1) Nightmare of You plays Vinyl.
2) Essential Theatre performs Ice Glen at Actor’s Express.
3) Draw + Decal continues at Mudfire Gallery.
4) Personal & the Pizzas play the Earl.
5) Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince continues in area theaters.
(Photo courtesy Nightmare of You)
Unlike some robot and/or mutant-based summer blockbusters, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince isn’t riddled with plot holes that you can laugh at while picking popcorn kernels from your teeth. Steve Kloves’ adaptation hews closely to J.K. Rowling’s novel, with some notable additions (particularly the Death-Eater attacks) and subtractions (see below). Most of the post-Prince nit-picking involves discrepancies between the book and the movie, and speculation about the final two films to be made of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Warning: this may contain minor spoilers based on the Deathly Hallows text.
1. What was up with Draco Malfoy’s dad? The opening scenes imply that Lucius Malfoy is under some kind of investigation for the attack on the Ministry of Magic from the previous film. Have charges been filed? Is he on trial in absentia? Do Draco and his mother even know where he is? The details seemed a little vague, given his importance to the Draco subplot.
Continue reading “Spoiler questions, now that we’ve seen Harry Potter” »
GENRE: The penultimate visit to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
THE PITCH: The romantic misadventures of Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his pals Ron and Hermione (Rupert Grint and Emma Watson) distract them from the secret plans of Professor Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) to respectively hinder and help the malevolent Lord Voldemort.
MONEY SHOTS: Voldemort’s henchmen begin the film with a spectacular disaster-porn attack on a London bridge, and mark the midpoint by striking at some of Harry’s allies. Ron’s showy performance in a Quidditch game. (Surely you remember Quidditch?) In the magical flashback scenes, buildings billow down from above — the film’s signature special effect. Harry and Dumbledore risk their lives in a terrifying mission near an underground lake.
BEST LINE: “He’s covered in blood again. Why is he always covered in blood?” wonders one of Harry’s female admirers.
Continue reading “Hollywood Product: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince“
(Image courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
1) The Coca-Cola Film Festival kicks off at the Fox Theatre with Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music.
2) Extraordinary Machine opens at Wm Turner Gallery.
3) Chocolate Kiss plays the Earl.
4) The N.E.C., Knife and the 4th Ward Daggers and more play the Star Bar’s Freakout.
5) Atlantic Station’s Harry Potter refresher series begins with The Sorcerer’s Stone in Central Park.
(Photo courtesy Fox Theatre)
In anticipation of next Wednesday’s opening of the latest chapter in the sorcerific Harry Potter mega franchise, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Atlantic Station’s oddly titled Movies and a Market series will show all five films. The movies will screen in Central Park at sundown July 9-14 (no screening July 12) and it’s all free, Free, FREE! Here’s the schedule for you:
July 9th – Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
July 10th – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
July 11th – Harry Potter and the Prisoner [of] Azkaban
July 13th – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
July 14th – Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix
HANG TIME: Russell (left) and Carl Fredricksen from Up
The stereotypical summer movie aspires to be a simple pleasure, and usually gets it half right. Simplicity is the stock-in-trade of Hollywood tentpole films. Even a full sentence may be too long to sum up a summer blockbuster’s premise: Ideally, it fits into a tagline, a Tweet or an icon.
Regardless of which movie you see, where you see a film offers its own delights. Several of the summer biggies will be in 3-D (including Pixar’s Up), a few will have IMAX versions, and many will play at the summertime’s quintessential venue, the Starlight Six Drive-In. Doubtless a few of the season’s hits will screen at the Fox Theatre Summer Film Festival, the titles of which are to be announced.
Screen on the Green continues this year at Centennial Olympic Park, and with the exception of Oscar-nominated Dreamgirls (June 4), it’s devoted to 1980s flashbacks, including Back to the Future (May 28); Field of Dreams (June 11) and Home Alone (June 18) — which, granted, came out in 1990 but was made in the 1980s. For June 25, audiences can vote for one of three 1980s films: Big, Ghostbusters and The Princess Bride. (I’d vote for Ghostbusters, but would bet on The Princess Bride.)
The summer movies of ‘09 may make the Screen on the Green lineup two decades from now. Apart from the already released X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this summer’s light on the joy of superheroes. Here’s a guide to the most-hyped releases to come, along with the simple pleasures they’re shooting for.
Angels & Demons (May 15)
THE JOY OF: sleek, empty eurothrillers; saying naughty things about the Catholic Church
IN OTHER WORDS: Tom Hanks and director Ron Howard reunite for the follow-up to The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown published the novel Angels & Demons first, but the new film still follows Hanks as globe-trotting, conspiracy-unraveling symbologist Robert Langdon, who journeys to Rome to uncover a mystery involving the Vatican, the Illuminati and, uh, antimatter. (Note to self: Google the word “symbologist.”)
Continue reading “Summer movies simplify cinema”
(Photo ©Disney/Pixar)
