rated R: Sarandon has a great scene as the radical Solarz, in which she conveys a lifetime of both passion and doubt to whippersnapper reporter LaBeouf. Redford, meanwhile, seems very old. Sometimes that is used to good effect, and his physical frailty increases the tension as he dodges his pursuers. But, sometimes, we’re just afraid he’s going to trip on something.

Did “The Office” overstay its welcome or recover its comic spark just in time?

There's a vocal set of fans (and former fans) of NBC’s “The Office” who feel that the show should have wrapped things up at the close of the seventh season with the departure of Dunder Mifflin regional manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell). After slogging through the mostly aimless, James Spader-ized eighth season, I was inclined to agree. However, “The Office” in its ninth, and final, season, has rallied in defense of its existence in a post-Michael Scott world.

Vestron Pictures, 1988: Based on "Dracula" author Bram Stoker’s final novel before his death in 1911, “The Lair of the White Worm” may not deliver the best high camp value, but it’s close.

This is old-school science fiction in a 21st-century wrapper. Stylistically, it’s a twin to last year’s “Prometheus,” with the digital animation sharing a certain shiny gravity, but it does not suffer from the complete nonsense that so cruelly downed that Ridley Scott vessel.

Duncan Watt and the art of music in 'BioShock Infinite'

Duncan Watt is excited. He’s spent most of the previous night playing BioShock Infinite, the newest release in the BioShock series. As a gamer, he’s waited a long time for this. And as a composer who was asked to contribute unique compositions to the game’s orchestral soundtrack, seeing all of it come together is priceless.

The “Mad Men” season premiere propels its characters into the dark end of the ’60s

“Mad Men,” for all the awards and critical praise it receives, also seems to have the same complaints lobbed at it season after season: it’s too slow, it’s too dark, it’s never met a metaphor it didn’t like. All true. Which makes me so incredibly happy to finally have it back.

Rated R: It seemed a strange gamble, for an established filmmaker like Raimi to entrust his cult hit legacy to an unproven first-time director like Fede Alvarez. With a whole new cast, and a marginally bigger budget, what could Alvarez possibly hope to accomplish with this that the franchise hadn’t already? Now that the results are in, the question maybe shouldn’t be “Why is someone remaking this movie?” but more along the lines of, “Why isn’t everyone remaking this movie?”

Koch-Lorber Films, 1975: Wertmuller, the short, fast-talking, chain-smoking Italian with the German name and clunky white glasses was an easy target for parody in the 1970s. (“Saturday Night Live” had a field-day with her.) She also was and is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

Given just four months to reach its fundraising goal, the board of trustees for Exeter Theater Company has opted not to exercise their option to purchase the IOKA Theater for $600,000 from its current owner, Alan Lewis, by the deadline of March 31.

Rated PG-13: Making toys based on movies is a time-honored tradition, but making movies based on toys is a much rarer and trickier proposition. It’s such an unnatural reversal that it sometimes feels as wrong as having your food come up your esophagus instead of going down.

New Hampshire Media Makers opens doors for video and web producers on the Seacoast

Leah Tompkins found herself jumping off a set of stairs the first time she went to a New Hampshire Media Makers meet-up. Someone wanted to try to take photos of people in the air, so “we all went outside and took turns leaping,” she says. “It was a nice welcome to the meet-up.” There were only 8-10 people at the time, making the photo project feasible. These days, sometimes up to 30 or 40 people attend. Crackskull’s eclectic artwork, such as the giant plastic fish mounted above the coffee counter wearing a spiky elaborate metal necklace, complements the array of personalities making friends: a martial artist chatted with a contributor for NHPR and a film orchestrator.

Svensk Filmindustri, 1959: An old Irish proverb states, “A maiden’s chastity is a sty in the Devil’s eye.” In Bergma's fantasy, based on a Danish radio comedy, the Devil is thus impaired by a young, beautiful vicar’s daughter. To cure him of the sty, he sends notorious seducer Don Juan up from Hell to deflower the 20-year-old girl and rob her of her belief in love.

New World Pictures, 1988: At the outset, “Heathers” seems like just another 1980s teen comedy with the familiar theme of social outsiders taking on stereotypical mean girls. But this movie is much darker than it at first appears, as evidenced when the lead Heather chugs down a Drano cocktail and promptly croaks, crashing through a glass coffee table on her way to eternal quietude.

Landmark Entertainment Group, 1987: In the late 1970s and 1980s, media companies were constantly searching for “toyetic” properties—that is, movies or TV shows that would lend themselves well to line after line of expensive merchandise for children. The search for toyetic franchises led to the development of the cartoons that now power the perpetual motion geek nostalgia machine: “The Transformers,” “G.I. Joe,” “Masters of the Universe,” and even “My Little Pony.” From the garden of toyetic properties sprang some strange fruit, though, most notably “Captain Power.”

In my lifetime, television has abandoned its post in the family living room for a whole new—and wholly different—experience.

“We’re getting rid of cable.” I can’t tell you how many times that horrific statement has been unleashed in my living room, often times within earshot of the television. But despite the hurt feelings of an inanimate cable box, it’s true that there’s never been a better time to ditch cable TV.

Elias Querejeta Productions, 1973: “Beehive” starts warm and charming, with Luis de Pablo’s pastoral score and title pictures actually drawn by the two juvenile actresses. Spain’s vast Castilian plateau looks lovely and inviting, and Ana and Isabel are studies in childhood beauty—one dark, one light.

Rated PG: James Franco is Oscar Diggs, a traveling carnival magician, Edison-style tinkerer, con man and flirt. He’s got some goodness in him, but he doesn’t let it distract him because he wants to be a great man, not a good man, and he believes those things are mutually exclusive.

Rated PG-13: Unfortunately, these magic beans were obviously a Monsanto strain, a hybrid carefully bred to thrive in a modern environment of clichés without offending anyone, but not meant to actually be nutritious for our imaginations, or even be able to take root beyond the immediate viewing. Leaving us hungry, we just have to keep consuming movies in hopes of finding one that actually sustains us.

The producers of Troma-Fest celebrate a legendary B-movie studio and vow to keep Portsmouth weird.

There are good movies, there are bad movies, and then there are Troma movies. For nearly 30 years, Troma Entertainment and its founder, Lloyd Kaufmann, have been making flicks so bad, so gross, and so weird, that they blur all the usual judgments we make about movies.

Nikkatsu Studios, 1964: This film evokes a kind of twisted “Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” made by Jacques Demy the same year in France. Director Suzuki made some great films in black and white (“Youth of the Beast,” 1963), but his evocation of scenes through bright, primary and pastel colors—costumes, props and backdrops—is amazing.

Spoiler goggles fastened? Good. Let’s dive into the Downton deep end.

Even if you don’t watch “Downton Abbey,” you know someone who does. With the third season having just wrapped up stateside this week, you’ve probably heard a lot of talk of “Shrimpy,” “Dr. Clarkson,” and “Poor Edith.” You may have heard a variation of “I hate you, ‘Downton Abbey’ and we are so breaking up.” I’m not sure whether I’m breaking up with “Downton,” but even Malcolm Gladwell would admit that we’re likely at the tipping point of goodwill for Masterpiece’s worldwide hit.

As if it isn’t hard enough to keep track of your favorite cable series, which might or might not be on a channel you subscribe to, and your favorite offerings from the BBC, which might or might not make it to BBC America in a timely manner, now there’s a top-tier television series that isn’t on television at all. “House of Cards” is only available streaming on Netflix, and it’s worth chasing down.

Academy Pictures Corporation, 1973:  After a massacre and disappearance, an old mansion becomes “the Mt. Everest of Haunted Houses.” A new team arrives at the notorious locale over Christmas week to either prove or disprove survival after death. They have been paid generously to try and survive a full week in isolation in the mansion and solve the mystery of its haunting.

Walking into the closed-down Ioka Theater is eerie, but maybe not in the way you may think. First, and most importantly, it’s cold, damn cold, too cold to get spooked.

“30 Rock” achieves the impossible: the perfect series finale

When it comes to last acts, no medium is judged by so high a bar as television. The last chapter of a novel isn’t perfect? You can still enjoy the majority of the book. The closing minutes of a film don’t perfectly tie up each plot strand of the previous two hours? You can still speak of the film glowingly. But if a television show’s series finale delivers anything less than perfection, there will be blood.

The N.H. Production Coalition, an advocacy organization for the New Hampshire television and video industry, has worked with Rep. Jeff Goley (D-Hillsborough) to introduce legislation that would use the state’s Business Profits Tax to increase incentives for film, television and media production in the state.

Miramax/Film Four Productions, 1999: In 1971 Lancashire, England, a Pakistani immigrant father and an English mother are raising a young, rambunctious brood. Their modern-fun-loving sons and daughters think they have it made, but as the children come of age, George expects them to adopt Pakistani ways. They rebel, and their rejection of Pakistani customs of dress, food, religion, morals, and general lifestyle lead to rising tensions in the house.

Rated R: Based on the novel “Flashfire” by Donald E. Westlake, “Parker” follows the adventures of the eponymous thief (Jason Stratham) with a very exacting professional code as he tries to get back his share of the Ohio State Fair by buying a house from Jennifer Lopez. Or something like that. There is a heist at the beginning involving a lot of clowns (including Michael Chiklis) and some hay, and then after that they shoot Stratham but not very well because he wakes up in the hospital and hoo-boy, is he mad.

I’ve put my time in. Before I swore off reality TV, I was as deeply entrenched as one can get. I did 15 tours of MTV’s “The Real World” (jumping off between Philadelphia and Austin), all the “Road Rules,” the first eight “Survivors,” “The Mole” (before Anderson Cooper was “Anderson Cooper”), “Iron Chef” (Japanese and American), and many more. Then I quit cold turkey.

A new documentary revisits the Central Park Jogger case and explores how racism, hysteria and institutional failure wrongfully convicted five teenagers in 1990. The new documentary “The Central Park Five,” directed by Sarah Burns, her husband, David McMahon, and her father, Ken Burns, gives the five men, now all in their late 30s and early 40s, the chance to tell their own story. It also contextualizes the case, exploring how investigators could ignore evidence and wring confessions out of the five men all in the name of a swift resolution.

Rated R: The subject of the hunting and killing of Osama bin Laden is an uncomfortable one at best, and something that seems distasteful for a mainstream movie. It is the story of the most powerful nation in the world trying to find one man for 10 years, torturing quite a few people along the way, and then killing him. Whether that was revenge or justice or simply for the greater good, it happened outside the legal system, and the world cheered.

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, 1979: Although his springboard was F. W. Murnau’s 1922 copyright-pirated German silent, Herzog made the story his own. Once again he lenses a subtle, complex and pathos-infused performance from the nutcase Kinski, and Isabelle Adjani makes self-sacrifice look sexy.

Wait. Stop. It’s 2013 already? I haven’t finished catching up on all of my 2012 shows yet! Ah, well. As I’m gently kicking and quietly screaming my way into the Year of the Snake, here are the stops I plan on making while I try to fulfill my resolution to watch more TV. 

celebrating a dark and funny year with Kermit, Princess Leia, and our friends in the meth trade

Making a “best of” list will always make people mad. I hope this list of what I found to be the best television of this calendar year doesn’t make you mad. I hope it makes you shake with rage and rattle with glee.

You know Snoopy, The Heat Miser and Yukon Cornelius. But do you recall . . . some lesser-known TV holiday episodes at all? Well, no. I suppose you may not.

"Absolutely nothing has been left to the imagination. To put it more succinctly, they have not just adapted “The Hobbit,” which would have been great, but instead they have spun out a wildly baroque Middle Earth pornography using “The Hobbit” as justification. It’s actually quite awkward.

Paramount Pictures, 1966:  Arthur Hamilton (Randolph) is a wealthy, middle-aged man whose life is unfulfilled, loveless, and without any purpose. Through a friend, a man he thought was dead, Hamilton is approached by a secret organization, known as “The Company.” The Company’s business is helping rich people who are unhappy with their lives disappear and create new ones.

A holiday wish for the seventh season of ‘Dexter’

Dear Santa: I know that Dexter (the character) has been naughty—and that’s nice—but “Dexter” (the show) isn’t always nice—and that’s naughty. I don’t mean to complain during the holiday season, but it’s around this time every year that the writers of “Dexter” (Showtime, Sundays at 9 p.m.) put me through the wringer.

Rated R:  Adapting a classic is always a puzzle. If it’s a classic, it must have elements that are universally relevant, characters or themes that remain powerful across the decades or centuries. But as time passes, the reading of the work inevitably changes; what was contemporary at the time becomes part of the identity of the work. “Anna Karenina” tackles this challenge with gusto.

Sud-Film, 1929: This film, along with von Stroheim’s Greed” (1924) and Vidor’s “The Crowd” (1928), is one of the jewels in the crown of the so-called Silent Era (they weren’t actually silent movies; there was always live music). The restored version features black and white cinematography that shines like diamonds, snow and India ink. The plot is melodramatic but filled with original shocks and surprises. The cast—with Brooks as the standout—is magnificent, conveying deep and varied emotions without uttering an audible word.

Rated PG: “Life of Pi” is a movie about a young man trapped on a boat with a tiger. If that’s not enough for you, it’s also a movie about storytelling and religion, and a showcase for just how powerful computer animation can be in the right hands.

Rated PG-13: Let’s start with the premise: the United States has been invaded by North Korea. Originally, the movie’s invaders were slated to be Chinese, but as China is now a lucrative film market, North Koreans were substituted at the last minute to avoid offending potential Chinese consumers. North Korea’s complete lack of a foreign movie market apparently makes it a safe choice for a villain. There is some sort of subtle message in this substitution that speaks more clearly to the fears of a foreign takeover than anything contained in this implausible and confused movie.

A roundup of the greatest Thanksgiving TV episodes of all time

Thanksgiving is not the most glamorous of the holiday set. Any event rooted in 17th century Puritanism, maize and cornucopias doesn’t seem to lend itself to memorable 20th century television. But, although Christmas receives the glut of “very special holiday episodes,” Turkey Day isn’t that far behind. Here’s a list of nine Thanksgiving TV episodes to be thankful for.

Mars Production Corp., 1976: The Starlight is a run-down hotel adjacent to a crocodile-infested swamp, run by Judd. One bad-luck night, the hotel checks in a runaway hooker, a couple and their young daughter, a dying man and his daughter, and a sex-hound named Buck. And all hell breaks loose.

rated PG-13: “Skyfall” is the 23rd  Bond film, 50 years after Sean Connery originated the role in “Dr. No.” A lot has happened in those 50 years, both to the world and to Bond, and it’s fairly stunning to ponder the overall success of the franchise. That the same characters and themes which entertained audiences in 1962 would still be relevant today is difficult to fathom, but “Skyfall” proves that in the right hands, they certainly are.

Morgan Creek Productions, 1993:  Despite mostly favorable reviews and a star-studded cast, “True Romance” was a box office flop. But, in the nearly 20 years since the film hit theaters, it has aged into a beloved classic. It’s simultaneously funny and suspenseful, with steamy romance and wild shootouts. And who can resist seeing a disheveled Brad Pitt take bong hits from a bear-shaped honey jar?

Rated R: It has become our position that the best thing one can do to prepare for a movie these days is to smuggle in some delicious food. This only makes sense, really, since the food at most theaters themselves is not only expensive, but so junky that you’ll just end up feeling queasy before the previews even finish. Fortunately, there are usually a variety of restaurants nearby where one can find something both more satisfying and far more economical (one of our favorites is a big, fat, hot burrito). Stuff it in a jacket pocket or purse, buy your ticket and try not to fondle your food guiltily as you go past the ticket-taker, and voila!

Universal Pictures, 1977: Director Michael Winner (of the “Death Wish” franchise) has always been a competent war-horse with any script, but he stages some truly eerie moments in this one. Buildings and homes can be as creepy and disturbed as people, and hold just as many bad memories.

Golan-Globus Productions, 1987:  Mickey Rourke, who had his face flattened repeatedly during his amateur boxing career, was tailor-made for this role as Bukowski’s alter-ego. Longhaired and split-lipped, unshaven and slovenly, he staggers across the screen with a sardonic smirk. And, for those accustomed to seeing Faye Dunaway as a prim beauty, it’s perversely delightful to see her play a crazy, bedraggled sot.

Rated R: Not only do the stories range across roughly 500 years of past, present and imagined future, but they are all distinct stories in different genres, too. For instance, in the 1930’s a gay character struggles to find his place in the world of classical music, while in 1973 a reporter digs to uncover the secret being covered up at a nuclear power plant. In the future, a science-fiction story has us racing across the sky in hoverbikes as an artificial human finds her destiny.

Rob Houwer Productions, 1983: Gerard, an alcoholic, bisexual writer, leaves Amsterdam to deliver a lecture in the provinces. There he begins a casual affair with Christine, a boyish, icy blonde. When he meets Christine’s young, loutish lover, Herman, Gerard becomes obsessed (“I must have him!”). At the same time, Gerard begins to suspect that Christine has murdered three previous lovers, and that either Herman or he may be next.

In addition to being the most exciting movie about going through customs ever made, “Argo” is a great historical-political thriller, drawing us into history at the outset and then keeping us trapped throughout the film in that terrible moment in time that was the U.S.-Iranian hostage crisis.

Cannon Entertainment, 1988: She says a dingo took her baby, but numerous questions arise over the veracity of the Chamberlains’ version of events, and rumors spread that they are part of a bizarre cult that killed the girl in a ritualistic sacrifice. Soon enough, an inquest begins, and the couple’s nightmare intensifies as Lindy is accused of murdering her daughter.

Opening day of the 12th annual New Hampshire Film Festival is traditionally given over to New Hampshire filmmakers. Hollywood actor Mike O’Malley gave the event a new twist this year, screening his new film “Certainty” on the eve of national distribution in November. “Being here is a very awesome, very profound experience for me,” O’Malley said.

Alfred Catalfo’s latest movie, ‘Rocketship,’ will help launch the New Hampshire Film Festival.

Dover resident Alfred Thomas Catalfo’s last short film, “Bighorn,” was a “supernatural historical fantasy” that traveled back in time to Custer’s Last Stand. His 2006 short, “The Norman Rockwell Code,” was a humorous parody of “The Da Vinci Code.” Almost all of Catalfo’s short films explore lightheartedly fantastical themes. To a degree, the same can be said of his latest flick, “Rocketship,” which will premiere at the New Hampshire Film Festival. It was inspired by the artwork of local sculptor David Random, who creates rockets and other fantasy sculptures from vintage mechanical parts at his studio in Rollinsford. 

United Artists, 1981: From the start, we know we’re in the presence of something different and very good. Bridges was a 32-year-old golden boy, and he delivers an excellent portrayal of a disillusioned drifter (which was presumably alien to his experience). John Heard was accused of scenery chewing, but repeated viewings show he deserved an Oscar nomination. The plot is just complex enough to keep you guessing, and ends with a shocking, last-second climax that is pure power.

Rated R: “The Master” follows the story of Navy veteran Freddie Quell (Joaquin Phoenix) just after the second world war. When we first meet Freddie, he’s mixing up some kind of potent alcoholic brew in a coconut, then he’s humping a sand-sculpture mermaid on the beach, and then he jacks off into the sea. That’s Freddie in a nutshell, some kind of rough, odd, oversexed hooch alchemist, and postwar America is sometimes a bit tame for him.

MGM/Filmways, 1967: What a lovely film this is. From the opening credits and haunting music to the snow of Transylvania to the coziness of the inn near Count Krolock’s castle, we realize we are snugly in the folds of a winter’s fairy tale.

Her explosion of hair is like a bomb constantly detonating, and as she faces each challenge alongside the other denizens of The Bathtub one could read her story as simply that of a little girl coming of age, or as the origin myth for a future hero of this quasi-fantastical land — if there even need be a difference. A grown-up Hush Puppy would be as at home in a Mad Max movie as in a Lifetime special.

Café Film, 2003:  While the world of subway ticket-takers might easily sound like to dullest imaginable premise for a movie, in the hands of director Nimród Antal this becomes a fascinating dive into a special subculture, and the ticket takers seem more like gangs than government employees. The movie is filmed entirely in the Budapest subway system on a shoestring budget with a Hungarian cast and crew, yet “Kontroll” is nonetheless cinematically polished from end to end.

Twentieth Century Fox, 1945: In 1899 London, police suspect that George Harvey Bone, a nervous classical composer, may be a serial killer during his bouts of mania and amnesia. Cregar neglects his devoted girlfriend for the teasing favors of singer Netta, while Dr. Middleton tries to help resolve Bone’s dual personality crisis.

Rated R: The documentary is packed with interviews with giants of the movie industry: Martin Scorcese, Robert De Niro, Peter Bogdanovich, Ron Howard, Peter Fonda, all of whom got their starts working with Corman, where they learned about budgets and making do and making it up as you go along, all the tools that let them define movies as we understand them today. It’s hard to imagine how differently all these careers would have unfolded — if at all — without Roger Corman.

Fall is the season when Hollywood bigwigs roll out their annual Oscar contenders, vying to stay fresh in the minds of judges. It’s also a season for great film festivals on the Seacoast and across New Hampshire, showcasing everything from short, local, independent works to major, star-studded, international features. Here are the upcoming highlights.

De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986:  The film works as a suspenseful murder mystery with a dogged investigator and a deranged killer of equal cunning. It’s an early effort for Michael Mann, who would develop into one of Hollywood’s premier directors of crime dramas.

‘Breaking Bad’ enters its final season and it’s not too late to start rooting for the bad guy

Cut short by the Writer’s Guild strike, Season 1 presents a tight seven-episode lesson in suspense, characterization, and of course, science! Starting with the one of the best pilot episode opening sequences ever put to film—Flying pants! Gas masks! Sirens!—the shortened opening season initially lulled many viewers into thinking they were watching “MacGyver 2.0.” Many a time did Walter White save the day with a last-minute chemical concoction in those early days.

Box Office Spectaculars, 1963:  The cinematography is candy-colored, the blood flows like a river of gore, and all the pretty victims end up in their underwear before Fuad does his prep cook act. In 1963, this was drive-in dynamite.

Laika, the stop-motion animation studio previously responsible for Tim Burton’s morbid “Corpse Bride” and Neil Gaiman’s terrifying “Coraline,” seem to like nothing more than provoking sensitive parents into frothing rages. And they’re really good at it.

Warner Bros., 1996: Moviegoers in 1996 were confronted with a stark choice: an alien invasion movie in which hope, patriotism, and Randy Quaid save the day, and another alien invasion flick in which Tom Jones packs a machine gun and Slim Whitman records can wipe out all Martians. Unsurprisingly, “Independence Day” was the hit of the year and Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” was not. But, now that the Curiosity rover is up on Mars and Burton has begun re-making his own movies (a full-length version of “Frankenweenie” is due later this year), it’s time to revisit “Mars Attacks!”

rated PG-13: As sequel ideas go, “The Bourne Legacy” falls firmly into the “Heck, why not?” category. With three strong Bourne movies already behind us, we didn’t really need another, but then again, the predecessors weren’t so deep or complicated as to be difficult to reproduce, so why not go ahead and make another? Keep the action frenetic and the spycraft engaging, and it’s bound to be fun.

Australian Film Commission, 1975: On Valentine’s Day, 1900, a group of Australian school girls lace up each other’s corsets and set out for a picnic at spooky Hanging Rock. Three students and a teacher disappear. Days later, after an exhaustive search, several (but not all) turn up, incoherent and unable to explain what happened.

Rated R

In the future, most of the Earth has been rendered uninhabitable by chemical warfare, and all the remaining humans are crammed into two zones, one in what had been Great Britain, and one in what had been Australia. The two areas are connected by an improbable but novel tunnel that shoots straight through the center of the planet, enabling poorer workers in the Australia zone (called “The Colony”), to commute to their factory jobs in the wealthier United Federation of Britain.

Carolco Pictures, 1990

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven

An upcoming event at The Music Hall will include a gaming party and a screening of video game-making documentary ‘Indie Game”

Boston video game maker Ichiro Lambe says most games start with a simple idea stemming from the phrase, “Wouldn’t it be really neat if...”

Televista, 1972

The plot: University student Giovanni (Tobias) meets with a friar to discuss his passionate love for his sister, Annabella (Rampling), which has resulted in a sexually reciprocal incestuous affair. Annabella is besieged by suitors, but her tutor, Putana, urges her into her brother’s bed. Annabella becomes pregnant and resigns herself to marrying Soranzo (Testi), who she despises. Court intrigue, poisonous plots, double-crosses and soap operatic twists that would put “General Hospital” to shame ensue, resulting in a truly horrific and tasteless climax.

Rated R

“The Watch” is one of those poor apples that got scotched by unforeseeable bad timing. A rollicking laugh-fest about inept neighborhood-watch vigilantes, the film was nearly derailed after self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman shot unarmed teen Trayvon Martin dead in Florida in February. As a result, 20th Century Fox decided a delayed release was in order. Unfortunately, public memory of the recent killing is still alive and well in the public conscience.

Warner Brothers, 1989: Heath Ledger’s turn as the Joker in 2008’s “The Dark Knight” was so jarringly memorable—both because of his captivating performance and his subsequent death before the film’s release—that it’s easy to forget what a pure, giddy pleasure it was to watch Nicholson play the part in the original “Batman.”

Rated PG13: Writer/director Chris Nolan has gone to great lengths to indicate to his audience that he considers his work to be less about traditional filmmaking and more about magicianship. He seems at his happiest, and most effective, when he’s tricking us. His skill at this sleight of hand has escalated throughout his career, with his Batman films revising the preposterously campy adventures of an avenging caped crusader into layered, captivating investigations of identity, solitude, conscience and politics. His inclination to tricksterism, given full flamboyant embodiment in the form of Heath Ledger’s legendary portrayal of Joker, may have been the key ingredient to the whopping crazy success of the second installment, “The Dark Knight.” Nolan was entirely in his element there, wrapping the silliness in so many layers of authentic pathos and human suffering that it was nearly impossible to notice how silly the whole thing actually was. That was some good magic.

RMC International, 1976

The plot:

Adolf Schwartz (Schaaf, who bears an uncanny resemblance to that other Adolf) is murdered in his Austrian-style castle when a piranha is placed in his bathtub. After this arresting opening (which follows a pretty graphic orgy), no one seems to care too much whodunit. Adolf’s bucolic little community is soon infatuated with newcomer Margo Winchester (De La Croix), and a series of sexual subplots and multiple false identities combine for a story that requires a GPS to navigate. Fortunately, a one-woman Greek Chorus (Natividad) turns up regularly to gleefully explain what’s going on.

Rated R

“Savages” begins with a video recording of several frightened captives in a dimly-lit warehouse. The camera pans from face to whimpering face as a man in heavy boots lumbers slowly past, and a chainsaw revs ominously to life.

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Christina Ricci, Justin Timberlake
Directed by: Craig Brewer

The plot: Lazarus (Jackson) is a deeply religious farmer and former blues player living in the rural South. Rae (Ricci) is apparently what used to be called a “nymphomaniac.” When her boyfriend Ronnie (Timberlake) is shipped out with the National Guard, she binges on drugs and promiscuity. A friend of Ronnie’s rapes and severely beats her, leaving her for dead. Lazarus discovers her and nurses her back to health through days of delirious fever. After Rae recovers, Lazarus chains her up and explains that it is his Christian duty to heal her of her sinning ways before he can release her.

Rated R

Abraham Lincoln re-imagined with a secret life as a vampire hunter is a pretty great idea. There’s just something about Abe that’s appealing for fictionalization. Maybe it’s because he’s a bit funny looking, or maybe it’s because he looks so darn serious and we just want him to have some fun. Bringing vampires into the mix is the sort of idea that’s so absurd and so much fun that you have to giggle, and it could easily be fodder for a great, silly, summer movie.

Starring: Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Vittorio De Sica
directed by: Paul Morrissey

Count Dracula is in bad shape, and desperately needs an infusion of virgin blood. He decides to relocate from Transylvania to Italy, figuring a Catholic country will have more unspoiled innocents. He befriends a rich Italian landowner (De Sica) who is eager to marry off one of his four daughters. Two of the daughters enjoy regular trysts with the hired hand Mario (Dallesandro). They lie to the Count about their purity, and their tainted blood makes him violently ill. He sets his sights on the intact 14-year-old daughter, but Mario gets wise to the Count’s vile intentions and deflowers her for her own good. The film ends in an orgy of dismemberment, with barely passable Good triumphing over rather silly Evil.

Portsmouth Public Media Television is expanding its programming for the fall

For the past few months, Portsmouth Public Media Television has helped amateur film and television producers stand on their soapboxes and tell their stories. Now, with the upcoming fall season, PPMtv is helping four producers start up a new TV series, “Screenwright Playhouse: A Short Film Showcase.”

Universal Pictures, 1980:  “Buffalo” came slightly before Murray’s career-quaking roles in “Caddyshack,” “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters,” and his spot-on portrayal of Thompson offered early evidence of his diverse comedic talents. He mimicked Thompson’s distinctive speech and jerky mannerisms in a way that would be echoed years later by Johnny Depp in 1998’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.”  Neil Young provides the film’s trippy score.

rated R: Director Ridley Scott returning not only to science fiction after 30 years, but also to one of his greatest creations after such a long time away is an occasion of note. If only it were a great occasion.

rated PG-13: Fairy tales are like Greek and Roman mythology—invaluable and timeless. A world without them is unimaginable, so there was much fanfare for this newer, “darker” version of the Snow White story.

MGM, 1927: Lon Chaney was one of a kind, and this movie is a classic.

American International Pictures, 1967: “The Trip” is available in an MGM package with 1968’s similarly hallucinatory “Psych-Out,” starring Jack Nicholson and Bruce Dern. It has a couple of featurettes and some psychedelic film effects, whisking us back to the peak of the hippie movement like a powerful acid flashback.

A new show, called “ScreenWright Playhouse: A Short Film Showcase” is seeking original scripts for a series scehduled to air a new film each month, starting in September, on Comcast Channel 98 in Portsmouth, the community TV channel.

One of the defining characteristics of a Sacha Baron Cohen film is discomfort. At first, it’s discomfort that what you are about to see isn’t going to work, because it seems unlikely. Then you start laughing, and the discomfort doesn’t go away, but it’s changed into more of a should-I-be-laughing-at-this sort of discomfort, which gradually morphs into a fear of what you might see next, followed by a sense of hoping that there isn’t anyone you know in the theater watching you enjoy this so much.

The neglect shown to director Makavejev is criminal. “Man is Not a Bird” (1965) and “Love Affair, or the Case of the Missing Switchboard Operator” (1967) were both quirky and brilliant evocations of drab Cold War Yugoslavia—life was miserable, but one still had to eat, drink, and make love.

rated PG-13

There was a time when watching a Tim Burton film was a singular event, like drinking a Coke or eating Jell-O. But with Tim Burton’s revival of the classic gothic soap opera “Dark Shadows,” we’ve reached the point where A Tim Burton Film, once a distinct product that was guaranteed to have many interesting qualities, has become “a Tim Burton film,” a term that could describe any movie that features freaks and misfits trying to find a home and family in any time period.

Les Artistes Anonymes, 1992: Coming two years before Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” and 14 years before Showtime’s “Dexter,” you might say this mockumentary was a trendsetter—if serial killer comedies constitute a trend.