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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Snowpiercer (RADiUS-TWC)

Snowpiercer
(RADiUS-TWC)

In Theaters

Even if Melissa McCarthy and Kevin Hart had a Transformers movie coming out this weekend, it would still be a jolly holiday.  That’s because starting Friday we get Bong Joon-ho’s wonderful dystopian thriller Snowpiercer, about a class-system rebellion aboard a train that circles an icy Earth housing the world’s surviving humans.

Also on the indie front is Hellion, starring Breaking Bad‘s Aaron Paul as a distant, alcoholic father whose 13-year-old son wreaks havoc through their Texas gulf town.  I’ve seen it (in short, more like Meh-llion) but not Begin Again from Once writer/director John Carney, whose cast led by Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo and its (surprise, surprise) music-filled story looks promising.

Even more promising is the mainstream offering, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  I remain surprised how much I enjoyed the first in this series reboot and am similarly surprised that the sequel wasn’t this year’s big 4th of July blockbuster. Perhaps it was waiting for Transformers: Age of Extinction to take its own title’s advice?

Fleeing the Scene

Two of the year’s better films, Jodorowsky’s Dune and The Immigrant, are saying bye-bye along with the year’s best comedy to date (22 Jump Street), one of the most pleasant surprises of these here 7+ months (Jersey Boys), and one of its most overrated (The Fault in Our Stars).  That there is talk of an Oscar nomination for Shailene Woodley’s performance in the latter YA manipulationathon is one of the year’s best jokes.

The Raid 2 (Sony Pictures Classics)

The Raid 2
(Sony Pictures Classics)

On DVD

It’s one of the better hauls this week in the home-view-o-sphere with Jodorowsky’s DuneNymphomaniac Vol. I and IIThe Raid 2 and Le Week-End.  If the self-descriptive Bad Words wasn’t there, it’d be a damn near spotless group.

On Netflix Instant

Lots to choose from here as well.  Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge movie leads the way and is joined by dual-artist biopic Renoir; indie thriller Black Rock, touted as “Deliverance with women”; Ryan Gosling’s breakout performance in The Believer; acclaimed Japanese drama Like Father, Like Son, which lasted a mere week at the Carolina; acclaimed late-term abortions documentary After Tiller; two “gritty thrillers” that aren’t all they’re cracked up to be (Homefront and Out of the Furnace); and Season One of Cedar Cove, starring beloved Asheville daughter Andie MacDowell.

And as promised last week, a rundown of the monthly vault opening, complete with the requisite handy-dandy guide:

CRAP = Classics that really are potent
RA = Rappers acting
BPA = Basketball players acting
GBMOAT = Greatest baseball movie of all time
DWO = Denzel Washington one, the
CFO = Colin Firth one, the
LLPLL = Lindsey Lohan pre-LiLo
AYDB = Affleck, you da bomb!

  • 12 Angry Men (CRAP)
  • Bad Santa
  • Barefoot in the Park
  • Basic Instinct
  • Belly (RA)
  • Blue Chips (BPA)
  • Boyz N the Hood (RA)
  • Can’t Buy Me Love
  • Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke
  • City of God
  • Crimson Tide (DWO)
  • Cujo
  • Dead Man Walking
  • Eight Men Out (GBMOAT)
  • Fever Pitch (CFO)
  • From Here to Eternity (CRAP)
  • Funny Face
  • Gandhi (CRAP)
  • Halloween: Resurrection (RA)
  • Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
  • The Hunt for Red October
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers
  • Jersey Girl (AYDB)
  • The Karate Kid Saga: I, II, III and The Next…
  • The Manchurian Candidate (DWO)
  • Mean Girls (LLPLL)
  • The Parent Trap (LLPLL)
  • Patton (CRAP)
  • Phantoms (AYDB)
  • Philadelphia (DWO)
  • Primal Fear
  • A Raisin in the Sun (RA)
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture
  • Venus
  • Witness
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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

2 Comments

  1. Ian Casselberry July 10, 2014

    Did you see that an American remake of ‘Like Father, Like Son’ is in development with the Weitz brothers? How they translate it to American culture could be intriguing. Or disastrous.

    Reply
    1. Edwin Arnaudin July 24, 2014

      They had a little bit of a drought there for a while, but Paul’s Being Flynn and Admission have me optimistic.

      Reply

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