The Screening Room

From The Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson is still playing to sellout crowds.

Advance screenings to the music documentary "Michael Jackson: This Is It" sold out within two hours early Sunday as fans who began lining up three days earlier snapped up all 3,000 tickets to the Los Angeles shows.

The documentary opens nationwide Oct. 28, but fans will get a sneak peek the night before in screenings at the new Regal Cinemas Stadium 14. For the theater's grand opening, the cinema will show "This Is It" on all 14 screens that night.

Directed by longtime Jackson collaborator Kenny Ortega, "This Is It" draws on hundreds of hours of footage as Jackson prepared for a series of London concerts for which he was rehearsing before his death on June 25.

Critic Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times that The Age of Stupid, screening at 6:30 p.m. Monday as a one-night engagement in the United States and Canada, is a "frightening jeremiad about the effects of climate change."

The film features British actor Pete Postelthwaite (right) and is set in 2055. Postelthwaite plays an old man, an archivist, who's watching footage from 2008 while bemoaning the preventable damage done to the environment. Thus, it's what he calls "The Age of Stupid." You can see this film all over the Metroplex, including three screenings in Dallas: Cinemark 17; UA Galaxy Stadium 10; AMC NorthPark 15.

The filmmakers are doing their part by sending the movie via satellite from a "solar-powered cinema tent" in downtown New York City.

For more information, go to www.ageofstupid.net.

Joy Tipping reports in the Get Out There! calendar that Drew Barrymore will be in town tomorrow, rockin' the new blond bob with black tips, no doubt (I may be in the minority here, but I like the new 'do). Here's the scoop---

Whip It director-actress Drew Barrymore will make an appearance from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday (Sept. 16) at Urban Outfitters in Mockingbird Station. Members of the Dallas Derby Devils roller-derby league will also be on hand, and a DJ from "Kiss FM" KHKS-FM (106.1) will host the event. Wristbands for a meet-and-greet with Barrymore will be given out starting at 5:30. The movie, which opens Oct. 2, stars Barrymore, Ellen Page and Kristen Wiig as competitive skaters. 5331 E. Mockingbird Lane. Free. 214-821-4371. www.urbanoutfitters.com.

(The photo's from the Associated Press)

Really? They don't have even one Oscar betwixt the three of them? Lauren Bacall, Roger Corman and Gordon Willis will receive honorary Oscars at a gala to be held Nov. 14. Little Shop of Horrors has always been my favorite play, my favorite movie, with my favorite songs. I figured the Academy wouldn't see the genius there, but, really, you would've thought that with all the films that Bacall and Corman made that they would have at least stumbled on an Oscar. Really.

Bacall, Corman, Willis to get honorary Oscars
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Actress Lauren Bacall, producer-director Roger Corman and cinematographer Gordon Willis are the first Oscar winners of the season.
The Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday that the three will receive honorary Oscar statuettes.
Bacall made her screen debut with Humphrey Bogart in "To Have and Have Not" in 1944. She went on to star in more than 30 films, including such classics as "The Big Sleep" and "Key Largo." Corman has directed more than 50 films and produced more than 300 during his five-decade career, including "It Conquered the World" and "The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). Willis is a two-time Academy Award nominee for "Zelig" and "The Godfather, Part III."
The board also voted to present the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to producer-executive John Calley. His producing credits include "Postcards from the Edge," "The Remains of the Day," for which he earned a Best Picture Oscar nomination, "Closer" and "The Da Vinci Code."
All four awards will be presented at the Academy's inaugural Governors Awards gala event on Nov. 14 in Hollywood.

Well, well ... we have two offenders this week. Rumer Willis' star turn as a damsel in a bit of distress isn't going to get the critic treatment in time for opening night. Ah, well. We've got you covered until the review hits Guide Daily and dallasnews.com.

Sorority Row doesn't allow critics
By Robert W. Butler
The Kansas City Star
SORORITY ROW
Rated R
Time: 1:41
What is it? After one of them dies in a prank gone wrong, sorority sisters try to keep the death a secret ... but find themselves stalked by a murderous stranger.
Why didn't Summit Entertainment show it to critics? Hollywood has realized even positive reviews can't help exploitation efforts like this one.
What others are saying: "Boasting a welcome sense of tongue-in-cheek humor and girlsploitation heroics (all the product placements get a bit much, though), Sorority Row isn't just another brain-dead and bloodthirsty exercise in macabrely entertaining those who like to watch people die in gruesome, graphic ways," says EmpireOnline.co.uk.
Why we'd see it: There's a big shower scene, right?
Why we wouldn't: No-name director and cast don't inspire confidence.

(Photo by Michael Desmond/Summit Entertainment)

Tyler Perry, once again, isn't showing his latest movie to critics. We probably couldn't sway you one way or the other about his film anyway. But the headline on the explanation below says it all. So check Guide Daily and dallasnews.com on Saturday for a review.

I Can Do Bad All By Myself, without any help from critics
By Robert W. Butler
The Kansas City Star

TYLER PERRY'S I CAN DO BAD ALL BY MYSELF
Rated PG-13
Time: 1:53
What is it? Madea (writer/director Tyler Perry in full-bosom drag) practices tough love on miscreant kids, putting them in the hands of their aunt (Taraji P. Henson), a nightclub singer struggling to get her own life together.
Why didn't Lionsgate show it to the press? It's been several years since Perry has shown his work in advance.
Why we'd see it: Perry's work is hugely popular, and Bad looks to have his trademark blend of raunch and moral uplift -- with musical numbers, too (Mary J. Blige and Gladys Knight are in the cast).
Why we wouldn't: Seems to some of us that Perry keeps remaking the same movie.

(Photo of Taraji P. Henson from Lionsgate)

If you hurry, you can catch a wax figure of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine as it hits the Dallas stop on its five-city tour in anticipation of the Sept. 15 release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine on DVD and Blu-ray. The wax figure is at the Blockbuster Video at 3501 McKinney (McKinney and Lemmon) until 7 p.m.

If that's too much information too late, then you can wake up early tomorrow morning and head downtown to WFAA studios in Victory Park (3030 Olive St.). The wax figure will be there at 8:15 a.m. Sharp. (LOL ... I crack myself up!)

Tussauds spokesman Neil Linssen, who is also a sculptor and artist, is riding shotgun withthe statue. He'll talk about the sculpting process. The head of this particular figure took more than six weeks so that they could get an accurate likeness of Jackman.

I'll race you there! (And, um, yeah. That's the wax figure to your right ...)

The Toronto International Film Festival opened Thursday. In its 33rd year, the festival boasts 335 films from 64 countries. Creation, starring Paul Bettany and wife Jennifer Connelly as Mr. and Mrs. Charles Darwin, opens the 10-day fest.

Pull out your awards card and start taking notes: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' best picture, Slumdog Millionaire, won the People's Choice award at last year's edition.

Stars will be all over, and that includes the Queen of All Media, Oprah Winfrey, who will attend in support of Push, which is already garnering Oscar mention.

Follow movie critic Chris Vognar as he wades through the sea of celebrities (and their movies) @guidelivemovies and here at the Screening Room.

It Might Get Loud

Extract

My One and Only

Soul Power

Séraphine

World's Greatest Dad

All About Steve

More often than not, we'll all know a film is opening on a certain date, but we won't get to see it in time to give you a review. That hamstrings us just as much as it does you, dear reader. So, I've found this little feature that we'll try to trot out every time we miss out on the big films.

You can always come back home for the review, though, just not on Friday ... Sigh. This week's hold-out? Gamer, starring Gerard Butler, Michael C. Hall and Ludacris, ahem, Chris Bridges.

By Robert W. Butler
The Kansas City Star
GAMER
Rated R
Time: 95 mins.
What is it? In the future people play video games in which real living humans -- convicts who volunteer hoping for an early release -- become pawns in life-and-death scenarios.
Why didn't Lionsgate show it to the press? The studio has a longstanding policy of not screening most of its exploitation and genre titles for critics.
Why we'd see it: We're big fans of Scottish actor Gerard Butler (as one of the prisoners who gets wrapped up in the game) and Michael C. Hall (TV's Dexter, as a sinister game designer).
Why we wouldn't: Writers-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor made the high-energy, low-content Crank films. This looks like more of the same ... and we're looking for something more substantial.

(Photo of Gerard Butler by Saeed Adyani/Lionsgate)

If you're looking for a theme for your next party, this week's DVD releases have one (or two) ready and waiting for you. Blaxploitation films probably won't become the rage that they once were, but with Black Lightning on its way to a theater near you, there's no better time for that party. Out this week and fitting snugly into that genre are double features of Blacula/Scream, Blacula, Scream; Black Mama, White Mama/Foxy Brown; Cornbread Earl & Me/Cooley High; Hell Up in Harlem/Cotton Comes to Harlem; Coffee/Friday Foster.

Or go with an animated theme with a lot of Batman , Batman & Robin, Batman Beyond and Scooby Doo on the release schedule, along with Static Shock and Ben 10. Or even a poetry night, with Brave New Voices or Russell Simmons Presents: Def Poetry. Yes, Brave New Voices is also presented by Simmons.

Whichever. It's your choice.

Other releases

Bring it On: Fight to the Finish - Hey, you might as well finish out the series. This time, Christina Milian stars as the fish out of water with mad cheer skills.
Brave New Voices - Queen Latifah narrates and Russell Simmons presents as youth teams from 45 cities compete to see whose voice will be lifted.
Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Third Season - Oh, Sally Field, Calista Flockhart and Rob Lowe ... what would TV be without you?
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Ninth Season - Eww. Did you see that time that the eyeball was in the tree?! Eww. Double eww.