Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Posted By on Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Tired of having your friends reveal what Omar does at the end of Season 3 of The Wire or exactly who the Final Five are on Battlestar Galactica? Here are the new rules for spoilers.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Posted By on Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 2:00 PM

As of this morning, Eddie Murphy's latest film, A Thousand Words has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Which means that, of the 39 reviews by professional movie critics, absolutely no one liked it.

For comparison's sake, that 0% puts it in rarified air, alongside such luminary films as Manos: The Hands of Fate, Highlander 2: The Quickening and Sarah Palin propagand-umentary The Undefeated, which probably should have won an award for having the least factually accurate movie title of 2011.

But don't feel bad for Murphy: RT users have thus far given A Thousand Words a 63% approval rating, though to be honest, I wasn't aware that many people who enjoyed The Adventures of Pluto Nash still existed.

A sampling of the positive reviews: "Every movie doesn't have to be cutting edge or Saturday Night Live clever," says a woman who apparently hasn't seen SNL since Will Ferrell left; "I laughed out loud and I teared up. Although, come to think of it I was the only one who was doing these things in the theater come to think of it," says one honest man; and finally, the gold standard of the positive reviews: "It's Liar, Liar meets The Artist...more or less."

It's currently playing in Tucson, but make sure to check out Colin Boyd's upcoming review, out this Thursday — if nothing else, for the off-chance he decides to screw up the anti-perfect game this flick appears to be pitching.

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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Posted By on Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:17 PM

That's it. Right when David Hasslehoff shows up at the one minute mark of the trailer for Piranha 3-DD (the sequel to the film our Bob Grimm called "too good, and beautifully disgusting, to be ignored"), there's officially no turning back from our certain cultural and sociological doom. Hopefully this bit of media will be preserved so other future civilizations can understand what brought on our doom.

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Monday, February 13, 2012

Posted By on Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 1:07 PM

The Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection is hosting a free screening of the documentary Bag It on Saturday, February 18th from 10 to 1:45am at the Loft Cinema. Since the City of Tucson has had some discussion about banning plastic bags or trying to find a way to reduce the number used in the city via a tax, this might be an interesting opportunity to think about what we're carrying our stuff in. Plus, it's free.

From the press release:


This gripping, funny, and intelligent film follows “everyman” Jeb Berrier as he navigates our plastic world. Jeb is an average American who decides to take a closer look at our cultural love affair with plastics. Jeb’s journey in this documentary film starts with simple questions: Are plastic bags really necessary? What are plastic bags made from? What happens to plastic bags after they are discarded? What he learns is quite shocking and eventually leads to a more thorough investigation of disposable plastics in general.

This film event will feature a Call-to-Action for participants to encourage our community leaders to legislate the consumption of fewer disposable bags. That the City of Tucson is discussing the possibility of such a forward-thinking measure presents a great opportunity for this community to combat a major environmental problem.

For more information about the event, please email [email protected] or join in the discussion online at http://facebook.com/bagittucson.

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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Posted By on Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:00 AM

It’s not uncommon today to hear songs on the radio that seem to have taken a song that was popular in years passed and remixed it into something new. The film RE:GENERATION documents five popular DJs — DJ Premier, Mark Ronson, Skrillex, Pretty Lights, and The Crystal Method — as they target beloved music genres like classical and jazz and collaborate with famous artists to create new sounds and “discover how our musical past is influencing the future.”

Download the entire soundtrack for free and buy tickets to see the film when it hits Tucson's Harkins Spectrum theatres on Feb. 16 at regenerationmusicproject.com

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Monday, February 6, 2012

Posted By on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 11:00 AM

I was recently reminded about how excited I am for the release of Wes Anderson's new film, Moonrise Kingdom, when I came across this neat little video compiling all of the 'above' shots in Anderson's films.

Watch the Moonrise Kingdom trailer below the cut.

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Posted By on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM

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A hat tip to Tumblr user "Luciwithani" for this particularly timely animated GIF (but aren't they all?).

If you'd like, you can watch the Bill Murray classic on YouTube today for free.

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Posted By on Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM

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Borderlands Community Film Series, sponsored by the University of Arizona's Center for Latin American Studies, kicks off tonight with a film called Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside). The film follows an undocumented immigrant’s trial after she’s accused of the death of a child in her care.

The series comes from an organization called Indocumentales. “These films come with some discussion the idea with the films is to bring issues about the border and immigration to a diverse audience and to promote discussion in a way that is informative and open and civil,” Michelle Kuhns, outreach coordinator for CLAS, said.

The series goes beyond the bigger picture of the dangers of crossing the border and examines some specific and complex situations that immigrants find themselves in. “We hear about how dangerous it is, we know that that happens,” Kuhns said. “These films all look at it in a different way, they’re very personal films.”

She said CLAS is trying to bring some university resources out to the community through these films, which are important for Tucsonans to see because migration is all around. The films do touch on some heavy topics, though all are welcome to attend. They’re shown in Room 1C at El Pueblo Neighborhood Center and educated discussion will be held after each viewing to think about the messages the films portray.

“It allows everyone to have a glimpse into some of the many challenges and also the strength that a lot of the immigrants in these stories bring with them,” Kuhns said.

The schedule for the series and the trailer for Mi Vida Dentro are below the cut.

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Posted By on Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 2:00 PM

I really wonder how someone finds the time to assemble something like this, only to know that for a few days people will be highly amused, then it will sink back into the collective forgetfulness of the internet. Still, Lionel Richie songs are kind of funny, so this works.

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Friday, January 6, 2012

Posted By on Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM

In France, a fast food chain is selling Darth Vader burgers with black-dyed buns. Apparently, everyone in the 3D version of The Phantom Menace will be drinking Lipton Brisk. There's something almost admirable in how George Lucas seems to find new ways to obliterate any sentimentality for the original stories he created. Oh, you thought the commercialism was bad before? Lucas could use a few extra million dollars, so there's always something else to sell. Serves me right for once caring about what was essentially just a brand to begin with.

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