IN CINEMAS NOW FILM
LOCAL THEATERS AMHERST THEATRE (DIPSON) 3500 Main St., Buffalo / 834-7655 amherst.dipsontheatres.com AURORA THEATRE 673 Main St., East Aurora / 652-1660 theauroratheatre.com EASTERN HILLS CINEMA (DIPSON) 4545 Transit Rd., / Eastern Hills Mall Williamsville / 632-1080 easternhills.dipsontheatres.com FLIX STADIUM 10 (DIPSON) 4901 Transit Rd., Lancaster / 668-FLIX flix10.dipsontheatres.com FOUR SEASONS CINEMA 6 2429 Military Rd. (behind Big Lots), Niagara Falls / 297-1951 fourseasonscinema.com HALLWALLS 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo / 854-1694 hallwalls.org
The Hateful Eight
HAMBURG PALACE 31 Buffalo St., Hamburg / 649-2295 hamburgpalace.com
KILLER RACK—Pre-release screening of Greg Lamberson’s horror comedy about a woman who gets breast implants to improve her work situation, only to discover that they are demonically possessed. Did I mention that it’s a musical? Songs by Joe Rozler and Armand John Petri. Starring Jessica Zwolak, Debbie Rochon, Paul McGinnis, Sam Qualiana, and Lloyd Kaufman. Starring Tue 9:30pm. Screening Room MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (England, 1975)—Restored version of the cult classic about pornographic moose dentistry. Directed by 40 specially trained Ecuadorian mountain llamas, six Venezuelan red llamas, 142 Mexican whooping llamas, 14 North Chilean guanacos (closely related to the llama), Reg Llama of Brixton, 76,000 battery llamas from “llama-fresh” farms ltd. near Paraguay, and Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones. Sat-Weds, Fri Jan 1, Sat Jan 2 7:30pm. Screening Room NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF WIND (Japan, 1984)— In this early film from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, a princess in a post-apocalyptic world tries to prevent the destruction of what remains of her planet. Sat-Sun Jan 2-3. North Park THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972)—The original 1970s disaster movie. In one of his more ridiculous roles, Gene Hackman hams it up as a postGod is Dead priest egging a band of survivors out of an overturned luxury liner. With Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley, Roddy McDowall, Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, Pamela Sue Martin, and Leslie Nielsen. Directed by Ronald Neame. Sat 5pm Screening Room
son (Michael B. Jordan) of Apollo Creed. Determined to follow in his father’s footsteps, her persuades the retired Rocky (Stallone moving into the Burgess Meredith part) to coach him. The result is a crowd pleaser that pays affecLOCKPORT PALACE tionate tribute to memorable locations and 2 East Ave., Lockport / 438-1130 characters from the Rocky films while followlockportpalacetheatre.org ing a different structure. Coogler also retains Stallone’s sentimentality, and the notes struck MAPLE RIDGE 8 (AMC) by the cast here are honest, even if the chal4276 Maple Rd., Amherst / 833-9545 lenge faced by his hero feels contrived. With amctheatres.com Tessa Thompson and Phylicia Rashad. –Greg Lamberson Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal MCKINLEY 6 THEATRES (DIPSON) Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal 3701 McKinley Pkwy. / McKinley Mall Walden Galleria Hamburg / 824-3479 THE GOOD DINOSAUR—There’s a subversive charm mckinley.dipsontheatres.com in the way Disney/Pixar’s latest effort inverts stereotypes without explanation—the family of NORTH PARK THEATRE apatosauruses (I checked) runs a farm complete with crops and livestock, and a human cave tod1428 Hertel Ave., Buffalo / 836-7411 dler acts like a dog—but this hero’s journey is a northparktheatre.org long haul for adults. After young Arlo’s father is killed in typical Disney fashion and a storm REGAL ELMWOOD CENTER 16 casts Arlo far away, he makes a perilous journey 2001 Elmwood Ave., Buffalo / 871–0722 home. Sam Elliott won me over as the voice of regmovies.com a grizzled T-Rex cowboy, but the overly familiar plot points are fossils. I preferred “Sanjay’s REGAL NIAGARA FALLS STADIUM 12 Super Team,” the preceding short. Directed by 720 Builders Way, Niagara Falls Peter Sohn. –Greg Lamberson Maple Ridge, Re236–0146 gal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, regmovies.com Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY—PART 2—Teen REGAL QUAKER CROSSING 18 dystopian sequel. Starring her, him, the Ozzie, 3450 Amelia Dr., Orchard Park / 827–1109 stoner dude, beardo, baldie with a toup, the regmovies.com dead guy, and that chick your dad thinks is hot. Directed by someone, I guess. Bet it’s playing at the mall! REGAL TRANSIT CENTER 18 Transit and Wehrle, Lancaster / 633–0859 IN THE HEART OF THE SEA—Moby Dick prequel, regmovies.com more or less. With Chris Hemsworth, Tom Holland, and Cillian Murphy. Directed by Ron HowTHEATER INFORMATION IS VALID THROUGH ard (Rush). Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24 REGAL WALDEN GALLERIA STADIUM 16 Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, One Walden Galleria Dr., Cheektowaga ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE ROAD CHIP—SeRegal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria 681-9414 / regmovies.com quel. With Jason Lee and Bella Thorne. Directed by Walt Becker (Old Dogs). Flix (Dipson), Maple KRAMPUS—Why did it take so long for someone Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Reto make a movie based on the Alpine folklore RIVIERA THEATRE gal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria about St. Nick’s counterpart, the demon who 67 Webster St., North Tonawanda deals with the naughty kids? Maybe because BROOKLYN—Saoirse Ronan stars as an Irish girl 692-2413 / rivieratheatre.org the subject seems impossible to deal with other who emigrates to the United States in 1951, than as a flat-out horror movie, which is hardly when the economy of her home country was THE SCREENING ROOM likely to pull in a big crowd this time of year. Diin shambles. Adapted from Colm Tóibín’s 2009 3131 Sheridan Dr., Amherst / 837-0376 rector/co-writer Michael Dougherty tries to mix novel by Nick Hornby, Brooklyn is not only an screeningroom.net in comedy by using a feuding family as the obextraordinarily good film; it’s also an important ject of Krampus’s visit, which works more due to one, arriving as it does at a time when so many SQUEAKY WHEEL the talents of the adult cast (Adam Scott, Toni people are being forced to leave the lands of 712 Main St., / 884-7172 Collette, Allison Tolman, David Koechner, and their birth and so many normally decent peosqueaky.org Conchata Ferrell) than anything in the script. ple want to turn them away. Emotionally renVISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FOR MORE FILM LISTINGS & REVIEWS >> It’s admirable that his monsters (Krampus has dered by an attractive cast and crafted in the a krew of debased holiday figures) are masked SUNSET DRIVE-IN best traditions of mainstream filmmaking—it actors and puppets rather than CGI, but they wouldn’t look out of place if you were to see it 9950 Telegraph Rd., Middleport 735look awfully low budget. And the ending is a 7372 / sunset-drivein.com some evening on Turner Classic Movies—Brookterrible cheat. But there are pleasureable molyn is a captivating and rewarding moviegoing ments along the way for genre fans. –MF Maple experience, the kind that at best comes along TJ’S THEATRE Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Reonce or twice a year. Co-starring Emory Cohen, 72 North Main St., Angola / 549-4866 gal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie newangolatheater.com Walters. Directed John Crowley (Closed CirLOVE COOPERS—Remember Love, Actually? VISIT DAILYPUBLIC.COM FORbyMORE FILM LISTINGS & THE REVIEWS >> cuit). –MF Eastern Hills (Dipson) Writer Steven Rogers (Stepmom) and director Jessie Miller (I Am Sam) obviously did in fashCREED—Sylvester Stallone finished his long-runTRANSIT DRIVE-IN ioning this American answer to Richard Curning Rocky series with Rocky Balboa in 2006, 6655 South Transit Rd., Lockport tis’s movie about different people approaching but writer-director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Sta625-8535 / transitdrivein.com Christmas while dealing with variously comic tion) convinced him to let him use the character in a spin-off film focusing on the illegitimate and dramatic circumstances. But it lacks the P
IN BRIEF
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British film’s nimbleness, coming off as a bunch of underwritten stories played by a better cast than it deserves: John Goodman, Diane Keaton, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, Amanda Seyfried, Marisa Tomei, Ed Helms, Anthony Mackie, and June Squibb. -MF Four Seasons, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit THE NIGHT BEFORE— Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and Anthony Mackie as childhood friends searching New York City for the ultimate debauched Christmas celebration. A splinter effort from the Judd Apatow comedy school (penis jokes and a James Franco cameo are inevitable), it’s a hodgepodge that evokes the holiday moviegoing spirit by vaguely referencing A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life. The sentimental stuff is pro forma, but some of the comedy is fun, particularly Rogan’s reactions to the drugs his wife gave him as a Christmas present. With Michael Shannon and Lizzy Caplan. Directed by Jonathan Levine (Warm Bodies). -MF Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria ROOM—A young woman raises her five-yearold son in small room while trying to hid form him the reality of their situation, that they are being held captive by the man who kidnapped and raped her. A crucial part of the Room’s impressive achievement is to render this situation persuasive as we experience it from the boy’s perspective. Adapted by Irish writer Emma Donoghue from her own novel, it’s a conceit that is easier to pull off in literature than with the objectifying glare of movies, but director Lenny Abrahamson somewhat improbably succeeds in conveying the receptive suggestibility of a small child and his construction of a little world. If the second half, in which the boy discovers the real world, lacks the dramatic urgency of the first it never really loses its focus, thanks largely to the acutely sensitive and sometimes riveting performances of Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay as mother and son. -GS. Eastern Hills (Dipson) CLOSES THU 12/24 SISTERS—Not a remake of the 1973 Brian De Palma movie, unfortunately. Starring Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Ike Barinholtz, John Leguizamo, and Dianne Wiest. Flix (Dipson), Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria SPECTRE—The 24th official James Bond movie is a letdown after Skyfall, though still better than any of the Bonds of the 1980s and 1990s. (A low bar, that.) Concluding his term as 007 in a series that essentially rebooted the franchise, Daniel Craig makes his reported unhappiness with the character part of his performance. But the script struggles to weave the previous Craig films into a common storyline, while preparing for a future that will feature bigger roles for team Bond—M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw), and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris). With Christoph Waltz as the villain of the piece, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, and Jesper Christensen. Directed by Sam Mendes (Skyfall). -MF Regal Quaker, Regal Transit SPOTLIGHT—One of the very best movies ever made about the working press, a group that can certainly use a little support in the face of the preening entertainment personalities, opinion pushers and bombastic bloggers who have given modern journalism a bad name. Recounting the efforts of an investigative unit at the Boston Globe to uncover decades of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and the diocese’s cover-up, the film isn’t overburdened by seriousness. Focusing on the team that worked the story, this is a film about people; with an ensemble of performances that work individually and together. It keeps a humane focus even as it generates drama. Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, and Stanley Tucci. Directed by Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent). –GS Amherst (Dipson), Regal Transit STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS—Sequel. Aurora, Flix (Dipson), Hamburg Palace, Lockport Palace, Maple Ridge, New Angola, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria, Transit Drive-In TRUMBO—Bryan Cranston is suitably amusing as Dalton Trumbo, the rakish, self-indulgent but courageous screenwriter who wrote some of Hollywood’s greatest scripts even while he was blacklisted in the 1950s. Recounting the history of the “Hollywood Ten.” Jay Roach’s film is only partly successful, self-handicapped by a combination of earnest striving for accuracy and honesty up against some muddled, fact-challenged recreations and too much drab narrative about Trumbo’s family life. With Michael Stuhlbarg as Edward G. Robinson, Helen Mirren as a broad, crude Hedda Hopper, Diane Lane, and Louis C.K. –GS Amherst (Dipson), Eastern Hills (Dipson) ENDS THURS 12/24 P
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