That’s right, you heard me. IFCT is giving away 6 pairs of free tickets to CultureMob readers.

The International Fest of Cinema and Technology will be screening a wide variety of foreign film shorts on the 4th of July weekend.

Where: Northwest Film Forum
Price: $6, $3 students
When: 12:30pm Sat 7.05.08 http://culturemob.com/events/121650
When: 2:00pm Sun 7.06.08 http://culturemob.com/events/121651

News this good bears repeating. IFCT is giving away 6 pairs of free tickets to CultureMob readers. These tickets are good for any of the screenings over the weekend. These passes will go to the first people who respond to admin@ifct.org. If you are one of the ticket winners, the festival will write you back with confirmation. Your free tickets will then be held for pickup at the festival reception area at the Northwest Film Forum. The films are highly unique, spanning various genres ranging from experimental to animation to sci-fi. Most of these shorts have never before been seen in the United States! This year the festival also takes place in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Melbourne, The Philippines and Florida. The Seattle fest will be taking place at the Northwest Film Forum 1515 12th Ave, July 5th and 6th. Check out the website at www.ifct.org/seattle.html

Find more film events here at culturemob.com

I finally saw the Incredible Hulk and it was a smash. I mean that literally. Mr. Green got all up in the evil hulk-like monsters face and mixed it up old school style. The Hulk came to theaters everywhere to kick ass and chew bubble-gum. And he was all out of bubble-gum.

Ed Norton (aka Ali) vs. Tim Roth (aka Foreman) with William Hurt as the unlikely Don King. Throw in the extremely talented Liv Tyler and you have yourself a remake of the “Rumble in the Jungle”

A classic comic book story!

Find movies like this at culturemob

Most guys out there probably think that Sex in the City is all about sex.

Most guys are wrong. (I know, it’s a shocking revelation).

Sex and the City is about relationships.

The HBO series definitely had heaps of humping, scorching hot love affairs and brunch conversations about randy nights spent with multitude of men, no doubt about it. Like the Mary Tyler Moore show before it, Sex in the City stared in the face the prevailing stereotypes and conceptions about single women and what they want, although the Paris-studded finale did end up with all four of the ladies happily attached to their man of the moment. Sure, Sex in the City is about sex. But the most important theme of the movie is also the most important part of a female’s life, and that is the story of relationships, the undulating aspects of our connections with other human beings, be they children or mothers or friends or sweaty lovers.

I went to the Sunday matinee at the Guild 45th Landmark Theatre along with a crowd that was over 95% females from about their 20’s to 50’s; a few were accompanied by men hoping to earn points with the female and catch a glimpse of T & A (it’s a win-win, boys). A few cheers went down as the curtain went up, and as soon as the story began we were wrapped in attention, right back in New York City with Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte. Judging from the estrogen-fueled crowd’s sighs, belly laughs, chuckles, gasps, and tears, I know that women will love this movie. We may not all buy $525 shoes and have assistants and strut like peacocks down 5th avenue, but we have lived the same relationship themes as these women. We have loved wildly and unreasonably. We have been hurt tortuously. We have found good friends and have lost them. You might think that women are loud as hell in big groups (true) and can never be quiet, but you could hear a pin drop in the theatre when one of the character’s men admitted an affair with another woman.

“It didn’t mean anything,” he pleaded. “I never meant to hurt you.” Dead silence. These women in the theatre had heard it before, perhaps even the exact same words. You could taste the deep silence, broken only in several moments by sniffles. Women were crying; not because of the made-up characters but for the true stories those characters were living.

Although parts of Sex in the City are tear-provoking, it is also a very funny movie, and there was peals of high-pitched laughter to offset those sniffles. One particular scene proves that women think toilet humor is absolutely hilarious, just as we all know men do. And yes, there’s lots of sex and raunchy talk and gratuitous scenes of male anatomy.

But the main point of the movie, the reason the TV series was so popular, and the dominant theme of our female lives is that of relationships: building them, nurturing them, living them, and being rendered to absolute, flat-line silence when those relationships are destroyed. For 99% of human existence, broken human relationships could mean death for a female and her offspring. That is why we go to the bathroom in groups, chat loudly with our friends in the ticket line, obsess about minor details of our relationships and look over often to make sure we are being accepted and loved by our peers. We have Stone Age female brains, even if our feet are wearing Manolos and our head is wearing a bird. And those female brains are as different from male brains as are our bodies and our taste in movies.

Sex in the City is a total chick flick. Do you have two X chromosomes? You will love it, just as sure as you wish you could be as ballsy as Samantha, as quick-witted as Miranda, as persistently optimistic as Charlotte and as good of a friend as Carrie. Bring some girlfriends and do what you do best: nurture your relationships.

Stuck with a Y chromosome along with a male brain? You just might enjoy the movie anyway- after all, it’s all about sex.

Find theaters and show times for Sex and the City here.

What if Sex and the City was set in Seattle? It might be a little like this.

Get some buttered popcorn and a large blue Slurpee and make sure you have arrived at the theatre early for good seats and in time see the coming attractions, because Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the ultimate movie experience. The movie is best seen at a ridiculous theatre like the AMC Loews Alderwood Mall 16 which has all the pomp of a Roman arena along with the glitz and glamour that represented La-La Land before Hollywood surrendered to the leagues of talentless poster-children for nepotism with no panties on.

First of all I will tell you I am a huge Indiana Jones fan. HUGE. I know every single line of the first three movies, a standard characteristic brought about by a childhood with an older brother. If I wanted a playmate I had my choice: Legos or Super Mario Brothers. Even as a young girl I was aware that knowing is half the battle, that the Millennium Falcon made the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs, and that anything is possible by the power of Grayskull. But my favorite boy-toy was Indiana Jones; I wanted to be an archaeologist until I realized that they spent far more time painstakingly digging through dirt than romping the world in hot pursuit of fortune and glory.

That said, I LOVED Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. You know who is in it, you know who directed it, you know it will start off with the fade from the Paramount Logo to a real “mountain” of some sort. And you will love this movie too. Of course there are always the whiners who complain that it is no fun to watch an old guy romp around in a fedora and that the movie is cheesy and unrealistic; however I don’t subscribe to the Church of Worshipped Youth and I also realize that OF COURSE it’s unrealistic- it’s a movie! We don’t want to watch the admirable Dr. Jones sorting his laundry, we want to watch him crawling around in haunted tombs, searching for hidden treasure while avoiding snakes, curses, booby traps and Commies- all of which he does in the latest epic adventure. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is non-stop action.

Do you want quicksand and motorcycle chases and jungle ruins and ancient secrets? Do you like fast-paced stories which combine coming-of-age themes with world travel and a romantic edge? How about waterfalls, dark paths through thick trees, dangerous car chases, secret codes, kidnapped professors, crazy monkeys, bad guys who are so evil they look it, carnivorous ants and a hero who can take punch after punch and ends up getting the girl in a happy ending? Of course you do. These archetypal stories have been told as long as humans could tell them. 

Just like our ancestors we live in a world where there are no pure heroes or totally bad guys, where you don’t always get what you want and there is seldom a happy, sunset-drenched ending. Modern Americans wouldn’t know an adventure if it hit them in the face like a giant rolling boulder, and if they did they would certainly run back to their couches and frozen pizza. Hollywood knows us. You can try to insist that you like deep dramas with twisted characters and sordid finales, and I might believe you there, but everybody likes stories about booby-trapped tombs and quicksand.

And carnivorous ants go so well with popcorn.

For theaters near you and showtimes for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, click here.

Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte, and Samantha strut onto big screens this Friday not just in New York City but in metropoli all over the country. All of you Sex and the City fans know that the fifth character in the HBO series was not Aidan or Stanford or Steve or even Mr. Big- no, that most important player was the Big Apple itself. There is no sex without The City.

Or is there? What if you took away the character of Manhattan and replaced it with, say, Seattle? Would the show have been so different? Pour yourself a cosmopolitan (or better yet, have your man-toy do it) and relax into the world of Sex and the City: Seattle Style:

• Miranda is a lawyer for Boeing who lives in Belltown and regularly bitches to the city about the crackheads and prostitutes on her street. Luckily for Miss Smarty-Pants there are plenty of well-read men with frayed library cards in this town to keep up with her in conversation- though no one on earth can match her knifelike wit, propelled by the fine forces of cynicism and sarcasm. Miranda’s favorite club? The see-and-be-seen venue of conspicuous consumption Club Venom, of course.
• Charlotte arranges exhibits at the Seattle Art Museum and does charity work for singles’ group Space City Mixer, a group who she considers in need of charity indeed. This unapologetic yuppie lives on uppity Mercer Island and spends her evenings online ordering designer clothes and hanging out with metrosexuals at The Last Supper Club in Pioneer Square.
• Samantha handles PR for Microsoft, giving her plenty of opportunities to play with rich men. Though she works in Redmond, she would never live in a place as sterile and un-hip as the Eastside and instead has purchased a new and fancy condo in the grittiest, most interesting neighborhood in Seattle: Capitol Hill. Samantha fits in well with the flavor and color of the quarter and gives as good as she gets with the street kids, buskers, and bums. She relaxes with her favorite bunch of people at The Cuff Complex.
• Carrie writes a sex column for the Seattle Weekly which is giving Savage Love a run for its money for the naughtiest, dirtiest, and best love and sex column in the country; ‘Date Girl” now writes for a more appropriate publication, Teen Magazine. Carrie lives in Fremont and shops at all the annoying chi-chi boutiques, somehow buying $200 teeshirts and $500 purses on a writer’s salary. She hangs out where all the hot guys in Fremont are: the Nectar Lounge, of course.

The four women meet for Sunday brunch at Julia’s in Wallingford, wearing not Manolo Blahniks but Tevas with rolled-up jeans (acceptable fashion in the rainy city- admit it, you’ve done it); drinking double espressos and diving into plates of Eggs Benedict (they don’t have to starve themselves quite so much outside of NYC).

For a long weekend the girls vacation not in the Hamptons but in Hawaii, which is the closest and most accessible beach to Seattle (and by most accessible I mean you can actually swim in the water, not that our four heroines would dream of doing so). There is no strolling with beaus in Central Park for Carrie, only walking around Green Lake- and she’d better walk, not meander, or the rollerbladers/runners/multi-tasking women jogging with a double stroller and two large dogs while talking on the phone will run her ass over.

So who do these alpha-women date? It’s a little harder in the Emerald City where most men hale from the Land of Passive-Aggressiva; there are no eager stockbrokers here, no modelizers, no models, and no tycoons of any sort, save the software brains and Boeing boys. Our girls are left with:

Mr. Bike-to-Work Guy: With skin-tight duds and shaved legs, he often gets asked the question, “Do you really need an all-spandex outfit to ride from Wallingford to Queen Anne?” The answer is always NO, people, and Miranda lets him know it, before rolling her eyes and moving on.
The Outdoorsman: Bad news for Carrie and her hatred of squirrels which are “just rats in cuter outfits,” because all over Seattle you find this R.E.I. gear-wearing, head-to-Tiger-Mountain-after-work, long weekend on the Peninsula, boat-loving guy who rarely brushes his hair, and despite herself, Carrie can’t get enough. Hope she has waterproof gear for the spring nights spent in the Cascades.
The Rocker: Found all over the streets of Seattle, the musician is passionate, a little dirty, preoccupied with his band but prone to grand romantic gestures. Charlotte is a goner for this type, until she realizes he has gestured romantically for half the females in the city.
Mr. No-Balls: He epitomizes the saying, “He’s just not that into you,” because he’s just not into anything- living is a bit risky, after all. He is eaten alive by Samantha before he opens his mouth. One lost, 200,000 to go. Good thing she is hungry.
The DJ: A species almost as numerous as The Rocker in Seattle, the spin-master lives the conundrum which Carrie must use all of her journalistic training and wicked flirting skills to figure out: all the DJs are man-whores, yet all the DJs have girlfriends. Carrie susses the mystery out, and the answer is not pretty.
The Hipster: Recognizable by his tight black jeans, chunky silver jewelry, perfectly beaten-up skate shoes and hair mussed just so over the right eye, the hipster is too cool to care about anything really, except himself. Is it possible that the hipster is just an emo who is too old to be an emo anymore? Discuss amongst yourselves, at brunch.

So there you have it; Sex in the City Seattle Style is a little bit the same, and a whole lot different. To really understand the women we must walk a block in their Choos; don’t miss the movie Sex and the City, opening all over the area on Friday, and on Thursday at midnight at select venues like the Regal Meridian 16 in downtown Seattle, Lincoln Square Cinema in Bellevue, and AMC Loews Alderwood Mall 16 up north.

Will the movie be any good? Abso-F*cking-Lutely.

Read my review of Sex and the City the Movie here.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second movie from C.S. Lewis’ Narnia trilogy opened Friday the 16th of May, nationwide.  If you are in downtown Seattle you can catch it at Regal Meridian 16. 

What is it? Four siblings, two brothers and two sisters are magically transported from the London Underground (during World War II) to the fantastical realm of Narnia - where they had previously lived alternate lives as Kings and Queens (the subject matter of the first movie), and they are called upon to once again save the day and the land.  You do not need to have seen the first movie for the second movie to make sense.

At its BEST (7.5): Its a fairy tale of good and evil, talking woodland creatures, mythical beasts, magic, evil tyrants and marauding armies of knights and catapults (or, more accurately trebuchets).  The story is simple yet entertaining, and the effects, costumes and scenery are lavish and wondrous.  The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is not too complicated or dark, making it a great movie for kids.

At its WORST (5.5): It never really reaches any sort of crescendo; it plods along and even drags at times.  There is almost no character development at all and it tries very hard to stay away from the fact that this is a sequel - meaning the characters can, and probably should, be built upon.  There is just an obvious lack of real excitement, tension or energy in this movie.  It does look nice, but if you are over the age of 12, it may fail completely to interest you.

Others like it: Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings (much better than Narnia), Willow, Spiderwick Chronicles

Who’s in it? Other than the voices of Eddie Izzard (The Riches (TV), My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Ocean’s 13) and Liam Neeson (Star Wars: Episode I, Rob Roy, Kinsey), the stars (the four kids and Prince Caspian) are relative unknowns.

Who Directed it? Andrew Adamson (Shrek, Shrek 2, Chronicles of Narnia) also wrote the screenplay for this and the first Narnia film. 

How Long is it? 140 minutes

Phil’s Thoughts: Even though the film looks really nice and it has 2 hours and 20 minutes to tell its story, it lacked depth and detail.  I was only moderately entertained, and I never got excited.  The bad guy wasn’t that bad, the evil army was never really threatening, and the battle was anticlimactic. There wasn’t enough plot or character development for me, at all.  In the end, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian just lacked “oomph!” and really dragged as well in several places.  However, I think for a family (specifially the kids) it is a really good choice of late spring movie.

GUEST BLOGGER: PT

Speed Racer at the Boeing IMAX theatre and Pacific Place

What Is it? A boy (Speed Racer) who was born to race cars and go fast battles the forces of the evil corporate sponsors. Based on the 1967 Japanese Anime series - brought back in the 1990s.

How long is it? 135 minutes

At its Best: (9.5) Outstanding filmmaking, exciting action, over-the-top visual effects, brilliant colors (a truly one-of-a-kind visual experience), the best of what Speed Racer ever was, amplified for the big screen.  An amazing production that really is unlike anything you have ever seen.  It is campy without being ridiculous and it’s comic-booky without being too dumb.  The acting is impressive considering the type of movie this is, and the story is tight.  It has drama as well as action; solid character development and some good comic relief. Very enjoyable, without any holes.

At its Worst: (6) Speed Racer drags in some places and is very long - seemingly much longer than the 2hr 15min it is.  The driving sequences are fun, but they could have been more interesting and start to feel a little repetitive by the end.  The attempts at comic relief are too campy and too stupid to be truly funny and end up falling a little flat.  The character development is misplaced and takes away from the comic-book feeling of this film. Also, if you sit too close, it could give you a headache.  All in all, fun, but not great.

Who made it? Written and Directed by the very talented Wachowski Brothers (Larry and Andy; and apparently, not brother and sister as many rumors might have you believe), who are also responsible for the Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta. 

Who’s in it? Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild and the Girl Next Door), Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan, Sleepy Hollow), Matthew Fox (Lost, We are Marshall), John Goodman (Roseanne, The Big Lebowski), adn Susan Sarandon (Thelma and Louise, Bull Durham).

What’s like it? Tron (the colors, the action, the campiness), Dick Tracy (the cartoon color scheme and the characters).

What did Phil think: Well…glad you asked.  I loved Speed Racer.  Absolutely and completely.  I think that the Wachowski brothers are incredibly talented filmmakers who take great pains to fuss over the details and keep their movies very tight.  The look and feel of this film is unique and quite stunning.  The acting was solid at all times, and there is always a danger in a film like this that the acting and story are merely incidental to the action and the effects - not so in this case.  It completely worked for me.  I did see this movie with two others who (1) liked it and (2) liked it a lot.  Neither of my fellow movie goers liked it as much as I did, but they were both entertained; and, there was agreement that seeing it at the IMAX theatre was a great move. 

GUEST BLOGGER: S.P. MISKOWSKI

In a perfect world, the good relationships we’ve lost would get a second chance. With grace, an engaging cast, and impressive technical expertise, Seattle director Lynn Shelton offers a vivid tale of friendship between two men who have every reason to grow apart in drama My Effortless Brilliance.

Novelist Eric Lambert Jones (Sean Nelson of local band Harvey Danger) decides to use his latest book tour as an excuse to drop in on estranged buddy Dylan (Basil Harris) who leads a rustic existence in a cabin in eastern Washington. They are joined for booze, late night conversation, and a shambling cougar hunt by Dylan’s friend Jim (Calvin Reeder), whose presence further demonstrates the gap that is widening between the two men.

The film is layered with carefully devised character histories, created by Shelton in discussion with the actors. Yet the dialog has been improvised within each scene. The result is a joyously fresh and moving story with the best of both worlds- a solid structure and playful, believable interactions. The silences between characters are given as much respect as their words. In the balance, there is a spoken and unspoken truth, a sense of both the inadequacy of speech and its necessity for human comfort.

Jeanette Maus completes the cast, with a charming comic turn as an enthusiastic book tour interviewer.

My Effortless Brilliance is a delightful reminder that we often like people for strange and subterranean reasons. We may not be able to justify them. We may have nothing in common. Yet when we meet–even after years–the conversation picks up mid-syllable. For better or worse, we understand one another. Where do we assign such friendships in our lives? 

Screening of My Effortless Brilliance at the Seattle International Film Festival takes place on Saturday, May 24th at 9:30PM and on Monday, May 26th at 4:00PM, at the Egyptian Theatre.

IRON MAN is here people, brace yourself for the wave of comic book characters. Robert Downey Jr. Gets it.

Have you been by the AMC Cinerama the past few days? You may have noticed the IRON MAN sign on the marquee. No? Well maybe you noticed the line of people waiting to see the blockbuster over an hour prior to the movie start time. My guess is this took place in many theaters this weekend.

Tonight, I too went to the movies to see IRON MAN. I went in with very little expectations and what I got was a pretty good movie. IRON MAN was one of my favorite Marvel characters growing up. I had him right behind DAREDEVIL which in my opinion got totally screwed in the box office. Yeah, DD as a movie sucked. I’m happy to say the IRON MAN did fairly well in action and plot. My only problem was the bad guys were too one dimensional. Yeah, I know it’s a comic book character but people need to realize that character development is…aw…I was about to break the movie down and all I really wanted to do is give you my list of my top ten comic book movies.

From Best to Worst:
1. Batman Begins

2. Spider-Man

3. Hell Boy

4. Iron Man

5. Blade

6. V for Vendetta

7. Superman the Movie

8. X-Men

9. Batman

10. Spider-Man 2

GUEST BLOGGER: PT

Iron Man opens today around the country, and more importantly, at Cinerama, here in Seattle. I know that this film is in fact playing at many other area cinemas {ones that you should all rush out and patronize this instant}, but when you are looking for a midnight show of the latest action-packed blockbuster (the night before everyone else goes to see it on it’s “opening night”) then you must seek out Cinerama. Now that I have adequately thanked Cinerama for allowing me to see Iron Man at midnight on May 1st/2nd…I move on.

Film Forecasts…this new format is something I call a “Film Forecast.” It is meant to give the reader an idea of how he or she might enjoy a particular film. It is specifically designed NOT TO: (1) spoil the movie by forcing the reader to inexorably march through an overly revealing scene-by-scene recap of the film; (2) tell you that my opinion is more accurate than yours and that I have the end-all-and-be-all say as to the quality of any particular movie; and, (3) forget that a bad (i.e. intellectually stunted, hideously campy or just formulaicly pandering) movie can still be fun to watch.

With that, I give you my, ironically, overly biased Forecast for Iron Man…

What is it: A billionaire engineer/arms manufacturer (played by Robert Downey Jr.) has a life altering experience and becomes kind of a super hero.

At its best: Wow! Did I say “wow!” I think that it should be said that at this point it would be appropriate to say…WOW!

Really, At its BEST (10…yes 10; and no, I am not quick to give out 10’s): John Favreau does a wonderfully true-to-form take on the Iron Man lore from the pages of the Marvel comic. It is a blast, literally, from start to finish. Huge laughs, amazing effects, excellent acting, great interplay between the characters, good, evil, strippers, fast cars, and much much more. This is what you want when you go to the movies.

At its WORST (7): Enjoyable, action-packed, solid directing and acting. It’s still a super hero movie at its heart though and can’t escape that fact, leaving it to be a very entertaining action movie, but not “great cinema.”

Others like it: Spider-Man (1 and 2 more than 3), Batman Begins, Hulk (2003), I-Robot (which is not as good).

Who’s in it: Robert Downey Jr. (Zodiac, Chaplain, Only You, Less than Zero), Jeff Bridges (Tucker, Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski, Starman), Gywneth Paltrow (Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors, Se7en), Terrence Howard (Hustle and Flow, Idlewild)

Who DIrected it: John Favreau (Elf and Zathura…he also acts (Swingers, Wimbledon, Rudy)

How long is it: 126 minutes