Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren

'Battleship:' A Waterlogged Absurdity You Can Cheer For

PG-13 'Battleship' feels like a two-hour Navy recruitment video.

I'm surprised blue and gold aren't the colors used on the movie poster for "Battleship," along with Go Navy! and Beat Aliens! If you leave your brain at the front door of the multiplex on a day you feel like rooting for the home team, you could do worse than vacillating between cheering and snickering for those two hours of this completely ridiculous, raucous mash-up of "Independence Day," "Pearl Harbor," and "Transformers."  Director Peter Berg, of "Friday Night Lights," "The Kingdom," and "Hancock," knows his way around the camera. So we can try to accept the fact that for some reason he feels the need to release his inner Michael Bay. What results is not exactly a good movie, but one that unapologetically embraces its cliches, even on …

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Opening This Weekend in Kingstowne: 'The Dictator,' 'Battleship'

Dark Shadows and other movies playing at the Kingstowne Regal 16 this weekend.

This weekend in movies playing in Kingstowne, Rihanna and Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch face off against aliens in Battleship, and Sacha Baron Cohen channels the late Saddam Hussein. Battleship Taylor Kitsch can't get enough of those aliens, can he? Fresh off fighting and romancing extraterrestrials in John Carter, Kitsch returns to earth to battle an intergalactic threat with the help of Rihanna and Liam Neeson. www.battleshipmovie.com Battleship is a silly, noisy extravaganza, but humor keeps it afloat (AP) The Dictator Sacha Baron Cohen, famous for his gonzo escapades in Bruno, Borat, and Da Ali G Show, plays a dictator committed to keeping democracy out of his country. www.republicofwadiya.com The Dictator Stages a Coup of …

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Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren

'Dark Shadows': A Mere Shadow of What It Could Be

PG-13 Johnny Depp film opens in theaters this weekend.

Tim Burton, as the stylized director of such glorious oddities as "Edward Scissorhands," "Beetlejuice," and "Ed Wood," is the pied piper to the inner goth in all of us. So it is with a heavy heart Cinema Siren has to report "Dark Shadows," while it might have moments of loopy greatness and top-notch production and costume design, it is on the whole the most tragic of cinematic sins: A bore.   The greatness is in some particularly exciting and fast-paced scenes, that are strangely intermittent in its 116 minutes, and so at odds with the soap opera ploddings of the rest of the film. The first minutes of "Dark Shadows" show great promise. Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, in his eighth partnership with director Burton) is the rakish son of a …

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Opening This Weekend in Kingstowne: 'Dark Shadows'

Dark Shadows and other movies playing at the Kingstowne Regal 16 this weekend.

This weekend in movies playing in Kingstowne, Johnny Depp plays a vampire. Dark Shadows Johnny Depp stars as vampire Barnabus Collins in Tim Burton's comedic homage to the campy '60's drama of the same name. darkshadowsmovie.warnerbros.com Undead in the 1970s (San Francisco Chronicle) See the trailers for this movie in the media box to the right. -----------  Also playing in Kingstowne this weekend: The Avengers A group of superheroes, including The Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man, must fight a menace to humanity--if they can stop fighting each other.  www.marvel.com/Avengers Avenging Marvels (Metro Weekly) The Cabin in the Woods Five friends go to... (wait for it)... a cabin in the woods in this horror flick. www.…

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Opening This Weekend in Kingstowne: 'The Avengers'

The Avengers and other movies playing at the Kingstowne Regal 16 this weekend.

This weekend, a team of superheroes comes to Kingstowne. The Avengers A group of superheroes, including The Hulk, Captain America, and Iron Man, must fight a menace to humanity--if they can stop fighting each other.  www.marvel.com/Avengers Avenging Marvels (Metro Weekly) See the trailers for this movie in the media box to the right. -----------  Also playing in Kingstowne this weekend: 3 Stooges A comedy starring the nyuk-able Larry, Curly and Moe. www.threestooges.com Review: ‘Soitanly’ and Stinker (San Francisco Chronicle) The Cabin in the Woods Five friends go to... (wait for it)... a cabin in the woods in this horror flick. www.discoverthecabininthewoods.com Reviews: A Genre-Busting, Blood-Soaked Must-See (Patch) Joss Whedon’s Inside …

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'Splendid Voices' at Edison Production of Oklahoma!

Student actors shine under theatrical moonlight

Students at Edison High School will be performing Oklahoma! on May 4 and 5 at 7 p.m., with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. on May 5. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students and seniors. Tickets can be purchased at edisondrama.com. Considering that before this play, I had never even heard of Oklahoma!, I am glad to say that the near-professional performances of the Thomas Edison High School students has taught me to love the play and cherish it as a classic of Theater. Oklahoma was originally written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein and opened on Broadway in 1943. The play was a smashing success and went on to be revived on Broadway and West End six times. It was even adapted into a film in 1955 and is known as the First …

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Vote: Military Communities Could Get a Free Screening of 'Battleship'

Ten military communities across the United States may get a free advance screening.

The movie "Battleship" has a "Battle of the Bases" going on right now and 10 military communities in the United States could win a free advance screening of the movie. "Battleship" is an epic land, sea and air military action thriller directed by Peter Berg starring Rihanna, Taylor Kitsch, Alexander Skarsgard, Liam Neeson and others. Vote for Fort Belvoir here. You must give your ZIP code and email address to vote. You can watch the trailer for the movie in the media box at right.

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Movie Reviews by Cinema Siren

2012 Summer Movie Preview

Ready for some blockbusters?

Every year about this time, it's the calm before the theatrical storm. Things are winding up in Hollywood, as the studios prepare for their marketing onslaught. Should we, the movie-viewing public, be getting excited? What can we expect this summer? What spectacles are headed our way? You can take stock of all the blockbusters they have pinned their hopes and bank accounts on below. So many movies and A-list actors…you might spend half your summertime in the dark! What are you looking forward to?  Written and directed by cult sensation Joss Whedon, "The Avengers" is already being hailed as an awesome slice of superhero sandwich bread. It has a little of what most movie-lovers want: action, suspense, good actors, a hot starlet, all directed…

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