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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From the World of John Wick: You want action? Yeah.
SD Fringe top pick: 'Smile'
Are you ready to binge on Fringe?
SD Fringe adds SDSU filmmaker showcase
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WonderCon 2016 took place over the weekend in Los Angeles, and KPBS' Beth Accomando took advantage of the event to talk with Seth Laderman of Comic-Con HQ and Ted Adams of IDW Publishing. -
"Mad Max: Fury Road" was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar this year and took home more awards than any other film, but none of the stunt people received any recognition from the Academy. Stuntman Jeff Wolfe talks about a rally and petition to get an Oscar category for stunts. -
Masked wrestlers, nunsploitation, monsters, and San Diego Latino Film Festival's Un Mundo Extraño — Cinema Junkie looks to extreme Latin cinema with Horrible Imaginings' Miguel Rodriguez. -
Turner Classic Movies launches its March spotlight program, Condemned, a look at more than four decades of censorship, the Catholic Legion of Decency, and the film industry. -
For almost two decades, starting in the late 1950s, you could count on Hammer Films for breathtakingly lurid Gothic horror tales that served up vampires, werewolves, monsters and luscious ladies. British author Antony Earnshaw talks about the studio and it legacy for the launch of a yearlong film series Get Hammered at the Digital Gym Cinema. -
Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer talks about making documentaries from a subjective point of view in "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence," which is up for a Best Documentary Oscar this Sunday. -
This year is off to a good start with "Bone Tomahawk" and "The Witch" (now playing throughout San Diego) serving up well-crafted horror tales that challenge expectations about the genre. -
"Bone Tomahawk" gets a one-time screening in San Diego on Feb. 21 at the Digital Gym Cinema. Writer-director S. Craig Zahler talks about ramping up his slow-burn horror western.
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Peter Morgan's play "Frost/Nixon" premiered in London in 2006 and in what seems like a miraculously short turnaround, "Frost/Nixon" (opening December 12 in select theaters) now arrives on the big screen. The film version also turns to the original stage actors Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (who won the Tony for his performance) to reprise their roles as the British talk show host and former president. Morgan based his play and the screenplay on the series of televised interviews that former President Richard Nixon granted David Frost in 1977. The interviews famously ended with a tacit admission of guilt regarding his role in the Watergate scandal.
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Since I won't be able to review Cadillac Records this week before it opens let me at least show you the trailer. The film looks promising and I'm especially interested in seeing Jeffrey Wright play Muddy Waters. The film focuses on Chicago in the 50s, specifically looking to the rise of Chess Records and artists like Waters, Chuck Berry and Etta James. On the down side, Beyonce serves as executive producer and gives herself the role of Etta James. Beyonce may be pretty and with a pleasing voice but as an actress she's a bit vapid and bland. The rest of the cast looks good with Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess, Eric Bogosian as Alan Freed, and Mos Def as Chuck Berry. Cadillac Records opens December 5 throughout San Diego. The trailer is courtesy of Sony Pictures.
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"Four Christmases" is an amazingly funny movie. It's about this couple -- Brad (Vince Vaughn) and Kate (Reese Witherspoon) -- that has been dating for three years, yet still don't know each other as well as they think they do. Every year, they go on some vacation around the world for the holidays and make up some lame excuse to tell their families as to why.
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"Hellboy II: The Golden Army," inspired by Mike Mignola's comics and graphic novels, arrives today on DVD and Blu-ray. The film is one of my favorites from this year. The fabulous Ron Perlman returns as the big-hearted and big-fisted red demon working for a secret paranormal government agency. This time out he's trying to announce himself to the world while he fights Prince Nuada (a beautifully tragic Luke Goss) from the underground elf world. Once again, filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro creates a vivid fantasy world where we feel the greatest connection to the monsters and creatures.
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"Pride and Glory" is another one of those films about good and bad cops fighting drug lords, but then joining them. This particular story is about a family of cops. The father was in the NYPD and has two sons that grow up to drive the black and whites. His daughter also married a man in a blue uniform. The son-in-law, Jimmy (Colin Farrell), is under the command of the eldest son. But Jimmy is dealing drugs and killing people behind his brother-in-law's back.
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"Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is one of the best films I've seen this year. It features our four favorite New York zoo animals -- Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman-- finding themselves on yet another epic adventure in a foreign land. This time our friends are stranded in Africa, which at first seems like a wasteland, but soon becomes a long lost paradise.
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"Madagascar 2; Escape 2 Africa" is a story of four animal friends -- Alex, Marty, Melvin and Gloria -- attempting to go back to New York and to their old lifestyle of living within the zoo. Unfortunately, on their way over to New York, their plane experiences some techinical difficulties and four infamous and mischievous penguins discover that the plane has run out of fuel. Their solution: Crashlanding in Africa.
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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!