Plus: Black Lagoon Creature and Supergirl, a classic silent cowboy, return, and Dr. John Francis walks in silence.
Even though it’s unlikely that Deadpool
Directed by Soi Cheang, this long-running endeavor (seemingly in progress for decades) doesn’t waste a moment between fantastic, if over-the-top, street combat scenes. It becomes more melodramatic and humorless for a while once Lok realizes that his past, unknown inheritance entangles him in a fatal grudge between criminal factions. Still, it’s a big, colorful, lively and sympathetic entertainment, with stunning production design; Apparently, the rabbit-maze-like slum sets built for the film take up about as much area as the “walled city” itself, which was razed in 1993. Twilight opens in U. S. theaters this Friday, June 9.
Several other lonely men are making waves in other films that will be released or re-released locally this weekend. Although he is not the first cowboy star in the media, William S. Hart has become one of the biggest cinematic attractions of the silent film era. Although his career (overshadowed by model conversion and the new pivot of the genre, Tom Mix) lasted until 1925, long before “sound films” arrived. He was already an experienced level actor and enjoyed the utmost good fortune as soon as he entered the cinema at the age of 50 in 1914. The return of Draw Egan, which is projected in the four stars this Thursday 8 (more information here), is a typical vehicle with the star with the elongated face and aquiline nose presenting himself as “the most wanted guy on the border”, an infamous bandit who fortunately tries to escape from a group.
Appearing under a pseudonym, none other than “William Blake”, on a complicated frontier, the city where the less boisterous citizens need to tame him, he probably manages to be appointed marshal. But this respectable position is jeopardized when a member of his former gang (one with “a yellow stripe as wide as a barn door”) appears, threatening to divulge his past. The lively and impressive 50 minutes demonstrate Hart’s attention to authenticity and vinegary style as a performer; Expect something modern, though. comic irreverence, as the film’s intertitles have been rewritten by comedian Mac Blake. He will also be accompanied live by Justin Sherburn of the independent chamber music organization Montopolis of Austin, staking a score from Morricone’s soundtracks.
Another uninvited stranger who travels to many cities is the subject of Planetwalker: The Inner-Magic of Dr. John Francis, by Dominic and Nadia Gill. Francis, an African-American local to Philadelphia who moved to Point Reyes when it was a rural hippie enclave, was shocked when two oil tankers collided in the San Francisco Bay in 1972, with an oil spill of nearly a million gallons wreaking havoc. . He took this “environmental insult” seriously, first deciding to avoid oil-powered vehicles and then avoiding talking. . . for almost two decades.
His silent, walking “pilgrimage” across the United States and beyond spread a message of ecological awareness, although, as a lone black man in rural areas, he also experienced some moments of outright hostility. His voluntary silence did not save him from obtaining a high school degree, then a doctorate, or even teaching classes (with chalk and gestures). Still active and vocal again, he will appear with the filmmakers in Q&A sessions after 6 p. m. Night screening of this 30-minute documentary at the Smith Rafael Film Center, from Friday the 9th to Thursday the 15th, more information here.
The pacifying atmosphere that Francis breathes is not at all reflected in the main characters of some reruns of the emotion in local theaters next week. From Wednesday 14 to Thursday 2015, the Balboa Theatre will host screenings for the 70th anniversary – in 35mm and 3D, no less, of Creature From the Black Lagoon (more info here), arguably the king of all the 50s, “a guy in a rubber suit emerges from surfing to kidnap women from the beach”. Although not among the most productive films in the 1954 box, the B-movie
Of course, Guillermo del Toro’s creature is more sympathetic than his inspiration, a prehistoric “Gill-Man” (played by two actors, 6’5″ Ben Chapman on land, aquatic exhibit veteran Ricou Browning in the studio tank) coming out of the Brazilian Amazon will haunt visiting scientists. Their common appearances greeted through Henry Mancini’s shrill alarm trumpets, this amphibious beast of course needs Beauty, in the user of Julie Adams with the beetle-eyebrows directed by the then science fiction specialist. Jack Arnold (It Came From Outer Space, The Incredible Shrinking Man), is still an above-average B-movie, with a witty look and pace, although he has few ideas.
Other bipedal monsters appear in some even campier options at Alamo Drafthouse, whether betting next Wednesday the 14th. There’s On Deadly Ground (more on that here), in which the inimitable Steven Seagal rewards the good luck of his past action cars allowing him to write and direct this, anything that may never happen again. This pseudo-mystical, terrible pro-environment spectacle from 1994 is perhaps the most memorable on-screen achievement of “The Great One” (an intentional nickname one suspects he gave himself), at least in terms of unintentional comedy. Also starring: Michael Caine.
A decade earlier, Faye Dunaway, one of the few stars known for being able to stir up Seagal-level feelings in conflicted colleagues, played the villain on Supergirl (more on that here). The witch Selena is the dominant opposition to the titular figure of Helen. Slater, Superman’s cousin, who disguises herself as a boarding school student after arriving via intergalactic travel. Brenda Vaccaro plays Selena’s partner, and her commentary on this professional experience (which can be discovered on YouTube and elsewhere) is at least as entertaining as This Wonderful, Youthful, Silly Action Adventure. It maintains the difference of being the only movie similar to Man of Steel that loses money.
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