TV / Film News

Michael Jackson's Revived Captain EO is Still Wired, Slightly Tired

Source: All About Jazz
March 22, 2010

ANAHEIM, California Michael Jackson's 3-D short film Captain EO is playing again at Disneyland, and the 24-year-old space opera still holds up. Mostly. Representing the height of 1986 movie technology, Captain EO was a lavish collaboration between Disney and George Lucas Industrial Light & Magic studio. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Jackson at the zenith of his career, the 17-minute film was shown only in custom-built theaters in Disney parks from 1986 to 1994. Following Jackson's death in ...

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Santa Monica Sushi Bar the Hump to Close

Source: Michael Ricci
March 20, 2010

A Santa Monica sushi restaurant facing federal charges for serving endangered whale meat appears set to close its doors Saturday, according to a statement posted to The Hump's website Friday which called the decision a “self-imposed punishment." “The Hump hopes that by closing its doors, it will help bring awareness to the detrimental effect that illegal whaling has on the preservation of our ocean ecosystems and species," read the statement on the restaurant's longstanding website. Phone calls to the restaurant ...

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Chet Baker's "Let's Get Lost

Source: Michael Ricci
March 19, 2010

Lined and ravaged as it is, the face is ageless: as sunken as a dead man's, as softly bewildered as a child's. Chet Baker's face, and the extraordinary ways in which Bruce Weber has photographed it, encapsulate the story of Baker's life in a succession of ghostly, indelible images that are at once hauntingly beautiful and desperately sad. Applied to a different subject, Mr. Weber's methods might seem disturbingly superficial, but they suit this portrait perfectly. The man, his music ...

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Lucasfilms the Clone Wars: Best Political Cartoon Ever?

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Political murder, mercenary violence, military occupations and callous terrorists dont just kill as newspaper headlines. They've also made excellent thematic fodder for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, whose dark second season wraps with a three-week stand starting Friday night. The procedural and corporate intrigue has also solidified Lucasfilm's CGI tween fever dream as one of Earths coolest political cartoons. But is it the best? The three-part conclusion of The Clone Wars second season begins with Fridays episode Senate Murders, which ...

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Stewart, Fanning Glam It up in Runaways

Source: All About Jazz
March 19, 2010

Film is a smart showcase to help stars break out as they take on adult roles. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning star as Joan Jett and Cherie Currie in the tumultuous story of the 1970's all girl rock band, The Runaways. “The Runaways," chronicling the rise and fall of Joan Jett's first band, easily could have degenerated into a movie-length music video, with Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning merely glam-rock poseurs. Yet music-video veteran Floria Sigismondi makes an impressive feature-film ...

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Neil Young Trunk Show

Source: Michael Ricci
March 19, 2010

Virtually from the beginning of a career that's closing in on the half-century mark, Neil Young has been both an obsessive archivist and a passionate believer in the nexus of rock music and film. That combination goes a long way toward explaining why he's made considerably more films than your average rock star and why he has returned time and again to the concert film genre attempting to find fresh approaches. It also explains his friendships and collaborations with the ...

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Chess Records Biopic Robert Randolph, Keb' MO'

Source: JamBase
March 19, 2010

OPENS APRIL 9 IN NEW YORK CITY

Who Do You Love is the new film about Leonard and Phil Chess, legendary founders of Chess Records. The film opens in theaters beginning April 9 in NYC and stars Robert Randolph (as Bo Diddley), Keb' Mo', Raheem DeVaughn, Ryan Shaw and Alessandro Nivola (as Leonard Chess). Who Do You Love features authentic musical performances (all of the music was recorded and performed by the artists themselves) and a score full of Chess ...

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Breathtaking 'Hubble 3D' IMAX Film Opens Friday

Source: PC Magazine
March 19, 2010

Take a number of the Hubble Space Telescope's most stunning images, give them a 3D look, and display them on an IMAX screen--what's not to love? Yet Hubble 3D, an IMAX and Warner Brothers film made in cooperation with NASA, manages to go far beyond that. Much of the film focuses on last May's mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-125) to repair the Hubble. The astronauts brought an IMAX 3D camera with which they were able to capture spectacular ...

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