Philadelphia Tagged Articles at Cinematical

And I thought I was harsh for asking a guy to turn off his cell phone. A man was shot because he was talking with his son during a screening of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Christmas Day, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Reportedly, 29-year-old James Joseph Cialella told the unidentified victim's family to be quiet and threw popcorn at the man's son. After exchanging words, Cialella allegedly got up to confront them, the victim stood up, and Cialella shot him in the arm with a .380 caliber gun. As other theatergoers ran for safety, Cialella sat back down to watch the movie. (Think about that for a second.) Police arrested Cialella and charged him with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and weapons violations.

Coincidentally, at a Christmas late morning screening of the same movie (albeit in Dallas and not in Philadelphia), I got upset at a guy in the row in front of me for checking his cell phone -- with a big bright screen -- during the opening scenes of the movie and promptly asked him (nicely) to turn it off. He did. But what if one of us was packing a gun? Not to minimize the seriousness of the situation, but wouldn't it be better if everyone got some freakin' manners?! Sheesh.

The incident took place at the UA Riverview Plaza Stadium 17; police were called about 9:30 pm, which means the 8:40 Button screening was barely a half hour into its 2 hour, 47 minute running time (allowing for the usual 15 minutes of ads and trailers). One web site claims that "the crowds are often noisy in the auditoriums during the movies. Many Philadelphians attend movies earlier in the day to avoid the noisy crowds, or avoid the Riverview altogether."

He goes by "Night," but it's hard to dispute his sunny disposition. Just a few minutes into a conversation with M. Night Shyamalan in a New York City hotel room yesterday, it was obvious to me that the director has managed to occupy such a unique niche in the Hollywood landscape because he's immediately likable. Of course, a little movie released in 1999 called The Sixth Sense didn't hurt, either.

After landing two Oscar nominations and international acclaim for his masterful ghost story, Shyamalan continued to market himself as a brand. Since then, the results have been mixed. Signs was an indisputable hit. Unbreakable has its supporters. Lady in the Water? Not so much. But that failure hasn't prevented the filmmaker from dealing with audacious material: His latest movie, The Happening, finds a married couple (Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel) thrust into a world where people inexplicably become suicidal after getting struck by an ominous, unseen toxin. Forces of evil usually remain unseen in Shyamalan's films, and The Happening is no exception to that rule. I spoke to the 37-year-old Philadelphia resident about the personal philosophies guiding his career choices, the polarized reactions to his work, and what the future will bring.

The completely deranged practice of watching movies on cell phones just got a boost. The Hollywood Reporter has a story on Sony's recent deal to put some of its classics catalog on AT&T's "Mobile TV" network starting this May. Soon, subscribers will be able to watch movies such as Philadelphia, Stand By Me and Ghostbusters while on the subway or in the dentist's waiting room. Whether or not they will want to is an open question.

To their credit, the honchos behind this seem to recognize that people aren't going to sit there and stare into a tiny cell phone screen for two hours. According to a Sony exec, the objective isn't to get people to watch the whole movie, and they don't expect too many customers to watch Ghostbusters for the first time on a two-inch display. Rather, this is intended for those who've already seen the films and want to rewatch certain scenes on a whim.

Sony, of course, was responsible for the fleeting phenomenon of watching movies on your PSP (portable Playstation), and they don't seem to be giving up on "mobile entertainment." I guess there's been some traction; I have friends who keep up with their favorite TV shows on their commutes. My mind still boggles at the concept of this actually being a viable business model -- Don't your arms get tired? What do you even see in there? -- but I suppose people are starting to embrace anything they can carry with them on their gadgets. I'll leave you with David Lynch's immortal -- and entirely correct -- words on the subject, after the jump.

Jimmy Carter may not have gotten a lot of respect when he was president -- maybe the fact that he was called "Jimmy" had something to do with it -- but he's enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as his humanitarian efforts have reminded Americans what they liked about him in the first place. He's not a great politician, but he's an honest, good-hearted man with noble intentions.

And now filmmaker Jonathan Demme (Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense, Neil Young: Heart of Gold) has scored with a documentary about him, called Man from Plains. Now playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was at the Venice fest, too, where it picked up three prizes last weekend.

The international critics' jury give the film its top award, while the Human Rights Film Network gave it a prize for best feature film. It also received the Collateral Award for Best Biography, which is presented by the Bologna Film Festival in conjunction with the Venice fest.

Sony Pictures Classics is releasing the film theatrically in October. It follows Carter on his recent tour for his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, which caused a stir with its controversial subject matter.

Demme is perhaps best known as a director of fictional films, including Philadelphia and The Silence of the Lambs (for which he won an Oscar). But his documentaries have been widely acclaimed, too. Many people consider his Talking Heads and Neil Young movies to be among the best concert films ever made. So his portrait of Jimmy Carter promises to be interesting -- and apparently the people in Venice think so, too.

It's been a small-but-persistent little news story in Philadelphia over the past several years: The last remaining old-school, ultra-cool, Art Deco movie palace in the city was in serious danger of being destroyed, thus removing any reminder of Golden Age cinematic history from The City of Brotherly Love. How could this happen? How could one of the oldest, largest and most unquestionably awesome cities in the nation be stripped of its last remaining movie palace?

Well, it came pretty darn close to Wrecking Ball Central, but thanks in large part to the efforts of one local attorney, the beautiful Boyd Theater is now enjoying a long-overdue facelift ... and the doors will swing open again in early 2007. While I silently sat by and read the news reports, my heart went from sad to skeptical to hopeful to thrilled when the good news came down. Howard Haas and his passionate band of supporters were able to save the theater! And here's how they did it:

If you were a child raised in Philadelphia between the years of 1975 and 1985, you were raised at the altar of The Phillies, The Flyers, The Eagles, The 76ers ... and Rocky Balboa. To say that Sylvester Stallone's fictitious pugilist is a local hero is kind of like saying the Dallas Cowboys are mildly evil. Take a stroll through Philly's most colorful locations and you'll see the Italian Market where Rocky draws a crowd, beautiful patches of Fairmount Park, and (of course) the wonderfully huge staircase located in front of our world-renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art. Basically, Rocky is as much a part of Philadelphia as are cheese steaks, soft pretzels, and The Mummers Parade.

So what's up with this whole Rocky Statue uproar? Let's break it down by bullet-points:

• The Rocky Statue was created by A. Thomas Schomberg and paid for by MGM. The 9-foot, 1,500-pound behemoth was commissioned for use in Rocky 3, to be used as the centerpiece for a scene in which the City of Brotherly Love shows how much it loves Rocky Balboa. (Foreshadowing AND irony!)
  
• After Rocky 3, the statue was re-located to just outside the Spectrum sports arena, which caused a lot of confusion for tourists who, after sprinting all 72 of the Art Museum steps, realized that Bronze Rocky was nowhere to be found. (Let's just say The Art Museum and The Spectrum aren't exactly within walking distance.)
  
• The statue made a brief re-appearance atop the Art Museum steps when Rocky 5 showed up, but was quickly re-placed back at the sports park.
• The Rocky Statue was put into storage when Veterans Stadium was (intentionally) destroyed in 2002, and that's where it resides right now. (In storage, that is, not in the destruction.)
  
• The arrival of this December's Rocky Balboa has sparked a lot of new chit-chat here in Philly: Several local politicians would like to see Bronze Rocky returned to somewhere very close to the Art Museum, while some on the museum board are dead-set against it. They don't think it's artsy enough, I suppose.
• Recent reports indicate that a compromise has been reached, and that the statue will most likely earn a home -- at the bottom (?) of the Art Museum steps. And just in time, too! September 6th marks the beginning of "Philly Loves Rocky Week," and Sly is scheduled to show up and soak in the love.
  

Now, as a lifelong Philadelphian and a non-stop movie geek, my take on the whole "controversy" should be pretty darn obvious: Give Rocky the spotlight. Sure he's a fictional character, but this character has done more for this city than the last 11 mayors combined. Ask a guy from California what he knows about Philly, and "Rocky" will be one of his top five answers, guaranteed. So what if the statue was initially created as a movie prop? It's a pretty impressive piece of work all the same. More importantly, it's a well-known, well-established, and well-admired symbol of this city, regardless of what the Art Experts have to say on the matter.

I mean, we're talking about a city that boasts a giant clothespin statue, for cryin' out loud.

I'm not much of a comic book guy, really. I did have an ample stack of Iron Man, Green Lantern, and Hulk comics when I was about 12, but my dad threw 'em all out one day -- along with a Mad Magazine collection that would probably be worth about two grand today. (To be fair, dad was the one who bought me my very first VCR, so I was able to forgive him ... eventually.) I mention my lack of knowledge regarding comics as a preface to the following statement: I went to a comic book convention yesterday.

This weekend marks Wizard World's annual stop in Philadelphia, so when a publicist pal of mine called up and asked if I'd like to cover the event, I figured heywhynot. His response was "Ah, cool. Come see me at the Lionsgate booth and we'll walk around and get some lunch and see Kevin Smith's Q&A and then watch a sneak peek of the new Stephen King mini-series." Whoa. So the fact that I'm pretty much a comic book know-nothing (except where the movie versions are concerned) didn't seem to matter all that much.