Cinema Junkie
Satisfy your celluloid addiction and mainline film 24/7 with Cinema Junkie’s Beth Accomando. So if you need a film fix, want to hear what filmmakers have to say about their work, feel like taking a deep dive into a genre, or just want to know what's worth seeing this weekend, then you've come to the right place. You can also find Beth's coverage of other arts and culture events here.
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WorldBeat Cultural Center celebrates Threads of Freedom
Escape to Arcade Monsters
From the World of John Wick: You want action? Yeah.
SD Fringe top pick: 'Smile'
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Two new docuseries look back to the making of George Lucas' "Star Wars" and the founding of Industrial Light and Magic. -
Get ready for a bonkers ass ride through the wildest and most extreme horror and exploitation cinema as Greg Dohler and author Matt Rotman take the wheel to kick a new season of Cinema Junkie into high gear. -
Cinema Junkie is on a season break but serves up this Bonus Podcast on the bold visionaries behind "Mad God" and "Neptune Frost." Host Beth Accomando speaks with stop motion effects genius Phil Tippett about the 30-year journey to bringing his magnum opus "Mad God" to the screen. Then she talks with poet Saul Williams and Rwandan filmmaker Anisia Uzeyman who created the Afrofuturist musical "Neptune Frost." -
TCM Classic Film Festival is back in person in Hollywood. TCM host Alicia Malone and TCM programmer Scott McGee will both be at the festival to sign copies of their new books. Cinema Junkie speaks with both authors. -
Cinema Junkie speaks with actors Gary Oldman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jack Lowden as well as director James Hawes about bringing Micke Herron's acclaimed spy novel "Slow Horses" to the small screen. The Apple Original series is currently streaming. -
Today, Paramount releases the 4K Ultra HD of the newly restored "Godfather Trilogy" overseen by Francis Ford Coppola. Actor Robert Duvall talks about being in the film. -
Joel Coen's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" is a tale told by a master.
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Destin Daniel Cretton begins his blog posts from Sundance where he is showing his short film, "Short Term 12."
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"My Bloody Valentine 3D" has the right idea. Don't go remaking a horror film that was a classic ("Psycho") or that started a trend ("Friday the 13th") or that shocked people ("The Last House on the Left"). Remake a forgettable, mediocre slasher pic, and to top it off add the gimmick of 3D! I'm serious. That's the right approach. How many people will say, "Oh the original was so much better."
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Vampires have been having a good run with "Let the Right One In" winning over critics and "Twilight" scoring well at the box office. Now the werewolves rear their furry heads to challenge the vampire dominance. "Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" is the second sequel to "Underworld," which was a kind of Romeo and Juliet of the mythical beast crowd. Kate Beckinsale is gone, I guess she's gotten too good for black leather bodices, but Rhona ("Doomsday") Mitra looks almost just like her but playing the new character of Sonja.
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"Bedtime Stories" (opening December 25 throughout San Diego) is an excellent movie. It's the kind of movie where you can have a family outing and everyone can enjoy the film. It is about this guy who owns a hotel and sells it to another guy named Naughtingham under one condition: his son is to run the hotel when he is older. Little does he know that his son Skeeter (Adam Sandler) would be running repairs instead of the actual hotel. Some years later when Skeeter and his sister are fully grown and his sister has two children, Skeeter is asked to babysit his niece and nephew. They have been deprived of almost everything that makes life fun by their mother and it is up to Skeeter to correct that. He feeds them junk food and lets them watch TV. They have a pet guinea pig with ridiculously huge eyes that seems to be the main point of almost all the jokes. When the first night is coming to a close Skeeter decides that he should tell the kids a good story to finish the day. He comes up with a story that basically narrates his own life and how it is going down hill. The kids chime in every now and then with their own little twists, like having it rain gumballs or that he will save a damsel in distress. Skeeter soon finds out that everything that the children say will come true. He has all sorts of fun with this like trying to get himself a bright red Ferrari for free but because they don't say so, it never happens. Unfortunately Skeeter's boss is going to tear down the kid's elementary school to build his new hotel. So Skeeter tries to get the kids to help him with his ideas to save the day.
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Frank Miller and Will Eisners were friends but they also argued all the time. Miller looked to Eisner as a mentor and now he's adapting Eisner's comic The Spirit (opening Christmas Day) to the screen. Miller's own graphic novels, Sin City and 300 have been two of the best adaptations of a comic to film. One of the reasons is the cinematic nature of Miller's graphic work. That may also be the reason that Miller, who co-directed Sin City with Robert Rodriguez, is now embarking on a directing career. Eisner's The Spirit is his first solo project and here's the latest trailer courtesy of Lionsgate. Based on the trailer and the Comic-Con panels, it looks like fun.
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"The Tale of Despereaux" (opening December 19 throughout San Diego) looked promising. The trailer was amusing and took a laidback approach to selling its story rather than the usual hysterical, frantic, in your face pitch that American animation feels compelled to use. It was based on a popular and well-written children's book by Kate DiCamillo that bore the subtitle: "Being the story of a mouse, a princess, some soup, and a spool of thread." The animation looked state of the art with an appealing big-eared mouse hero. The film also boasted some talented voice actors in Kevin Kline, Matthew Broderick, Tracey Ullmann, Robbie Coltrane, Frank Langella and Dustin Hoffman. So what went wrong?
Beth Accomando is taking a short break from film reviews and arts coverage to create a six-part video podcast called Stripper Energy. Check it out!