Look, it's Good Friday, the day Christians believe God died. Even if you're not a believer, it's a pretty deathy day, full of reminders that death is coming for you, too. Why not spend a couple hours of your ever-diminishing …

After several scheduling delays, Lore is finally in theaters. I really thought I was over WWII films. But this one, set after the war has ended and telling the story of German children coming to grips with the sins of …

The closing night presentation at this year's Tribeca Film Festival is a 30-year-old Jerry Lewis picture. No, not Slapstick of Another Kind, but Marty's sublime The King of Comedy. Face it, what else out there that can even come close …

John C. Upton was not a household name. His films contained no special effects or big name stars. The documentary filmmaker was best known for his crusade to save the lives of countless Romanian orphans from the deplorable conditions they …

You know, the one with Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo?

Yeah, well, they're in talks to reprise their roles in the inevitable reboot. But you know what I'd rather see? A straight-up remake. A couple of casting suggestions: Mark Duplass as Chevy Chase: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/28/42758/ Amy Poehler as Beverly D'Angelo: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/28/42759/ …

First movie star not to survive the trailer

Never mind that Ashley Judd recently announced she won’t run for the Kentucky Senate seat. Her entire performance in Olympus Has Fallen is contained in the preview. Unless I'm mistaken, Judd is the first movie star in history not to …

I fell in love with Robert Forster through his characters many years ago. Meeting Bob when he passed through town for a Cinema Society of San Diego screening of Diamond Men several years ago only confirmed my fervancy. The Olympus …

I mean, the name of the song is "Thrift Shop."

So there's a red-band trailer for Michael Bay's bodybuilding caper movie Pain & Gain. I can't embed it because I'm an idiot, but it's over here. The main thing is that the trailer uses Macklemore's earworm "Thrift Shop," a song …

More well-intentioned ugliness trawling for Oscar. Canada’s official entry for the best foreign language film of 2013, and one of the five nominated pictures, begins promisingly enough with a young mother recounting her life story to her unborn child. Komona’s …

Right?

I mean, he knows how reviled Showgirls was, doesn't he? Or is he one of those hardy few who believes it to be a secretly brilliant satire? Who can say? http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/26/42606/

You've heard of The Vine, right? Six-second video site? Well, they landed their first movie trailer yesterday, for The Wolverine. Six seconds. That's not a lot of time to give us multiple shots of shirtless Hugh Jackman, but give 'em …

Tilda Swinton turns sleeping into an art form

Turn about is fair play. After having put audiences to sleep with three Chronicle of Narnia films, Tilda Swinton returned the favor by taking a 6 hour catnap for all to see last weekend at New York's Museum of Modern …

How did I ever miss this?

Over at Sideshow Collectibles, you can now get yourself a Gamorrean Executioner. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/26/42571/ A Gamorrean Executioner. That's one slip of the tongue away from a Gonorrhean Executioner. The mind reels. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/26/42572/ Imperial Stormtroopers? Venereal Stormtroopers. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/26/42574/ Lando Calrissian? Lando Chlamyidan. …

A brief pictorial (or in the case of Marky Mark, pectoral) history of 'wiggers' on film

Don't kill the messenger. I no sooner coined the term "wigger" than D.W. Griffith invented racism for The Birth of a Nation. Urban Dictionary defines wigger as, "A male caucasion (SIC), usually born and raised in the suburbs that displays …

Privacy, meet publicity

Harvey Weinstein is surely one of the greatest huckster-hustlers Hollywood has ever known, and possibly the best Oscar campaigner ever. He is a past master at pushing his product under everybody's nose. Pretty much the exact, total, polar opposite of …

A brief glance at Mickey mockery.

When I interviewed Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit, a while back, I noted with wonder the fact that the film got Disney to sign off on a scene in which Mickey Mouse collaborates with Bugs Bunny to pull …

Well, dog my cats, Scott Marks has fallen for Olympus Has Fallen! Gerard Butler invades the White House and Mr. Marks' critical sensibilities! Also, when the aliens from the future have to sort out the history of the world based …

It was the first story to cross the transom this morning. Groggy me reached for the nearest pair of Big!Lots readers in order to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks and that Marty had not announced plans to resurrect …

The Carpetbaggers is a great way to kill 150 minutes on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Based on a cheezeball potboiler by Harold Robbins, George Peppard has never been better than as a ruthless, spoiled rotten tycoon patterned after Howard Hughes. …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/20/42254/ Many artists are instantly recognized by the mere mention of a word or catchphrase. Jerry Lewis screams "LAAAAAAAAAAAA-DY!" Marty Allen greets the world with, "Hello, dere!" Everyone was Tallulah Bankhead's "Daaahhling." What would Bobby Bittman be without his "How …

Every now and then, the universe throws me a bone.

Mysteries abound. My partner here at The Big Screen, Scott Marks, taught animation for around 10 years at Chicago's Columbia College. The man loves cartoons enough to build a curriculum around them. He could probably do a class on The …

Proceeds to benefit local veterans organizations

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/20/42248/ Three screenings of Least Among Saints will be held in March and April with proceeds going to help local veterans organizations. Martin Papazian, the film's writer, director, and star will join other panelists for a Q&A immediately following each …

Russel Redmond and Jennifer Silva Redmond were so inspired by the San Diego Latino Film Festival's presentation of Laura Castañeda's Devil's Breath, that they decided to write a feature length fictional account of the undocumented people who perished in the …

Godzilla should hop the next junk to Hollywood and help stomp out a few tent poles, not get his own dressing room and starring role in a new one. Didn't a blockbuster version of Godzilla flop a few years back? …

According to Forbes Magazine, the two most influential celebrities of 2013 are Ope and the dope, with Marty running a distant third. Orpah and Stevie more influential than the man who added the fountain pen tracheotomy and Johnny Roastbeef to …

Normally I do my best to avoid touting public film screenings of DVDs. Call me a purist, but if a film was shot in 35mm, why watch it pixilated and degraded in such a manner? Besides it looking like crap, …

The stars, they are shining. But not at your local multiplex. First, the good news: Scott Marks, aka Mr. Five Stars, has gone and awarded the Reader's highest priority to Like Someone in Love. Japanese call girls! Themes of miscommunication …

And that's no EIEIO!

All good things must come to an end and this weekend the San Diego Latino Film Festival is going out in style. Not only are there still dozens of films to see and numerous guests to meet, this year marks …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/14/41936/ Is 42 the name of an upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic or the I.Q. of the nitz who felt the need to include the following claim in the trailer: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/14/41931/ I can understand it when people fail to recall that …

Let it go to voicemail

After the unexpected pleasures derived from Dead Man Down, I was all set to cut wrestling impresario Vince McMahon's WWE Studios' followup production some slack. All the leniency in the world can't get me to recommend that you heed The …

Why is Jay-Z doing the soundtrack for The Great Gatsby when he should be starring?

I mean, seriously, look at the man. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/14/41910/ If that's not the Gatsby of today, at least in terms of sartorial opulence, then I don't know who is. Oh, and it gets better. Gatsby's garrulous friend Nick the narrator? "Old …

Today, I am not attending the screening for Spring Breakers, Harmony Korine's film about Disney starlets in bikinis. That duty fell to Mr. Marks. Okay, I'm sure it's about more than just Disney starlets in bikinis, but there is no …

Ain't we lucky we got it?

Let's pray that Hollywood, in its never ending quest to provide audiences with original, thought-provoking material, doesn't DY-NO-MITE! the planned big screen bump up of the '70's comedy sensation, Good Times. Deadline reports the Sony Pictures adaptation of the CBS …

New Abbie Cornish film screens this Wednesday at the San Diego Latino Film Festival

Ashley (Abbie Cornish) blames her recent termination from a big box store on her boss favoring Mexican women. In Ashley's eyes, the reason she lost custody of her son to social services has nothing to do with her being an …

"The Unique Ladies" screens Wednesday night at the San Diego Latino Film Festival

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/11/41554/ For those outside the loop, The Unique Ladies opens with the following definition: lowrider \ loh-rahy-der \ . n1. a customized car, truck, or bicycle that has been lowered within inches of the ground 2. any individual or club …

Lister and Mexican superstar, Kate del Castillo, played to packed house at "K 11" premier

The phone rang just as I was pulling into the parking stall at Digiplex Mission Valley. "Where are you, man?" a familiar voice growled. "I'm upstairs in a holding area." When we spoke earlier in the week, 'Tiny' Lister assured …

Only 4% of those questioned go to the movies every week

When I was young, my parents would yell, "What are you wasting your time at the movies for? Why not read a book?" Nowadays the parental war cry has been altered to "Stop playing video games, get the hell out …

Legendary tough guy in town tonight for San Diego Latino Film Festival's screening of "K 11"

You better scream, you better shout: 'Tiny' Lister is coming to town tonight to promote his latest film, K 11, which screens at 9:30pm as part of the San Diego Latino Film Festival. 'Tiny' is an imposing character actor who …

If there's one thing everybody loves, it's unsettling investigations into creepy family dynamics. Hellooooo, Stoker! http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/08/41408/ "Hi, I'm your uncle." Stoker is the latest from Park "Oldboy" Chan-Wook. (No, not that Oldboy. This one, silly.) If you're not familiar with …

Look, I know not everyone is going to be as taken as I am with the notion of a French film that takes the notions of spiritual struggles and holiness seriously (maybe Roger Ebert?), but you could have at least …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/08/41386/ "Relax! These bubbles can only be burst by bad reviews!" Storm a-comin'. No, not the silly twister in Oz the Great and Powerful that isn't one-half as scary as the twister in a similar film whose name escapes me …

Let's play a game. Which of the images below is the Sideshow Collectibles plastic model of Sylvester Stallone, and which is the actor himself? http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/07/41341/ http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/07/41343/

So Machete Kills is going to feature boob guns. An alert reader over at Filmdrunk noted that boob guns appeared on Ursula Andress back in 1965's The Tenth Victim. http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/07/41337/ But of course, we've had deadly boobs in the interim. …

Who knew that the great Porter Hall, star of such legendary films as His Girl Friday, Sullivan's Travels, Double Indemnity, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Miracle on 34th Street, had a historic landmark named after him in La Mesa? …

http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/07/41303/ Two years ago I'd have laughed in the face of anyone who said one of the high points of writing a movie blog for The Reader would be time spent with a sports figure in town trying to reinvent …

"Anyone see Tyson?" the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world asked the packed crowd at last night's performance of Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth. Mike was referring to James Toback's 2008 documentary. "I love James Toback and all," he continued, …

The Huffington Post ran this picture under the headline, "Doris Day's Hat Makes our Day." http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/05/41143/ If that's Doris Day them I'm Rock and Baby Jane Hudson. With all the money Arianna Huffington ran off with when she sold out …

Feliz 20 Aniversario del Centro de Artes de los Medios!

You'll find the San Diego Latino Film Festival's digital program book here. Turn to festival founder and director Ethan van Thillo's welcoming remarks. The first words written do not befit someone who has been in the festival business for 20 …

"Do you think it's going to be 124 minutes of effects-driven crap, Toto?"

James Franco and the pillarbox black-and-white sequences held my interest long enough for this anamorphic admonition to appear: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/04/41053/ When was the last time Sam Raimi gave us anything original to look at? Evil Dead 2? The Quick and the …

Uh-oh.

Only now do we begin to realize the forces that were at work... http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/04/41047/ And he seemed like such a nice fellow.

Shouldn't it be "The Last Exorcism, Too?"

Doesn't the word 'last' in the title automatically make it subject to limitations? The Last Exorcism was supposed to be the last exorcism, right? What's with this 'Part II' baloney? Things were going so well for Nell (Ashley Bell) in …

You remember Kubricking, right? Becoming obsessed with a particular artistic creation, past the point of reason, even, possibly, past the point of artistic merit? (See also: Peter Jackson and nine hours of The Hobbit, James Cameron and nothing but Avatar …

The Lee Marvin double feature from hell! First, Lee at his drunken, Oscar-winning laziest in Cat Ballou, followed by a slob-turn as the kaput baseball player (and only spark of life) in a well-intentioned garbage scow of a gabfest directed …

There seems to be some confusion over where to find movie reviews on The Reader. Reader regular, Monaghan, has been on us like a cheap suit the past couple of weeks. Yesterday he wrote, "Reader readers are DYING for some …

Go ahead, tell me this isn't intentional. This: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/01/40942/ Plus this: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/01/40943/ Equals this: http://sandiegoreader.com/users/photos/2013/mar/01/40944/

No. Just No. Scott busts out the rare five-star rating for this retro experiment in matching new film to archival footage, mostly because he misses the good old days of VHS. Kidding! Here's the thing about scheduling releases: The Gatekeepers …