Staff photo
The AMC Fiesta Square 12 Cinema is scheduled to reopen on Aug. 27, according to AMC’s website, just in time for the scheduled release of “The New Mutants” on Aug. 28 and “Tenet” on Sept. 3.
The theater has been closed since the weekend of March 20 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. A news release said AMC, the world’s largest theater chain, would open 100 of its theaters on Aug. 20 with 300 more reopening over the next two weeks.
Malco Theaters, which operates the Razorback Cinema Grill & IMAX in Fayetteville, the Malco in Springdale, and the Malco Pinnacle and Malco Towne Center cinemas in Rogers, has not announced a reopening date for any of its local theaters (see update below). The Razorback and Pinnacle theaters briefly reopened in July but closed again due to the surge of coronavirus infections in the area.
The New Mutants
“The New Mutants” is a spinoff from the X-Men franchise and was produced by Fox Studios, prior to its sale to Disney. The hors-tinged super-hero film has had several releases scheduled, dating back to 2018, but each of them were derailed for various reasons.
Tenet
Director Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” was one of the most highly anticipated films of the year even before the coronavirus bounced it from a July opening to its scheduled September debut.
Film exhibitors hope the dearth of new material over the last five months coupled with the release of these two movies will drive even reluctant film fans back to the theaters.
AMC’s website details the efforts its theaters are taking to provide a safe movie-going experience for audiences when the theaters reopen.
New horror flick induces snores instead of chills
We Summon the Darkness (Netflix)
(R) 1 hr. 31 min.
Sometimes writing movie reviews is a pure delight. There’s nothing like sharing your thoughts on a great film in the hopes of enticing someone else to take the plunge and watch the movie
Other times it’s a chore like taking out the garbage. Sometimes it’s a public service like flashing your lights to warn an oncoming driver that there’s a speed trap ahead. This is one of those times.
I watched “We Summon the Darkness” and am writing this review so that if you were thinking about watching this sorry excuse for a horror picture, you’ll know better than to waste 91 minutes of your life on this piece of dreck like I did.
The movie is terrible, and it’s not even bad in a fun way like the films lampooned on “Mystery Scene Theater.” The movie is rancid like old milk. It leaves a taste in your mouth that’s hard to wash out, even with a gargle of Listerine.
That’s your first warning. Here’s a second one. If you still plan on watching “We Summon the Darkness,” stop reading now, because unlike usual, I’m about to spoil the movie.
The film is set in 1988 with three 30-something actresses playing college-aged women on a road trip to see a heavy metal concert. During a pit stop at a convenience store, Beverly (Amy Forsyth) picks up a newspaper with a headline about a spree of 18 Satanic-ritual murders taking place across the Heartland. Alexis (Alexandra Daddario) ominously tells Britney not to let the headline scare her. Once they are back on the road, the third friend Val (Maddie Hasson) turns up the radio and the trio hears another report about the murders.
About that time, a van passes them on the highway and throws some sort of sludgy liquid on their windshield that looks like it might be excrement or something worse, but it turns out to be a milk shake after Alexis tastes it.
Of course, when the girls reach the concert, the van is there. Val lights a package of firecrackers and throws it in the van window, and three male metal fans roll out of the van ready to fight until they see the three attractive young women.
After a little banter, they all attend the concert together. Oddly, when the guys suggest they continue the party after the show, the three ladies — who are way out of at least two of the guys’ leagues — accept and suggest they continue the party at Alexis’ house.
SPOILER ALERT
On the surface, that’s not the worst set up for a slasher film, but the twist of the women being the murderers is telegraphed from the movie’s opening scenes. The discovery that the trio are part of a Christian organization that’s stage the crime scenes to appear as if the murders were part of Satanic rituals one and effort to scare people back to God is just too ludicrous for these actresses if any actresses to convincingly sell.
The film does turn fairly grisly at this point with a lot of stabbing, smashing, slashing, and burning. It appeared that writer Alex Trezza and/or director Marc Meyers may have cribbed some of the ideas for the second- and third-act mayhem from Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
However, the movie features absolutely no tension or suspense at all, and unfortunately the performances, which weren’t that great to begin with, go off the tracks even further as the madness of the women comes to the fore.
Daddario, who has had some decent roles in the Percy Jackson franchise, “San Andreas,” and the first season of “True Detective,” served as a producer on the film. Maybe that credit is how she was convinced to be in the movie? Even if it was, she made a poor decision because her role and performance will do nothing to advance her career.
Some bad movies are fun to watch. A movie can be poorly made or contain highly suspect material and still not be boring. Unfortunately, “We Summon the Darkness” never finds that sweet spot of schlocky horror fright and fun that the better movies in the slasher genre do. “We Summon the Darkness” is just dull, derivative, and dreadful.
Classic Corner – Monday is Maureen O’Hara Day on TCM
Sinbad the Sailor
Turner Classic Movies continues its salute to the great stars of Hollywood each day during August, focusing on the films of a single actor. The lovely and talented Maureen O’Hara is the star for Monday Aug. 17.
Beginning at 5 a.m. Monday and concluding at 5 a.m. Tuesday, 17 of O’Hara’s films will be on display, starting with her first American film “Jamaica Inn” from 1939 which co-starred Charles Laughton and concluding with 1963’s “Spencer’s Mountain,” co-starring Henry Fonda.
O’Hara’s flaming red hair is stunningly featured in several of the color films, but like most stars who began their careers in the 1930s, many of her best movies are in black and white. O’Hara’s just as transfixing in both. You can find a full list of the films for Monday and the rest of the month at this link http://summer.tcm.com/.
You really can’t go wrong with any of the movies scheduled, but several of her most notable films are missing such as “The Quiet Man” from 1952 with her five-time co-star John Wayne, or the original “The Parent Trap” from 1961 co-starring Brian Keith and Haley Mills, and the John Ford Classic “How Green Was My Valley” from 1941.
That said, she shines in the Western-comedy “The Rare Breed” (1966) co-starring Jimmy Stewart that plays at 11 a.m. as well as in the heart-wrenching 1939 version of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” again performing opposite Laughton, who gives a stunning performance as Quasimodo in perhaps the finest of the many film adaptations of the classic Victor Hugo novel. It airs at 7 p.m.
Though it’s probably several months too early for some, O’Hara stars in one of the most enchanting films ever made in 1947’s Christmas classic “Miracle on 34th Street.” The movie plays at 9:15 p.m. and it seesaws with “The Quiet Man” in my mind as my favorite film featuring O’Hara.
If adventure and romance are your taste, the 1947 Technicolor version of “Sinbad the Sailor” co-starring Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays at 2:45 p.m. It’s a captivating adventure for film fans of all ages.
