From Rosemary’s Baby to Children of the Corn, wicked children in cinema have been giving audiences the creeps for decades. Midnite Movie Mamacita and Madcap Theaters director Andrea Beesley-Brown knows how scary demonic, knife-wielding kids can be — she’s seen dozens of films depicting terrifying juveniles. Here are five of…
Fifteen years after ushering in a new era of CGI animation, and 11 years after a colossally successful pre-millennial sequel, the Toy Story franchise returns to a changed world. Its irresistible conceit and snappy good humor remain largely intact, though now it also hauls a saltier and more anxious sensibility…
Condors are the most massive vultures in the Western Hemisphere. To imagine the wing span of Andean and California Condors at their largest, picture 7-foot-one NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal lying on his side. Now make him about three and a half feet taller. Need a better image? See real Andean…
Besides doing super-fun married stuff like yard work, going to Costco, and leaving the bathroom door open, New Times writers Laura Hahnefeld and Jay Bennett go to the movies.Laura: So you watched the A-Team TV show and saw Karate Kid when you were a kid. Did we make the right choice in…
Last week, we introduced a “Top Five Films” list from Madcap Theaters director Andrea Beasley-Brown, a.k.a. the Midnite Movie Mamacita. While her first list focused on the five most disgusting movies she’s ever seen, this week’s list gives props to babes behind bars. Beasley-Brown admits most movies about women in…
Macho meets homo in the laudable but terrible La Mission. Watered-down Jungian analysis meets a GLAAD-approved weepie in Peter Bratt’s second feature, starring brother Benjamin (who also produces) as a swaggering, neck-tattooed macho who will finally realize the damage his rock-hard masculinity has caused during a funeral for a teenage…
Like its predecessor, 2010’s Harald Zwart-directed The Karate Kid begins with an uprooting. Young Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) and his mother (Taraji P. Henson) are introduced in the Detroit apartment that he grew up in, now packed into boxes. Ralph Macchio shipped off to the Valley; Dre is going to…
For a city our size, Phoenix really doesn’t get a whole lot of films that aren’t super mainstream, multi-million dollar budget affairs. So let’s celebrate this one. While La Mission may not be playing everywhere, it isn’t one that would easily slip under the radar of a serious film buff…
Pete Petrisko can’t seem to shake this place. The longtime downtown Phoenix creative type/former gallery owner/performance artist, who was recently reported dead by azcentral.com, moved to Tucson a few months back. However, he’s been making frequent trips back to the Valley for on-location shoots for his new video project, Shake…
Looks like Revolver Records and The Shizz are getting into the movie biz. Starting tonight is Movie Mondays at Revolver, a celluloid shindig presented by music-centric website The Shizz. The free weekly – which kicks off at 7 p.m. tonight with a screening of Blue Velvet, the 1986 David Lynch…
Andrea Beasley-Brown, better known to film fans as the Midnite Movie Mamacita, is the Valley’s guru of grindhouse films, B movies, and underground cinema. She’s currently the programming director at Madcap Theaters, and also serves as director of horror programming for Phoenix Comicon and festival director of the International Horror…
Though Sundance-screened and sporting an upscale cast, writer-director Vincenzo Natali’s Splice has a mad-science quality. He has crossbred a self-serious psychodrama and a queasy creature-feature, and unleashed this malformed freak on the world. Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are Clive and Elsa, a married couple of “rock star” genetic engineers…
There are myriad moments during Get Him to the Greek when it feels as if the thing will jump the rails and smash to the ground in a thousand pieces of what-in-the-fuck. It’s a complete and utter mess from the big-loud-dumb start to the awwww-that’s-so-sweet finish. It’s hardly a narrative…
We were concerned. The Scott Pilgrim of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series of the same name is passionate, capable of kicking ass, but a little thick when it comes to being much more than a twenty-something bass player. The Scott Pilgrim of the first trailer for Director Edgar Wright’s…
Besides doing super-fun married stuff like yard work, going to Costco, and leaving the bathroom door open, New Times writers Laura Hahnefeld and Jay Bennett go to the movies.Jay: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was a whole lotta Bruckheimer. What’d you think?Laura: That guy’s made gazillions as a Hollywood tripe…
Big Brain Award Nominees from Jonathan McNamara on Vimeo. Our 2010 Big Brain award winners are announced in this week’s print edition of New Times on racks across the Valley, but because we like them so much and think they deserve all the attention they can get, we’d like to…
Vampire sisters, hunchbacks and kick-ass old people. It must be time for a Comicon filmfest. In addition to its anime, costuming, and comics programming, Phoenix Comicon’s offering three days of films at the Phoenix Convention Center, May 27 through 30. There’s a ton to choose from — more than 42…
Say what you will, Michael Patrick King knows how to stage a fabulous gay nuptial. Sex and the City 2 begins with flair and good humor at the wedding of Stanford (Willie Garson) and Anthony (Mario Cantone), complete with a gay men’s chorus in white top-and-tails crooning a tastefully low-key…
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’s story hinges on a dagger that can rewind time, a narrative conceit that doubles as a taunt to those who endure this cacophonous, frivolous adaptation of Ubisoft’s Arabian Nights-themed video-game series. Bruckheimered to the hilt with the same rollicking period-piece cheesiness that typified…
Besides doing super-fun NON-married stuff like constantly arguing over why — after five years of dating — they’re not married yet, New Times writer James King and his girlfriend, Christine Arieno, go to the movies.James: First and foremost: If you’re a dude and find yourself in a movie theater watching…
Oh, Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. We grew up idolizing your glamorous New York lifestyle — boozy cocktail parties, haute couture, rhinestone-studded Rolodexes of hot, eligible men. But when you’re old enough to worry about getting carded for AARP discounts instead of drinks, it’s time to move on and let go.Carrie and Big…
Besides doing super-fun married stuff like yard work, going to Costco, and leaving the bathroom door open, New Times writers Laura Hahnefeld and Jay Bennett go to the movies. Laura: Have you even seen a “MacGruber” skit on Saturday Night Live?Jay: I think I’ve seen one. And that was plenty…
