Opening This Week: Three Movies Based on Best-Sellers and a DisneyNature Documentary About Chimps

Posted on April 16, 2012 at 8:00 am

A sheltered Christian student finds himself at a notoriously free-thinking college, women learn to play the game of romance a man’s way, and a former Marine finds the woman whose photograph was his lucky talisman in this week’s feature films, all based on best-selling books.  Also opening this week is DisneyNature’s latest “how do they get that footage?” documentary, the story of an orphaned chimp named Oscar.

The Lucky One, by Nicholas Sparks, is the story of U.S. Marine Logan Thibault, who finds a photograph of a smiling young woman buried in the dirt during his tour of duty in Iraq.  He experiences a sudden streak of luck — winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph — his lucky charm.  When he returns home, he seeks out the woman in the picture.  Zac Efron, Taylor Schilling, and Blythe Danner star in the movie, directed by Scott Hicks.

Stand-up comic and talk radio stat Steve Harvey is the author of the best-selling advice book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment.  Like He’s Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys, it has been turned into an ensemble romantic comedy featuring a dozen talented performers.  Come to think of it, the advice is both books is pretty much the same, too — the better treatment you insist on, the better you will be treated.  Perhaps the next movie on this theme will be based on Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies.” This movie’s title: “Think Like a Man.”

Donald Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality a series of essays about his evolving thoughts on faith and grace.  It has been turned into a film about a young man from an evangelical community in Texas whose non-believer (and jazz music fan) father sends him to study at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

And Disney’s fourth Earth Day release is “Chimpanzee,” with a contribution going to Jane Goodall’s institute for every ticket bought this weekend.

 

 

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Opening This Week

A Movie For Tax Day: The Mating Game

Posted on April 15, 2012 at 3:55 pm

A romantic comedy about an audit from the IRS?  Yes, it’s “The Mating Game,” with Tony Randall as the straight-laced, pencil-sharpening auditor who thinks he understands the value of things until he meets up with a genial farmer who does everything on the barter system and his free-spirited daughter (Debbie Reynolds), who likes to roll around in the hayloft.  If this sounds familiar and you are a PBS fan it is because it is an American version of The Darling Buds of May by H.E. Bates later adapted for British television starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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For Your Netflix Queue Neglected gem

Watch “The Jackie Robinson Story” on the Anniversary of His First Major League Game

Posted on April 15, 2012 at 3:06 pm

Today Major League Baseball celebrates the 65th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first game as a Brooklyn Dodger.  Continuing a tradition begun in 2007, all uniformed personnel in the league wear Robinson’s number 42.  Branch Rickey (soon to be played by Harrison Ford in an upcoming movie) was the Dodgers’ General Manager who broke the color barrier in place since the 1880’s by offering Robinson a place on the team.  Robinson was a star player who helped take the team to six World Series and one championship.  He won the first Rookie of the Year award and was the first African-American to win MVP.  While many of his teammates were supportive, others on the team and in the stands were not, and Robinson was subjected to bigotry and racism.  He handled an unimaginably difficult situation with grace and courage and after his baseball career continued to be a pioneer in business.

Robinson starred in the movie version of his own story, with Ruby Dee as his wife, and it is well worth watching, as is the made for television film The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson, about his experiences in the segregated military, where he refused to sit in the back of a bus.  This time, Ruby Dee played his mother.

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Biography Neglected gem Sports

Ebertfest: The Schedule

Posted on April 15, 2012 at 8:00 am

I’m thrilled to be attending Roger Ebert’s film festival again this year.  Next week, I will return to Champaign-Urbana Illinois to help present two magnificent films, “Higher Ground” and this year’s Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, “A Separation.”  Can’t make it to Illinois?  You can watch all of the presentations online.  And of course I will be posting updates.  Hope to see some of you there!

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25
7:00 pm Joe Versus the Volcano (PG; 94 min) Stephen Goldblatt Cinematographer, DP
10:00 pm The Truth About Beauty & Blogs (13 min) Kelechie Ezie Writer, Co-Producer, Actor
10:15 pm Phunny Business: A Black Comedy
(84 min)
John Davies Writer, Director, Producer
Raymond Lambert Writer, Producer
Reid Brody Producer
Ali LeRoi Comedian
THURSDAY, APRIL 26
1:00 pm Big Fan (R; 88 min) Robert Siegel Director
Patton Oswalt Actor
4:00 pm Kinyarwanda (96 min) Alrick Brown Writer, Director, Producer
Ishmael Ntihabose Executive Producer, Story
Darren Dean Producer
Tommy Oliver Producer
Deatra Harris Producer
Cassandra Freeman Actor
Hadidja Zaninka Actor
8:30 pm Terri (R; 105 min) Azazel Jacobs Director
Jacob Wysocki Actor
10:30 pm Kind Hearts and Coronets (110 min)* Hosted by Patton Oswalt, Actor
Foellinger Auditorium / University of Illinois campus
Free and open to the public
FRIDAY, APRIL 27
1:00 pm On Borrowed Time (87 min) Paul Cox Subject (Australian Director)
4:00 pm Wild AND Weird: The Alloy Orchestra Plays 10 Fascinating and Innovative Films 1906-1926 (PG: 80 min) Alloy Orchestra 
8:30 pm A Separation (PG-13; 123 min) Peyman Moadi Actor
SATURDAY, APRIL 28
1:00 pm Higher Ground (R; 109 min) Carolyn S. Briggs Writer
4:00 pm Patang (The Kite) (92 min) Prashant Bhargava Writer, Director
Jaideep Punjabi Producer
Vijay Bhargava Executive Producer
Ranjana Bhargava Associate Producer
Seema Biswas Actor
Nawazuddin Siddiqui Actor
8:30 pm Take Shelter (R; 120 min) Jeff Nichols Director
Michael Shannon Actor
Michael Barker Distributor
SUNDAY, APRIL 29
12:00 pm Citizen Kane (PG; 119 min) Audio commentary by Roger Ebert
Intro and Q&A by David Bordwell 
Jeffrey Lerner Producer for audio commentary

 

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Festivals

Bill Murray Reads Billy Collins and More — National Poetry Month

Posted on April 14, 2012 at 6:07 pm

Flavorwire has a sensational collection of actors reading poems in honor of National Poetry Month.  Here, Bill Murray reads to the construction workers building a new poetry center.  Other readers include Alan Rickman, Bill Clinton, and Anthony Hopkins.

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