MUSIC
Dr. Calvin Taylor. 7-8:15 p.m. McKinleyville Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1200 Central Ave. Classically trained and with a 1 ½ octave handspan, Dr. Taylor presents a concert of sacred music, including his own arrangements of traditional spirituals. www.a-m-adventist. org. 840-9135.
FOOD
Pints for Non-Profits. 5-10 p.m. Redwood Curtain Brewing Company, 550 South G St, Arcata. Support Green Wheels to help christen a newly added bicycle rack in the Arcata community. A portion of all sales benefits Green Wheels. www.green-wheels.org. 269-2061.
ETC.
Audio Basics for Videographers. 6-8 p.m. Access Humboldt Community Media Center, Eureka High School. Clyde Johnson teaches fundamentals of digital audio fades, mixing etc. in Audacity, a free audio editing software. $20. www.accesshumboldt.net. 476-1798.
23 thursday THEATER
The Language Archive. 8 p.m. Redwood Curtain Theatre. See Feb. 16 listing.
ART
Figure Drawing Group. 7-9 p.m. Cheri Blackerby Gallery. See Feb. 16 listing.
COMEDY
Random Acts of Comedy. 8 p.m. Arcata Theater Lounge, 1036 G St., Arcata. Humboldt’s funniest freaks this side of the asylum, local loons and possible pole dancers perform. $5/$10 adv. 822-1220.
LECTURE
Solar Makes it Big. 5:30-7 p.m. Gist Hall Room 218, HSU. Sustainable Futures Speaker Series presents Zack Zoller speaking on “Scaling Up Solar Photovoltaics for Large Systems.”www.schatzlab.org/education/speaker_series. html. 826-4345.
Heads Up…
Put a Bird on It! Friends of the Arcata Marsh and Redwood Region Audubon Society are co-sponsoring a Student Bird Art Contest in conjunction with Godwit Days. Over $500 in prizes will be awarded to Humboldt County students from kindergarten through high school who submit a drawing of one of 40 suggested species of birds. Check out rras.org or email sueleskiw@suddenlink. net for more info. ●
Sat Feb 18 - 15th Annual Arcata Eye Ball Doors at 7 p.m. $15 or $20 for 2 All ages Sun Feb 19th Gone with the Wind Doors at 5:30 p.m. $5 Rated G
Even without Jar Jar Binks, this week’s releases ring false
the vow
Wed Feb 22th Sci Fi Pint & Pizza Night ft. Krull (1983) 6 p.m. - 10 p.m. All ages
arcatatheatre.com • 822-1220 • 1036 G St.
By John J. Bennett filmland@northcoastjournal.com
Previews
THE VOW. There is a moment, midway through The Vow, when Rachel McAdams flubs a line, spits chocolate into her own hair and falls apart laughing. The scene is obviously an outtake, and we cut away before she or costar Channing Tatum fully break character. It’s a completely organic moment, and it happens to be the only one in the whole movie. As such, it highlights the fact that The Vow is disappointingly superficial. The simple story has been told before, though it’s apparently inspired by true events. A happily married couple survives a car crash, but it robs the wife of every memory of her married life. Essentially, she reverts to the woman she was before meeting her husband. If the filmmakers had approached the subject differently, they could have filled this movie with moments like the one described above. I think McAdams and Tatum have it in them, if directed properly, to really live in the characters they play. Not to say either one could pull off Margaret Thatcher, but they’re both talented enough. Unfortunately, director/co-writer Michael Sucsy treats them more as names on a marquee than actors, so their talents are mostly wasted. Plus, I would have a hard time believing Tatum as a bohemian indie-rock producer, no matter who was directing. Dressing him in cabled sweaters with toggle buttons doesn’t help. He looks like he’s trying unsuccessfully to fit in at a Big Sur key party circa 1973. My wife and I saw this in a theater full of people who couldn’t have enjoyed it more. They laughed at all the jokes, sighed at the sad parts and got all giggly whenever Tatum took off his shirt. Based on that reaction, the movie is a resounding success. But for me, it never digs deep enough into the terror and desolation that would inevitably accompany such events. PG13. 104m. At the Broadway and Mill Creek. JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND 3D. I was prepared to really enjoy this sequel to 2008’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. I never saw the first installment, and beyond
the trailer I had no idea what to expect. But I like fantastical escapist fare as much as anybody, and with Luis Guzman, Michael Caine and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the cast, I had high hopes — hopes that were dashed almost immediately. The basic premise is completely implausible, but I can forgive that. A teenaged Jules Verne acolyte (Josh Hutcherson) somehow intercepts an encoded radio transmission from his long-lost adventurer grandfather. His stepfather (Johnson), who happens to be a Navy-trained cryptographer, helps him decipher the message. Then they fly halfway around the world, charter a helicopter and crash land on a mysterious island. Complications ensue. The problem here is that the filmmakers seem to think they have to dumb-down the material just because it’s a family movie. The jokes are flat and obvious, and the dialogue is mostly exposition. Midway through, Journey 2 becomes a disaster movie, but the danger that might have made it thrilling never materializes. So we’re left with an adventure comedy with a stunted sense of humor and low-stakes action. Despite the presence of a surprisingly capable cast and a fun conceit, Journey 2 never rises above mediocrity. The cinematography is unimaginative, and the director seems more interested in 3D tricks and CGI than storytelling. What could have been high adventure in a classic vein comes off contrived and uninteresting. PG. 94m. In 3D and 2D at the Broadway, Mill Creek and Fortuna. SAFE HOUSE. Ah Denzel Washington, who will never age. Despite wearing a saltand-pepper goatee, he looks the same as he did 10 years ago. A character in Safe House even calls him the black Dorian Gray. Thanks to that, and his usual smooth bravado, Washington carries the movie, barely escalating it above the standard CIA actioner we’ve all seen so many times. Ryan Reynolds co-stars as Matt Weston, continued on next page
NEW & USED
www.wildwood.ws
22 wednesday
Empty Promises
Feb 16-22
Folk Instruments Books & Accessories
I W o m e n -o W n e d I
Gentlemen’s Club Nightly 8pm-3am 1 8 + O N LY
Visit our Website to meet the Girls! WWW.FabulouStiptop.Com
Club: 443-5696 • bar: 443-6923 King Salmon Exit, Hwy. 101, Eureka
northcoastjournal.com •• North NORTH Coast COAST Journal JOURNAL •• Thursday, THURSDAY, Feb. FEB. 16, 16, 2012 2012 northcoastjournal.com
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