Santa Cruz Good Times

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With: Reviews - 50/50
Times and Trailers.

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New This Week
THE DEAD
The zombie survival movie goes art-house with this horror thriller about an American Air Force pilot and a village constable from a war-torn African nation who join forces as the reanimated dead wreak havoc acros the African savannah. Shot in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and West Africa by filmmaking brothers  Howard J. and Jonathan Ford. Rob Freeman and Prince David Osei star. (R) 105 minutes. Fri-Sat late shows only, at the Del Mar. Watch film trailer >>>

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Film Events

SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: WINTER ITALIAN FILM SERIES The Dante Alighieri Society of Santa Cruz is back with a new monthly series of Italian films (one Sunday a month) to promote Italian culture and language. The theme this time is "Set in Sicily" This Week: THE LEOPARD (IL GATTOPARDO) Luchino Visconti's sweeping 1963 costume drama about the rich and powerful caught up in the epic historical events of 19th Century Sicily. Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, and Claudia Cardinale star. (Not rated) 185 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. At Cabrillo College, VAPA Art History Forum Room 1001, Sunday only (October 9), 7 pm. Free.

SPECIAL EVENT THIS WEEK: NATIONAL THEATRE LIVE Britain's acclaimed National Theatre of London presents in 2011 Fall Season digitally, in HD, to movie theaters worldwide. Live performances will be broadcast one Thursday evening a month, in the Grand Auditorium of the Del Mar, with encore performances the following Sunday morning. This week: THE KITCHEN Bijan Sheibani directs Arnold Wesker's black comedy about food and life set in a restaurant kitchen in 1950s London, where a large assortment of international employees struggle to keep up on a busy Friday night. At the Del Mar, Thursday only  (October 6), 7 p.m. Encore performance Sunday only (October 9), 11 a.m. Admission: $15. Seniors, students, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz subscribers: $13.

CONTINUING SERIES: MIDNIGHTS @ THE DEL MAR Eclectic movies for wild & crazy tastes plus great prizes and buckets of fun for only $6.50. This week: THE SHINING "He-e-e-ere's Johnny!" cackles Jack Nicholson as he slices an axe through a door to terrorize wife Shelley Duvall in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 psycho-horror thriller based on the Stephen King novel. As a blocked writer snowbound in an empty resort hotel out of season, caretaker Nicholson is driven nuts by evil forces—but with Nicholson, who can tell the difference? Still, a classic for Nicholson fans. (HH1/2) (R) 146 minutes. Fri-Sat midnight only. At the Del Mar.

CONTINUING SERIES: FLASHBACK FEATURES Oldies and goodies on Thursday nights at the Cinema 9, presented by your genial host, Joe Ferrara. $5 gets you in. This week: JASON & THE ARGONAUTS Stop-motion maestro Ray Harryhausen's special effects highlight this lavish 1963 adventure through the pages of Greek mythology. Todd Armstrong leads a band of warriors in search of the Golden Fleece, encountering harpies, a Hydra, and various angry gods (including future Bond girl Honor Blackman as Hera). (Not rated) 104 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.Tonight only (Thursday, October 6), 8 p.m., at the Cinema 9.

CONTINUING EVENT: LET'S TALK ABOUT THE MOVIES This informal movie discussion group meets at the Del Mar mezzanine in downtown Santa Cruz. Discussion begins at 7 pm and admission is free. For more information visit www.ltatm.org.

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MOVIE TIMES 10/7–10/13

Del Mar Theatre    469-3220
The Help  2, 6:45  
Senna  4:40, 9:30 + Sat, Sun 11:50am
Drive   2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 9:40 
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil  5, 9:20, + Fri , Sat  11:20
Crazy, Stupid, Love  2:30, 7  + Sat, Sun  Noon
The Dead   Friday 10/7 & Saturday 10/8  11:40
Crazy, Stupid, Love  Baby Friendly Matinee Wed 10/12 11am   
The Shining  Friday & Saturday Midnight Showing

Nickelodeon    426-7500
Midnight in Paris   7:30, 9:30  + Fri-Sun 2:40
The Guard   9  + Fri-Sun  2:20
The Future  5:20, 9:20   
Our Idiot Brother   7:20 + Fri-Sun 3:20   
Restless   5:10, 7:10, 9:10 + Fri-Sun 3:10
Love Above All   4:30, 6:50
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2  4:50

Aptos Cinema    426-7500
The Help  4, 8:50
Midnight in Paris    2, 6:50 + Sat, Sun  Noon     
50/50  2:30, 4:45, 7, 9:15 + Sat, Sun 12:15

Green Valley Cinema 8    761-8200
What’s Your Number?  1:30, 4, 7, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11:10am
The Ides of March  1:30, 4, 7, 9:30  + Sat, Sun 11:15am
Reel Steel  1:35, 4:10, 7, 9:40  + Sat, Sun 11am
Moneyball  1:35, 4:10, 7, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11am
Dolphin Tale 3D  1:30, 7
Dolphin Tale 2D  4, 9:30  +Sat, Sun 11am
50/50  1:05, 3:10, 5:15, 7:20, 9:40, + Sat, Sun 11am
The Lion King 3D  1:15, 3:10, 5:05, 7:15, 9:30, + Sat-Sun 11:15am
Dream House  1, 3:05, 5:05, 7:15, 9:40 + Sat, Sun 11am

Cinelux Scotts Valley Cinema    438-3260
What’s Your Number?  12:15, 2:40, 5:10, 7:40, 10:10
Dream House  11:55am, 2:30, 4:55, 7:20, 9:40
The Lion King  11:55am, 2:10, 4:20, 6:30, 8:45
Moneyball  12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45
The Ides Of March  11:30am, 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30
Dolphin Tale  11am, 1:30, 4:10, 6:45, 9:20
50/50  11:45am, 2:20, 4:45, 7:10, 9:40
Real Steel  11am, 11:30, 1:45, 2:30, 4:40, 5:30, 7:30, 8:30, 10:20

Cinelux 41st Avenue Cinema    479-3504
Real Steel  11am,  1:45, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20
The Ides Of March  11:30, 2, 4:30, 7, 9:30
Moneyball  12:45, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45

Santa Cruz Cinema 9    (800) 326-3264 #1700
Call for Show Times

Riverfront    (800) 326-3264 #1701
50/50  1:15, 4:15, 7:15, 9:50 + Mon-Thurs no 1:15
What’s Your Number  1, 4, 7, 9:40  + Mon-Thurs no  1

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Now Playing

ABDUCTION Taylor Lautner stars in this thrillr as a man who sees his baby photo on a missing persons website and is swept into a dangerous brush with alternate reality. Lily Collins, Alfred Molina, Maria Bello, Jason Isaacs, and Sigourney Weaver pop up in supporting roles. John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) directs. (PG-13) 106 minutes.

BEAT RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST The long-running hip hop group, A Tribe Called Quest, the pride of Queens, NY, is the focus of this music doc from actor-turned filmmaker Michael Rapaport. Concert footage and interviews tell the story of these alternative hip hop pioneers. Mary J. Blige, Common, Ludacris, and Mos Def pop up in the film, along with Tribe members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad.) (R) 97 minutes.

CONTAGION This one’s a keeper. Fine storytelling, wonderful execution and a pitch-perfect cast elevate Contagion beyond typical Hollywood offering. There’s an outbreak of a deadly virus that kills its victims within days. Director Steven Soferbergh.does a fine job of rotating the subjects and the mood he’s focusing on. Great locales here—Hong Kong, Macao, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, London and Geneva. Even better cast: Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, and Gwyneth Paltrow. This a bold, thought-provoking work. (PG-13) 106 minutes.  (★★★1/2)—Greg Archer

DOLPHIN TALE It takes a village to rally around a young dolphin caught in a crab trap, save her life, and fit her with a new prosthetic tail in this family film based on a true story (and starring the actual dolphin survivor herself, Winter).  Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, and Morgan Freeman co-star for director Charles Martin Smith. (PG) 113 minutes.

THE DEBT John Madden's gripping, tidily made (if at times, starkly visceral) suspense thriller plot unspools in two separate time frames. In 1965, a trio of young Israeli undercover Mossad agents go underground into East Berlin to expose an ex-Nazi war criminal. 30 years later, the three ex-ops are called out of retirement as the case is unexpectedly reopened. With a featured performance by the iconic Helen Mirren in one of her gutsiest roles, it's a persuasive, time-traveling political thriller about how easily the facts can go astray in pursuit of a more appealing big picture. (R) 114 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

DREAM HOUSE It's not the most original plotline: a nice young family moves from New York City into an idyllic New England cottage, unaware of its horrifying history, and freakish skullduggery ensues. But it's all about the pedigree in this horror mystery thriller. Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts star for director Jim Sheridan (My Left Foot; In America). (PG-13)

DRIVE Ryan Gosling's commanding presence fuels this lean, stylish suspense thriller. He plays a Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a wheelman for petty criminals, forced to go on the offensive after a job goes awry. Director Nicolas Winding Refn has his own smart ideas about crafting suspense and delivering thrills. There are moments of sudden, appalling violence, but more remarkable are long stretches of unnerving silence as Refn creates mood and ratchets up suspense. Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks are terrific in supporting roles. (R) 100 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

50/50 Reviewed this issue. (R) 100 minutes. (★★★1/2)

THE FUTURE Miranda July wants to make a whimsical tone poem about namelss yearning and modern disconnection, but her genuine insights are too few and far between to support the rest of this unwieldy contraption. An LA couple scheduled to adopt a stray cat in one month are so panicked by the impending responsibility, they quit their marginal jobs in hopes of finding something meaningful to do while there's still time. Nothing rings emotionally or culturally true, not the couple's (played by Hamish Linklater and July herself) strained conversations, not the woman's interlude with a middle-aged divorced father in Tarzana, not the fact that these people are 35 years old and still living like clueless college undergrads, with no lives and a mattress on the floor. (R) 91 minutes. (★★)—Lisa Jensen.

THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh’s profane, subversively funny comedy pairs a sophisticated FBI agent (Don Cheadle) with an irasicible small-town Irish police sergeant (the great Brendan Gleeson). (R) 96 minutes. (★★★1/2)—LIsa Jensen.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2 Series veterans David Yates (directing his fourth Potter film) and Steve Kloves (screenwriter on all but one) do their damnedest to honor all the complex subtexts of J. K. Rowling's books, in one of the most thrilling, yet elegiac films in the series.  (PG-13) 130 minutes. (★★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen.

THE HELP Kathryn Stockett's bestselling novel about female solidarity and racial stereotype-busting in the American south of the 1960s is given fine treatment here. Emma Stone continues to prove she can do no wrong on screen. She morphs into a post-collegiate gal here whose empathy and compassion for black maids in a Mississippi town eventually leads to her publishing a tell-all book about the foibles of their often ruthless employers. Great cast. Wonderful story.. Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain, Mary Steenburgen, Viola Davis, Allison Janney, Sissy Spacek, Octavia Spencer, and Cicely Tyson. (PG-13) 137 minutes.  (★★★)—Greg Archer

LIFE ABOVE ALL A rural township in South Africa is the setting for this drama about a bright, courageous 12-year-old girl who stands up to poverty and ignorance when she has to quit school to raise her brother and sister and care for their ailing mother. First-time actress Khomotso Manyaka makes an impressive film debut for director Oliver Schmitz. Based on the novel, "Chanda's Secrets," by Allan Stratton, this film was South Africa's official entry for this year's Best Foreign Language Oscar. (PG-13) 100 minutes.

THE LION KING Return engagement—in 3D—for Disney's classic 1994 Hamlet-like coming of age drama.. (G) 89 minutes. (★★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

KILLER ELITE Jason Statham, Clive Owen, and Robert De Niro star in this action thriller. Gary McKendry directs. (R) 105 minutes.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS There's nothing not to love in Woody Allen's irresistible romantic comedy. Owen Wilson is great fun as a Hollywood screenwriter longing to write serious fiction who's transported back to the era he idolizes, Paris in the 1920s. (PG-13) 100 minutes. (★★★★) —Lisa Jensen.

MONEYBALL In Bennett Miller's  entertaining screen adaptation of Michael Lewis' non-fiction book, "moneyball" refers to the old-school way baseball has been run over the last 40 years, where celebrity players' salaries skyrocket into the millions, and only the richest teams who can afford the most expensive players ever win championships. Brad Pitt makes a tasty little feast out of the part of Billy Beane, iconoclastic GM of the Oakland As, who in 2002 assembles a group of inexpensive players from spare parts and leftovers, according to computerized stats, who go on to make major league history. A wry, engaging David vs. Goliath tale that pays homage to the "romance" of baseball without resorting to the usual sentimental clichés. (PG-13) 133 minutes. (★★★)—Lisa Jensen.

OUR IDIOT BROTHER A surprisingly good film with a lot of heart—something you wouldn’t know if you just watched the previews, which make the film out to be totally slapstick. Paul Rudd stars.. (R) 90 minutes.  (★★★)—Greg Archer

POINT BLANK Return engagement for this fine, overlooked French thriller. The back alleys and industrial warehouses of Paris are the backdrop for this electrifying chase thriller from actiion maestro Fred Cavayé. Gilles Lellouche is wonderful as a male nurse plunged into a desperate mission to save his pregnant wife (an appealing Elena Anaya), who's been kidnapped by thugs to force him to spring a notorious criminal (Roschdy Zem) from the hospital. As he struggles to outwit crooks and cops (both good and bad), appearances deceive, alliances shift, and tensions mount by the nanosecond. Hold on to your ratatouille; this is one fierce, wild ride. (Not rated) 84 minutes. In French with English subtitles. (★★★1/2)—Lisa Jensen.

SENNA Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna is the subject of this documentary by Asif Kapadia. An Audience Award winner at both Sundance and the Los Angeles Film Festival, the film not only documents Senna's tragically brief but icredible career as a three-time F1 champion, and by many accounts, "The best driver who ever lived." It also delves deeper into Senna's personal life, a man so committed to political and social justice, and so generous in his charitable donations to Brazil's poor, that he is now considered almost a saint in his native country. (PG-13) 106 minutes.

WARRIOR The world of competitive mixed martial arts is the setting for this drama about an ex-Marine (Tom Hardy, from Inception) training for a tournament in conflict between his father (Nick Nolte), an alcoholic former coach, and his brother (Joel Edgerton, from The Square), a former champ. Gavin O'Connor (Pride and Glory) directs. (PG-13).

WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? Anna Faris stars in this romantic comedy about a young woman looking back on her past 20 relationships and wondering if she let true love slip through her fingers. Based on the novel by Karyn Bosnak. Chris Evans, Blythe Danner, Joel McHale and Chris Pratt co-star for director Mark Mylod. (R) 106 minutes.

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