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| Movies Seen In May |
 The Avengers
I call it "Iron Man and His Super Hero Friends." With adult friendly super hero repartee and pop psychology insights filling the calms before the storms, and with enough well designed action scenes interspersed throughout, Avengers veers away from the young kids' audience and scores because of that decision. |
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 Dark Shadows
If you need your latest Tim Burton-Johnny Depp fix, please be my guest. But the movie is awful. Despite the previews you may have seen, it is not a comedy. And it fails miserably as a vampire movie. Since I was looking forward to Dark Shadows, I feel the disappointment even more. |
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 The Dictator
From the heights of his hilarious portrayal as the gay French race car driver in Talladega Nights to the despairing depths of his portrayal of the mad sex-crazed guerilla in Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen has pushed the limits of outrageous. Here he tries again with The Dictator. Nice try. As a recurring character on Saturday Night Live, Cohen would give new life to the show. But as a filmmaker, he needs to go back to the drawing board. |
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 Battleship
This year's biggest two box office disasters, John Carter and Battleship, both star Taylor Kitsch. (Amazingly he has a third movie coming out this summer, Oliver Stone's Savages.) Of course I enjoyed both Battleship and John Carter, and appreciated Kitsch's awful acting in each. Neither movie requires any effort on the part of the audience. You just sit, watch, eat your popcorn, and take two hours off from the price of gas, 401K balances, and your children's latest screw-up. |
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 Men in Black 3
Movie moments that make you cry. Kevin Costner playing catch at the end of Field of Dreams. Joanne Woodward finishing the marathon at the end of the TV movie See How She Runs, Charlton Heston pressed against the rock, unable to reveal himself to his leprous mother and sister in Ben Hur. You watch a movie, and all of a sudden something connects, and you choke up. It can happen even in worthless movies. In Battleship there is a moment that grabs you by the throat and boom. And near the end of Men in Black 3, there is a moment that might shake you up as well. And this is why we go to the movies. At any time, during any movie, a transcendent moment can make you laugh or cry or think or feel. And that is the power of the movies. |
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| Upcoming Movies in XD |
Snow White and the Huntsman
Now Playing
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Prometheus 3D
Opens June 7 at Midnight |
Rock Of Ages
Opens June 14 at Midnight |
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| You Tube |
Since You Tube was bought out by Google, ads have started appearing both before the clip begins, and/or superimposed upon the clip. However it is easy enough to click the Skip Ad button, or the X above the super-imposition, so do not let the ads interfere with your visits to the site. Here are three fun links - pro bowler Norm Duke making an incredible spare with two bowling balls, Bob Dylan singing Positively 4th Street with the lyrics written on the screen in both English and Spanish, and Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe throwing 70 passes in a come-from-behind win against the Vikings. |
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| Senior Ticket Special |
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| Cinemark Summer Classic Movie Series |
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| Beginning the first Wednesday in June and continuing every Wednesday until the end of July, we will be showing at 2PM and 7PM eight classic movies that cross the spectrum of all genres. Starting with a horror film, followed by the critics' pick of greatest movie of all time, then a chain gang movie, followed by a classic Western, then a studio compilation film, a science fiction connivance, a suspense thriller, and finally a progenitor of modern musicals. These eight movies have not been seen in movie theaters for a long time. This is your chance to rekindle happy movie memories, introduce family and friends to movies they may never have had a chance to see in a movie theater, or you can simply look at these movies as your opportunity to take a break from the weekly onslaught of special effects laden summer popcorn movies. Whatever you decide, every one of you should choose at least one movie to see at the South Point from the following list of eight films. Click here for more information on Cinemark Summer Classic Movie Series. |
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 June 6 - Exorcist (1973)
An upper class Georgetown family, a Jesuit priest, and a Vatican exorcist clash with a hellish demon. Well respected actors and actresses (Max Von Sydow, Ellen Burstyn), an exciting young director (William Friedkin coming off French Connection), a William Peter Blatty script, and Rick Baker special effects combined to scare the pants off the United States of America in 1973. If you weren't around, check out this link. |
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 June 13 - Citizen Kane (1941)
Orson Welles' first film, directed, written, produced, and starring Orson Welles. Now considered by critics the greatest movie ever made because of its encyclopedic use of the visual language of cinema, upon its release Citizen Kane was buried on the bottom half of double bills because of its unflattering portrayal of American newspaper giant William Randolph Hearst. Click here for the original trailer which tells you nothing about the movie but tells you a lot about Orson Welles self-confidence. |
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 June 20 - Cool Hand Luke (1967)
This is a simple movie of an anti-authority, irresponsible, pretty boy Paul Newman who as a result of a silly prank finds himself on a hellacious Southern chain gang. Jack Nicholson's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest performance five years later is deserving of all its honors, but Paul Newman in this movie is just as unforgettable. Click here to see the car wash scene. |
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 June 27 - The Searchers (1957)
The ninth of the 14 collaborations between director John Ford and John Wayne, this is a 1950's VistaVision big screen classic Western. Years ago, having only seen it on TV and badly wanting to see it on a movie screen, I included The Searchers in a class I was teaching at UCSD on "Satire in the Cinema." I took a beating from the class questioning this movie's inclusion in the line-up of satires being shown. But it was worth it to see The Searchers on a movie screen. I am linking here to three moments from the film. Only watch them if you have already seen the movie. The Searchers Scene, The Searchers Let's Go Home Debbie, The Searchers Ending Scene |
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 July 4 - That's Entertainment (1974)
MGM Studios was home to the greatest movie musicals ever made. This is the first of three compilation movies MGM released hosted by Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelley, Liza Minnelli, Debbie Reynolds, Frank Sinatra, and Elizabeth Taylor. Here are three links to three incredible dance moments from the movie. I'm Singing in the Rain, Gene Kelly; Fred and Ginger: Too Hot to Handle; Nicolas Brothers the Greatest Dance Sequence |
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 July 11 - A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Director Stanley Kubrick (2001 A Space Odyssey, The Shining) at the height of his artistic fame transformed author Anthony Burgess' futuristic vision of a charismatic sociopath into a Kubrickian world of slow motion violence and institutional insanity. Right before Christmas in 1971 I drove with a friend to Westwood in LA to see this movie, and afterwards we walked across the street to see Dirty Harry, which had just opened as well. I preferred Dirty Harry. Click here to get a peek at A Clockwork Orange. |
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 July 18 - North by Northwest 1959
A perfect example of Alfred Hitchcock's 1950's color films (Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo), North by Northwest stars Cary Grant as a New York advertising executive who gets caught up in a cross country chase. From the United Nations to the cornfields of Kansas to Mount Rushmore, Hitchcock runs Grant ragged in a race to prove his innocence of a crime he didn't commit. Click here to hear Alfred Hitchcock tell you a bit about the movie. |
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 July 25 - Cabaret 1972
For his work in 1972, Cabaret's director Bob Fosse won an Academy Award for Cabaret, a Tony award for his work on Broadway with Pippin, and an Emmy award for directing a Liza Minnelli television concert. (The movie All That Jazz is the complicated story of this high energy director/choreographer/dancer/playboy.) Cabaret takes place in a decadent pre-war Berlin nightclub. An American performer, Liza Minnelli, gets involved with two men and drastic consequences are the result. The movie is well-regarded, but it creeps me out. Check out this clip from the movie, and you will understand why. |
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| Upcoming Movies in XD |
Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter
Opens June 21 at Midnight |
The Amazing Spiderman 3D
Opens July 2 at Midnight |
The Dark Knight Rises
Opens July 19 at Midnight |
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