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Friday, August 1, 2008

This Weekend at the Movies

posted by on August 1 at 18:04 PM

Opening this week:

The dismal The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor


Andrew Wright: “The only one who appears to be having any fun at all, really, remains Brendan Fraser, who struggles mightily to interject a few moments of jut-jawed humanity. His yeoman efforts aside, this is really a joyless, borderline culturally insulting [in the press notes, Cohen talks about his deep love and respect of Chinese history, an ardor which translates into pan flutes on the soundtrack and absolutely everyone knowing kung fu], terminally dopey cluster-eff that almost reaches Ed Woodian depths.”

The weirdly affecting Swing Vote. Me: “It’s impossible to resist such a massive onslaught of resources, music, and transparent narrative shortcuts meant to persuade you to exercise your right to vote. I won’t say it’s Capra-esque, but it’s awfully nice.”

At the Varsity for one week only, the lovely SIFF 08 alum Chris & Don, about the love of Christopher Isherwood’s life. Frizzelle: “Among this film’s many pleasures is all the home-video footage Isherwood and Don Bachardy took of each other during their relationship, which lasted 30 years—Isherwood standing by a pool in Los Angeles, Bachardy waving on a ship in New York’s harbor, both of them covered in birds in a European square.”

The glossy high-school doc American Teen, also a SIFF alum. Me again: “American Teen is slick and snappy, and it’s easy to get engrossed in the narrative. But it’s also just as easy to forget it ever happened. When updates on the teens’ lives rolled just before the closing credits, I found myself hoping something bizarre had happened to one of them, just to see the edifice buckle a bit. No such luck—they’re all doing precisely what you’d expect.”

The old folks’ love story Elsa & Fred. Megan Seling: “Elsa & Fred is simply a charming romantic comedy that proves you’re never too old to fall in love and dance in a fountain. The moral of the story is that even when one love ends, there’s always the possibility for another (even at the age of 82). But what I took away from the movie, more than everything else, is that old people can get away with anything!”

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In Concessions this week, Lindy West writes about the short film event Rawstock, at ACT Theatre last Friday.
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And hidden away in Limited Runs are the following reviews and listings: The Silence Before Bach (Brendan Kiley: “A paean to Bach by experimental Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella, The Silence Before Bach alternates between overlong narrative vignettes and short, sweet surrealist flourishes”) and Orson Welles’s The Trial (me: “You must see this film, if only for the sight of the painter Tintorelli’s herd of girl groupies peering through the slats of his ramshackle apartment. In the book, they’re all hunchbacks, but here, being stalked by an able-bodied little girl is frightening enough”) at Northwest Film Forum, Kenny (me: “This mild-mannered mockumentary gets less interesting the longer it goes on about its protagonist’s moral superiority over the rest of humanity, but it stays fairly funny throughout”) at Grand Illusion, and A Man Named Pearl at SIFF Cinema. About the only place the supposedly decent Clive Barker horror movie Midnight Meat Train is opening tonight is Federal Way’s Starplex Cinemas.

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Sounds like Tomb of the Dragon Emperor met everyone's expectations... Brendan Frasier tries too hard to act, so you can tell he's acting

Posted by yay movies | August 6, 2008 12:57 AM

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