Spitball Army

I live in the Crestwood neighborhood of Birmingham. There is a movie theatre down the street from me called The Edge 12. I can walk there from my home, if I so desire. This theatre has twelve screens. They frequently show films of great merit. They also show films for everyone else. We all get to choose.

(photo: spitballarmy.com)

Four new films have opened at The Edge 12 this week:

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (2011)
Directed by Michael Rapaport.
Rated R.

Actor Michael Rapaport (who got munched by the shark early on in Deep Blue Sea), turns director for this portrait of one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of all time, the Queens NY collective known as A Tribe Called Quest. Rapaport and his camera crew chronicle the band’s 2008 reunion tour. Using all-access interviews with Tribe members Q-Tip, Phife Dawg and Ali Shaheed Muhamad and cinéma vérité-style filmmaking, Rapaport attempts to foster a conversation to determine if there is a possibility to mend the wounds from over the years. The film also includes interviews from the Beastie Boys, Pharrell Williams, Mos Def, Santigold, Monie Love, Pete Rock, Large Professor, De La Soul, The Jungle Brothers and Common, all of whom express some combination of love, respect and inspiration drawn from the legacy of A Tribe Called Quest.

The Devil’s Double (2011)
Directed by Lee Tamahori.
Starring Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier, Raad Rawi.
Rated R.

Summoned from the frontline to Saddam Hussein’s palace, Iraqi army lieutenant Latif Yahia (Cooper) is thrust into the highest echelons of the “royal family” when he’s ordered to become the ‘fiday’ – or body double – to Saddam’s son, the notorious “Black Prince” Uday Hussein (also Cooper, just with a little more make-up). Uday is a reckless, sadistic party-boy with a rabid hunger for sex and brutality. Can you tell where this is heading? With his and his family’s lives at stake, Latif must surrender his former self forever as he learns to walk, talk and act like Uday. But nothing could have prepared him for the horror of the Black Prince’s psychotic, drug-addled life of fast cars, easy women and impulsive violence.

It is hard to imagine that such a story could be true, but the script for The Devil’s Double is based on Latif Yahia’s book of the same name, in which he details these very events as they happened to him. He currently lives in Ireland, but is stateless – a “citizen of the world” – not having been offered citizenship by any European country. He continues writing, and is an ambassador for peace and global human rights through Amnesty International.

Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark (2011)
Directed by Troy Nixey.
Starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce, Jack Thompson, Bailee Madison.
Rated R.

As long as he can remember, the film director Guillermo del Toro (Cronos; Pan’s Labyrinth) has been haunted by a prime-time television horror film that he had seen as a youth, entitled Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Now, using his sizable screenwriting skills, del Toro has adapted that 1973 script for the big screen. Whether he is exorcising the demons of his childhood or just exacting psychological revenge on a new generation of young moviegoers is anyone’s guess.

In the story, introverted Sally Hurst (Madison) has just moved in with her father, Alex (Pearce), and his girlfriend, Kim (Holmes), when she realizes that their sprawling estate holds its fair share of secrets. Descending into the depths of the house, Sally gains access to a secret lower level that has lain undisturbed for nearly a century, when the original builder vanished without a trace. When Sally accidentally opens the gateway that kept the creatures locked up tight (I can already hear members of the audience screaming, “Don’t do it!!” as she reached for a door knob), she realizes that in order to prevent them from destroying her family she must convince her skeptical father that monsters really exist…which is probably just about as easy as convincing children that there is indeed a Santa Claus, after they have crossed over to the dark side of adolescent awareness.

Our Idiot Brother (2011)
Directed by Jesse Peretz.
Starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan.
Rated R.

Every family has one: the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together. For sisters Liz (Mortimer), Miranda (Banks) and Natalie (Deschanel), that person is their perennially upbeat brother Ned (Rudd), an erstwhile organic farmer whose willingness to rely on the honesty of mankind turns out to be a less-than-optimum strategy for a tidy, trouble-free existence. Ned may be utterly lacking in common sense, but he is their brother and so, after his girlfriend dumps him and boots him off the farm, his sisters once again come to his rescue. As Liz, Miranda and Natalie each take a turn at housing Ned, their brother’s unfailing commitment to honesty creates more than a few messes in their comfortable routines. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned’s family comes to realize that maybe, in believing and trusting the people around him; Ned isn’t such an idiot after all. Just call him Dopey, grab him by the ears, and kiss the crown of his head.

The following nine films have been extended for another week:
• Aarakshan
• Conan the Barbarian (3D)
• Final Destination 5 (3D)
• Fright Night
• The Help
• One Day
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• The Smurfs
• Spy Kids: All the Time in the World

The following five films ended their current run this week:
• Buck
• Captain America: The First Avenger
• Cowboys and Aliens
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two
• 30 Minutes or Less

The Edge 12 has some ongoing promotions. Tuesdays have been dubbed “$5.00 Tuesdays”: most films can be seen for just a $5.00 admission ticket. And, on Fridays, The Edge 12 offers free popcorn at all shows.

The Edge 12 Theatre is located at 7001 Crestwood Boulevard. A recording detailing all movie times can be accessed by telephoning (205) 795-3500; a real live human answers the phone at (205) 795-3595. Showtimes can also be found on the MovieTickets website. The theatre has a Facebook page under the name The Edge 12 Birmingham and tweets under the handle @Edge12Bhm.

Information in the capsule summaries above might have been provided, in varying degrees, by IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes and Wikipedia.