THE BOOK THIEF
When the Markus Zusak bestseller The Book Thief came on the scene in 2005, it was only a matter of time before a movie studio gobbled it up. Told from the perspective of the young girl Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) who goes to live with a foster family during WWII (Emily Watson, Geoffrey Rush), the film depicts one family’s fight to stand up against the Nazis. (LJ) Rated PG-13
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
The true story of the Vermont cargo ship captain who delivers food and water to Africa, and whose ship is hijacked by Somali pirates is both a nail-biter and a fascinating character study, mostly centering on the relationship between the cool, calm captain (Tom Hanks) and the determined but unsure pirate leader Muse (newcomer Barkhad Abdi). The adventure parts are thrilling, the attack and takeover is unnerving, the lifeboat sequences are claustrophobic. (ES) Rated PG-13
FROZEN
Frozen is a princess story; Disney is doubling down on the princesses — there’s two of ’em here. But Disney is also doubling down on the hints of nascent feminism Brave hinted at, the sort of barebones feminism which accepts that girls and women might possibly want more out of life than to get married. The princesses are sisters — the elder Elsa (the voice of Idina Menzel) and the younger Anna (the voice of Kristen Bell) — and this is mostly the story of their troubled relationship because Elsa is known to turn things into ice with her magical powers. (MJ) Rated PG
GRUDGE MATCH
Sylvester Stallone, of course, was Rocky Balboa and Robert De Niro played Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull. So they both know the world of fictitious boxing fairly well. So why not make a movie that features both? That’s essentially the thinking beyond this bizarrely conceived film about two former boxing rivals who come together 30 years after their most recent fight to go at each other one more time. The conceit is ridiculous, but Stallone and De Niro might have the comedic chops to liven it up. They get help from Kevin Hart, Alan Arkin and Kim Basinger in a solid cast that might save this clumsy concept. (MB) Rated PG-13
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
Splitting up a novel into three movies might seem like a bad idea, but most audience members will be still trying to keep track of all the names in this fantasy flick based on the Tolkien classic. (Smaug? Biblo? Erebor? Come on, now.) This second chunk features the majority of the action as Biblo Baggins (Martin Freeman) journeys with Wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and 13 dwarves to save the dwarf kingdom of Erebor. (ER) PG-13
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
Almost a year after surviving The Hunger Games, victors Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) live torn between the bourgeois control of the Capitol and the serfdom of their home, District 12. A cloud of tension hovers over their relationship in the wake of Katniss faking a romance with Peeta in order to survive the Games, while she actually pines for Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth). Their vic-
tory sparked the hope that President Snow feared, and to quell the potential for uprising, he and the conniving new gamesmaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymor Hoffman) concoct a plan to destroy the symbol Katniss has become. (SS) Rated PG-13
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS
Joel and Ethan Coen, following their own footsteps of filling a film with music, as they did in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, this time take on the early ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene. The title character (Oscar Isaac) is a multi-talented folkie who has no people skills and is likely ahead of his time. The people around him seem to cause nothing but crises, but the determined Llewyn sings on, against all odds. Not always a good idea in a Coen Brothers film. (ES) Rated R
KILL YOUR DARLINGS
If you needed evidence that Daniel Radcliffe could survive a decade as Harry Potter you should really check out the actor as legendary poet Allen Ginsberg in this film about the early days of the beat movement. Here, we see Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston) and William Burroughs brought together by the murder of David Kammerer by a mutual friend. At Magic Lantern (MB) Rated R
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM
Set for release in the wake of Nelson Mandela’s death, it’s almost as if the creators of the film Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, were able to predict the future as people will be more interested in this film more than ever. With Idris Elba (The Wire) playing the revolutionary figure who ended apartheid in South Africa, the film covers the life of Mandela until his presidential inauguration. (LJ) Rated PG-13
NEBRASKA
Finding a Publishers Clearing House envelope stating that he’s won a million bucks, Woody Grant, a reckless, lonely boozer played by 77-year-old Bruce Dern, heads out from Montana to Nebraska to claim his fortune. He takes along his skeptical son (Will Forte), who’s humoring him, as Woody tells everyone he knows that he’s become a millionaire, gathering clingy new money-hungry friends along the way. Payne (Sideways, The Descendants, Election) shot the film in black and white, adding its already present sense of despair. (MB) R
OUT OF THE FURNACE
Can two brothers be any more different? Good boy Russell (Christian Bale), resigned to working in a small-town mill, tries to keep a protective eye on his loose cannon younger brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) and Iraq war vet who would rather pummel opponents in bare-knuckle street fights to pay off his debts than get a job. Willem Dafoe plays a good-hearted bad guy, Woody Harrelson plays a purely evil one, everyone owes everyone else big money, brutal violence is an everyday thing, vengeance and/or revenge is on the minds of many. (ES) Rated R
PHILOMENA
Philomena Lee, an elderly British woman, confides in her daughter that she gave birth to a son in Ireland 50 years earlier. Unwed at the time, she was forced to give him up for adoption. Martin, a former government adviser and journalist out of a job, is looking for a story idea to bring to his editor. At a party, he hears of
Philomena. Together, he and Philomena investigate the life of her lost son and find themselves exploring America looking for answers. (KS) Rated R
THE PUNK SINGER
This insightful doc inspects the life of one of punk rock’s most influential players, Kathleen Hanna, who fronted the revolutionary act Bikini Kill. She was part of a wave of female-fronted punk bands in the early ’90s that gave birth to the “riot grrrl” (which also happened to be the name of the feminist magazine she helped publish) movement. If you’re a fan of ’90s indie rock, check this out and you’ll see plenty faces you grew up with. At Magic Lantern (MB) Not Rated
SAVING MR. BANKS
Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) has a 20-year promise hanging over his head. After his daughters ask for their beloved Mary Poppins to be turned into a movie, Disney begins a quest to gain the rights from stubborn P.L Travers (Emma Thompson). Refusing him time and time again for fear Walt has a two-week window where she will listen to his proposal, and hopefully let him make his movie. Telling the story of how once again Walt Disney made magic, as well as where the famous Poppins originated from, this film ironically Disney-ifies the truth of the story, giving it an unnecessary happy ending. (ER) PG-13
THE MAGIC LANTERN FRI JAN 3RD - THUR JAN 9TH
ALL IS LOST (96 MIN PG 13) Fri/Sat: 2:00 & 6:30, Sun: 1:00 & 5:15 Tues-Thurs: 3:00
GREAT EXPECTATIONS (120 MIN PG-13) Fri/Sat: 4:00, Sun: 3:00, Tues-Thurs: 5:00
THE PUNK SINGER (80 MIN - R) Fri/Sat: 8:30, Sun: 7:15, Tues-Thurs: 7:15
WADJDA (96 MIN -PG) Fri/Sat: 3:30 & 8:00, Sun: 1:30 & 6:00 Tues-Thurs: 4:30
THE ARMSTRONG LIE (120 MIN -R) Fri/Sat: 5:30, Sun: 3:30, Tues-Thurs: 6:30 25 W Main Ave • 509-209-2383 • All Shows $8 www.magiclanternspokane.com
HIGH FRAME RATE
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
Airway Heights 10117 W State Rt 2 • 509-232-0444
Arriving at the offices of Life where he toils in “negative asset management,” Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) discovers that the venerable publication has been bought out and condemned to the most undignified of fates: going web-only. A frequent day dreamer, Walter soon finds himself heading out to Greenland to track down one of his photographers (Sean Penn) who has all but disappeared — thus giving Walter some real-life adventures. (CW) Rated PG
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES R Daily (5:45) 7:45 9:45 Fri-Sun (11:45) (1:45)
AMERICAN HUSTLE
R Daily (3:40) 6:30 9:20 Fri-Sun (12:45)
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
R Daily (4:15) 8:15 Fri-Sun (12:15)
47 RONIN
PG-13 Daily (4:20) 9:50 In 2D Daily 7:10 Fri-Sun (10:50) (1:30)
GRUDGE MATCH
PG-13 Daily (4:15) 6:45 9:15 Fri-Sun (11:15)
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
PG Daily (4:30) 7:00 9:30 Fri-Sun (11:30) (2:00)
ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES
WADJDA
Directed and written by Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first ever Saudi Arabian female film-maker, this film gives us the life of rebellious Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) who discovers a bicycle in a store that she must have. Her mother, preoccupied with the fact that her husband may take on a second wife, dismisses the notion. Precocious Wadjda refuses to give up, though. At Magic Lantern. (ER) Rated PG
PG-13 Daily (4:25) 7:00 9:30 Fri-Sun (11:15) (1:50)
THE HOBBIT: THE DESTOLATION OF SMAUG PG-13 Daily (2:50) 9:25 In 2D Daily 6:10 Fri-Sun (11:40)
FROZEN
PG Daily (3:50) 6:15 8:35 Fri-Sun (11:00) (1:30)
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
PG Daily (3:45) Fri-Sun (10:30) (11:00) (1:45)
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Wandermere
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES
R Daily (1:45) (3:45) (5:45) 7:45 9:45 Fri-Sun (11:45)
Times For 8/6 - 8/12
AMERICAN HUSTLE
R Daily (12:45) (3:40) 6:30 9:20
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET R Daily (12:15) (4:15) 8:15
47 RONIN
PG-13 Daily (4:20) 9:50 In 2D Daily (1:30) 7:10 Fri-Sun (10:50)
GRUDGE MATCH
PG-13 Daily (1:45) (4:15) 6:45 9:15 Fri-Sun (11:15)
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
PG Daily (2:00) (4:30) 7:00 9:00 9:30 Fri-Sun (11:30)
SAVING MR. BANKS
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Martin Scorsese’s satirical adaptation of a memoir by Jordan Belfort, who rose from Long Island penny stock swindler to shady Wall Street power player, is so over the top that it risks becoming what it sets out to mock. But it’s a spectacle of opulence that demands to be seen. The film is all about Jordan Belfort’s (Leonardo DiCaprio) pursuit of more: more money, more stocks, more vulgarity, more power, more excess, more sex and more drugs. It’s the warping of the American dream into pure basal depravity. (SS) Rated R.
PG-13 Daily (3:00) 6:20 9:20 Fri-Sun (12:00)
12622 N Division • 509-232-7727
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
More advanced than the animation in Land Before Time but just as heartwarming, Walking with Dinosaurs, set in the late Cretaceous period more than 70 million years ago, follows three dinos — Patchi, Scowler, and Juniper — as they transition out of childhood into adulthood and lead their herd in migrating. cularly produced. (KS) PG
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE
PG-13 Daily (1:20) (4:00) 6:40 9:20 Fri-Sun (10:45)
ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES
Wishing you Peace & Prosperity in the New Year Mon-Sat 10am-5:30pm 35 W. Main, Spokane 509-464-7677
PG-13 Daily (1:50) (4:25) 7:00 9:30 Fri-Sun (11:15)
THE HOBBIT: THE DESTOLATION OF SMAUG
PG-13 HIGH FRAME RATE Daily (2:15) 8:45 In 2D Daily (2:50) (5:30) 6:10 9:25 Fri-Sun (11:00) (11:40)
FROZEN
PG Daily (1:30) (2:10) (3:50) (4:30) 6:15 6:45 8:35 9:10 Fri-Sun (11:00) (11:45)
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS
PG Daily (5:15) In 2D Daily (1:00) (3:10) 7:15 Fri-Sun (10:50)
THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE PG-13 Daily (12:00) (3:00) 6:20 9:20
Showtimes in ( ) are at bargain price. Special Attraction — No Passes Showtimes Effective 1/3/14-1/9/14
JANUARY 2, 2014 INLANDER 39