This week’s film offerings include a James Bond movie and a Hitchcock thriller
What could be more romantic than killing your girlfriend’s pimp?
If your answer is “nothing,” you’re the perfect audience for “True Romance.”
Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Taratino, “True Romance” centers on a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde whose passion for each other borders on the disturbing.
Comic book store clerk Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) and amateur prostitute Alabama (Patricia Arquette) meet at a martial arts movie fest in Detroit and promptly fall in love.
Fortunately, the only thing standing the way of their marriage and a new life in Los Angeles is Alabama’s nasty pimp, Drexl (Gary Oldman). Talk about a lucky break. A vicious, violent criminal is no match for young love.
Clarence guns down Drexl and his henchman.
Then he grabs a wedding president: a suitcase stuffed with $5 million of cocaine. Stolen cocaine. Cocaine that just happens to belong to a vicious Sicilian gangster (Christopher Walken) and his army of thugs.
With the police and the mob hot on their trail, our young lovers just might learn the meaning of “true romance.”
Released just a year after “Reservoir Dogs,“ “True Romance” represents Taratino at his freshest and craziest. His characters cuss like sailors, brawl like drunken Marines and spout pop culture and old-fashioned cool like the hippest hipsters imaginable — all while receiving visitations from Elvis Presley (Val Kilmer) himself.
Memorable quotes — including Dennis Hopper’s famous speech in the “Sicilian scene” — abound. Plus, the movie offers early appearances by some of Hollywood’s modern-day movers and shakers, including Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson and James “The Sopranos” Gandolfini.
What honest-to-goodness romantic could resist that?
Watch “True Romance” at 7 p.m. or 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at The Palm Theatre, 817 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. Tickets are $7.50.
***
Not in the mood for romance? Watch “The Spy Who Loved Me” under the stars instead.
When a Royal Navy submarine carrying 16 nuclear warheads disappears while on patrol, British super-spy James Bond (Roger Moore) is dispatched to track it down.
He finds himself working closely with his lovely Soviet counterpart, Mayor Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach). Together, they must defeat an evil shipping magnate (go-to Germanic villain Curd Jurgens) and his giant, iron-jawed henchman (Richard Kiel) before World War III breaks out.
“The Spy Who Loved Me” is the latest film in “Cinema Under the Stars ’007 Style’,” an outdoor screening series at Dolphin Bay Resort and Spa, 2727 Shell Beach Road in Shell Beach.
Free lawn seating begins at 7:30 p.m. Drinks and snacks are available for sale.
Moviegoers also have the option of a three-course dinner served on the patio, starting at 7 p.m. That costs $49 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations are required.
Call 773-8900 for more information.
***
Edna Valley Vineyard presents a special screening Friday of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Shadow of a Doubt.“
Charlotte “Charlie” Newton (Teresa Wright) has always shared a special bond with her Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) — a witty, charming man whose visits to her North California home brighten her day.
When Charlie comes down with a fresh case of those small town blues. she dashes off a telegram begging Uncle Charlie to visit. But what’s this?
Uncle Charlie is already on his way, and he’s bringing friends. On his heels are two detectives who suspect him of being “The Merry Widow Murderer”, a notorious strangler wanted in connection with the deaths of several wealthy widows.
“Shadow of a Doubt” screens at dusk Friday at Edna Valley Vineyard, 2585 Biddle Ranch Rd. in San Luis Obispo. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets cost $10, with all proceeds benefiting the local chapter of the American Cancer Society
Moviegoers are encouraged to bring a low-backed lawn chair or blankets. Picnics are allowed, but outside alcohol is forbidden. Wine and other beverages will be available for sale.
The “Movies Under the Stars” screening series continues with “The Big Clock” on July 24 and “The Big Sting” on Aug. 21.
For more information, call Renee Graas at 544-5855, ext. 31.
***
Also on Friday, Louise Hogarth presents her documentary about South African AIDS workers, “Angels in the Dust.”
An independent filmmaker who tackles such tough topics as AIDS, human rights and poverty, Hogarth produced and directed “The Gift,“ a controversial documentary about HIV-positive gay men, and co-produced “The Panama Deception,“ which won an Academy Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary in 1994.
Her film “Angels in the Dust” chronicles the inspiring story of Marion Cloete, a university-trained therapist who— along with her husband and three daughters— walked away from a privileged life in a Johannesburg suburb to build Botshabelo, a village and school that provides shelter, food, and education to more than 550 South African children.
“Angels in the Dust” will be shown at 7 p.m. Friday at the San Luis Obispo public library, 995 Palm St. in San Luis Obispo. Admission is $5.
Hogarth will attend the screening and lead a question-and-answer session afterward.
For more information, visit the Circle of Spiritual Enlightenment online.
***
“True Romance” image via fellow WordPress blogger SmackAMack.
No related posts.
1 comment
The Man from Moqui
June 24, 2009 at 9:34 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I remember visiting the video rental store — remember THOSE days? — and seeing the videotape box of True Romance and wondering what the story was about. I always found some reason NOT to rent it. Sounds like I should have checked it out.