Sunday, May 5, 2013
Film kicks off the second phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Let's face it. Those of you who are interested in films like "Iron Man 3" and have waited through a year of comic book conventions dressed as your favorite Marvel superhero do not need Cinema Siren to tell you whether to head out to keep one of Hollywood's biggest studio franchises alive and Robert Downey Jr. out of the poorhouse. You already have your tickets. It's the souls who usually stay home with a glass of wine watching "Downton Abbey" and occasionally go to the multiplex only for the most-hyped and well-reviewed blockbusters the studio wants to charm into theaters. ["Iron Man 3" is now playing at Regal Ballston Common 12.] With its mix of magnetic superstar power, exciting action and strong character development, "Iron Man 3" has a…
Monday, April 1, 2013
Elvis, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland and Alfred Hitchcock fill this Spring 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 …
Monday, March 25, 2013
The animated movie is set in prehistoric times.
The computer-animated feature The Croods from DreamWorks Animation is the story of a prehistoric family who take a road trip out of necessity. Patriarch Grug (Nicolas Cage) spends every day protecting his family by alternately leading them on life-endangering family hunting trips and terrifying them into staying in their tiny cave-home with stories about everything in the outside world being potentially deadly. | See What is Playing at the AMC Courthouse Plaza 8 | "Never not be afraid," he says. Daughter Eep (Emma Stone) believes that's no way to live. Her sense of adventure carries her father away from the cave and her dad's controlling nature, much like any teen looking to figure out who they are. Everything changes when their cave is …
Monday, March 18, 2013
The Call, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Stoker, Upside Down, are all out this week.
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…
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
The Cinema Siren gives film three out of five starfish.
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. "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. | See What Other Movies Are Playing at the AMC Courthouse Plaza 8 | 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 …
Monday, January 28, 2013
R-rated film released Friday in movie theaters nationwide.
Sometimes a movie is just...bad. We can all watch it and see what they had in mind, how the pitch went, how the director and producers signed on, and talked some pretty big stars into taking part. And we can see the whole thing derail through to post production, delayed release, and as we watch the finished product with an ever-dwindling vestige of hope. Such is the case for Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters. Why Cinema Siren is reviewing this movie at all is a fair question. I go on record as saying there is always a chance a good movie will find its way to the multiplex in January. Not the ones that were in limited released in LA and New York in December to qualify for the Oscars….Those are the movies everyone is busying themselves …
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Cliches eclipse acting in 'Mama,' and violence crumbles 'The Last Stand.'
January. Everyone knows it is when the mediocre to the truly awful hobble off to die a quick death after beating each other senseless for a quick buck in the box office arena. When a film gets slated for a January release it is because there are no other contenders to fight for those dollars, or it won't survive any other time anyway. After all, everyone with any sense is scrambling to see the Oscar nominees. So one approaches January movies with a mix of optimism and dread. Two genre-specific movies have recently been released. If you are a fan of horror or ultra-violent action flicks, the studios are expecting you to gravitate away from those Oscar-nominated movies and toward these unproven offerings. "The Last Stand" is a supposed …
Monday, January 14, 2013
Director Kathryn Bigelow overlooked for Oscar in Best Director category.
Zero Dark Thirty, which brought in $24 million in its first two days of wide release, has been lauded worldwide and almost universally as an impressive piece of filmmaking. It's a movie that is anything but formulaic. It is always very different for those of us who live within the Washington area. Our experience of anything political is amplified. The headquarters of the CIA, FBI, and of course, the White House, are all within driving distance. It is, therefore, nearly impossible not to have heard about the controversy surrounding this film. Senators Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) denounced the film, for its depiction of torture. “We believe the film is grossly inaccurate and misleading in …
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Academy Award nomination successes and snubs from our Cinema Siren reviewer.
The 85th Academy Awards. These Oscar noms are full of the biggest surprises and snubs in a while, although there are still going to be some complete shoe-ins. Let's get to it! Will Affleck forever pay for Gigli? Argo and Zero Dark Thirty are both movies that have been highly lauded, with multiple nominations. That doesn't happen in a vacuum. What sense does it make for the directors not to get nominated as well? I speak of Ben Affleck of Argo and Kathryn Bigelow of Zero Dark Thirty, the latter of whom's exclusion is truly shocking. These directors spend the entire time the film is being made manipulating the end result and aiding the actors in getting their best performances. Without them, those wonderful movies wouldn't exist. Is it …
Monday, December 17, 2012
Santa brings a very mixed bag to blockbuster franchise.
This holiday, with the expected blockbuster franchise The Hobbit (it has already broken records for midnight release of a movie more than two-and-a-half hours long) Santa brings a very mixed bag. First, let's talk about the coal-worthy aspects of the An Unexpected Journey. Unless you are a slave to technology, spend most of your days playing video games or crave seeing the next big thing, avoid the mercifully limited number of screens (10 percent) showing it in 3D filmed at 48 frames instead of the usual 24. Director Peter Jackson argues the high frame rate technology gives the movie a sense of reality, like "looking into the real world." While it brightens the often-muddled look of 3D, it also points up every quirk and flaw, every …
GK
8:24 pm on Wednesday, January 23, 2013
If you didn't know what you were buying a ticket for, then you got what you paid for. Don't knock a movie based on your personal politics. Its an action movie... it is what it is, and some of us are OK with that. Its rated R for a reason. more ›