Friday, March 29, 2013
Elvis, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Alfred Hitchcock fill this Easter collection.
Last month, I got a chance to meet Ben Mankeiwitcz, the Turner Classic Movies host and curator, who is actually from the DC area, and was here promoting this year's TCM Classic Film Festival, running from April 25-28 in Hollywood. If you haven't heard, they have a festival, and Cinema Siren can attest to the fact that they feature both great movies and great guest stars. This year, they'll include Polly Bergen, Ann Blyth, Mel Brooks, Jane Fonda, Mitzi Gaynor, Tippi Hedren, Max Von Sydow, Eva Marie Saint and Mickey Rooney, just to name some of my favorites. When I talked to Mankeiwitcz, he said those who attend are some of the most knowledgeable movie fans in the world, but surprisingly diverse in age. He said one fan who expertly …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Horror, Suspense, Romance, Comedy — what will movie-goers want to see?
I'm sitting outside the Verizon Center, once again fighting for parking this week with the sports fans next door to my screening movie theatre. It reminds me, even when it matters, sometimes the winning team is a fluke, sometimes it's well deserved… As Cinema Siren is meant to "guide you through a sea of celluloid," I'd like to direct you toward the more deserving teams of filmmakers releasing something this busy week at the multiplex. With spring break upon us, this early March weekend offers an odd mix of genres, with each vying for the top spot at the box office. Best of luck to them, they'd be replacing or be added to a top 10 where only two have even 50 percent positive reviews, and some of which are so bad they should be benched like…
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Cinema Siren gives film three out of five starfish.
"I don't want to be a good man, I want to be a great one!" This declaration by James Franco as the title character of Sam Raimi's new Disney prequel could just as easily be a hope of the director's as well. Is the movie great? Is it even good? Oz the Great and Powerful is entertaining and you could do worse than to spend your time watching this interpretation of L. Frank Baum's world flash flowers and toss monkey wings in your face. But the weaknesses of it make me walk all the way to the dark edge between recommendation and warning to ponder throwing my ruby shoes into the abyss. Uh oh. Cinema Siren is damning with faint praise here, especially if you know how much sparkly shoes mean to a girl... This movie tells the story of how the …
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The great, the bizarre and the awful.
The box office receipts didn't automatically match studio expectations in 2012. For once, some of the most lauded movies took money away from the mediocre ones. This year we saw superheroes, grown-up movies, genre mash-ups and cartoons scoring places at the top of the box office. Much was made about big flops, from the divisive John Carter and ridiculous Battleship, both of which starred the same unlucky actor. This topsy turvy year in the world of film is likely to lead to some interesting shifts in focus for actors and filmmakers alike. Out of respect and a hope for healing I'm sure we all wish for the families involved in Colorado, Cinema Siren isn't going to spend much time on the movie event in 2012 that made the most newspapers. Any…
Friday, November 9, 2012
Review of latest James Bond film.
In its 50th year, there is much at stake for the Bond franchise. So many great movies, producing such a cultural icon, they want to create a movie worthy of release in the anniversary year. Something mediocre or forgettable just wouldn't do (ahem, Moonraker, I'm talking to you…). They have their past and their future to think of. They don't want to be asking "Will Bond live to die another day?" By showing due respect to its pedigree, adding some exciting new elements, featuring a great script, acting, and production design, Skyfall rises to the top as one of this year's best films, Bond or otherwise. Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) helms the story wherein a madman (of course) winds up with the hard drive that reveals …
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Time for a living dead history lesson.
So you say you love zombies. Maybe you routinely use the quote: "They're coming to get you, Barbara," and you've dressed up three years in a row for the local Zombie Walk. And yet…you've never heard of Lucio Fulci, the Italian director who made three of the best zombie movies ever. When I saw the new Angelika Mosaic Theatre featured an onscreen viewing of The Walking Dead season premiere, I figured it was time for a living dead history lesson. Welcome to the "School of Rot." For the first time in Cinema Siren column history, I asked a zombie expert, my friend Douglas E. Winter, to help pick 10 movies that are perhaps less known by late-coming fans of the undead, yet required viewing for any true zombiephile. Doug is the horror critic and …
Friday, October 5, 2012
Panoramic vistas take your breath away.
PARIS — This week, Cinema Siren is writing from France, land of unpasteurized cheese, Jerry Lewis obsession, well-behaved dogs in restaurants and a great appreciation of auteur film directors. I'm here for the opening of a Star Wars toy exhibit at the Louvre that involves some film art friends of mine. Nowhere would there be a better place to speak of the gorgeous piece of animated film-making that is Frankenweenie than where there is in fact no literal translation for "director's cut," because it wouldnt occur to the French that there would be any other version of a film. Tim Burton is really the very definition of auteur, in that he has a very clear vision for his film-making, a recognizable stylistic stamp that fans embrace and revere…
Friday, July 13, 2012
San Diego Comic-Con opens with huge crowds, swag and high hopes.
SAN DIEGO—Whenever "What is Comic-Con?" floats out into the air, it shocks Cinema Siren into speechlessness. San Diego Comic-Con, (SDCC or just "Comic-Con" for those in the know), is the largest gathering for entertainment and pop culture in the world, and happens in San Diego every July at this time. It garners so much press coverage and we at ArtInsights have so many friends and colleagues whose livelihoods depend on a successful SDCC, it's hard for me to imagine anyone still in the dark about its existence. The geeks of the world know all about it. One certainly can't wander into an Apple Store, for example, and have any of the employees not give great sighs and groans when one informs them one is going to Comic-Con… So, as the 39th …
Friday, June 1, 2012
This goth version of Snow White is beautiful but lacking. See Moonrise Kingdom instead.
Such promise. After Tarsem Singh's Mirror Mirror chose form over substance, we were hoping the dark take Snow White and the Huntsman offered on the age-old tale would be all it seduced us with in the previews. Oscar winning stunner Charlize Theron as the wicked queen, Chris Hemsworth, the haughty hottie we love as Thor as the Huntsman, and Kristen Stewart bringing her mixed demeanor of demure ingénue and smoldering git-er-done, goth girl all presented in a nightmarish landscape… what's not to love? Lots. No question it out-designs Mirror Mirror, which is no small feat. The actors embrace their roles and are well up to their tasks, although handicapped with a flaccid script with many shortcomings, the most frustrating of which are the …
Friday, May 25, 2012
Patch's Cinema Siren reviews the new Will Smith flick, Men in Black 3, calling it escapist fun with a surprise ending that's well worth the trip.
If you're like me, you may have pondered, "Why, 10 years after an MIB sequel that stunk up the theatre like Edgar the Bug's rotting human skin, are they releasing another sequel? How can it possibly be worth seeing?" Well, you ask, is it? Oh yeah! Definitely the best of the franchise, MIB3 is a lot of escapist fun and breathes life into the adventures of these boys in dark suits. It succeeds most by using every detail of both the scripting and visual elements in the service of the story. This installment has neither the jokey too-cool-for-school vibe of the first or the too-serious-to-enjoy mess of the second. What we have in MIB3 is an exciting action adventure with an oogie alien arch-villain, great sometimes funny, sometimes sweet hero-…
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5:32 am on Monday, January 7, 2013
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