The Screening Room

Did you see Wolverine at midnight? Then it's your turn to be the critic. Let the clamoring masses know what they can expect. Should we be running to the theaters, or saving our pennies and time for Star Trek next week?

• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (C-)
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (B-)
• Battle of Terra (D+)
• Lymelife (B+)
• Is Anybody There? (B)

Jason Roberts is doing some cool things at the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff. I wrote about Jason last September; you can read all about him and his efforts to revitalize the aging theater right here. This Friday night, the theater will show the 1923 silent classic, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with a live orchestra led by KERA's Paul Slaven. It's the version of the film that catapulted Lon Chaney to stardom for his role as Quasimodo. The show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $8 for adults and $4 for children under 12 and are available at the door or online at this Web site. Those who arrive on bicycle get a $2 discount. The theater's address is 231 W. Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff. For those who don't know, the Texas Theatre was where Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested after allegedly killing both President Kennedy and Dallas police officer J.D. Tippit.

Photo: Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff

Our friends over at MovieTickets.com say that tickets for the latest X-Men film are being scooped up quickly:

MovieTickets.com is reporting over 150 sold out performances for Wolverine, which kicks off the summer blockbuster season Friday (May 1). Wolverine is accounting for more than one third (35%) of all tickets sold this week at MovieTickets.com.

I've actually never bought movie tickets in pre-sale. As much as I want to see Mr. Jackman in full-screen, Technicolor glory as soon as possible, I tend toward waiting until after the thronging masses have had their chance. I mean, that movie is not going anywhere any time soon.

However, I may change my tune come May 8. (I'm looking at you, J.J. Abrams...)

What about you, faithful readers? Do you already have tickets? Do you rush to be the first person at the midnight screenings? Or do you take a "second weekend or later" approach?

• Fighting (B+)
• The Soloist (B)
• Obsessed
• Earth (B+)
• Fanboys (D)
• Sugar (A)
• The Informers (D)
• Bob Funk (C)
• The Perfect Sleep (C)
• Shall We Kiss? (B)

OK, so it won't win any Oscars, and it often feels like the Jewish version of Rhoda, but Beau Jest, the latest entry in the 13th Annual Jewish Film Festival of Dallas, is the token entry in the Comic Relief category. It's a feel-good yarn about a young Jewish woman who's nervous about having her parents meet her Gentile boyfriend, whose name is -- and I'm not making this up -- Chris Kringle. So, she hires an unemployed actor (who also happens to be a goy) to masquerade as a Jewish doctor and have dinner with her and her parents. You can only imagine the kind of oy gevalt shenanigans that ensue from there. Robyn Cohen is quite fetching as Sarah Goldman, the young woman whose stories have more holes in them than a baker's dozen of bagels.

Photo: A scene from Beau Jest

Well, we've got your first look at the Wolf Pack right here.

Alex Meraz (Paul), Chaske Spencer (Sam Uley), Bronson Pelletier (Jared), and Kiowa Gordon (Embry) star in The Twilight Saga: New Moon, in theaters Nov. 20.

(Photo courtesy of Timothy White)

If Hollywood ever gets around to making that "Hot Players in the NHL" movie that I've been waiting for my whole life, casting is DONE.

Sports Illustrated matches up 32 professional hockey players with their "long lost twins" in a Separated at Birth, NHL-Style slideshow. Admittedly, some of the matchups aren't actors: there are a few comedians and fellow athletes. But it's dead on in many cases, and certainly worth 5 minutes of your time. (At least until you get back to your own "Five celebrities that I look like" on that Facebook app.)

San Jose Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle and comedian/actor Dane Cook. Source: Sports Illustrated

Oh, my. Wee baby Seth Rogan, at the tender age of 13, performs stand-up at Comedy Gym in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

That crazy Sacha Baron Cohen came to North Texas last June and punked dozens of unsuspecting citizens at a Carrollton office park by inducing them to show up as the audience for a "new television talk show." I wrote a column about it (click here to read it) because my son was among those who showed up for the $50 cash they were giving out. It turns out Cohen was using this local audience as comic fodder for his next movie, which features the gay Austrian fashionista Bruno. We have seen Bruno before, in the Da Ali G series on HBO, but apparently, few of the folks who showed up at the office park had ever heard of him. Well, now the London Times has an "exclusive" trailer of the Bruno movie on its Web site. Click here to view it. Bruno is scheduled for a July release.

Photo: Sacha Baron Cohen invades the catwalk in Milan, Italy, to film a scene for his forthcoming Bruno movie

For those of us in the newspaper business, two new movies have taken on special resonance. I went to Studio Movie Grill last night to see State of Play and was frankly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Sure, it's a Hollywood movie but a decent thriller and although some of its references to print journalism are ludicrous (who does the editing at that paper?), much of it rang true. Russell Crowe plays a reporter dedicated to the best of print journalism, a guy who's sniffing out not just a big story but a HUGE story and realizing he needs time, most of all, to give it justice. One of his newsroom colleagues is a blogger who thrice daily feeds the on-line beast, even if the information is not quite ready for prime time. And Helen Mirren plays the editor trying to satisfy a new owner who likes celebrity gossip most of all. Friday marks the release of The Soloist, which apparently deals, in part, with layoffs and buyouts at the Los Angeles Times, whose columnist, Steve Lopez, discovered the schizophrenic homeless guy who plays a mean cello -- the guy at the heart of the story (played by Jamie Foxx). Check out this blog post about The Soloist.

Photo: Russell Crowe in State of Play.

Filmmakers Channing Godfrey-Peoples and Reginald T. Dorsey will be at the Black Academy of Arts & Letters' 24-Hour FilmFeast on Saturday from noon to 4:30 p.m. at the Clarence Muse Cafe Theater (corner of Canton and Akard streets). The best part: It costs only $5 for the screenings and the panel discussion.

The "feast" starts with a screening of Jeanette McDuffie's short, Darkness, and ends with Dorsey's King of the Evening.

When it comes to art films, Dallas is truly blessed. We have not one but two Angelika theaters, plus the Magnolia, plus the Inwood. Truly an embarrassment of riches. At the risk of offending those of you who dig such commercial fare as Miss March, I contend that art houses offer the best cinema by far. We're also in a cool position these days when it comes to film festivals. We have the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, the Dallas Video Festival and the Jewish Film Festival of Dallas, whose season opens at 9 p.m. Saturday at Studio Movie Grill Dallas. I have seen all eight movies in this year's festival, and they're terrific. More than that, however, I want to commend the 18 people who screen the movies under the direction of Trace Ordiway, who, along with his wife, Lori, volunteers his services to the Jewish Community Center of Dallas. They also deserve credit for their artistic bravery. (Please click below to read on!)

Photo: Secular Jewish boy from Moscow falls in love with Orthodox Jewish girl in the Romeo-and-Juliet-like story at the heart of A Touch Away

• State of Play (B)
• 17 Again (B)
• Crank: High Voltage
• American Violet (B+)
• Gigantic (C-)
• Spinning Into Butter (C+)
• Paris 36 (C)
• Tokyo! (B)

Harry Potter just cannot make up his mind.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Harry Potter and his school chums are heading back to class a little sooner than expected.

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" now is opening Wednesday, July 15, two days earlier than its previous release date, Warner Bros. head of distribution Dan Fellman said Tuesday.

That gives the movie a head-start on the weekend during what's shaping up as a highly competitive summer season for Hollywood, which has major franchise films opening virtually every week.

"Every day the kids are out of school in summer is just like an extra Saturday," Fellman said.

Warner Bros. also opened the franchise's most recent release, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," on a Wednesday in July 2007.

It's the second date change for the sixth installment in the adventures of the boy wizard. "Half-Blood Prince" had been scheduled for release last fall until the studio bumped it to this July to take advantage of an open weekend in the busy summer lineup.

The franchise stars Daniel Radcliffe as Harry, with Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his best pals at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

You may have just finished your cool-down from the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, but it's time to start warming up for the USA Film Festival. The schedule is out and it looks pretty interesting with some definite bright spots.

This year's big-ticket appearance, depending on your perspective, is stare-down star Ray Liotta (Good Fellas, of course, but also Field of Dreams and Something Wild), barrier- and heart-breaking actress Juanita Moore (Imitation of Life), actor Brian Cox who seems to be in everything big screen and small these days (from the first two Bourne movies to his fabulous counterpoint to Al Swearengen on Deadwood) or the great character actor M. Emmett Walsh (two words: Blood Simple).

If that's not enough, there are also plenty of films, too. Click here for a pdf of the complete schedule.

Note: Schedule subject to change. Guests listed are confirmed at press time.

Tickets for all programs $10. Advance tickets will be available through Ticketmaster beginning April 16.

It's not often that I will say this but: Lindsay Lohan for the win.

From The Associated Press:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lindsay Lohan is on the prowl again. The much-gossiped-about starlet has made a mock dating service video posted on comedy Web site FunnyOrDie.com. Lohan, 22, recently said that she and DJ Samantha Ronson are taking a "brief break."

The video, posted Tuesday, is in the guise of an eHarmony ad. Lohan says she's "recently single ... I think." She says she's looking for someone to spend the rest of her life with, "or at least the rest of my probation with."

Lohan pokes fun at herself, saying she's looking for the perfect mate who likes long walks on the beach, car chases on the Pacific Coast Highway, "antiquing and passing out in Cadillac Escalades."

A spokeswoman for FunnyOrDie, co-founded by Will Ferrell, says the video was shot last weekend.

Watch it yourself:

The architect of shock rock--Alice Cooper--will be there. So will Linda Blair of The Exorcist fame. They are just two horror film artists scheduled to attend Texas Frightmare Weekend, set for May 1 to 3 at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Irving. Organizer and founder Loyd Cryer said he's proud to bring in Cooper, who has "not only defined theatrical rock performances and has many classic songs, but also has had roles in films such as Prince of Darkness and Freddy's Dead.
Others scheduled to attend include Fairuza Balk of The Craft and Marc Price of Trick or Treat. Franchises represented by celebrities include Halloween, Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Howling and House of 1,000 Corpses.
"This is going to be our best convention yet," said Cryer. Visit www.texasfrightmareweekend.com.

Twilight junkies, here's the latest. Michael Sheen, who wowed as Tony Blair in The Queen and Frost in Frost/Nixon, is going (bad) vampire on us for New Moon according to eonline.com. So, does this bring a class to the project? Or does it bring Sheen down to earth? Do you like the choice?

Just want to give a big shout out of thanks to those girls from Lake Highlands who stayed after the screening to give me their impressions of Hannah Montana: The Movie, which we then featured in a quote board with the review.

Rebecca Grunewald, Sydney Lacey, Amanda and Mackenzie Fugate, Katherine McCoy, Sydney Schnurrenberger, Danielle Sullivan -- you really helped me "get it"! And here's one thing I didn't have room for in the review: Danielle's amazing story of running into Miley Cyrus in Franklin, Tennessee. Franklin is not only where Miley was born, it was where she filmed the movie.

Evidently, just as in the movie, when Miley is treated like a regular girl and not like superstar Hannah Montana when she goes back to Tennessee, no one rushed up to Miley for autographs or snapped her picture there, not even Danielle, who is a very big fan.

Danielle and her mom, Lori Sullivan, ran into Miley with her mom in a store where Miley was trying on outfits, while the boy playing Travis was sitting outside waiting for them with that expression boys have when they are waiting for girls to finish trying on clothes. In Danielle's own words (which she wrote down for me after the screening):

"As I was visiting Franklin, Tennessee I saw Miley and "Travis" from the movie!! So I was super excited to see the movie."

So, we know what our Lake Highlands team thought of the film. What do you think?

• Hannah Montana: The Movie (B)
• Observe and Report (F)
• The Black Balloon (B+)
• Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 (B+)
• Everlasting Moments (B+)
• Good (C)
• Dragonball Evolution

Okay, we've thrown this question out there once already, but I'm tossing it out again:

Hannah Montana: The Movie opens this Friday aka Good Friday aka Everybody's Got the Day Off of School and Work, right?

Inquiring minds want to know: Where are you seeing it? Are you taking your daughter and all her friends? Have you been begging mom and dad ALL MONTH to go? Are you breaking out the long blonde wig? C'mon! You know you want to share!

The poor Jonas Brothers kind of crashed and burned with their big screen debut, but Miss Miley Cyrus's first film, Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Disney 3D, topped the box office for some time.

It was December 1971. I was spending the holidays in New York City, where I decided to go to the opening night of a new movie set in Texas, titled The Last Picture Show. As a native Texan, it blew me away. I had no idea what a national sensation it would become, launching the careers of Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges and giving director Peter Bogdanovich his best film ever. And no one, of course, can underestimate the genius of author Larry McMurtry, who wrote the novel in 1966. It was "lovingly dedicated" to McMurtry's hometown, Archer City, where the movie was filmed. He co-wrote the screenplay with Bogdanovich, earning the pair one of the film's eight Oscar nominations. And that's why Thursday night's screening of The Last Picture Show, and post-film discussion with Bogdanovich at the Nasher Sculpture Center, was so memorable. It proved to be one of the highlights of the AFI Dallas International Film Festival and served as a sublime beginning to the Nasher's new series, Free Films on First Thursdays. (See previous Playlist item for further details on the series and click below to read on!)

Photo: Peter Bogdanovich

San Francisco Chronicle writer Mick LaSalle's best movies of the decade

1. The New World

2. 25th Hour

3. The Lives of Others

4. The Best of Youth

5. Before Sunset

6. Downfall

7. The Pianist

8. Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days

9. After the Wedding

10. (A tie) Almost Famous; Bridget Jones's Diary; The Dreamers; In the Cut; Match Point; and V for Vendetta

I've seen most of these, and as much of a comics geek as I am, I have yet to make it all the way through V for Vendetta. And I have to prod myself to see Spike Lee (right) creations (25th Hour). What do you think of his list? He also names best performance by an actor or actress for the decade. Read on for that.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Grammy winners Gladys Knight and Marvin Winans have joined the cast of Tyler Perry's next film, I Can Do Bad By Myself. (Every time I see that title, I think of the song by Jesse James and finish the lyrics, "and I don't need no help to starve to death.")

Already attached to the film are Mary J. Blige, Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Adam Rodriguez (CSI: Miami).

There's obviously going to be a lot of singing going on, with Knight playing a choir-singing matriarch in the film about teens sent to live with their hard-living, nightclub-singing aunt (Henson). Knight, Blige and Winans will sing in the film. And, yes, Madea will be in attendance.

This just in: Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke (right) will be ringside for Wrestlemania XXIV, this Sunday at Houston's Reliant Stadium.

Rourke received several awards nominations for his role as Randy "The Ram" Robinson in The Wrestler, putting the actor back in the limelight decades after he first came onto the scene in Hollywood. Never one these days to turn up his nose at a good thing, Rourke will continue his feud with WWE Superstar Chris Jericho during the event celebrating Wrestlemania's 25th anniversary. Rourke called Jericho out from the red carpet at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in January, challenging him to a fight. Jericho rose to the challenge, confronting Rourke on Larry King Live.

Who knows? Maybe Rourke will channel "Randy" and climb into the ring. For now, though, he'll be ringside in support of some of my favorites, including Ric "Nature Boy" Flair, Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (remember the cartoon Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling with Roddy, Junkyard Dog, Iron Sheik, etc.?) and Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat, all Hall of Famers. The legends will all fight Jericho, and according to a press release, "Jericho will not only be looking to defeat the Legends, but also to show Rourke the difference between being a movie actor and a real WWE Superstar."

You can watch the whole thing live on pay-per-view. Or you can wait for the inevitable blog report.

(Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP)

• Fast and Furious (D)
• Adventureland (B)
• The Great Buck Howard (B-)
• Alien Trespass (C+)
• The Edge of Love (D)
• 12 (A-)
• Sin Nombre (A-)
• Beauty in Trouble (B+)

You only have a few more hours to get over to the Nasher Sculpture Center to see the Hollywood classic The Last Picture Show, filmed in Archer City, Texas, the hometown of author Larry McMurtry, who wrote the novel from which the movie was made. He also co-authored the screenplay with director Peter Bogdanovich, who will be at the Nasher. Actor Timothy Bottoms was supposed to be there, but I'm told he won't be able to make it. It's all part of a new program, in which a Hollywood classic will be screened at the Nasher on the first Thursday of each month. Upcoming movies include The Graduate (May 7); M*A*S*H* (June 4), Jaws (July 2), The Grapes of Wrath (Aug. 6), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Sept. 3), The Maltese Falcon (Oct. 1), All the President's Men (Nov. 5) and It's a Wonderful Life (Dec. 3). Tonight's presentation will include dining and cocktails at the Nasher Cafe by Wolfgang Puck beginning at 5 p.m., followed by a "film chat" with WFAA-TV (Channel 8) movie critic Gary Cogill from 6:30 to 7. The "movie introduction" takes place at 7, followed by the screening from 7 to 9. From 9 to 9:30, there will be a post-film discussion with the special guest, Bogdanovich. Wonder how many people will ask not about The Last Picture Show but about his recurring role on The Sopranos as Dr. Melfi's psychiatrist.

Photo: Cybill Shepherd in a scene from The Last Picture Show

Patience is a virtue, fanboys. You couldn't wait until this summer?

From CNN.com:

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Someone stole an "incomplete and early version" of the next installment in the blockbuster X-Men movie series and posted it on the Internet this week, according to the studio that owns the billion-dollar film franchise.

Twentieth Century Fox said the FBI was investigating who leaked "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," which is set for release in U.S. theaters May 1.

"The source of the initial leak and any subsequent postings will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; the courts have handed down significant criminal sentences for such acts in the past," the studio's statement said.

Removing the pirated files from the Internet may prove an impossible challenge, an industry source said. This source did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

Although the studio said it was removed from the Web site that first hosted it, the digital file has probably been downloaded tens of thousands of times, the source said.

"It's not removed from the Internet," the industry source said. "It's still there."

Continue reading on CNN.com.

Photo: Hugh Jackman stars in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Courtesy: 20th Century Fox

Yes, we know the thrill is not yet gone from Monsters vs. Aliens, but still for those thinking ahead to Hannah vs. Miley, er, we mean Hannah Montana: The Movie -- what are your plans when it opens April 10? Where are you going to see it and are you planning a party around it? Tell us about it!

Along with the best-bet trailers and other tidbits over at Quick's Nightlife blog, we've just posted a Q&A with smart-as-a-whip Dallas native Keven McAlester. His documentary The Dungeon Masters -- about adults who are crazy for Dungeons & Dragons -- will screen today and tomorrow at AFI. See you there?