Movie Reviews

The Final Destination

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The Story: A group of people are saved from a deadly accident by the premonition of a young man, only to find Death coming to finish off those who escaped. The Lowdown: Cheesy, schlocky, gory horror that manages to be fun by reveling in the fact that it is cheesy, schlocky, gory horror.

Halloween II

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The Story: The sequel to Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot offers more of the same with some odd additions to the original series' mythology. The Lowdown: Interesting, sometimes fascinating, definitely brutal in its violence, but ultimately not all that effective.

The Indian Tomb

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The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Indian Tomb at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance and…

Shorts

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The Story: A group of kids come upon a magical, rainbow-colored rock that grants any wish. Mayhem ensues. The Lowdown: A charmingly goofy kids movie that occasionally shows sparks of Robert Rodriguez’s directorial panache, but too often suffers from the constraints of the film’s lo-fi, backyard approach.

Inglourious Basterds

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The Story: World War II action with sardonic humor and a fantasy twist about efforts to blow up a cinema filled with Nazis. The Lowdown: Quentin Tarantino's new film is brilliant and unabashedly (and genuinely) quirky -- a truly personal work in a sea of largely impersonal movies.

Post Grad

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The Story: A college grad doesn't get the job she wants and has to move in with her family. Supposedly mirth and life lessons follow. The Lowdown: Predictable, pointless, shapeless and basically worthless.

The Tiger of Eschnapur

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The Hendersonville Film Society will show The Tiger of Eschnapur at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, in the Smoky Mountain Theater at Lake Pointe Landing Retirement Community, 333 Thompson St., Hendersonville. (From Asheville, take I-26 to U.S. 64 West, turn right at the third light onto Thompson Street. Follow to the Lake Point Landing entrance…

Blonde Venus

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Blonde Venus will be shown Saturday, Aug. 22, as the final in a series of four films being screened Saturday nights at dark in Pritchard Park. Presented by the Alvy Fund and the Friends of Pritchard Park, in association with the Hendersonville Film Society. Film historian Chip Kaufmann will introduce the film. All the films…

District 9

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The Story: Following an accident with a mysterious liquid in the District 9 alien-internment camp, a civil servant finds his worldview altered by alarming changes. The Lowdown: A thoughtful, surprisingly deep science-fiction film with an even more surprising emotional core.

Bandslam

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The Story: An awkward teen moves to New Jersey and gets persuaded into managing a ragtag group of musicians attempting to win an all-important battle of the bands. The Lowdown: An occasionally intelligent, sporadically entertaining teen comedy with surprisingly good taste in music that unfortunately devolves into a mess of clichés and teenage melodrama.

Ponyo

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The Story: A magical goldfish escapes to dry land after deciding she wants to be human, thus knocking the balance of nature out of whack. The Lowdown: A wholly sweet and fanciful -- not to mention endearing -- animated film that’s none too deep, but never becomes too precious or too schmaltzy.

The Cove

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The Story: A documentary film showing how the filmmakers and some other activists got the footage of what really takes place in the cove of the title. The Lowdown: Shrewdly conceived and expertly crafted, The Cove is a documentary of rare suspense that should be seen.

Scarface

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Scarface will be shown Saturday, Aug. 15, as the third in a series of four films being screened Saturday nights at dark in Pritchard Park. Presented by the Alvy Fund and the Friends of Pritchard Park, in association with the Hendersonville Film Society. Film historian Chip Kaufmann will introduce the films, which were all made…