Indie film “Cherry” making world premiere at 2010 SXSW (SouthbySouthwest) Film Festival

“Cherry” starring Kyle Gallner, Laura Allen and Esai Morales, will have its Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX Friday, March 12 (also 3/15, and 3/17).

The independent movie filmed on the campuses of Kalamazoo College and Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for about three weeks in October/November 2008.    Other scenes were also filmed at various locations around Kalamazoo.

“Cherry” tells the coming of age story of a sheltered college freshman learning about life at Ivy League College.

The production used students from Kalamazoo College and WMU to fill roles in front of and behind the camera during the filming of “Cherry”.

Trailer on YouTube (beware of adult content): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCRPTiwvab8

Previous blog post: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2008/10/08/indie-film-cherry-coming-to-kalamazoo/

More info: (more…)

New in Theaters: “Green Zone”, “Our Family Wedding”, “Remember Me”, “She’s Out of My League”, “Creation” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon)
Flick’s Family Film Festival (3/18-4/22): “Planet 51″

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): 
“The Blind Side”, “The Last Station”, “Lord Save Us From Your Followers”

Oscar Nominated movies at Celebration! Cinemas theaters:
http://celebrationcinema.com/?pid=30787

Playing in limited release in Grand Rapids market:
“Mysteries of the Great Lakes” (IMAX – Celebration! North),
“Crazy Heart” (Celebration! North, Rivertown, Crossroads, Muskegon),
“Up In The Air” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon and Woodland Mall),
Chiaroscuro Film Series 1/17-4/11 at UICA in Grand Rapids

Next Week in Theaters (Friday 3/19): “The Bounty Hunter”, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, “Repo Men”

New on DVD (Tuesday): “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”, “Old Dogs”, “Planet 51″, “Precious”, “Up In The Air” 

Best Bets: Oscar winner “Precious” (Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay) and Oscar nominee “Up In The Air” - you can click on the movie titles to read my reviews, “Precious” is powerful, but also tough to watch while “Up In The Air” is slick and entertaining and some scenes were shot in Detroit

Next Week on DVD (Tuesday 3/16): “Armored”, “Astro Boy”, “Bandslam”, “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men”, “Broken Embraces”, “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”, “The Fourth Kind”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Princess and the Frog”, “Wonderful World”, “Detroit International Comedy Festival”

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MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY:  (more…)

  The 2009 Grand Rapids Film Festival winner for Best Feature, “Like Dandelion Dust” is getting closer to a release date.

The movie was the “tentpole” movie for the first year of the Grand Rapids Film Festival.

According to the official webiste for the movie – producers of “Like Dandelion Dust” plan to release the movie later this year in September… but an exact date has not been set.

The drama, based on the novel by Karen Kingsbury stars Mira Sorvino and Barry Pepper as parents battling custody of their son.

Its a movie that has won awards at more than a dozen film festivals… and should be up for some considerations for award season.

(more…)

New on DVD (Tuesday): “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”, “Old Dogs”, “Planet 51″, “Precious”, “Up In The Air” 

Best Bets: Oscar winner “Precious” (Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay) and Oscar nominee “Up In The Air” - you can click on the movie titles to read my reviews, “Precious” is powerful, but also tough to watch while “Up In The Air” is slick and entertaining and some scenes were shot in Detroit

Next Week on DVD (Tuesday 3/16): “Armored”, “Astro Boy”, “Bandslam”, “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men”, “Broken Embraces”, “Did You Hear About the Morgans?”, “The Fourth Kind”, “Ninja Assassin”, “The Princess and the Frog”, “Wonderful World”

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MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY:  (more…)

 My 2010 Oscar Picks

 (UPDATED WITH WINNERS)
Originally posted 3/6/10:  Below are my picks for this year’s Oscars… also Rachael Ruiz and Terri DeBoer from eightWest made their picks in some of the categories.    The “The 82nd Annual Academy Awards” air Live Sunday, March 7, 2010 on WOTV (ABC). 

Click here for more on this year’s Oscars. 
Check out My 2009 Picks (78% – 14 of 18 correct).

What do you think? You can vote for your Oscar favorites on our interactive poll:
http://www.woodtv.com/generic/entertainment/movies/lin-interactive-oscars-voting

The picks:
Aaron: EightWest Picks: 6/7 (86%) / all categories: 15/24 (63%)
Rachael Ruiz: 5/7 (71%),
Terri DeBoer: 4/7 (57%),
(follow my twitter Sunday night: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty )

Best Picture:
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
*WINNER*  “The Hurt Locker”
“Inglorious Basterds”
“Precious”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”
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Aaron’s Pick: “The Hurt Locker”
Rachael’s Pick: “Avatar”
Terri’s Pick: “Avatar”

(more…)

 New in Theaters: “Alice in Wonderland” (also IMAX), “Brooklyn’s Finest”, “Me and Orson Welles” (Woodland Mall)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): 
“Me and Orson Welles”

Tuesday Only: “The Usual Suspects” (Meanwhile Movie Series at Wealthy Theater) at 8:00pm

Saturday Only: “The Big Lebowski” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon) at 9:15pm for the “1st Annual Day of the Dude”

Oscar Nominated movies at Celebration! Cinemas theaters:
http://celebrationcinema.com/?pid=30787

Playing in limited release in Grand Rapids market:
“Lord Save Us From Your Followers” (Celebration! Rivertown),
“The Last Station” (Celebration! North, The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“Mysteries of the Great Lakes” (IMAX – Celebration! North),
“Crazy Heart” (Celebration! North, Rivertown, Crossroads, Muskegon),
“Up In The Air” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon and Woodland Mall),
Chiaroscuro Film Series 1/17-4/11 at UICA in Grand Rapids

Next Week in Theaters (Friday 3/12): “Green Zone”, “Our Family Wedding”, “Remember Me”, “She’s Out of My League”, “Creation” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon)

Thursday 3/11 Only: “Boondock Saints (10th Anniversary)” at 7:30pm at Celebration! Rivertown, Muskegon Carousel, Mt. Pleasant, Benton Harbor

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New on DVD (Tuesday): “2012″, “Gentlemen Broncos”, “Ponyo”, “Where The Wild Things Are”

Next Week on DVD (Tuesday 3/9): “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, “Hachi: A Dog’s Tale”, “Old Dogs”, “Planet 51″, “Precious”, “Up In The Air” 

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MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY: (more…)

New in Theaters (Friday 2/19): “Cop Out”, “The Crazies”, “The Last Station” (limited), “(Untitled)” (limited)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): 
“Extraordinary Measures”, “To Save A Life”

Oscar Nominated movies at Celebration! Cinemas theaters:
http://celebrationcinema.com/?pid=30787

Playing in limited release in Grand Rapids market:
“The Last Station” (Celebration! North),
“Mysteries of the Great Lakes” (IMAX – Celebration! North),
“Crazy Heart” (Celebration! North, Rivertown, Crossroads, Muskegon, Benton Harbor)
“Precious” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“(Untitled)” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“The Messenger” (UICA in Grand Rapids) thru 2/18,
Chiaroscuro Film Series 1/17-4/11 at UICA in Grand Rapids

Next Week in Theaters (Friday 3/5): “Alice in Wonderland” (also IMAX), “Brooklyn’s Finest”

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New on DVD: “The Box”, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant”, “The Damned United”, “Everybody’s Fine”, “The Informant!”, “Motherhood”, “The September Issue”, “Sorority Row”

Next Week on DVD (Tuesday 3/2): “2012″, “Gentlemen Broncos”, “Ponyo”, “Where The Wild Things Are” 

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MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY: (more…)

 Ole Miss students will be choosing a new mascot soon, and one of the early favorites is Admiral Ackbar, leader of the Rebel Fleet in Star Wars, seen on screen in “Return of the Jedi”…. there are varying bits of information, but it sounds like this is more fun at this point, since it would have to clear copyright approval by George Lucas.

Tuesday, the students voted to find a new on-field mascot for Rebel Nation.   Ole Miss has been without a mascot since 2003, the previous mascot was Colonel Reb, a caricature of an aging Southern planter.   The university says its up to a student mascot committee.  Supporters of Ackbar have been vocal, but no word yet on whether Lucas has given any clearance.

For casual Star Wars fans, Ackbar is best known for his line from “Return of the Jedi” (1983) – “Its a trap!” – when the Rebel Fleet arrives at Endor to attack the alleged non-operational Death Star.

I’m linking to a couple different articles:
http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/24/admiral-ackbar-mississippi-university-mascot/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/24/AR2010022404447.html
http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Admiral-Ackbar-May-Be-The-New-Ole-Miss-Mascot-17242.html

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  Follow my updates on twitter: http://twitter.com/aaronlafferty

Add me to your RSS feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/woodtv8-blogs-laff-at-the-movies?format=html

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laff-at-the-Movies/166412513994

My Top Movies of the 2000s: http://blogs.woodtv.com/2010/01/08/best-of-00s-my-favorite-movies-of-the-decade/

My votes on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=43558226&s=uservote&s=reverse_uservote

DiCaprio-Scorsese thriller locks up the top spot at box office

“Shutter Island” was the only movie in wide release, but it still dominated the weekend box office….. with $40.20 million, its the 4th biggest opening for an R-rated movie in February (“The Passion of the Christ”, “Hannibal”, “Friday the 13th” (2009) had bigger opening weekends).

All of the movies in last week’s top 5 – except “Avatar” - lost 50% or more of their audience.   Overall, the weekend was down 36% from last weekend.

TOP MOVIES AT WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (estimated results):
  1. “Shutter Island” - $40.20 million (1st week)

2. “Valentine’s Day” - $17.16 million
(2nd week, was #1 last week, lost 70% of audience from last week) 

3. “Avatar” - $16.10 million
(10th week, was #4 last week, lost 32% of audience from last week, Total: $687.82 million)

4. “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” – $15.30 million
(2nd week, was #3 last week, lost 51% from last week)

5. “The Wolfman” – $9.85 million
(2nd week, was #2 last week, lost 69% from last week)

(more…)

  New in Theaters (Friday 2/19): “Shutter Island”, Oscar Nominated Shorts (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): 
“The Lovely Bones”, “A Serious Man”, “Up In The Air”

Oscar Nominated movies at Celebration! Cinemas theaters:
http://celebrationcinema.com/?pid=30787

Playing in limited release in Grand Rapids market:
“Mysteries of the Great Lakes” (IMAX – Celebration! North),
“Crazy Heart” (Celebration! North, Rivertown, Crossroads, Muskegon, Benton Harbor)
“The Young Victoria” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon) thru 2/25,
“The Messenger” (UICA in Grand Rapids) thru 2/18,
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Celebration! Woodland),
Chiaroscuro Film Series 1/17-4/11 at UICA in Grand Rapids

Next Week in Theaters (Friday 2/26): “Cop Out”, “The Crazies”

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New on DVD: “Black Dynamite”, “Coco Before Chanel”, “From Mexico with Love”, “Good Hair”, “Law Abiding Citizen”, ”Women in Trouble” (WFF alum)

Next Week on DVD (Tuesday 2/23): “The Box”, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant”, “The Damned United”, “Everybody’s Fine”, “The Informant!”, “Motherhood”, “The September Issue”, “Sorority Row”

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MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY:  (more…)