rush

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that I’ve been a Rush fan for almost 30 years.

With that said, when I heard a full-length documentary film about Rush was in the works, I broke out my autographed copy of Exit…Stage Left, tapped my Rush bobbleheads a few times and prayed that the film would be shown on the big screen here in Austin.

Thank you, Alamo Drafthouse for answering my prayer.

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toys

When, over the course of multiple movies, you develop a deep emotional connection to certain big-screen characters, something else grows with that connection.

Dread.

Why? Well, as George Lucas proved, it only takes two hours to destroy that connection. And when Pixar announced that their next movie would be Toy Story 3, I was torn. On the one hand, who wouldn’t want to spend another amazing ninety minutes with Woody, Buzz and the gang? On the other hand, it could be another Phantom Menace.

So, as I donned my 3-D glasses, I hoped for the former and steeled myself against the latter.

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cyrus

Someday, someone will have to explain to me why we need worthless labels like “mumblecore” to describe films. When the average person has to pull up Wikipedia to figure out what the fuck kind of movie it is they’re going to see, things may have gotten out of hand.

For those of you out there not wearing a t-shirt with a hiply-ironic print on it, in the case of Cyrus, mumblecore just happens to mean “a charmingly off-putting comedy driven by fascinating characters with enough neuroses to make them challenging and authentic.”

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greek

You know you’re at a certain kind of film when objects find their way into rectums on multiple occasions. That “kind” of film usually involves Judd Apatow at some level.

Get Him To The Greek, with Apatow as executive producer, presents many such moments of violation. And they’re all pretty damn funny, as is the rest of the movie.

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karate

“Sweep the leg, Johnny.”

With those four simple words, 1984’s The Karate Kid became the stuff of classic cinema. Naturally, as Hollywood does, they decided to reinvent this beloved film. (Okay, beloved by me, maybe.) And with executive producers Will Smith and his wife driving the bus, the new film is a vehicle for their soon-to-be-bankable-star Jaden.

O’ Ralph Macchio! Where art thou?

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