Displaying items by tag: 20 Feet from Stardom

So it turns out The Desolation of Smaug is pretty good.  I mustered up the energy to catch a double-feature screening last night with a friend, and it was a fine evening’s entertainment.  If you enjoyed the first Hobbit film, I think you’ll like this one a great deal more.  The pacing is much more engaging.  Fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy will definitely feel more at home here, as in this film the prequel trilogy really begins to reveal its connections to the previous films more strongly… and not just in the fact that Legolas (Orlando Bloom) features prominently.  As one would hope, Smaug himself is wonderfully realized.

Smaug aside, with any luck you have a good art house theater in your neck of the woods, because there are a number of fine indie films worth seeing this holiday season: American Hustle, the Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, All Is Lost, Nebraska, Her, 12 Years a Slave and many more.  This is the time of year when all the great dramas get dumped into limited theatrical distribution so they quality for Oscar nominations, so be sure to head out to your local theater over the next 2 or 3 weeks.  [Read on here…]

I’m back after an unexpected day’s absence there.  I’ve been fighting a flu for the last few days and you know how that goes.  It just caught up with me yesterday.  Luckily, a day’s worth of sleep worked wonders.

To start off today, we’ve got a couple new Blu-ray reviews from Tim Salmons: Criterion’s Eyes Without a Face and La Cage aux Folles.  Methinks, somebody took advantage of Barnes & Noble’s 50% off sale.  LOL!  [Read on here…]