movies

Film fans, do not be alarmed: Charlie is out of town for the week, but he shall return! We also happen to know he is in a land barren of palatable movie offerings, a land desicate of modern culture, a land so pure as the driven snow as to be devoid of all cultural ambition […]

Openings CHARLIE WILSON’S WAR Easily the most interesting of the four local openings last Friday, Charlie Wilson’s War, directed by Mike Nichols with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin (West Wing), is an ironic and ultimately serious look at the U.S. covert involvement in the war between Soviet forces and the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s. […]

Previews The Christmas onslaught kicks into overdrive beginning this Friday, Dec. 21, and continues on Christmas day. Based on George Crile’s 2007 book of the same title as adapted by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (TV’s The West Wingand the short-lived Studio 60) and helmed by veteran Mike Nichols, Charlie Wilson’s War is about how the swinging […]

Previews Opening Friday, Dec. 14, is I Am Legend, yet another version of the apocalyptic 1954 novel by Richard Matheson. Will Smith is the military’s virus guy, taking over the role previously played by Charlton Heston (The Omega Man, 1971) and Vincent Price (The Last Man on Earth, 1964). It seems some really nasty virus […]

Previews Once again, there are only two films opening locally on Friday, Dec. 7, which makes my life easier. The Golden Compass, the first installment of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, stars Nicole Kidman, the most recent "Bond Girl" Eva Green, Daniel Craig and Sam Elliot in a fantasy tale involving alternate universes and […]

Previews There may only be two new openings on Friday, Nov. 30, but happily one of them is No Country for Old Men, based on the dark novel by Cormac McCarthy and adapted and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. With a cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin and Woody Harrelson […]

Previews Okay, it’s the holiday season so sugar is the order of the day, and none will probably be more sickly sweet than Robin Williams in August Rush. Freddie Highmore plays the title character, who grows into a musical prodigy under the tutelage of Williams’ wizard character and then uses his musical gifts to locate […]

Previews Opening Friday, Nov. 16, following in the footsteps of last year’s 300, Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf brings another digitally enhanced warrior to the screen for your viewing pleasure. The film uses the technology of "performance capture" seen in The Polar Express to tell the story of the misunderstood monster who has been terrorizing us humans […]

Previews I suppose the major opening on Friday, Nov. 2 is American Gangster , a film based on a true story and directed by Ridley Scott in a return to the action film genre. Starring heavyweights Denzel Washington as a Harlem drug king and Russell Crowe as the cop determined to take him down, the […]

‘La Vie en Rose’ Previews Finally, opening locally on Friday, Oct. 26, is Julie Taymor’s ( Frida ) homage to Beatles music, Across the Universe , a film that uses the Liverpool group’s songs to tell a generational love story. The trailer looks promising. Rated PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language. […]

Previews Come back, Charlie Myers! There’s a zillion movies opening this week, and we have neither the chops nor the time to say anything interesting about them. So we’re just going to run through them rapid-fire, and hope that the massive Hollywood marketing campaigns can fill in the blanks. Assassination of Jesse James by the […]