Movies

It seems that every second Hollywood star is a vegetarian, giving up meat for health or moral reasons. Vegetarian societies can now provide long lists of entertainers who don't eat meat, including vegetarians like Clint Eastwood, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet and Natalie Portman, and pescatarians like Hillary Swank (who eat fish, but no other animals).

Among the many wonderful independent spotlight films in this year's Florida Film Festival, "Away From Her" stands out as an exceptionally tender tale of loving, aging, and suffering with dignity. Directed by Canadian actress Sarah Polley and based on the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain" by Alice Munro, the movie introduces an aging couple married for almost 50 years. Fiona (Julie Christie) shows symptoms of progressing Alzheimer's disease and her husband Grant (Gordon Pinsent) is faced with the difficult decision of whether or not to place her in a permanent care facility.

The unmitigated arrogance to force you to watch anything on a DVD that’s for purchase, it’s one thing if I want to watch the previews my wife does but I don’t. But to override the fast-forward feature during the previews is gross arrogance. Imagine buying a book with commercials inserted and you’re not permitted to open the book until you listen to them and then listen again every time you try and open the book!

Peter Bogdanovich received the American Visionary Award at the 16th annual Florida Film Festival during a recent special event with the legendary director and film scholar. The event, held at Enzian Theater in Maitland, included an archival 35mm print screening of his 1973 Oscar-winning Depression-era comedy “Paper Moon,” starring Ryan O’Neal, Tatum O’Neal, and Madeline Kahn in the story of a bible-toting con man forced into delivering a young orphan to her relatives in Kansas.

A new drama based on a true story stars Oscar nominee Terrence Howard as an inner city Philadelphia swim coach who helps his young team members discover their inner strength and determination to succeed.

As the opening night selection at the Florida Film Festival, “The TV Set” establishes just the right tone for a 10-day celebration of movies: intelligent, funny, thought-provoking, and star-studded. Written and directed by Jake Kasdan, who has worked on television shows such as “Freaks and Geeks” and directed films including “Orange County,” this new independent comedy peeks behind the doors of a television network as it struggles to bring a new show to the small screen.

There has been some controversy about Harry Potter and its suitability for kids. Critics have claimed that due to the Harry Potter stories’ heavy emphasis on wizardry and magic, kids can be negatively affected by being made to believe that real life isn't what it really is. That is, kids can lose touch with reality. In fact, Harry Potter is not anymore fictional than the most common children's stories.

James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici's recent documentary that claims a tomb in Jerusalem is the resting place of the family of Jesus is wishful thinking at best. These two gentlemen may sell a lot of books and be in line for Hollywood royalties in the future, but it may well be at the cost of some credibility.

Beyond words, this powerful film renders my supposed eloquence to pure silence… '300' rips your heart with death but redeems it soon after with its glory. It is a must-see film. With ‘300,’ every warrior who is ready to die for glory ‘would have some wild night.’ Every citizen who advocates freedom ‘would be engaged.’ For everyone else, ‘it would be a formative and uncompromising experience within the battlefield.’

The Battle's raging between Blockbuster and Netflix. Both want your loyalty. So who wins? Blockbuster or Netflix?

Six years ago, FBI agents arrested one of their own, Robert Hanssen, accused of selling secrets to Moscow for some 15 years in what the Justice Department described as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. History." The cat-and-mouse game leading up to Hanssen's arrest is dramatized in a new film co-starring Chris Cooper and Ryan Phillippe.

Hannibal Lecter, one of the most intriguing and chilling characters from modern popular literature, gets his 'back story' in a dark thriller from the director of the art house hit Girl With A Pearl Earring.

Oscar-winner Diane Keaton plays the meddling mother to pop music star Mandy Moore (photo) in a relationship comedy about family, love and happiness. It arrives at American theaters timed to pick up the audience that might choose romance over the 'Super Bowl' pro football championship game this weekend.

It's no accident that the release date for the film "The Number 23" is February 23. In fact, in the world of Walter Sparrow (Jim Carrey), nothing about 23 is a coincidence: Everything he sees, hears, and especially reads relates to that cursed number.

A study of the nature of reality in Kurosawa's "Dreams".