The Finest Hours - Everywhere
This Disney-produced drama is based on the true story of a 1952 Coast Guard rescue mission off the New England coast. If last year's Ron Howard-Moby Dick movie had you itching for more disastrous seafaring adventures, this is the movie for you. Starring Chris Pine, Eric Bana, Ben Foster, Casey Affleck, and a lot of Boston accents.
More fat panda shenanigans, with the return of Jack Black as Po and the addition of Bryan Cranston as Po's long-lost biological father, Li Shan, as the two team up to fight a new villain.
All this movie does is remind me of Pablo Sandoval and then I get sad/angry all over again.
50 Shades of Black - Everywhere
50 Shades of Grey gets the Wayans treatment, with Marlon Wayans as "Christian Black," and Kali Hawk as "Hannah." But really, if you want to watch a good comedy that riffs on the old Airplane! and Police Squad genre of really-stupid-comedy, watch TBS's Angie Tribeca instead.
Sci-Fi comedy about a group of less-than-heroic dudes who must save the earth from aliens after discovering an alien "battle suit" at a UFO crash site. So, basically it's like watching guys play a video game for two hours.
Revenge Western starring Natalie Portman as a widow who must hire her ex (Joel Edgerton) to help protect her home after her husband is killed the Bishop Boys gang, and their ruthless leader, played by Ewan McGregor. Which is all fine and good, but I'm just in it to see Jane with that gun.
Charlotte "That's Racist Against Whites!" Rampling stars in this drama about a couple whose marriage is rocked after a discovery is made right before their 45th wedding anniversary.
If you really want to get one up on all those Oscar office and party pools, go see all the animated shorts nominated, and make an informed bet. (Or, just pick whatever was made by Pixar and whatever is about the Holocaust, and you should be good to go.)
The film noir festival comes to an end this weekend, with even more excellent and unconventional selections, including two by director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes on Saturday and Peeping Tom on Sunday); Edgar Ulmer's very weird Bluebeard (Saturday); the amazing The Bad and the Beautiful (tonight); and the ultimate tale of murder and the meaning of art, Blow-Up, which closes the festival on Sunday.
