With the Brattle Theater about to begin a limited engagement of Sergio Leone's restored epic Once Upon a Time in the West on Friday, and the Harvard Film Archive set to hold a retrospective on that other great Western re-imaginist (soon-to-be a Bostonist sister site!), Sam Peckinpah, it seemed only right to hold our own miniature Leone retrospective by taking a look back at the movie that started his short but highly influential career....

Reel Hub, All That Heaven Allows, Douglas Sirk, Brattle Theater, Rock Hudson, Jane Wyman, Sentimentality...

Sing-A-Long Weekend Grease (1978) - Friday, 4:15, 7:00, 9:45pm The Muppet Movie (1979) - Sat. & Sun., 1:00 & 3:00pm Moulin Rouge (2001) - Saturday, 5, 7:30, 10:00pm Singin' in the Rain (1952) - Sunday, 5, 7:15, 9:30pm Hairspray (2007) - Monday, 7:15 and 9:45pm Brattle Theater, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge More Information There's something about the Bostonian summer that just makes us want to sing and dance, dance, dance, our way about town. But......

Robots and Angelina Jolie kind of go together, in a creepy way. Good thing this weekend is dedicated exclusively to them! Disney/Pixar is coming out with Wall-E, which appears to be a robotic version of E.T., except sort of in reverse, and with a weirder name. Why Wall-E? It's so overly reminiscent of both fish and lazy eyes. Turns out WALL-E is an aconym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class, which is also a terrible......

Boston International Film Festival June 6 - 14, various times AMC LOEWS Boston Common Film Descriptions The Boston International Film Festival rolled out this Friday and continues through next Saturday. It features provocative documentary and narrative films from India, Japan, Canada, Rwanda, Nepal, Israel, and many other countries. The festival's impressive international focus doesn't preclude shining a light on Boston, however. There are several Boston-made films in the lineup, including Across Dot Ave, Forgotten Ellis......

Memorial Day weekend requires two things: barbecues and blockbusters. (And sunshine. Fortunately, it looks like the weather will comply on that front.) Hollywood is helping us out here; this weekend, we have the new Indiana Jones, Speed Racer, Iron Man, and Prince Caspian to choose from in the theatres. If you can't make up your mind, why not hide from reality for an entire day and see 'em all back to back? The answer to......

It's funny that Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz's new film is called What Happens in Vegas. It implies the usual counterpart to that line, "...stays in Vegas," but sadly the film doesn't take its own advice. This movie should have stayed in the film reel, or in the writer's head, or in Ashton Kutcher's pants, or any other place it didn't have the opportunity to enter the collective American consciousness. If there's anything we don't......

Boston Muslim Film Festival April 14-30 Boston University, Northeastern University, Endicott College Full Schedule Free The Boston Muslim Film Festival opens tonight with a screening of Faith Without Fear, which documents Irshad Manji's global journeys and identity struggle. The film features scenes from around the world, including Yemen, Spain, and beyond. Raquel Evita Saraswati (pictured) from Project Ijtihad will be in attendance to speak after the film. Sponsored by the American Islamic Conference, the Muslim......

Boston just had its first 70-degree day, and with the warmth of spring comes the magic of prom. In this case, however, prom isn't so much magical as murderous. Gasp! Opening this evening is Prom Night, a probably-not-so-Hitchcockian thriller we expect will be centered on lots of shots of a scantily clad, excessively frightened Brittany Murphy Spears Snow (it had to be one of those). The real horror of this genre is its tendency to......

21, the blackjack movie based on the real-life exploits of card-counting MIT students, was No. 1 at the box office this week. We're happy for it in that the movie makes geekiness sexy and thrilling, even if it did jumble up a few Boston landmarks. Another doofy spoof of a movie genre, Superhero Movie, opened at No. 3, which proves no one can resist a fart joke. But we wonder if the studios could just......

Lowell Film Festival April 4-5 Various locations in Lowell Free; RSVP to getinthefilm@lowellfilms.org Lowell's not necessarily the epicenter of film, but it's getting into the swing of things next weekend (April 4-5) with its first film festival. Focusing on globalization and immigration, the festival reflects how Lowell is growing and changing as rapidly now as it did in the city's 19th century heyday. The festival opens Friday, April 4 with headliner film Sacco & Vanzetti,......

Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who remained on top of the box office, followed by another behemoth almost as big as family-friendly monster hits--Tyler Perry. In case you haven't heard of Tyler Perry, he was the force behind Diary of a Mad Black Woman, and Perry is fond of dressing in drag as "Madea," a take-no-prisoners old lady. Perry's latest effort, Meet the Browns, with Angela Bassett and Rick Fox (yeah, the Lakers Rick Fox--go......

Ah, Drillbit Taylor. It sounds like the name of a strapping young man, ready to take on America with just the shirt on his back, the heart in his chest, and the drillbit in his hand.... ahh, who are we kidding? It sounds like the name of a crappy movie that's nothing more than an excuse for Owen Wilson to get paid millions of dollars thanks to millions of Americans inexplicably willing to waste their......

Animated movies continue to rake in the big bucks. Horton Hears a Who!, the Dr. Seuss tale with voices from Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell, was number-one at the box office. And it was number-one in a big way with $45.1 million bucks. When it came to counter-programming for the dudes, Never Back Down, dismissed by the Phoenix as a "Karate Kid ripoff" opened at number three, and Doomsday opened at number seven. Wesley Morris......

This weekend, Roland Emmerich's high-budget B-Movie 10,000 BC dominated the box office because everyone likes to look at cool effects, even if the movie itself is rotten. The strategically timed, family-friendly offering College Road Trip came in second. A Globe copyeditor had fun with Ty Burr's review of 10,000 BC, titling the piece "Yabba Dabba Don't." The other new movies, The Bank Job and Mrs. Pettigrew Lives for a Day, opened at a blah No.......

International Women's Day Film Festival Various locations and times March 6-8 Free-$10 Tomorrow is International Women's Day, and Hostelling International USA has decided to sponsor a film fest in Boston to celebrate. The International Women's Day Film Festival began yesterday and continues through tomorrow. Films will be shown at several locations throughout Boston. Tonight's feature film, The Grace Lee Project, will screen at 7:00 p.m. at Gallery 263 (263 Pearl Street, Cambridge). Director Grace Lee......

Jorge Furtado's Porto Alegre Harvard Film Archive Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge Friday, March 7 -- Saturday, March 8 More information Brazilian director Jorge Furtado's work should be better known among American film audiences. His movies are hilarious, thoughtful and unpretentious -- they aim to entertain above all else. The Man Who Copied (O Homem Que Copiava) (2003, screening Friday) is a case in point. It's the story of André (Lázaro Ramos), whose humdrum......

The big movie news this week was the rock-bottom ratings for the Oscar telecast. People just didn't tune in. Maybe it was the fact that the big movies weren't money-makers, but do the masses really expect the Academy to nominate Spider-Man 3 for an Oscar? No. However, nominating Ratatouille for best picture instead of limiting it to the animated section might have at least piqued the interest of moviegoers. One movie that will not get......

Oh, you know the Oscar drill already: Marion Cotillard surprised everyone by winning Best Actress for La Vie en Rose, further proving the rule that if you go ugly for a movie role, you will win. Poor Julie Christie just looked too beautiful. Otherwise, Tilda Swinton delivered the best speech for winning Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton. The men's races were yawners. Of course, Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for No Country for......

Oscars Hooray that the writers' strike is over, and we can see overmedicated stars and their pretty dresses walk the red carpet! Regarding the actual movie-picking, Reel Hub is a touch grouchy due to the shadiness of the Oscar voting process. If you'd like to watch the festivities with others, dress up for the Fafarazzi.com Oscar party at Lir, 903 Boylston, Boston, 5:00 pm. Travel Plans The Boston Globe Travel Show is on at......

Sci-fi flick Jumper was number-one at the box office this weekend, but the real story was the disappointing turnout for Definitely, Maybe, which was supposed to be a romantic comedy. Was it the annoying title? Maybe they should have referred to an old '80s TV show and called it My Three Moms instead. Maybe moviegoers aren't feeling Ryan Reynolds. Ty Burr blew kisses at Maybe co-star Isla Fisher, but he blew a raspberry at Reynolds:......

Does anyone else think it's just a matter of time before we see a movie titled Like, Totally? (Or maybe there already kind of is one?) We are, like, totes convinced that commas are the wave of the future in movie titles, and this weekend's big releases tend to agree with us. Definitely, Maybe looks to turn itself from an annoying and meaningless phrase into an annoying and meaningless movie, distinguished from other annoying, meaningless......

If what you want out of a movie is moral clarity -- or even coherence -- you should probably avoid the new Irish gangster flick In Bruges. It's a credit to screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh's clever contrivance to hear critics complain that its superlatively violent ending breaks the moral deal. To paraphrase Arthur Penn, the father of critically reviled ultraviolence, we're killing people every day in Iraq, and you're upset that this movie is......

Audiences went for the light and frothy this weekend. Fool's Gold, with Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, triumphed at the box office, followed up by the Martin Lawrence vehicle Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. Neither of the top two movies made local critics very happy. James Verniere dismissed Fool's Gold as "a 110-minute advertisement for celebrity lifestyles you cannot afford. You can’t afford the boats, the bodies, the hair, the clothes. You can’t afford one of......

Some super-snazzy stuff is going on around Boston this week in the film world. The African Film Festival at the MFA is going strong, and Harvard Film Archive brings us José Luis Guerín's In the City of Sylvia (En la ciudad de Sylvia) with the director live and in person. (Sometimes we wonder what the point of saying "live and in person" is--would we really go to an event with someone dead and in person?......

Great Romances III Friday, Feb 8 -- Thursday, Feb 14, various times Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge More details Somebody at the Brattle Theatre must have a heart made of sap. The cinema is hosting not one, not two, but six days of romantic films leading up to Valentine's Day. You cannot deal with that much loving. We cannot. So, Bostonist has assembled a quick guide to help you choose the ideal screening for......

Okay, it seems that we have a hangup on Alvin and the Chipmunks, but the success of that movie suggests that children are more in charge of their parents' dollars than ever. We're not talking teenagers controlling the box office--we're talking the little critters. Further proof of that was provided when Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour was number one at the box office. If teenagers controlled the world, the horror remake......

Arthur Penn, American Auteur Harvard Film Archive (HFA) Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Cambridge Friday-Monday More details Filmmaker Arthur Penn's reputation rests so firmly on Bonnie and Clyde (1967), that you could be excused if you thought he only made one good movie. You'd be wrong, of course. It's a point that will be reiterated throughout the weekend as the Harvard Film Archive presents a retrospective of his work. Penn doesn't get the press that......

Meet the Spartans, which is now at 3% on Rotten Tomatoes after starting off in the negative, is enjoying the number-one position at the box office this week. Meanwhile, Sylvester Stallone's comeback vehicle of-sorts, Rambo, wound up in second place. Seriously, Diedrich Bader is cool, but you're way better off watching him as a "Dog the Bounty Hunter" rip-off during this season's "Reno 911." At least Mark Feeney at the Globe found something to like......

Cloverfield whupped on its competition at the box office this weekend and set a record for January. As Reel Hub noted on Friday, people couldn't decide if they loved it or hated it, which means the movie was at least interesting. 27 Dresses seemed like the kind of movie Julia Roberts would have turned down back in the days when she was shooting all those bridal movies like Runaway Bride and My Best Friend's Wedding.......