I addressed this in the last Screening Room, but try as I may, I cannot work up any interest in—let alone enthusiasm for—a big-screen version of The A-Team or a remake of The Karate Kid. Thank goodness, the Fine Arts is opening The Secret in Their Eyes and the Carolina has Casino Jack and the United States of Money. Otherwise, this week would strike me as a total bust.

Here we are into June. According to the movies, summer started about a month ago with the release of Iron Man 2, which was rapidly followed by Robin Hood, Shrek Forever After, Sex and the City 2 and Prince of Persia. Iron Man 2 was good. The others range all the way from OK to let-me-get-my-hands-on-the-people-who-made-this-thing bad. In short, the first month of the 2010 summer movie season has underwhelmed. The question is will it get any better?

If a tidal wave were headed your way, I’d alert you to this fact. If a cassowary stampede was imminent, I’d clue you in. If hot gospelers were about to descend on your neighborhood spreading the word, yes, I’d let you know. It is in this same spirit of good fellowship that I warn you that the film version of Marmaduke arrives on thousands of screens across the country this Friday.

Of course, in one’s early moviegoing years, the question of where to sit doesn’t arise. Assuming you’re not one of those children who do Elvis impressions during Loving You (1957) — I name no names here (and besides I don’t remember doing it)—you sit wherever your parents decide to sit. It’s later on that where to sit becomes an issue.

Yeah, you got sex in the city and sand in the desert this week. Come to think of it, you’ve got sex in the sand, given that the Sex and the City ladies venture into exotic desert locales for Sex and the City 2. I can’t say I’m all that jazzed about either it or Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but there are a couple non-mainstream items that more than make up for it.

I don’t know when the idea first came up, or if it came to me in a passing hallucination or what. I do know that for years I’ve posed the question, “Why doesn’t Ashevile have a film society?” The response has always been the same: it won’t work, it’s been tried, it’s bound to end in tears, etc. Being stubborn by nature I never quite bought that answer.

The idea of a local film society has been flying around for years, but for one reason or another, it has never gotten off the ground. Now – in part due to the response to the Thursday Horror Picture Show – the Asheville Film Society is finally a reality. The AFS is being set up […]

Well, Robin Hood gave Iron Man 2 competition, but it fell short of unseating it. And somewhat disappointingly, Robin Hood didn’t even turn out to be dressed in green. That won’t be a problem this week: We’ve got a character who is himself green.

Indulge me this week as I indulge myself by addressing—in a wandering manner—a few unrelated topics instead of focusing on something specific. It may seem like a lack of inspiration, but it really has more to do with working on a couple of more elaborate Screening Rooms that have yet to have permitted themselves the luxury of being completed.

Probably the best thing opening this week is Vincere, which starts Friday at the Carolina and the review for which is in this week’s Xpress. I won’t say more here except to note that it’s remarkable. The big deal in terms of mainstream releases, however, is Robin Hood—and the question of whether he can go best two falls out of three with Iron Man.

We’re all guilty of saying it, I think. “God, I hated that movie” is a phrase that just rolls off the tongue. I’ve certainly said it myself, but isn’t “hate” an awfully strong word—and an even stronger emotion—to expend on a movie? Step back for a moment and think about it. Isn’t this giving a lot of bad movies simply a lot more power than they could possibly deserve?

It’s the weekend that Iron Man 2 opens. What else do you need to know? Whether or not you’re keen on seeing it, it’s the big news this week—and besides the only other thing opening is Babies. So you might as well settle back and enjoy it as best you can.

They called them “women’s pictures” at the studios, but to the world at large they were soaps or soap operas—a term derived from the fact that radio dramas of this kind were almost invariably sponsored by soap manufacturers on the theory that women were the market for soap products. They were also called “tearjerkers,” “weepies,” and “three-handkerchief pictures.”

The best thing in theaters this week is almost certainly The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which starts Friday at the Fine Arts, followed by North Face, which opens Friday at the Carolina. The big news on the mainstream front, however, is the return of Freddy Kruger to the screen with the remake—excuse me, reboot—of A Nightmare on Elm Street.

I’ve been meaning to tackle this topic for some time, but it always seemed to be a little daunting. It still does, but I think if I keep it to the basics (more or less) it might be workable. Considering the plethora of comic book movies that keep festooning our theaters, I certainly feel that some understanding of how this all started is of some interest.

Unless you have a penchant for nature documentaries, this would be a pretty uninteresting week from the looks of things—that is, if it weren’t for a couple of smaller releases, Greenberg and Mother, coming to the Fine Arts and the Carolina respectively. The mainstream offerings are a high-concept romcom with Jennifer Lopez and a low-profile actioner—neither of which appear to be poised to set the moviegoing public ablaze with anticipation.

Perhaps because I deal so closely with horror fandom and its peculiar “When did you first see Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man?” mindset that I find myself wondering about the way people tend to cling to their childhood through pop culture more often than I should.

Lights! Camera! Explosions! Bloodletting! The Asheville Actionfest Film Festival (April 15-18) is upon us — and with it come more than a few surprises of the pleasant kind.