Movies

5 Arts & Entertainment The theater is slated to reopen Thursday. It has been closed since the start of the pandemic. David Giuliani , Patch Staff Posted | Updated Replies LA GRANGE, IL – La Grange Theatre is poised to open Thursday – for the first time since the pandemic began. The theater plans to show "Top Gun: Maverick" over the Memorial Day weekend. The new operator is Downers Grove-based Classic Cinemas, which runs a chain of theaters in the Chicago area. Not all of the La Grange Theatre's auditoriums will be open at the beginning, but they should be ready by July, Classic's CEO, Chris Johnson, said Monday. "We have our inspections Wednesday," Johnson told the Village Board. "If all goes well, we'll be in good shape and be ready to go for 'Top Gun.'" In the fall, Classic Cinemas started renovating the nearly 100-year-old building at 80 S. La Grange Road. Now, it is able to show first-run films such … [Read more...] about 1st Movie Set At La Grange’s Renovated Theater

Click here to read the full article. There is no shortage of television shows set in a galaxy far, far away. During Disney and Lucasfilm’s presentation at Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, Calif., most of the time was devoted to introducing new series like “Skeleton Crew,” starring Jude Law, and “Andor,” featuring Diego Luna in a prequel to “Rogue One,” as well as long-in-the-works titles like “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” which premieres on May 27. More from Variety 'Star Wars' Sets New Disney+ Series 'Skeleton Crew,' Jude Law to Star 'Obi-Wan Kenobi': How to Stream the New 'Star Wars' Series Online 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Score Has 'Loki' Composer Natalie Holt Balancing 'Star Wars' Heritage With Fresh Touches But in contrast to the robust slate of “Star Wars” TV series set for Disney+, the franchise’s feature film landscape has been as desolate as the sands of Tatooine in the wake of 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” That’s surprising, since “Star Wars” is … [Read more...] about Star Wars Celebration Ignores Franchise’s Movie Future

Baz Luhrmann has never been given credit for his cinematic innovation, so let it be said here that with Elvis he has pioneered the first film to consist exclusively of montage from beginning to end. The whole Greatest Hits of montage are here: newspaper headlines by the truckload; a ferris wheel that turns into a spinning record; a succession of screaming audiences from one town to another; concert posters signifying Elvis’s growing fame, in which his name moves up the bill; money and the trappings of fame. Luhrmann’s fondness for this most hackneyed of techniques is but a symptom of a wider disease in his filmmaking, namely his disturbing addiction to hacking and remixing. The director cannot hear a song but he has to chop it up, spin it around, put a donk on it, slow it down, add a breathy vocal, speed it up again, chuck in a gospel choir, hit the echo pedal, and finish it off with an irrelevant rap outro. As in his process, so it is with his storytelling: it’s dispiriting that … [Read more...] about Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Elvis’ Is Utterly Exhausting

Click here to read the full article. The mild initial curiosity stirred by Zoom-shot movies died quickly, because so few of them were watchable, and because filmmakers quickly found workarounds to create more fluid entertainments while still observing COVID precautionary measures. Thus “ Zero Contact ” arrives as a novelty that’s already more than worn out its welcome, aiming for dubious additional distinction as “the world’s first star-powered feature film NFT.” (It was released in that form last September — whether anyone actually purchased it as such is unknown.) We’ll just gingerly step around that factoid, as the aptly named “Zero Contact” has plenty of more tangible ways in which it is a steaming pile of nada. Producer turned first-time director Rick Dugdale and screenwriter Cam Cannon’s would-be thriller has five globally-scattered protagonists yelling at their screens during a conference call in which the fate of all humanity supposedly hangs in the balance from some … [Read more...] about ‘Zero Contact’ Review: The Zoom-Shot Movie Subgenre Dies Yelling

LONDON (AP) — British prosecutors said Thursday they have charged actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men. The Crown Prosecution Service said Spacey “has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.” The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the service’s Special Crime Division, said the charges follow a review of evidence gathered by London’s Metropolitan Police. Spacey, a 62-year-old double Academy Award winner, was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The former “House of Cards” star ran London’s Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. Spacey won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film “The Usual Suspects” and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie “American Beauty." … [Read more...] about Kevin Spacey charged in UK with 4 counts of sexual assault

Actor and producer Ray Liotta, best known for his breakout role in Goodfellas , has died in his sleep at age 67. “ Very sadly, I can confirm,” Liotta’s publicist Jennifer Allen told The Daily Beast on Thursday. “He went to sleep last night and didn’t wake up this morning.” Deadline Hollywood first reported that the actor died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting a new thriller titled Dangerous Waters. Following his big break as real-life gangster Henry Hill in the Martin Scorsese-directed classic, the New Jersey-born actor had a lengthy career, most often portraying tough-guy gangsters, federal agents, or police detectives. In 2016, he starred opposite Jennifer Lopez in the NBC drama Shades of Blue, a dirty-cop role that he credited with putting him back in the public consciousness. “I’ve done a lot of independent movies that I thought were very good, but it’s hard to get people to see them,” he told reporters in … [Read more...] about ‘Goodfellas’ Star Ray Liotta Dead at 67