georgia-set sequel. Another
family moves into another old house
that’s haunted by some spooks. This
flick sounds like it somehow wandered
off the direct-to-DVD path. The cast
is TV-heavy—Abigail Spencer, Chad
Michael Murray of “One Tree Hill" and
Katee Sackhoff from the new “Battlestar
Galactica”—with Cicely Tyson provid
ing some class. Director Tom Elkins
edited the first movie, as well as the
White Noise sequel.
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. An appealing
supporting cast includes Salma Hayek,
Henry Winkler, Greg Germann and real
life MMA fighter Bas Rutten.
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED
JOURNEY (PG-13) How comforting
it is to return to Middle-earth, espe
cially with Peter Jackson (he replaced
original director Guillermo del Toro).
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. Thank good
ness director Genndy Tartakovsky
brings his visual creativity to this rather
rote tale of prejudice and cross-cultural
romance.
THE IMPOSSIBLE (PG-13) One of
the buzzier films to enter the year-
end awards season and come out
nearly empty-handed, The Impossible
dramatizes the real-life story of a
family (played on screen by Academy
Award nominee Naomi Watts, Ewan
McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin
and Oaklee Pendergast) that survived
one of the worst natural disasters of
our time, the tsunami that hit the Indian
Ocean in 2004. Newcomer Holland’s
performance has been generating Best
Supporting Actor talk. The film marks
the awaited English-language debut of
The Orphanage director, Juan Antonio
Bayona.(Cine)
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.
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.
Parolee Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman)
attempts to make up for his past crimes
by raising Cosette (Amanda Seyfried),
the daughter of a fallen young woman
named Fantine (Anne Hathaway).
LIFE OF PI (PG) Having last thought
of Yann Martel’s novel when I read it
nearly 10 years ago, the ineffective
trailers for Ang Lee’s adaptation failed
to remind me of how wonderful and
energetic Pi Patel’s life had been. I
recalled a shipwreck, a lifeboat and a
Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The
imaginatively conceived and beautifully
told work of art created by Brokeback
Mountain Oscar winner Lee, who cer
tainly deserves the noms he received
for Best Picture and Best Director,
reminded me of the many, small joys
that add up to make the life of Pi. Do
not let the underwhelming previews
deprive you of one of the year's most
moving, most artistic films of the year.
(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. 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 (Jessica Chastain and Nicolaj
Coster-Waldau) get Victoria and Lily
home, they discover the two girls were
not alone in the woods, and they’ve
brought their rather angry “Mama”
with them.
• MOVIE 43 (R) Big names (Kate
Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry,
Richard Gere, Greg Kinnear, Dennis
Quaid, Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber,
Emma Stone and many more!) say
ing and doing outrageous, raunchy
things does not a funny movie make.
A couple of the barely connected,
scatological sketches show some
creativity and generate some genuine
laughs. The “Homeschooled” seg
ment, starring Watts and Schreiber as
two very unique, overbearing parents,
outclasses its peers by comic miles,
while “Super Hero Speed Dating," star
ring Jason Sudeikis and Justin Long as
Batman and Robin, and the Elizabeth
Banks directed “Middleschool Date,”
mostly work. Ricky Gervais’ buddy,
Stephen Merchant, salvages some
laughs opposite a game Halle Berry,
but surviving Winslet and Jackman’s
opening blunder, “The Catch," is nearly
impossible, killing any humorous vibes
before the decent sketches even have
a chance.
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (G) 1988.
The Studio Ghibli Film Series returns,
bringing four fresh classics from
legendary Japanese filmmaker Hayao
Miyazaki to the big screen (on fresh
35mm prints!) through Feb. 10. Two
young girls, Satsuke and Mei, move
to the country with their university
professor father so as to be closer to
their recuperating mother. In the nearby
forest, the girls discover and befriend
tiny wood sprites called Totoros. The
Disney version features the voices of
Dakota and Elle Fanning. (Cine)
ONE NIGHT STAND (NR) This
documentary follows four teams of
talented performers and writers as each
team writes, rehearses and performs
a 20-minute Broadway musical in
24 hours. The teams include Rachel
Dratch, Cheyenne Jackson, Jesse Tyler
Ferguson and many other big theater
names. Jan. 31 only.
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.
• PARKER (R) Parker is another solid
crime thriller starring Jason Statham
that suffers from the stale familiarity
of another solid crime thriller starring
Jason Statham. This umpteenth big
screen version of Richard Stark nee
Donald E. Westlake’s popular, amoral
thief adapts the novel Flashtire, in
which Parker plots to steal jewels in
West Palm Beach. After being left for
dead by his partners (led by Michael
Chiklis) in Ohio, Parker, who has a
strong, if messed up, sense of honor,
seeks vengeance in Florida with the
assistance of a down on her luck real
tor (Jennifer Lopez). If Lopez thought
lightning might strike twice, it didn’t;
Parker isn’t as good as her breakout
turn in Soderbergh’s Elmore Leonard
adaptation, Out of Sight.
RED DAWN (PG-13) This preposter
ous movie borne of the Cold War fears
and tensions of the 1980s need not
have been remade. A motley group
of teenagers (including Chris “Thor"
Hemsworth, Josh “Peeta" Hutcherson
and Tom Cruise’s adopted kid, Connor
Cruise) stage an insurgency against
communist invaders; the North
Koreans, with an assist from the
Russians, replace the original’s Soviet/
Cuban alliance.
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (R)
Athens has been waiting for the arrival
of David O. Russell’s multiple Academy
Award nominee, and the dram-rom-
com does everything but disappoint.
Pat (Academy Award nominee Bradley
CINEMAS
Movie showtimes are not available by our deadline. Please check cinema
websites for accurate information.
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
When you get to be my age, these are toe nail trimmers.
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
Globe winner Jennifer Lawrence), who
lost it after the death of her husband.
Russell’s fiery demeanor and beautiful
writing certainly ignites his actors;
Cooper and Lawrence give two of
the year’s most generous and honest
performances.
SKYFALL (PG-13) The middle third
of Daniel Craig’s third outing as James
Bond is the best 007 adventure in 20,
maybe even 30, years. Too bad director
Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and
his team of scripters won't just let Bond
be Bond for the entirety of the film.
Skyfallalmost completely unravels
before the opening credits.
STAND UP GUYS (R) Aging con
men attempt to get the old team back
together in this crime comedy star
ring heavyweights Al Pacino, current
Academy Award nominee Alan Arkin
and Christopher Walken. This flick
appeared out of nowhere with little
marketing support.
SUMMERTIME (NR) 1955. Epic
auteur David Lean co-wrote and
directed this romantic drama based on
Arthur Laurents’ play, The Time of the
Cuckoo. A middle-aged schoolteacher
(Katharine Hepburn) falls in love with
an Italian shopkeeper after taking the
European excursion she's waited for all
her life. Part of the Georgia Museum
of Art’s Americans in Italy Film Series.
(GMOA)
TAKEN 2 (PG-13) Most movies fail to
encapsulate the description “unneces
sary sequel" as perfectly as Taken 2. As
a consequence of the violent methods
he employed to retrieve his kidnapped
daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), in the
first movie, retired CIA operative Bryan
Mills (Liam Neeson), must face off
against the Albanian dad (played by
go-to Eastern European baddie Rade
Serbedzija) of one of the sex traffickers
he killed during his rescue mission.
TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D (R)
Leatherface returns! A young woman
(the gorgeous Alexandra Daddario,
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The
Lightning Thief) heads to Texas for her
inheritance and runs into the danger
ous Sawyer clan and its chainsaw-
wielding, skin-wearing man-child.
THIS IS 40 (R) Sure, This Is 40m\\
provide viewers with more laughs than
any of its contemporary comedic peers,
but it should; it's at least one sitcom
episode longer than a typical comedy.
This semi-sequel to Knocked Up fol
lows Pete and Debbie (Paul Rudd and
Leslie Mann) as they turn 40. Life isn’t
quite what they expected.
WARM BODIES (PG-13) The prod
ucts of Jonathan Levine’s short career
have been pretty strong. He returns to
the horror genre for the first time since
his feature debut with this zomrom-
dram starring Nicholas Hoult (Jack the
Giantkiller) as a zombie, who falls for
the girlfriend (Teresa Palmer, Take Me
Home Tonight) of one of his victims/
meals. With Dave Franco (James’ bro),
John Malkovich and Rob Corddry.
ZERO DARK THIRTY (R) Academy
Award winner Kathryn Bigelow and
her Oscar winning collaborator,
screenwriter Mark Boal follow up The
HurtLockermth this controversial,
excellently crafted military thriller
documenting the decade-long search
for Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark
Thirty is an intriguing, darkly patriotic
counterpoint to the year’s other major
American historical drama about a
president willing to push the office's
constitutional limits for the sake of pro
tecting the nation. Both films are award
worthy and deserving of your entry fee,
but Lincoln has the Oscar edge.
Drew Wheeler
12 FLAGPOLE.COM-JANUARY 30, 2013