Baltimore Screening Pass-palooza: Far From The Maddening Crowd

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Denise

Far From onesheetTGIF!  Thank Goodness It’s Free (Screenings)!  Today it’s for the film based on Thomas Hardy’s novel, Far From The Maddening Crowd.  Here’s the synopsis:

Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy, FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is the story of independent, beautiful and headstrong Bathsheba Everdene (Carey Mulligan), who attracts three very different suitors:  Gabriel Oak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a sheep farmer, captivated by her fetching willfulness; Frank Troy (Tom Sturridge), a handsome and reckless Sergeant; and William Boldwood (Michael Sheen), a prosperous and mature bachelor.  This timeless story of Bathsheba’s choices and passions explores the nature of relationships and love – as well as the human ability to overcome hardships through resilience and perseverance.

Read on for how to get yourself a pass!

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TrailerWatch: Dear M. Night, please let The Visit be good.

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Denise

Oh M. Night.  You try so hard.  Or you hardly try; I’m kinda having a tough time determining which is which.  But M. Night, you still have a whole lot to answer for, after the terrible crapfests called After Earth and The Happening.  I’m not a hater though.  Devil surprised me, because I figured you’d torpedoed your talent.  But it gave good creep.  Heck, I liked The Village, and even tolerated Lady in the Water.

I have a feeling The Visit is gonna be one of those possession storylines, where good ol’ YiaYia and Papou are looking for a younger generation to swap to. Cut to momma picking up “her kids”, and them smiling as the old house fades in the rearview.  End scene.  What?  If I’ve ruined your “super secret twist ending”, sorry.  But really dude, get it together, please.  And perhaps next time?  Jettison the hackneyed “Found Footage” look, and stick with straight-up storytelling.  And please, DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN ANY MORE MOVIES.  You’re a director, not an actor.  Pop in like Hitch if you must, but no more casting yourself.  You obviously can’t multitask right now.

This trailer is kinda good though. And I do love me some Katheryn Hahn.  Please prove my distrust of your abilities wrong.  Please prove me completely wrong.  Please.

Writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable) and producer Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity, The Purge and Insidious series) welcome you to Universal Pictures’ The Visit. Shyamalan returns to his roots with the terrifying story of a brother and sister who are sent to their grandparents’ remote Pennsylvania farm for a weeklong trip. Once the children discover that the elderly couple is involved in something deeply disturbing, they see their chances of getting back home are growing smaller every day. Shyamalan produces The Visit through his Blinding Edge Pictures, while Blum produces through his Blumhouse Productions alongside Marc Bienstock (Quarantine 2: Terminal). Steven Schneider (Insidious) and Ashwin Rajan (Devil) executive produce the thriller. http://www.stayinyourroom.com

Genres: Thriller
Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Deanna Dunagan, Peter McRobbie, Ed Oxenbould, Olivia DeJonge
Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
Produced By: M. Night Shyamalan, Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock
Executive Produced By: Steven Schneider, Ashwin Rajan

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BronyCon Announces: Discord (John de Lancie)!

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Denise

BronyCon_2015-Guest_Announcement-John_de_Lancie-Press_Release

Discord’s coming! DISCORD’S COMING!

That’s right, everypony — John de Lancie is headed to BronyCon! Not only do I love me some Discord, but I adored de Lancie as Q in Star Trek.  So totally pumped for this!

I can’t think straight. So just read the press release already!  (And dig the awesome BronyCon art above — I heart that so hard.)

***

Press Release

BronyCon

bronycon.org

pr@bronycon.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 23, 2015

BRONYCON ANNOUNCES ACTOR JOHN DE LANCIE

(BALTIMORE)—BronyCon hopes to bring a little chaos to the Baltimore Convention Center this Summer by bringing the voice of Discord, John de Lancie, to its Aug. 7-9 event!

De Lancie is an American actor, producer, musician and writer that many of you will recognize largely as the prominent villain-turned-friend Discord from “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.”

Outside of MLP, other major roles by de Lancie include Q in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager,” Colonel Frank Simmons in “Stargate SG-1” and Donald Margolis in “Breaking Bad.”

These are just a few of de Lancie’s credits in his extensive career in theater and film arts, so be sure to visit BronyCon’s guest page to learn more about him and other guests coming to Baltimore this Summer!

To register for this event, visit BronyCon’s registration page. Badges for BronyCon will cost more at the door, so don’t wait! Also make sure you are following BronyCon on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Google+ to be the first to hear our latest announcements.

About BronyCon:  Based in Baltimore, Md., BronyCon is the premiere convention for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fans of all ages. Last year’s event drew more than 9,600 attendees from all seven continents. This year’s event, scheduled for Aug. 7-9, 2015 at the Baltimore Convention Center, is expected to trump that figure. The convention features special guests, diverse programming and a multi-night music festival. For more information, check out bronycon.org.

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Elsewhere Review: Age of Adaline

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Denise
As always, clicky for the original piece!

Age of Adaline really touched me. Perhaps because it had its heart in the right place, and didn’t shy away from the problems someone would have hiding the fact that s/he doesn’t age as the decades go by.  Soppy, and a bit of a rehash of the usual navel-gazing about never growing old?  Yes.  But I liked it.  You can thank the killer performances, and the focus on characters living with these big questions rather than the big questions themselves.  And I really want Adaline’s wardrobe.  All of it.

TwitView: Age of Adaline

age of adaline onesheet

A sweet film about a scared lady who never aged past 29.  Decades later she finds true love, but will she go for it?  Kinda soppy (as you’d expect), but all in good romantic-fantasy fun.  Beautiful set design and costuming, and touching performances from Blake Lively, Ellen Burstyn, and Harrison Ford. Grade: B+

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Elsewhere Review: Ex Machina

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Denise
As always, clicky for the original post!

TwitView: Ex Machina

ExMachina_Payoff_hires2_rgb

Smart, intriguing, and not afraid to stare straight into the tough questions about AI.  Genres wobble a bit at the climax, but it’s a well-executed film.  Grade: B+

Blade Runner.  A.I.  Terminator.  Transcendence.  I, Robot.  2001: A Space Odyssey.  Ghost in the Shell.  There are scads of films out there about robots, artificial intelligence, and how man-made machines could one day become as “real” as we are.  A metal-and-microchip Pinocchio, if you will.  Ex Machina is the latest film that asks whether we should test those boundaries, and it’s a fascinating thinkpiece of a film.

Code monkey Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson, Bill Weasley from the Harry Potter series) wins his company’s lottery; he gets to spend a week with the company’s owner/CEO, Nathan (Oscar Isaac, A Most Violent Year).  Once Caleb arrives — after a very long plane ride into the depths of BFE Nowheresville — he’s asked to run the Turing Test on Nathan’s latest creation, Ava (Alicia Vikander, looking like a younger Natalie Portman).  BTW yes, this test is named after the man on which The Imitation Game is based.  Ava is a beautiful piece of machinery, with lifelike hands, feet and face. But the rest of her leaves no doubt that she’s 100% machine.  As Caleb begins to question the incredibly human-like machine, he becomes fascinated, and Ava becomes attached.  But what’s really going on; is she truly feeling something?  Is he?  And what does that mean?
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Baltimore: want an early-in on Age of Ultron? Got trivia?

Posted on April 22, 2015 by Denise

age-of-ultron-poster
UPDATE: Winners have been selected and notified. Thank you to ALL the folks who entered! And here are the answers to the trivia(l) questions:
1) I likened The Avengers to The Seven Samurai:

This isn’t just a superhero film, it’s a bringing together of outcasts.  Like The Seven Samurai, Marvel’s The Avengers takes a group of folks that are on the fringes of society and forms them into a unit, a family of sorts.

2) My pet peeve from Winter Soldier was that DC looked nothing like DC.

Ready for summer blockbuster season y’all?  Or more importantly, ready to get an early jump on summer blockbuster season y’all?

Then I’ve got what you need.  I have a handful of passes for next week’s Avengers: Age of Ultron!  Why only a handful?  Here’s where it gets good; they’re not overbooking this screening.  So one pass = two seats.  Of course, in order to get a good seat rather than a neck spasm?  You’ll have to get there early.  But no turning anyone away this time.  Woot!

Here’s the synopsis for anyone who still needs a bit of 411:

Marvel Studios presents “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” the epic follow-up to the biggest Super Hero movie of all time. When Tony Stark tries to jumpstart a dormant peacekeeping program, things go awry and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye, are put to the ultimate test as the fate of the planet hangs in the balance. As the villainous Ultron emerges, it is up to The Avengers to stop him from enacting his terrible plans, and soon uneasy alliances and unexpected action pave the way for an epic and unique global adventure.

Marvel’s “Avengers: Age of Ultron” stars Robert Downey Jr., who returns as Iron Man, along with Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and Chris Evans as Captain America. Together with Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, and with the additional support of Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine, Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill, Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, the team must reassemble to defeat James Spader as Ultron, a terrifying technological villain hell-bent on human extinction. Along the way, they confront two mysterious and powerful newcomers, Pietro Maximoff, played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Wanda Maximoff, played by Elizabeth Olsen and meet an old friend in a new form when Paul Bettany becomes Vision.

Ready to assemble?  Read on…

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New Jurassic World trailer: Raptors heel, Mosasaurus grabs lunch, and Indominus Rex intimidates

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Denise

Jurassic World poster collageWOOHOO!  As much as I try to avoid trailers for films I really want to see, this is one of the movies hitting theaters this year that I can’t stay away from.  I can’t quit you, Jurassic World trailers.  Each one has been better than the last, with just enough peek-sies to keep me wanting more.  This one’s no different, though you’ll definitely see blood and the mightly Indominus Rex herself.  But personally, I can’t look away from Chris Pratt’s spray tan. It’s just so…orange.

Jurassic World opens to the public June . But if you can’t wait, you can check out the dinos comin’ your way at the Jurassic World website.

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Meet Me Giveaway: tix to Pagliacci at Cinemark Egyptian!

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Denise

PagliacciOpera! O’s season! Two great things that start with the letter O!  I have passes for the live and encore presentation of Pagliacci at Cinemark Egyptian.  Yep, that bit in “Tears of a Clown” is based on this character.  I’m already jealous of you winners with this one.

Want to know more about this opera?  Take it away, perky PR peeps!

Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci

Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015

Time: 12:30 p.m. ET / 11:30 a.m. CT / 10:30 a.m. MT / 9:30 a.m. PT

Run Time: 3 hours 30 minutes (approximate)

Ticketing: Tickets are available by clicking on the orange “Buy Tickets” button. If online ticketing is not available for your location, you can purchase your tickets by visiting the box office at your local participating cinema.

Special Fathom Features: Go behind the scenes with the Met’s stars! During intermission, interviews with cast, crew, and production teams give an unprecedented look at what goes into the staging of an opera.

Experience the ninth season of the Metropolitan Opera’s Peabody and Emmy Award-winning series The Met: Live in HD in select cinemas nationwide. The double bill broadcast of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana / Leoncavallo’sPagliacci will be presented live on Saturday, April 25 at 12:30 p.m. ET / 9:30 a.m. PT, followed by an Encore presentation in select cinemas onWednesday, April 29 at 6:30 p.m. in all time zones.

Opera’s most enduring tragic double bill returns in an evocative new production from Sir David McVicar, who sets the action across two time periods, but in the same Sicilian village. Marcelo Álvarez rises to the challenge of playing the dual tenor roles of Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and Canio in Pagliacci. Rae Smith (War Horse) has designed the moodily atmospheric 1900 village square setting of Cavalleria, which transforms to a 1948 truck stop for the doomed vaudeville troupe of Pagliacci. Eva-Maria Westbroek (Cavalleria Rusticana) and Patricia Racette (Pagliacci) sing the unlucky heroines, and Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

And how to win passes? Well, read on…

Now. How to win? Easy — find me! Here’s the when & where…

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Starlight Glimmer/Kerry Sheridan coming to BronyCon 2015!

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Denise

BronyCon_2015-Guest_Announcement-Kelly_Sheridan-Press_ReleaseHave you been enjoying Season 5 of My Little Pony: Frienship is Magic?  Well if you haven’t had a chance, get to steppin’, because you’ll need to be in the know come BronyCon time.  Why?  Because besides the usual compare/contrast/squeefest that goes on during Baltimore’s penultimate pony party, Starlight Glimmer will be there!  Okay, maybe not the actual pony (maybe not…), but voice actress Kelly Sheridan definitely will be.

Read on for the full deets!  Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to re-watch that two-part season opener again…

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Elsewhere Review: Unfriended

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Denise

As always, click on the link for the original piece!

TwitView: Unfriended

Unfriended onesheet

Found-footage goes social media, with remarkably spooky results.  Though there’s really no build-up of the Big Haunting Bad beyond “she’s dead”, Unfriended lets you feed your voyeuristic tendencies and delivers genuine chills. Grade: B+

Poor Laura. You go to one backwoods kegger and really get sheisse-faced (almost literally in this case), and some douchecanoe posts your horrible night on YouTube.  What’s a girl to do?  Well, Laura killed herself.  And a year later, a group of her friends — who seem to be hopelessly addicted to Skype — find there’s an outsider in their group call.  An outsider with the subscriber info Laura used to use.  As the night progresses, these six friends go from annoyed to horrified…to dead.  Let’s just say I’ll never again play “Never Have I Ever” without getting a slight chill.
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