Nearly everything this week is action-oriented—whether it’s the Actionfest Film Festival at the Carolina or the arrival of the highly anticipated release of Kick-Ass—and the one release that isn’t, Death at a Funeral, would seem to scale the heights of superfluousness.

It’s rare that I have actual news in the Screening Room, but this time I do because starting on Thursday, April 22 at 8 p.m. my partner in cinematic doings, Justin Souther, and I will be screening Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator (1985) in the mezzanine lounge of the Carolina Asheville to kick off our weekly Thursday Night Horror Picture Show. Yes, that’s right. Every Thursday at 8 p.m. we will be introducing and screening horror pictures at the Carolina.

If it weren’t for Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways opening at the Fine Arts and the Carolina on Friday, this would be one of those weeks where renting a movie, catching up on that stack of DVDs you’ve been meaning to watch, or finally taking in something that’s been around for a while would probably be your best bets.

We all have them—whether as as professionals or general film fans (which, hopefully, most professionals are). There are just certain types of movies that inherently do not appeal to us. It’s human nature. Not everyone likes everything. And that’s as it should be. It’s called diversity.

It may not be the grudge match of the century, but there are few more evenly matched opponents than Greek gods, Tyler Perry and Miley Cyrus—all of whom will be slugging it out for top spot at the box office this week. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a lineup—Clash of the Titans, Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too? and Last Song—with so little in the way of crossover audiences.

Yes, I know—it’s only barely spring, but that’s becoming less and less related to the somewhat peculiar way in which the motion picture industry views the world. The winter (post-Christmas) is still the major repository of the worst the movies have to offer—with audiences finding relief only in films from the previous year that are only filtering into the provinces in the dead winter time. That looked a little different this year with the February release of Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island and the early March opening of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.

Last week saw the opening of three fairly negligible mainstream titles and Roman Polanski’s remarkable The Ghost Writer (all reviewed in this week’s Xpress). This week brings us two new mainsteam offerings in wide release—How to Train Your Dragon and Hot Tub Time Machine—along with Atom Egoyan’s Chloe (also reviewed in Wednesday’s Xpress), opening at the Carolina exclusively, and the highly acclaimed French film A Prophet, opening exclusively at the Fine Arts.

Last week as you remember (or maybe not), I wrote a little about the age-old practice of filmmakers borrowing from earlier films and being influenced by other filmmakers and their work. I promised this week to move into the realm of filmmakers who move beyond the odd swipe and general influence to those who specifically […]

OK, so last week was pretty grim, but there was a lot of it: Green Zone, Our Family Wedding, Remember Me, She’s Out of My League. (All are reviewed in this week’s Xpress.) Well, yes, there was The Girl on the Train and The White Ribbon, but almost no one went to see those. In fact, most people stuck with Alice in Wonderland. There are fewer titles this week, but most of them don’t look like they’re likely to be any better than last week’s crop. The notable exception is Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, which opens Friday at the Fine Arts Theatre.

No question seems to conjure more controversy among the cineaste crowd than the one that arises in connection with modern film and the tendency of quite a few filmmakers to lean heavily on movies of the past. Now, when I say modern film, I’m talking about film that’s been modern for quite a long time now.

Last week, two movies opened. This week, there are six: The Girl on the Train, Green Zone, Our Family Wedding, Remember Me, She’s Out of My League and The White Ribbon. Whether that’s an embarrassment of riches or just an embarrassment remains to be seen.

Several moves ago, I had a very small book of Leigh Hunt essays. I would love to know what became of it because it contained an essay that dealt with the idea of not comparing things to make a point. Hunt’s example was that he’d no desire to hear someone prove to him the relative lack of value of a kitten because it was inferior to a puppy. The idea was that we should continue to like that which is likable in anything without trying to render it unlikable by pointing out its inferiority to something else. I like that. I think it’s a swell idea. I also think—human nature being what it is—that it’s an unlikely idea to catch on. Nowhere does it seem less likely to me than with movie fans.

It’s the week of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Whether you’re primed to love it or hate it—or just approach it with caution—do you really need to know anything else about the moviegoing choices this Friday? Probably not. I don’t think I know anyone who doesn’t have some opinion on the wisdom of this undertaking, and isn’t at least curious about the results.

I have a friend who won’t even read my columns at this time of year because of the Oscars. Indeed, he has it in mind that I need to take some kind of boycott stance on the whole thing. In many ways, I understand his ire. It’s only two columns ago that I wrote, “When I start thinking like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, I’ll know I’ve been doing this too long.”

OK, so we got lucky last week with Shutter Island (see review in this week’s Xpress). It doesn’t follow that you should expect cinematic crocus popping up out of the snow this week. Far, far from it. We are reminded, instead, of the validity of Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction of more winter to come in the form of Kevin Smith’s Cop Out and Breck Eisner’s The Crazies.

Somehow when I wasn’t looking—or at least paying attention—the Screening Room passed its second anniversary. I don’t know if that’s cause for celebration, but it’s perhaps at least worth noting—if for no other reason than it never occurred to me I could find two years worth of things to write about.

The big news, of course, is the arrival of the new Martin Scorsese picture Shutter Island—a film everyone was shocked to see removed from the awards season lists, especially in favor of a February release. The question is, why the delay?

OK, it’s Valentine’s Day weekend, which I guess means it’s the season to be sappy. Oh, I know it’s not the sort of moviegoing thing that most people—especially of the male persuasion—are apt to admit to liking. Indeed, it’s common to decry the existence of such movies with great disdain, cynicism and even claims of outright nausea.

The pickings look decidedly less grim this week than last. And there’s undeniably something for just about everyone, running the gamut from PG- to R-rated fare. Now, exactly how well each category is represented remains to be seen.