Thursday, March 11, 2010

This Week In Tickets: 1 March 2010 to 7 March 2010

A whole lot of delay on this post for not a whole lot of content. A nasty cold hit me Sunday afternoon and lasted most of the week, making the Barking Dogs review harder to get done than it had any right to be, and then both times I tried to scan the page in before catching the bus in the morning, it would disappear in a computer crash sometime during the day.

Not a bunch to write about what's coming out this weekend, either:

* The Brattle opens what promises to be a good-looking new print of The Red Shoes for a week.

* John Ford at the Harvard Film Archive. From the look of the calendar, including how the winter-months series is described as "part 1", it looks like John Ford will be the theme for the archive at least through the end of the academic year.

* The tail ends of the "New Films from Spain" and "New Films from Quebec" series at the MFA

* Stuart Street reopens The Hurt Locker to capitalize on its Oscar wins, which is great - it's a terrific movie. It's enough to make one stop wondering, at least for a week or so, if "$10 second-run boutique house" is really a viable business model.

* A little film by Oscar Winner Kathryn Bigelow's ex, Terminator 2, plays midnights at the Coolidge as part of "March Metal Men". Next week is Robocop and I think it would be kind of funny if they finished up with Anvil!. Also continuing are Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer.

(I am conflicted as heck on The Ghost Writer. Trailers look good, excellent cast... But I do not want any of my money going to Roman Polanski.)

This Week In Tickets!

Stubless: Triangle, 5 March 2010; "A Matter of Loaf and Death", 7 March 2010.

Thin week. You know how sometimes at work, something huge comes up, and it's all hands on deck to make sure that gets done? That was the week before last. Last week was the week where I worked late to make up the time lost on the other thing.

"Wallace & Gromit in: A Matter of Loaf and Death"

* * * ½ (out of four)
Seen 7 March 2010 in Jay's Living Room (Blu-ray)

I may talk a little bit more about this when I get to the Oscar Shorts programs next week, but it is a darn good year for animation when you can legitimately argue that a new Wallace & Gromit short is the weakest nominee in its category. That's not anything against "Loaf and Death" - it's a quality half-hour of "Wallace & Gromit", though it suffers a bit of wear (as often seems to be the case, Wallace has gotten dumber and lazier over the course of the series), but it still brings a great deal of the funny: Slapstick, awful bread-related puns, and well-utilized movie references (Aliens in a kids' cartoon!). There's just enough suspense to keep adults involved and kids on the edge of their seat, and the quality of the animation is top-notch.
The Good GuyBarking Dogs Never Bite

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