It will surprise no one that I am not looking forward to Transformers with keen anticipation. I hated the first film and see nothing to indicate that this one will be appreciably different. Do I hear cries of “bias?” Well, yes, I’m biased. That happens when you’re going to see a sequel to a movie you found spectacularly obnoxious.
Is there anything calculated to set off the movie enthusiast like a remake? We just passed a week that offered us a new-and-not-improved version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) on apparently no better excuse than changing the title to The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. Presumably in our more frenzied time, it simply takes too long to spell out the numbers.
It's summer and you know what that means. Yes, the 48 Hour Film Project is back, meaning it's time for local filmmakers — and those who would be filmmakers — to put themselves to the test in the ultimate cinematic pressure cooker. This is the Project's fifth consecutive year in Asheville, and the basic notion […]
If it weren’t for the Fine Arts bringing in Anvil! The Story of Anvil and the Carolina Asheville opening Easy Virtue, this week at the movies would look pretty negligible—much like last week with the ho-hummery of Imagine That and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. The Proposal, a predictable-looking rom-com with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and Jack Black and Michael Cera as inept cavemen in Year One aren’t exactly likely to set the moviegoing world a-flutter.
Last week offered us one truly wonderful film, The Brothers Bloom, one very good film, Sugar, and a lot of other things that are mostly best not spoken of. Well, those two mentioned remain in theaters this week, as, unfortunately, do all the others. But they’re joined by one truly remarkable film, Goodbye Solo (see review in Wednesday’s Xpress), that was shot in Winston-Salem and Blowing Rock, N.C., by Winston-Salem-born filmmaker Ramin Bahrani.
Most of us have them. There’s even one of those endless polls you find on Facebook centered on the “five movies you’re most likely to watch over and over.” (I don’t know why Facebook is fixated on the number five, but they group everything in fives. It’s probably Satanic in some way.) And it’s considered completely normal to have such a list.
