During the Japanese occupation of war-torn China during WWII, a young Oxford educated journalist by the name of George Hogg made his way to China, where he went looking for a good story and instead got more than be bargained for when he witnessed the brutality experienced by Chinese civilians from the Imperial Japanese Army. These acts of violence (which fall under The Rape of Nanking) convinced Hogg that the people of China needed him more than a news story ever would, and so he stayed. Through a series of events, helped run a Chinese orphanage, full of young boys who had lost their families in the war and somewhere along the line, Hogg realized that he needed these children as much as they needed him. The rest as they say, with no pun intended, is history, a word which appropriately sums up this sweeping “against all odds” epic has to offer.

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Another week, another SAG daily minimum.

• Bringing in $56.6 million at the box office this weekend, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian unseated Iron Man at Number One. It makes sense. The two movies are essentially the same: An heir apparent threatened by his uncle or father’s friend has to save his kingdom or company/the world. 6 of one, 100 million of the other.
• AFTRA, the redheaded stepchild of talent unions in Hollywood, is also in the process of renegotiating their contract which expires on June 30th — the same day as the SAG contract. This is the first time that SAG and AFTRA have neogtiated their primetime TV contracts separately. It is also the first time I have pretended to care.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull premiered at Cannes this week to mixed reviews. Surprise! It’s not as good as the first three!

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Well, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince CaspianIron Man kicked some MASSIVE booty this weekend. stepped into the number two spot but managed to cross the $200 million mark (by quite a bit) in only their third week. Then, Speed Racer? Nope that’s been knocked down to #4, What Happens in Vegas… grabbed up the third spot. Then we got the comedies, Made of Honor, is falling faster than the rest but hanging in there. Baby Mama, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay are still holding strong. The Forbidden Kingdom, is just about to fall of the charts but still fighting for it’s spot. Lastly, The Visitor actually managed to make it into the Top 10. It’s a great “small” film and I’m glad to see (even though it didn’t pass the million mark) that it’s holding it’s own with all these huge blockbuster monstrosities.

So here they are, your box office top 10…

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Evil tyrants, Exotic lands, danger and mystery around every corner, it’s Indiana Jones right? Nope, it’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian. And from what I’ve just seen, even though Indy will rule the Box office next week, it won’t be a landslide victory.

For those of you not familiar with The Chronicles of Narnia, thank goodness for Google. Because there simply isn’t enough time to go into all the details, characters and backstory of the first film, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. If you want to do some quick homework I’ll wait……………. all caught up? Or if you’re lazy, here’s a clip.




Good, so without further delay let’s get into it.

It’s been one year for the Pevensie children, Lucy, Edward, Peter and Susan, since they last traveled to Narnia and became Kings and Queens. But as is always true of magical lands, times passes differently. As in 1300 years. The Narnian society they left no longer flourishes and is on the edge of extinction. Not to mention the main source of truth and justice the lion Aslan (Liam Neeson), hasn’t been heard from or seen in quite a while. It’s only hope is Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) who just happens to be rightful heir to the throne. To bad he’s being pursued by his evil uncle Miraz who has now become King and will stop at nothing to rule the land. Our heroes arrive just in time to join up with the remaining survivors and new ally Caspian to make a final stand against evil.

It’s a safe bet that if you liked the Lord of The Rings trilogy and the Harry Potters, you will enjoy this film as well. Remembering that this is a movie made for kids, speaking from a critical standpoint there’s nothing really worth complaining about. It’s got everything you want in an Epic adventure. Good vs evil, impossible odds, a fantastic score, and more importantly for the kids, talking Woodland creatures. With a PG rating the violent action scenes are surprisingly exciting, well choreographed, and absent of blood splattering. At 144 minutes there are a few lul moments when the movie should be getting to its destination a little more quickly, but it’s not enough to cause loss of interest. Along with the battles and scene stealing moments from Eddie Izzard as a mouse and Peter Dinklage as a curmudgeonly lovable dwarf; this film has wrapped itself into a nice neat little package thats perfect for the whole family.

That having been said, I’m giving Prince Caspian my Royal seal of approval. No matter what your backround knowlege of the series, this is a stand alone film with something to offer everyone. Plus, with the first movie bringing in about $700 mil worldwide and the huge opening weekend expected for Caspian, it’s a safe bet we’re sure to see another sequel in about two years. Which if you’re keeping up with the series will be called ,The Voyage of The Dawn Treader.




Photo by narniafans

Ever since its inception six months or so ago, Cinefamily has been wanting to put the Silent Movie Theater to its nominal use and screen silent movies, but with accompaniment from contemporary musicians rather than on a rinky-dink upright piano in the corner. And on Sunday night that admirable dream came true. The theater was packed, the atmosphere more that of a happening than screening, the DJ spinning some hot 60s garage, and a Robbie Robertson lookalike, accompanied by two versions of Dave Gilmore circa Ummagumma, were fooling around with guitars, organs and electrics; there were plenty of hats and hipsters and a few asymmetrical haircuts. It reminded me fondly of East London.

The spell of anticipation was broken somewhat by a tossed-off accompaniment to the supporting short, Méliès’ evergreen A Trip To The Moon (1902), but the musicians – Plastic Crimewave aka Steve Krakow (who creates the Galactic Zoo Dossier magazine/comic for Drag City), and locals Jimi Hey (former drummer for Beachwood Sparks) and Ariel Pink, the lo-fi pop wunderkind behind Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti – knuckled down for the main attraction, Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs (1928). Leni was the German expressionist master of Waxworks (1924) and, as was the vogue at the time, he’d been summoned from Germany to Hollywood and found himself under Carl Laemmele at Universal. He started well with The Cat and the Canary (1927) and followed up with this 18th-Century romp, adapted from a novel by Victor Hugo set in London under James II and Queen Anne.

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We’ve all seen those courtesy reminders with the baby crying, laughter, conversation and the incessant phone ringing at the movies. Better yet those elaborate movie trailers you think are real until they get interrupted by the nokia ringtone. The latest ones are where famous directors such as Martin Scorcese interrupts a phone conversation and attempts to direct the action and content of the call. Frankly I appreciate them because they remind me to turn off my cell so as not to have the embarrassing situation of scrambling through my purse as it annoys my fellow theater goers.

However the annoyance of cell phones has spread from just noise to light. With the increasing amount of Blackberry’s, iPhone’s, and what not, more and more people are reading their e-mail, texting, checking the time, or even worse PLAYING GAMES in the middle of a movie! Just as you are enjoying your movie someone invariably opens up their phone and that beacon of light from their cell distracts you from the film on the screen. Since it’s not making noise the cell phone owner will often keep it open for several minutes. I don’t know about you but this drives me crazy!

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Hello old friends… or new friends… or just plain ol’ acquaintances that I run into at the market after not talking to them for 5 years. Let’s pretend this is the awkward conversation we both don’t want to have. Super uncomfortable. Shall we?

I have some bits of news and rumors from all over, so stick with it.

• Let’s start with some James Bond news. Well, it’s not news. The Aston Martin that someone drove into a lake was news. These are just some photos from the new Bond flick. Potential spoilers, but not really. Check them out here.
• Since we’re on the topic of Bond, I might as well talk to you about this: Leonardo DiCapri may be taking up the role in Fleming, a movie based on Bond creator Ian Fleming. It is rumored DiCaprio may be taking the lead role. Check out the L.A. Times article here.

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The American Cinematheque puts on a show this week with an unmissable trio of 70mm wonders at the Egyptian; all three are serious contenders for inclusion in any “ten best ever” list.

Thursday night, luxuriate in the cool modern world of Tati’s Play Time (1967). Tati’s comedy style and his creation Monsieur Hulot were pretty much unique, pretty much without dialogue, and pretty much hilarious. In the crazy big city set he built outside Paris (Tativille) he shot his masterpiece.

There’s no story as such, just a series of episodes around the city, taking in its offices and apartments, and following various characters about; to the accompaniment of light cocktail jazz, it culminates in an amazing sequence in a smart new restaurant that through a series of banally small events ends the evening in ruins. From the opening clouds to a bus-load of American women tourists’ final exit from the city (with nice visual gag), it’s gentle and charming and rather bemused. It’s also stuffed so full of business (including five “fake” Hulots!) you’re hard pressed to catch it all on one viewing, even in 70mm. What a wonderful film. This is followed Saturday by Apocalypse Now (1979) which surely needs no introduction, but is even more overwhelming and astonishing in its original format; and similarly Vertigo (1958) on Sunday: madness, obsession and memory and nigh-on perfect cinema, it works the exact same mysterious obsessive spell on the viewer as Kim Novak’s otherworldly Maddie does on poor old Jimmy Stewart.

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Well it is almost seems like an unfair fight. You have The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian which literally had millions upon millions to spend and then you have two great (small) films Reprise and How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer. I think Narnia will have will have a tough time going against Iron Man even in it’s third week, although I’ll be interested to see how is battles with Speed Racer. But if you’re looking for something that wasn’t made almost entirely off green-screen you’ve got two great options which I would recommend checking out.

So, here it is, your weekend movie releases with cast and crew information, reviews, showtimes and tickets, and trailers. Enjoy!

• The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | Reviews| Showtimes and Tickets
• Reprise (Limited Release) | Reviews| Showtimes and Tickets
• How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (Limited Release) | Reviews| Showtimes and Tickets