Movies: July 2009 Archives

Dr. Suess' 1971 classic "The Lorax" will be made into a 3-D animated movie that will hit theaters March 2012. (I hope it's not like the dreadful 2000 "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" remake.)

I'm surprised that this took so long. Hollywood's been remaking everything under the sun and being green is so hot right now. Read about The Lorax Project, which protect forests and endangered species.

Buy the original book here and the original cartoon here. It was a Broadway show, too.

Many important events happened 40 years ago: The moon landing, race riots and Woodstock.

"Taking Woodstock" is a movie about a guy who accidently set up the generation-defining concert Aug. 15, 1969 at a dairy farm in Bethel, N.Y. It opens in August. (Watch the trailer to the right.)
Bethel Woods Music Festival hosts a Heroes of Woodstock 40th anniversary concert with the Levon Helm Band, Jefferson Starship and others at 5 p.m. Aug. 15. Tickets range from $69 to $19.69.

Share your Woodstock memories for our "Remember" oral history series. Call 771-2008 and follow the instructions. Deadline is Aug. 1.

Locals ace our Harry Potter quiz before the midnight showing of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" July 15. The movie's been making millions. Read a movie review from our Teen Takeover blog. Do you think the summer blockbuster did justice to the book?

Critics are raving about the Iraq War movie "The Hurt Locker." Some have even been saying it will be up for an Oscar.

Check out the trailer. The movie's limited release was June 26, but it hasn't come to the area yet.

I'm crossing my fingers that it hits local theaters soon. I bet audiences will be blown away. (Pun kind of intended.)

1. Saw Wilco play in Wilmington, Del. (Crew members in white tails cleared celery fans flung onstage. Yeah, I guess you had to be there.)
2. Saw "The Propsal." (It was cheesy, but gave me my Ryan Reynolds, aka The Green Lantern, fix.)
3. Cursed Bravo for creating addictive/awful/based-on-hit-TV-series reality shows. (Another one starts Tuesday.)
4. Plotted my Fall 2009 dream wardrobe. (Will recreate at Target and Forever 21.)
5. Revamped the FlipSide MySpace page. Check it out.

You know those amusement park rides your friends dare you to get on? The ones that where you can barely keep your eyes open because you're terrified you might die?

That's what watching "Bruno" is like. It's sheer horror, but you laugh anyway. Warning to the easily offended, weak-stomached and always-politically-correct persons: You will hate this movie.

Harry Potter star Rupert Grint, aka Ron Weasley, got the H1N1 virus, aka swine flu, but is recovering.

Apparently the young sorcerer, armed with fictional spells and other magic, laughed in the face of death:

[Grint] joked: "I was like 'am I going to die?', but it was fine - just a sore throat."

But that illness isn't why co-star Emma Watson didn't like kissing Grint.

Love might be brewing in the sixth Potter flick "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," which drops June 15. It sounds like things are getting pretty hot and heavy over at Hogwarts. Click here to watch a trailer. (Photo: AP)

I let the haters get to me yesterday. I was actually worried that "Public Enemies" wouldn't live up to the hype. But I was satisfied when I walked out of the theater. The movie didn't blow me away. But it definitely didn't disappoint. The costumes, tightly cropped shots and sparse settings were second-to-none. To quote the rap classic: Damn, it feels good to be a gangster. Read the rest of the review on the jump.

I'm so stoked to see Christian Bale face off against Johnny Depp today in "Public Enemies." (I've been waiting for months.) For the occasion, copy editor Jess Krout brought in a front page of the Hanover Evening Sun from 1934. It ran an AP story about John Dillinger:

ST. PAUL, MINN., APR. 4. -- Federal guns blazing a leaden retort to gang defiance, had cut close today the trail of the arch-fugitive John Dillinger, and reddened it with the blood of one of his gun-toting pals. Read more on the jump.