Columbia Screening Pass-palooza – “Doolittle”!

If I could talk to the animals, I’d ask my cat why he demands to sit on the dinner table… Not to eat the food. Just to sit. Darn, but he’s purdy tho’. Synopsis!

After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle (Downey), famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company.

But when the young queen (Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose) falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.

Ready? Let’s go!

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Baltimore Screening Pass-palooza – “Troop Zero” (with special guest & B’more native, Milan Ray!)

Ready for a sweet story about going for what you want? (Perfect for January’s resolutions, eh?) Sure, you could wait to see it on Prime…but why not see it on the Science Center’s big screen? And with one of the stars of the film, Milan Ray! Synopsis!

In a tiny Georgia town in 1977, a motherless girl dreams of life beyond the confines of her trailer-park home in Troop Zero. When her quest for connection leads her to reach for the stars in a competition to be included on NASA’s landmark Golden Record, it becomes clear she will have to depend on some new friends to take her the last mile.

Every night, Christmas Flint (Mckenna Grace) sits under a starry sky with a flashlight, signaling to extraterrestrial visitors that never arrive. Sensitive, imaginative and deeply lonely, Christmas and her equally eccentric best friend Joseph are the ultimate misfits in their rural hometown of Wiggly, Georgia. When Christmas learns that the winners of the annual Birdie Scout Jamboree talent contest will be included on a recording to be sent into space for posterity, her mission in life becomes to join the Scouts and win Jamboree.

When she is blackballed by the snobbish local Birdie Scout troop and their uptight leader Miss Massey (Allison Janney), Christmas rallies a group of elementary-school outliers to start their own chapter. With grudging help from her dad’s irascible office manager, Miss Rayleen (Viola Davis), Christmas and her crew have to bypass every roadblock Miss Massey can find in the fine print of the Birdie bylaws in order to reach the Jamboree and their chance at immortality.

Ready? Let’s go!

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TrailerWatch – “The New Mutants” drops new trailer after all the changes, and it looks…GOOD

And I’m as surprised as you are. When The New Mutants went in for rewrites, reshoots, reconfigurations… I got worried. I got really worried. But this new trailer shows that they’ve been amping up the scare level, and I’m all for it. Synopsis!

Twentieth Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

The New Mutants hits theaters April 3rd. Even though the poster says the 13th. Okay, why don’t we just go with April.

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Baltimore Screening Pass-palooza – “Underwater”!

Horror! Kristen Stewart! Looks fun! Exclan points are always best when overused! Synopsis!

A crew of aquatic researchers work to get to safety after an earthquake devastates their subterranean laboratory. But the crew has more than the ocean seabed to fear.

Ready? Let’s go!

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Happy New Year’s Eve-Eve!

Sorry I’ve been MIA. I’ve been holiday-ing. I really need to eat a vegetable.

But I have seen The Rise of Skywalker (liked it well enough) and The Irishman (appreciated the story, but y’all it was A Slog). And hey – I even finally caught Midsommar (excellent, but some may find the slow burn pacing glacial).

Anyway, if you’re down with the Ramones and find yourself up at midnight tonight, crank up “I Wanna Be Sedated”. And a huge thank you to whoever first came up with this!

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“A Hidden Life”

“What’s happened to our country? To the land we love?”

Story: Austrian Franz Jägerstätter is happy in his village. He farms, he loves his family, and he gathers with his fellows at the local beer garden. But this is WWII, and every able bodied Austrian man must do his service for the Reich. Understandably, Jägerstätter isn’t keen and demurs, even with shunning and even death looming before him.

Genre I’d put it in: Bladder Punishing Gripping Biopics

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Movie News – “A Quiet Place Part II” reveals teaser poster, and promises a trailer new year’s day

The end of the year is almost here – and hello, a trailer for A Quiet Place Part II drops new year’s day 2020! But til then, peep this new teaser poster, and the info on the story! Synopsis!

Following the deadly events at home, the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe) must now face the terrors of the outside world as they continue their fight for survival in silence. Forced to venture into the unknown, they quickly realize that the creatures that hunt by sound are not the only threats that lurk beyond the sand path.

A Quiet Place Part II comes to theaters March 20th, 2020.

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TrailerWatch – “Top Gun: Maverick” shows an older, wiser, but still cocky pilot

Ready for the danger zone? Synopsis!

After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”

Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

This trailer hits all the notes we remember from the original film, keeping its own story top secret. I’m looking forward to seeing more. Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters June 26th, 2020.

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“Jumanji: The Next Level” levels up the franchise nicely

“So, what part of New Hampshire is this?”

Story: High school is done, welcome to college, Jumanji survivors! While Martha, Bethany, and Fridge level up on education, Spencer feels like he’s floundering at NYU. But hey, it’s winter break; time to get together again! Good to see everyone, including Spencer’s persnickety grandfather Eddie, and Eddie’s (ex)BFF Milo. Aren’t those two adorable? Hey, where’d Spencer go…?

Genre I’d put it in: Satisfying Sequels

Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Second sequel to the 1995 film.  Based on the 1981 book by Chris Van Allsburg. Continue reading

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Columbia Screening Pass-palooza – “Little Women”!

Yeah it’s another adaptation of the classic novel. But look at the cast y’all! Synopsis!

Writer-director Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) has crafted a Little Women that draws on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, and unfolds as the author’s alter ego, Jo March, reflects back and forth on her fictional life. In Gerwig’s take, the beloved story of the March sisters – four young women each determined to live life on her own terms — is both timeless and timely.

Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbor Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.

Ready? Let’s go!

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