ON FILM : That's the ticket

PHILIP MARTIN

All right, you've heard my opinions in Sunday's Style section. Here's what other avid local moviegoers think are the best films of 2008. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Hollywood pleased by 2008 revenues

BY DAVID GERMAIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hollywood loves breaking box-office records, yet studio executives aren't griping that their 2008 lineup will fall a bit shy of the all-time high set a year earlier. - Friday, January 2, 2009

COMING ATTRACTIONS

(opening dates are tentative) Bride Wars, PG Best friends (Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson) find their relationship sorely tested when they choose the same date for their respective weddings. With Candice Bergen; directed by Gary Winick. Jan. 9 Gran Torino, R Clint Eastwood plays a military veteran whose neighborhood is changing as immigrants move in. Directed by Eastwood. Jan. 9 Not Easily Broken, PG-13 A drama about love and family adapted from the book of the same name by Bishop T.D. Jakes. With Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. Henson; directed by Bill Duke. Jan. 9 The Unborn, PG-13 A young woman (Odette Yustman) seeks the aid of a spiritual adviser (Gary Oldman) to save herself from a family curse. With Idris Elba, Jane Alexander; directed by David S. Goyer. Jan. 9 - Friday, January 2, 2009

FILM CLIPS

At area theaters 77 AUSTRALIA, PG-13 An epic adventure complete with a romance between an English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman) and a scrappy roughneck (Hugh Jackman), and with Down Under on the verge of World War II. Directed by Baz Luhrmann. Fiesta Square 16 and Mall Twin Cinema in Fayetteville, Pinnacle Cinema in Rogers. (165 minutes) 90 BOLT, PG A white German shepherd (voice of John Travolta) who plays a superhero on TV must become one in real life. - Friday, January 2, 2009

PREVIEWS

New this week There are no new movies opening in Northwest Arkansas this week. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Library of Congress adds 25 films to be preserved

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington recently named 25 motion pictures — classics and genres from every era of American filmmaking — to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, including The Asphalt Jungle, Deliverance, A Face in the Crowd, The Invisible Man, Sergeant York and The Terminator. Spanning the period 1910-1989, this year's selections bring the number of motion pictures in the registry to 500. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Oscar adapted screenplay contenders a mixed bag

BY JOE WILLIAMS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

The Academy Award for best adapted screenplay used to go to glorified stenographers who had extracted ideas and dialogue from existing novels or plays. Meanwhile, a group of presumably more creative writers would compete for best original screenplay. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Home movies

- Karen Martin

Recent DVD releases: Baghead (R, 84 minutes) Amusing and much more structured than it seems, Baghead concerns four struggling actors who retreat to a mountain cabin to write a screenplay that will make them all stars, when their story idea — a horror flick about friends tormented by a villain with a bag over his head — starts to come true. DVD bonuses include commentary by directors/ writers/producers Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass and a couple of featurettes. Grade: 84 Eagle Eye (PG-13, 117 minutes) The fever-pitch paranoia of this terrorist thriller, with dense layers slapped on a fairly simple plot, point to a kind of overkill that only Hollywood money can buy. A copy-shop clerk (Shia LaBeouf ) and a single mother (Michelle Monaghan) are forced into a series of heartstopping situations by a controlling force that seems to see every move they make. The DVD includes deleted scenes, an alternate ending, a gag reel, and making-of featurettes. Grade: 78 Ghost Town (PG-13, 102 minutes ) Sort of a Topper-meets-The - Friday, January 2, 2009

ON CHRISTIANITY

BILLY GRAHAM

DEAR REV. GRAHAM: Please pray that I'll know what to do with my niece. She's in her 30s and on drugs, and after her family kicked her out she moved in with me. But last week, she stole money out of my purse to buy drugs, and now I'm not sure she'll ever change. I guess I didn't realize how terrible drugs are. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Check your knowledge

1. How long did the Washington Irving character Rip Van Winkle sleep? 2. The Athletics major league baseball club was originally in what city? 3. Of the following, which is a book of the New Testament: "Joshua," "Hebrews," "Jeremiah" or "Job" ? 4. Hong Kong is at the mouth of what river in China? 5. Tchaikovsky's "Andante Cantabile," an instrumental, is an example of what type of music? 6. A wild ox of Asia, often domesticated as a beast of burden, is called what three-letter word beginning with a "y" ? 7. Identify the only Xrated movie to win the Academy Award. 8. What is the name of the Green Bay Packers' home stadium? Answers 1. 20 years 2. Philadelphia, from 1901-54 ; then Kansas City, 1955-67, and Oakland since 3. "Hebrews" 4. Canton River 5. Chamber music. It's a movement from Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1. 6. "Yak" 7. Midnight Cowboy, in 1969. The picture's rating was changed later from "X" to "R." 8. Lambeau Field. Its seating capacity is more than 72,000. - Friday, January 2, 2009

Hodgson reprises defining role: Skewering bad films

BY TOM SHALES THE WASHINGTON POST

Noel Coward once noted "how potent cheap music is." The old boy never saw The Brain That Wouldn't Die or he might also have observed how enjoyable, amusing and even comforting a lousy movie can be. - Friday, January 2, 2009