The world of 2013, however, is a mighty different landscape; Escape Plan bombed. That’s too bad, because it’s pretty good for what it sets out to be: a big, dumb action movie, in the style of its stars’ big, dumb bread-and-butter recipe of yesteryear. Stallone’s Breslin works as a security expert hired to go undercover […]
film
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Judges Creed
Not too long ago, someone who works at Oklahoma Gazette asked, “Does anyone in Oklahoma City make movies besides Mickey Reece?” My answer was, “Of course,” supplemented with several caveats, one of which is that the local filmmaker generally makes more feature films in a year than my parents see within the same time frame. […]
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FILM
The Loving Story, (U.S., 2011, Nancy Buirski) a racially charged criminal trial and a heart-rending love story converge, 7-9 p.m., Feb. 6. Oklahoma History Center, 800 Nazih Zuhdi Drive, 522-0745, okhistory.org. THU The White Meadows, (Iran, 2009, dir. Mohammad Rasoulof) Rahmat has been asked to meet the inhabitants of these islands to collect their tears, […]
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The Postman Always Rings Twice
Most of the sordid story unfolds at the Twin Oaks Tavern, a sparsely attended roadside diner owned by a Greek man (John Colicos, The Changeling) whose prized possession is either the place, his record player or his much-younger wife, Cora (Lange, TV’s American Horror Story). Much bored, she perks up when Frank (Nicholson) drifts in. […]
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Banshee Chapter / You’re Next
Using the CIA’s real-life Project MKUltra as a jumping-off point, freshman writer/director Blair Erickson explores the fates and legacy of those who volunteered for the controversial mind-control experiments, which ran in secret for about 20 years beginning in the 1950s and often involved LSD. After a friend disappears from downing a 150-mg dose, an […]
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Scorned
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar; here, it’s just one of many atrocities suffered by his rich-guy character when his girlfriend, Sadie (AnnaLynne McCord, TV’s rebooted 90210), discovers he has been cheating on her — and with her own BFF (Viva Bianca, TV’s Spartacus), no less! Over one rainy night and long off her […]
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The Conjuring / Insidious: Chapter 2
This summer, the smash of The Conjuring crowned him king. Based on a “true” case file of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren (if you believe bunk to be true), the film begins with perhaps the most frightening doll in cinema history — or at least since Poltergeist — and things just grow creepier from […]
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LIFE
Tim Tharp, award-winning author and Oklahoma native, will introduce the University of Central Oklahoma’s screening of the film The Spectacular Now, based on Tharp’s 2008 novel. The screening is part of the university’s Literature in Performance series. The film stars Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley and premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The screening […]
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Sundance kids
Now, Twenter and Robison have the imminent Sundance Film Festival premiere of Rudderless on their minds. “I just got off a juice cleanse to get svelte for the festival,” Twenter said. From their primary script to the to the inciting email from actor/ director William H. Macy, Twenter and Robison’s journey to get the project […]
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Carrie / Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D
His split-screen treatment of the senior-prom carnage becomes her condensed Final Destination sequel; his shock ending becomes her anti-bullying message. Pay no mind that the entire story is already that, with outcast Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz, Kick-Ass 2) becoming even more of a social punching bag after she mistakes her first menstruation as bleeding […]