Out-of-the-ordinary picks for the movies
‘Hansel' and ‘Magic'
They're not exactly movies, but they're playing in movie theaters.
The operas “The Magic Flute” and “Hansel and Gretel” will be performed by the Metropolitan Opera live in a special series called “The Met: Live in HD Holiday Encore.”
Julie Taymor's production of Mozart's “Magic Flute” will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at select theaters. Humperdinck's “Hansel and Gretel” will be presented at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at area theaters. More than 10 high-def cameras will be transmitting live performances of the operas to local theaters.
Go to fathomevents.com or metopera.org/hdfamily encores.
A Zuzu for you
Actress Karolyn Grimes, who played adorable little Zuzu Bailey in the classic holiday film “It's a Wonderful Life,” will introduce showings of the movie Friday and Sunday at the Hollywood Blvd. Cinema, 1001 W. 75th St., Woodridge, and on Saturday at the Hollywood Palms Cinema, 352 S. Rte. 59, Naperville. Go to atriptothemovies.com for details.
Heads up on ‘Darkest'
The trailers to “Darkest Hour” sure look intriguing. Several Americans visit Moscow just when invisible invaders arrive on earth and begin sucking the energy out of it. The invaders disintegrate any living thing they touch.
Looks really cool, but Summit Films won't show “Darkest Hour” to critics before its opening on Christmas Day. And we all know what that means, don't we?
Sure. It's the proverbial lump of coal in the Christmas stocking — back when coal lumps were a bad thing. Go to thedarkesthourisnear.com for the trailer.
Free big-screen ‘E.T.'
A free post-Christmas screening of Steven Spielberg's classic “E.T. — The Extraterrestrial” will be offered at 7 p.m. Dec. 26 at the Paramount Theatre, 23 E. Galena Bvld., Aurora.
It's part of the theater's “Classic Movie Monday” program in which great films get one more shot at the silver screen. (“The Shining” will be shown Jan. 2, “Some Like It Hot” Jan. 9, “The Philadelphia Story” Jan. 23 and “Goldfinger” Jan. 30.)
Since it plays on Christmas weekend, “E.T.” is apparently the Paramount's gift to us. Usually, the admission to one of these films is a whopping 80 cents!
Go to paramountaurora.com for details, and don't worry too much about “E.T.” being sold out right away. The Paramount seats 1,888.
No ‘Tattoo' 'til Tuesday
My review of David Fincher's anxiously awaited remake of the Swedish thriller “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” will be published on Tuesday, because that's when it officially opens to the public.
Originally, Columbia Pictures slated “Tattoo” to open Dec. 21, then earlier this week moved it up to Dec. 20. Usually, Hollywood studios insist on an embargo that forbids critics to publish their reviews before the official opening date.
Breaking with tradition, Columbia sent critics an email earlier this month that gave them the all-clear to publish “Tattoo” reviews as of this Tuesday.
So what's the point of running a positive review of “Tattoo” (which mine will be) a week before anyone can actually go out and see it?
The question before film critics is this: Which is more important to you — your readers or your ego?
5 least favorite things
Here are five moldy conventions I hope I never have to see in a movie again:
1. Actors who “talk” to other actors while gazing through a window into the distance. This is one piece of silly theatrical artifice that the movies should have never adopted.
2. Shots of spider webs to suggest a character is about to be trapped.
3. Using a thunderstorm to foreshadow setbacks or disasters for the main characters.
4. Characters who express anger at a TV newscast by smashing the television set. (Or express anger over bad news by destroying their telephones.)
5. Cats that suddenly jump into the picture, except it's obvious that someone has thrown them by the way the terrified felines land on all four paws at once.
For a list of things that really bug me in the movies, go to girewire.com and look for “100 Ways to Get a Bad Review for Your Movie.”
• Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!