In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Attack the Block, The Ides of March, Mozart’s Sister and Real Steel.
Tag: cranky hanke
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Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct. 12-18: Big Year of the Footloose Mozart Attack the Block Thing
Another week, another outburst of movies, but no boxing robots this round—and judging by what folks went to see last week, it appears that boxing robots are the happening thing. Go figure. Instead, this week finds us with The Big Year, Footloose and The Thing is the realm of the wide-release, while Mozart’s Sister opens at the Fine Arts and Attack the Block finally makes it to The Carolina. And I sincerely hope they get better moviegoer support than Restless and The Whistleblower did.
Elitist Bastards: The Bastards of March
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss current films 50/50, Courageous, Dream House, Restless, What’s Your Number? and The Whistleblower.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Oct. 5-11: Restless Ides of Real Steel Whistleblowers
The mainstream and art titles are evenly matched this week—two of each. On the mainstream side we have The Ides of March and Real Steel. (There are no prizes for guessing who reviews which this week.) The art titles are The Whistleblower at the Fine Arts and Restless at The Carolina. With any luck, this week will fare better than the lackluster last week when no new movie could crack the top three. Audience lack of interest has rarely been so high—which in some instances was understandable. And, guess what? The special two-week engagements of The Lion King enter their fourth week.
Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: Is 2011 really that bad?
I know there are those who actually believe that 2011 has been a good year for movies. I can’t agree with that—nor it seems can most people. But there’s always the chance that I’ve been forgetting something. With that in mind, I went over all the new films I’ve seen that impressed me enough to get the full five stars. This came up to five titles: The Illusionist, 13 Assassins, Incendies, Midnight in Paris and Point Blank. It’s a point of debate as to whether The Illusionist can technically be counted as 2011, since it opened in limited release in 2010—and since I saw it in 2010. Incendies, on the other hand, counts, since it only opened enough to qualify for Oscar consideration in 2010. So I’ll discount The Illusionist, but keep Incendies as a possible “Best of” contender.
Elitist Bastards: BastardTale
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther—along with their producer/coherer Steve Shanafelt—discuss current films Senna, Abduction, Dolphin Tale, Killer Elite and Moneyball, as well as the upcoming LGBT film festival, Asheville Qfest.
Qfest has arrived
What is Qfest? Well, it’s Asheville’s first LGBTQ film festival — and it’s not afraid of frightening the horses. Here’s a brief look-in at the five films I’ve seen.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Sept. 28-Oct 4: What’s Your 50/50 Senna Dream House?
Here we are with the “special limited two week engagement” of the 3D-ified Lion King entering its third big week and five new films entering the fray. We have three mainstream titles—50/50, Dream House, What’s Your Number?—and one art title—Senna—and one specialized title—Courageous. The mainstream titles appear to open everywhere except the Beaucatcher. Senna opens at The Carolina. And Courageous will be at the Carmike and Regal Biltmore Grande. On top of all this, there’s Qfest—Asheville’s first annual LGBTQ film festival—running from Thursday night through Sunday at the Fine Arts. In short, there is no shortage of cinematic options this week. And it’s going to get more crowded next week when two new art titles open.
Elitist Bastards: The Crankiest of Birthdays
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther are joined by guest host Laura Marie Souther to discuss Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest, Drive, I Don’t Know How She Does It, Point Blank, Sarah’s Key and Straw Dogs.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Sept. 21-27: Point Blank Killer Dolphin Moneyball Abduction
This week it’s four mainstream titles—Abduction, Dolphin Tale, Killer Elite, Moneyball (opening most places)—up against one lonely art title—Point Blank (opening at The Carolina). There’s little doubt about what’s going to come out on top here. Moneyball seems destined to be the big winner at the box office. Other questions remain. Will Taylor Lautner prove he’s more than a beefy boy with big biceps? Can Morgan Freeman fix an amputee dolphin? Can Brad Pitt make baseball stats interesting? Will Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro become the Groucho, Harpo and Chico of action pictures? All will be revealed over the weekend—depending on how intrepid you are.
Elitist Bastards: The Mask of Cranky Hanke
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star, Contagion, Warrior and The Guard.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Sept. 14-20: Beats, Rhymes, Keys, Drives, Straw Dogs and more
Another week of movies is headed our way. This week we get two art titles — Sarah’s Key (The Carolina and Fine Arts) and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (The Carolina) — and three mainstream ones — Drive, I Don’t Know How She Does It and Straw Dogs. Hopefully, the deserving titles in this set will generate more interest than last week’s did (pleasant weather and the Mountain State Fair did the box office no favors here).
Elitist Bastards: Return of the Populist Bastard
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther are joined by Orbit DVD and TV Eye Video Emporium owner Marc McCloud to discuss Another Earth, Apollo 18, The Debt, The Devil’s Double, Seven Days in Utopia, Shark Night 3D and Terri.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Sept. 7-13: Art heavy week, confusion heavy schedule
Apparently just about everyone in the movie-booking world spent Labor Day roasting weenies—or whatever it is that people who have Labor Day off do—and the result of this is that I’m sitting here trying to put together a “Weekly Reeler” with limited information. I know what’s going on at the Fine Arts and I know what art titles are slated for The Carolina and I know the mainstream titles. I know the Fine Arts is opening The Guard and The Carolina is set to open The Devil’s Double and Terri. The “big” releases are Contagion, Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star and Warrior. But there are gaps.
Elitist Bastards: Our Idiot Bastards
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss The Caller, Colombiana, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place and Our Idiot Brother
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Aug. 31-Sept. 6: Debt of Apollo 18 on the Magic Trip to Another Shark
Before going any further, it should be understood that Labor Day weekend is considered to be a movie dumping ground—one of those weekends where movies that studios view with grave misgivings and gloomy foreboding get sent out into the world. The idea is that very few people will notice them and that everyone will be spared as much embarassment as possible. The exception this year is the release of The Debt, which is aimed at an older, less picnic-happy audience—and, of course, art and indie fare like Magic Trip: Ken Kesey’s Search for a Kool Place (opening at The Carolina) and Another Earth (opening at the Fine Arts) don’t count. Things like Apollo 18 and Shark Night 3D, on the other hand, fit the profile perfectly. And then there’s self-releasing Seven Days in Utopia, which fits the four-waller profile more than anything else.
Elitist Bastards: Till this thing blows over
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Tabloid, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, One Day, Fright Night, Conan the Barbarian and A Better Life.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Aug. 24-30: Dont be afraid of a tabloid idiot brother
Another week and another array of choices for our viewing pleasure—or so the ever-hopeful studios would like to believe. Last week absolutely everything got its nose rubbed in the dirt. This week? Well, only time will tell, but the buffet this week includes three mainstream titles—Colmbiana, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Our Idiot Brother—two art titles—A Better Life (Carolina), Tabloid (Fine Arts)—and something called The Caller (Carolina), which has the distinct aroma of “four-waller” about it.
Elitist Bastards: Don’t let the posey fool you
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go To The Movies podcast, Mountain Xpress film critics Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, The Help, Glee: The 3D Concert Movie, The Future, Final Destination 5 and 30 Minutes or Less.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler Aug 17-23: Barbarians, vampires, spy kids, talking cats, romance!
All manner of things come our way this week—some of them are even movies, and one of them is in smell-o-vision. That seems fair. Lots of movies smell, this one’s honest about it. So what’s on tap? Well, from the mainstream side of the ledger, there’s Conan the Barbarian, Fright Night, One Day and Spy Kids: All the Time in the World. The art/indie side finds The Future opening at the Fine Arts and If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front at The Carolina.
Elitist Bastards: Three Bastardly Amigos
In this week’s Elitist Bastards Go to the Movies podcast, reviewers Ken Hanke and Justin Souther discuss: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Last Mountain and The Change-Up with special guest host Marc McCloud.