Look! Up on the screen! It’s absurd! It’s inane! It’s Snyder’s Man! Zack Snyder sucker-punches Richard Lester’s Superman II to date Hollywood’s final say on how to film a comic book. Credit the man of …
June 12, 2013
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Stories by Scott Marks
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Growl and grumble
Thames travel
A monumental achievement in cinema-as-time-travel. Writer, director Julien Temple (Absolute Beginners, The Filth and the Fury) and his frequent editor, Caroline Richards, availed themselves of the opportunity to boil down 800 hours of sparklingly restored …
June 5, 2013
The cranky conjurer
If you’ve already had your fill of illusory summer movie magic, why not set aside the comic books and spend some time watching the Iron Man of misrepresentation. In the hands of crackerjack conjurer Ricky …
May 22, 2013
No gain, all pain
In order to help underwrite their addiction to steroids and dumbbells (and also to impress the bitches), a trio of meathead bodybuilders resorts to a life of crime by kidnapping an unscrupulous Florida businessman (Tony …
April 24, 2013
Sister act
The studio rep described it as “Dreamgirls, only happier.” A stop at the concession stand to pick up an air-sickness bag seemed in order. Well, blow me down! The Sapphires is a feel good movie …
April 3, 2013
Starbuck, king of conception
How do you say Neil Simon in French? A professional sperm donor, going by the name Starbuck (Patrick Huard), anonymously fathers what amounts to his own chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada. Eventually, …
March 27, 2013
Call girl calling cards?
Like Someone in Love is a logical follow-up to Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (2010). From its opening long take — the lead character speaks from outside the frame — the director’s sleight of hand draws …
March 13, 2013
Say yes to No
A friend who saw it in Cannes apprised me of the situation: No was Pablo Larrain’s bid for commercialism. If using an old-fangled 1983 U-matic video camera to shoot a 2012 re-creation of the 1988 …
February 27, 2013
Herzog's proud, happy people
Werner Herzog just happened upon a friend who was screening four films about professional trappers in the Siberian taiga, tradesmen who for centuries have used the same system of capturing animals because they are “unable …
February 20, 2013
Stand Up Guys: A love story with guns
For 28 years, two loyal friends serve a concurrent prison sentence: Val (Al Pacino), behind bars for refusing to finger an associate, and Doc (Christopher Walken), on the outside, waiting to perform the hit when …
January 30, 2013
The celebrity rescue of the West Memphis Three
The “West Memphis Three” (Jessie Misskelley, Damien Echols, and Jason Baldwin) were teenagers in 1993 when they were wrongfully convicted of the murders of three eight-year-old boys. Directed by investigative journalist Amy Berg (Deliver Us …
January 23, 2013
More hurt from Kathryn Bigelow
Spoiler alert: it ends with the bad guy getting killed. More hurt from Kathryn Bigelow in this docudrama-style (read: handheld) account of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. You can’t preach due process without practicing …
January 2, 2013
Parental Guidance: Let the gags begin
A nonstop joke machine (Billy Crystal) and his equally overbearing wife (Bette Midler) are forced to spend time with their work-obsessed daughter (Marisa Tomei), son-in-law (Tom Everett Scott), and a trio of estranged grandchildren, all …
December 26, 2012
Leo's Candyland
Quentin Tarantino fails to do for slave owners what he did for Nazis in this, his long-awaited western (southern?) follow-up to the epic war comedy Inglourious Basterds. Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz returns to the Tarantino fold …
December 20, 2012
Digiplex agrees to purchase 5 local UltraStar Cinemas
UltraStar Mission Valley at Hazard Center. Has there ever been a less appealing name for a theatre? Wasn't this digital transformation supposed to make it easier on all of us? The birthplace of "Pure Digital …
December 12, 2012
San Diego's 10 Best Movie Theaters
Movie theaters still maintain the magic of moviegoing and, boy, do we need it now. In this issue, we present San Diego's 10 best theaters to get lost in.
May 16, 2012
A Jew and a Christian seek the best holiday movie
Scott: The first inkling that Christmas was not a holiday for Hebrews came from a neighbor kid, the fine Aryan specimen Timothy Murphy: “My Uncle Roy says Jews celebrate Christmas by staying home and counting …
December 21, 2011