Meet Kevin. Be advised, his voice is incredibly soothing, perhaps even more so than the comfort found in so many pages of Star Trek novels.

Enjoy and please try not to drool.

I’ve been way behind on updating the Coming Soon lists for the various Landmark Theatres for the last few months. While most of that is due to me devoting most of my time trying to buy a house, some of it is also due to me considering a revamp of the feature. As much as I love pimping out Landmark, I’m leaning more and more everyday to trying to make this a more comprehensive Coming Son list that has as many of the various Independent film releases that occur all of the Twin Cities.

Sure that’s going to potentially give me a ton more work to add to this, but at the same time it should make for a much better list for film fans living in the Cities.

But then I think about how much work it will be so I keep putting it off.

And off.

And off.

Deal.

*** – Denotes recommended viewing
All dates subject to change

7/16 The Kids Are Alright Uptown
7/16 Wild Grass Lagoon
7/16 Inception Lagoon ***

7/23 Best Worst Movie Lagoon ***
7/23 Love Ranch Edina
7/23 Restrepo Lagoon (NEW)
7/23 Father of My Children (NEW)

7/30 Agora Uptown ***
7/30 Ran (new print) Lagoon ***
7/30 Countdown to Zero Lagoon

8/6 Great Directors Lagoon ***
8/6 Extra Men Lagoon/Edina (tentative)
8/6 Farewell Edina

8/13 Wildest Dreams: Conquest of Everest Uptown (NEW)
8/13 Get Low Edina ***
8/13 Everyone Else Lagoon
8/13 Life During Wartime Lagoon (NEW)

8/20 Patrik, Age 1.5 Lagoon
8/20 Mesrine: Pt 1 – Killer Instinct Lagoon (NEW)
8/20 The Concert Edina
8/20 The Dry Land Edina (NEW)

8/27 Animal Kingdom Uptown (NEW)
8/27 Cairo Time Edina (NEW)
8/27 Centurion Lagoon ***

9/03 Lebanon Lagoon
9/03 Mao’s Last Dancer Edina
9/03 Waking Sleeping Beauty Lagoon (NEW)
9/03 The Tillman Story Lagoon (NEW)

9/10 Soul Kitchen Uptown (NEW)
9/10 I’m Still Here: The Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix Lagoon (NEW) ***
9/10 Mesrine: Pt 2 – Public Enemy #1 Lagoon (NEW)

9/17 Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child Lagoon

9/24 A Woman, A Gun and a Noodle Shop Uptown (NEW)
9/24 Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist, and Rebel Lagoon

10/01 The Sicilian Girl Lagoon

10/22 Last Train Home Lagoon (NEW)

Be sure to check out the latest episode of the non-award winning Film Junk Podcast as I fill in for Greg, Jay and I batter each other with passive aggressive insults and I manage to muck up plugging my own book, all in one spectacular episode!

Oh yeah, we also talk Predators and the difference between Team Reed and Team Gerry.

Compelling shit, to be sure.

Film Junk Podcast Episode 278

You’ll be missed Harvey. You were one of the greats.

Not much is known about the upcoming animated film Rango, outside of the fact its directed by Gore Verbinski and stars Johnny Depp and somewhere near a million other great actors (Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Timothy Olyphant, Ned Beatty, Bill Nighy, Alfred Molina, Ray Winstone, Stephen Root and Harry Dean Stanton round out most of the cast).

Well, nothing more outside of the thinnest of plot details, which at this point point to Rango being a chameleon having an existential crisis of some degree, and who dreams of being a swashbuckling hero until he stumbles upon a town terrorized by bandits and he has to live this role and protect them. Granted this plot line is alluding more towards Seven Samurai than any of the films about a certain wandering ronin, but hey, I’ll get my Kurosawa fix any way I can get it. Even if it comes from a chameleon.

Rango is scheduled to open in the US on March 4th of next year.

Beware, the following is not safe for work, or for losers.

Cause its AWESOME!!!!

I smell the next episode of Spoiler Alert! in Operation: Endgame’s future.

I don’t know to many details as of yet but I do know a “star” from Twilight: Eclipse will be appearing at the Showplace ICON Theatre at the Shops at West End in St Louis Park tomorrow night at 7pm.

Now, does that mean Robert Pattinson will be in St Louis Park tomorrow night? I don’t know and I’m not sure when I will know. If I was a betting man I’d put money on it being Elizabeth Reaser, whom Twin Cities cinephiles will know from the Indie hit Sweet Land from 2005 which was a Minnesota production that turned into a massive hit here in the Twin Cities and propelled Reaser to an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best Female Lead.

Sure she isn’t the sex symbol most of the members of Team Jacob and Edward are clamoring for, but she’s a damn good actress and she’s totally deserving of more recognition. Of course, I am basing this entirely on my own suppositions, so its just as likely Kristen Stewart will be the one strolling through St Louis Park tomorrow night.

I’ve been a bit apprehensive about the remake of the damn near perfect Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In. But as more and more details emerge about the American/British remake I can’t help but be impressed. From the great casting (Chloe Moretz and Kodi Smit-McPhee are about as good as one could hope for for the leads), to a solid choice to have Cloverfield director Matt Reeves put at the helm, to Hammer Films proclaiming that this will be the film that launches their brand as a new force in the horror genre I can’t help but think, dammit this just might work.

Then they released the international trailer and my greatest hopes seem to not only be realized, but possibly were not even thinking grand enough.

This movie is going to be amazing.

Just taking a quick break from moving this week in to my new home (Hello adulthood!) to note that the website for Cover Stories has now gone live. Their isn’t a ton of content on it at the moment, but we’ve set a pretty rigorous schedule for updates so you should see plenty of interesting additions in the future. I know I plan on writing a few posts about how I came up with some of my story ideas and possibly admitting just how much of each story is actually true and how much is me lying through my teeth.

While I know some of the others plan on possibly posting more euphictional stories on the website, I’m not sure if I will though the idea intrigues me. Its more to do with time limitations than anything, as working two jobs and having four websites tends to stretch me a little thin at times.

But for now I want to thank everyone who has bought the book so far and once again encourage people to download our sampler and then take the plunge. I think you’ll be very happy that you did.

Cover Stories (Web page)

Cover Stories Sampler (FREE download)

Cover Stories Store

So one of the perks of my job is I get to watch a lot of movies in advance. While at the previous chain I worked for we were able to go to press screenings, we also screened anything that we thought looked interesting pretty much whenever we felt like it. It was a pretty awesome part of that job.

But at my new chain I was introduced to something very different, preview screenings that were required of all managers working the night before a changeover. You see, evidently other chains had people who weren’t very good at building prints, so managers were required to watch every single print of every single new movie they would be opening as soon as the prints were built. That meant I’d be paid to sit and watch movies for a whole day. Which is awesome when the movies are good, and which sucks when they aren’t.

Which brings me to Twilight: Eclipse, a movie I have claimed on numerous occasions someone couldn’t even pay me to watch. It seems I was incorrect on that statement, though to be fair if I didn’t perform this task I would have lost my job, so clearly I was going through the kind of extreme duress seen only in Lifetime movies.

Which segues nicely into Twilight: Eclipse, which at its best could maybe be considered a good Lifetime movie, but really, that’s being overly kind to the fat girl who is asking you if she looks skinny in her new dress.

You see, Twilight: Eclipse sucks. And not in the fun, sparkly way its fans claims it does.

No, this is a movie that was so bad that even though I was paid to watch it, I still went up to the box office to demand my money back.

But on the plus side I now know never to date anyone who likes this bilge. Seriously ladies, stop eating your feelings and go kiss a dude. Its way more fun than this crap. You’ll even find that your chances of getting laid go up by a factor of 20. Bonus!

With little fanfare, the Showplace ICON Theatre at the Shops at West End in St Louis Park has added an additional two 3-D screens, upping its total number of 3-D screens to seven, allowing it to once again claim the title of having the most 3-D screens in the Twin Cities and possibly Minnesota. And while reviews may be mixed on how much people enjoy 3-D, the box office numbers do little to indicate anything than 3-D being an industry staple from here on out.

But perhaps even more impressive was the coinciding move made out at the Showplace Icon, that of add Dolby 7.1 surround sound to its four largest auditoriums, marking it as only the fifth theatre in Minnesota to boast the technology and the only theatre in the Twin Cities that can make the claim (the next closest theatre with 7.1 is in Oakdale).

The reason for adding both of these additions was of course the release of Toy Story 3, which is the first major theatrical release that boasted 7.1 surround sound. Right now it seems Disney of all places is the primary studio leading the charge towards 7.1 surround sound. It might even surprise people to find out that 7.1 isn’t the standard in the vast majority of theatres spanning the globe, but rather 5.1. And for the home video enthusiasts, now that true 7.1 is being offered for theatrical releases you’ll start seeing more true 7.1 Blu Rays being made available rather than trussed up 5.1 discs.

And while I fully admit to being a Showplace Icon employee, the addition of 7.1 to our theatre only solidifies my belief that our Theatre #1 is the best house to watch a movie in in the Twin Cities. Which is saying something because their are a heck of a lot of great houses in this town.

As for the next big theatrical release to boast 7.1 surround sound? Its Step Up 3 (or 3-D as the case may be in some theatres). Which means I know exactly where Joe will be on opening day.