It’s interesting to see how current events affect movie rentals. For example, I was looking through our Netflix queue this morning and noticed that All the President’s Men is listed as “Very Long Wait.” I guess everyone wants to see Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat, now that they know W. Mark Felt was the real-life Deep Throat.
I was a little disappointed when the identity of Deep Throat was revealed. Deep in my heart, I hoped that Deep Throat was really two ditzy blonde high-school girls with a flair for dog walking and baking Hello Dollies.
I notice that you can rent Dick from Netflix without any wait at all. If you’re looking for something Watergate-ish to watch, that’s what I’d recommend. Woodward and Bernstein are much funnier in this movie than All the President’s Men.
I wanted to title this entry “Get Dick for Deep Throat action,” but that might draw the wrong kind of crowd.
Meanwhile, lots of movies are opening this weekend, none looking good enough to yank the box office out of its slump (everyone’s pinning hopes on Batman Begins next week), and none looking very interesting to me personally. Fortunately, I’m going out of town this weekend, somewhere with no movie theaters, so I don’t care. (Especially since Howl’s Moving Castle isn’t opening in Austin, damn it.)
New movies in Austin this week:
The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl—Robert Rodriguez’s latest movie for kids. Let’s hope the chicks are treated better in this film than they were in Sin City.
High Tension—French horror film that allegedly has been toned down (less gore) and dubbed into English for its US release.
The Honeymooners—If I thought the original sitcom was annoying and sexist, why in the world would I possibly want to see a movie version, even if it is contemporary?
It’s All Gone Pete Tong—British dark comedy/mockumentary about a deaf DJ.
Mondovino—Documentary about the international wine industry. Alamo South is doing a special screening with wine tastings on Tues. 6/14.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith—The movie that’s received more press about the private lives of the actors involved than about the quality of the film itself. I’m still cranky that they stole the title from Hitchcock’s only (and not very good) screwball comedy. I keep expecting to see Carole Lombard, so Angelina Jolie is something of a letdown.
Rock School—Documentary in the same vein as the movie The School of Rock, but without Jack Black or Joan Cusack.
Notable events/revivals in Austin:
Charlie is My Darling—Playing at Alamo Downtown on Mon. 6/13 (for $1 admission) and Wed. 6/15. Obscure 1966 documentary about the Rolling Stones, not available on VHS or DVD.
Citizen Kane—Playing at the Paramount on Tues-Wed. 6/14-15. When you become a film critic, you have to take a secret vow to always put this film on your Best Films Ever list, no matter how much you might or might not enjoy it. I like it, but then I used to be in journalism, and the journalism scenes in this movie are just lovely. On a double-feature with The Magnificent Andersons (although I would have gone lighter and paired it with His Girl Friday, heh).
The Future of Food—Playing at Alamo Downtown on Sun. 6/12 and Wed.-Thurs 6/15-16. Documentary about the horrors of genetically engineered foods. The director will be answering questions after the 6/12 screening.
Godzilla—Playing at the Paramount on Fri. 6/10 and Sun. 6/12. This is the recently restored version of the 1954 film, the one that’s the same as the original Japanese-released version. And while we’re on the subject of inappropriate double-features, who in the world thought of pairing this movie up with This is Spinal Tap? They’re smoking something funny over at the Paramount these days, although that double-feature is so bizarre that it borders on being inspired.
Lipstick and Dynamite—Playing daily at 5:05 pm at Alamo South. Documentary about female wrestlers. I’m so tempted to sneak out of work early one day to see this.
The Magnificent Ambersons—Playing at the Paramount on Tues-Wed. 6/14-15. Orson Welles’ flawed, re-cut follow-up to Citizen Kane (which the Paramount has paired it with). Never really appealed to me, but as a film buff I suppose I ought to see it at some point.
Muppets from Space—Playing at Alamo Lake Creek on Sun. 6/12. Not my favorite Muppet movie, but a nice little film for kids.
Shrek—Playing at Alamo South on Sat-Sun. 6/11-12 as part of the Alamo Summer Kids Camp series. Free admission. I know everyone in America liked this movie except me, so I can’t fuss at Alamo for showing it. Y’all enjoy.
Solaris—Playing at Alamo Downtown on Tues. 6/14 as part of Austin Film Society’s Essential Cinema series. This is the original Tarkovsky movie, not the one with George Clooney’s butt (sorry, Sis).
The South Park Sing-Along—Playing at Alamo Downtown on Thurs. 6/16. Alamo is having another sing-along movie evening, this time with South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. I really shouldn’t find this as appealing as I do. Anyone else want to go?
This is Spinal Tap—Playing at the Paramount on Fri. 6/10. I love this movie. Too bad I just watched the DVD again and have no interest in seeing it in a theater. Paired (bizarrely, see above) with Godzilla.
The Ultimate Earthquake Experience—Playing on Sat. 6/11. This time the Rolling Roadshow goes to the caves at Wonder World in San Marcos, where they will show the 1974 movie Earthquake while trying to induce earth tremors themselves.
The Wizard of Oz—Playing at Old Settlers Park in Round Rock on Friday 6/10 at 8 pm. Bring a blanket. Maybe a picnic basket too, although not one with a little dog inside it.
The Wizard of Oz—Playing at the Paramount on Sun. 6/12. If you don’t feel like driving to Round Rock to see this film in the great outdoors, head to the Paramount to see it in their nice air-conditioned theater.
I still need to write reviews for Shaolin Soccer, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, The Cooler, My Little Chickadee, Slums of Beverly Hills, The Bad News Bears, But I’m a Cheerleader, Spy Kids 2, The Celluloid Closet, The Iron Giant, Raging Bull, and Maria Full of Grace. Maybe I could review them all at once? Or maybe I should write one-paragraph reviews for each, write them all off, and start fresh.
Howl’s Moving Castle is kind of a mess. Then again, the original book was too. The castle is fabulous, the relationship between Sophie and Howl is correctly handled, but the ending is just bizarre, and Miyazaki gets less and less subtle with his anti-war hammer as he ages. See it for the visuals, and be pleasantly surprised by anything else as a bonus. Even bad Miyazaki ain’t all that bad.
After seeing Sin City, I have come to believe that it’s the rare case where the objectification is actually necessary to the story and the faithful reproduction of that universe. Anyway, you have to have all those too-sexy women to balance out the fact that every man in the movie is made to look, not just ugly, but DISTORTED somehow. Altered. Corrupted. It’s a very interesting piece of visual work.
Put yourself on alert: When we went to see HMC, which we saw at the Landmark theatre because that’s the only place here showing it non-dubbed, we saw a trailer for the restored rerelease of Elevator to the Gallows, an early Louis Malle film. Malle bores me to tears normally, but this is apparently a film noir and I do like a dose of that occasionally. And it has Jeanne Moreau, back in the day. Watch for this in late June.
I just read the book (Howl’s Moving Castle) over the weekend and liked it a lot; I can see where it would make a good Miyazaki film, although I heard the film is weak on providing background. The ending of the book is messy so I’ll be interested to see how the movie ties things up.
There’s a dubbed version and a subtitled version both in release? I’ll have to check theaters, although the cynic in me suspects that Austin will likely only get the dubbed. Hopefully it won’t be a sucky dub.
No, I’m told the dub is actually quite good. Marc saw it dubbed first and had no complaints. All these latter day Buena Vista dubs of Miyazaki are pretty good.
I will reserve comment on the ending until you see it.
I read the book years ago. It seems like a perfect fit for studio ghibli.
If you see one documentary this year, or in the next five, see this one, The Future of Food. We saw it yesterday and I was humbled and enlivened to see a problem illuminated along with a solution. The documentary has the tone of someone who sat through Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 and decided that it just was not as an effective way to get dialogue and movement around an issue as it could.
Deborah Koons Garcia, perhaps in response to Michael Moore’s lackluster ability to highlight problems of our free-market economy and come off sounding hollow without following through on telling us really what we can do ( besides emailing our senators or protesting someone or something). The Future of Food does a fantastic job of illustrating the problem inherent in Genetically Modified Organisms as a basis for food, that their impacts on the environment haven’t been researched enough, are supported and shoved down the world’s throat by the one of the largest (monopolistic) agricultural conglomerates on the planet (Monsanto), the negative impacts on the farmer’s key ability to harvest and reuse their own seed, and some steps we can and are already taking to reduce and hopefully reverse the impacts and potential impacts of GMOs on our lives and global food chain.
Con’t over at emptyhighway.com
Dear people,
I like your movie. Shark boy I think is cute and lava girl is very pretty. I think they should end up more together in the end. like they hug well try he puts his arm around her. then they hold fingers.
I really liked the movie so I think they should make a second. So where they real or was he just dreaming again.
from,
Ashley Young
P.S.my e-mail address is boyzdrool_girlsrule@yahoo.com or redhead_loser@yahoo.com who ever this is have shark boy and lava girl e-mail me. Thank you.