By “Cinema” Dave
http://cinemadave.livejournal.com
With lightening and Led Zeppelin, Thor: Ragnarok opens this weekend with full sound and fury. As part of the Marvel Comics universe, Thor 3 feels more like the levity of the Guardians of the Galaxy movie than the character seriousness of an Iron Man, Spider-Man or Captain America movie. With the inclusion of the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Cate Blanchett as the villainous sister Hela, Thor Ragnarok is a critic proof movie that will be on the big screen through New Year’s Day.
While sticking around for only three more weeks, The 2017 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF) kicks into high gear this weekend with the annual Opening Night Party at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe, which features Burt Reynolds and Graham Greene receiving their Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Graham Greene first came to fame with his Oscar nomination for Dances with Wolves. He has worked steadily as an ensemble player in big budgeted films like Die Hard with a Vengence, The Green Mile and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. Recently seen in the Western-Noir drama Wind River, Greene is a festival favorite and was seen in George Hickenlooper’s last movie about South Florida Casino gambling, Casino Jack, which debuted at the 2010 Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival.
Greene is expected to attend Rumble: The Indians who Rocked the World, along with Executive Producer Stevie Salas, a guitarist who wanted to share the contributions of Native Americans to rock ‘n’ roll. This documentary is presented on the big screen at the Seminole Hard Rock this Friday at 5 p.m.
Documentaries will be the strong suit of FLIFF this year and variety is the spice. Echoes will be screened at the Savor Cinema this Saturday and Cinema Paradiso Hollywood on Monday with musicians Nell Byrne & Ryan Kelly (from Celtic Thunder) in attendance. Essentially a small concert to promote their new album release, titled Echoes, this documentary features beautiful folk music and awe-inspiring visuals of Ireland.
The majority of the documentaries cover a variety of topics from fashion merchandising (Larger than life: The Kevyn Acoin Story) to forgotten mass genocide (Intent to Destroy). Both documentaries are slickly produced and will hold a viewers interest.
Cries from Syria represents documentary in its purest form. The visuals are horrible, featuring dead babies on the shoreline of the Mediterranean Sea. Told in English translation, mangled and deformed children describe the horrors of Isis on their Syrian homeland. This film fills in the bloody details of the Syrian Civil War that has taken on international proportions since 2011.
This film is a call for action, and the president listened… Having seen the slaughter of children from chemical weapons, President Trump launched 59 Tomahawk missiles last April in retaliation. It is appropriate that Cries from Syria screens Nov. 10, 2017 the first day of Veteran’s Day Weekend.
