Pittsburgh theaters offer a wide range of films in a number of unique theaters. Dormont’s Hollywood Theater houses niche film festivals, indie movie one-night previews and classic flicks while other theaters around the city will show big screen blockbusters and new documentaries. Pittsburgh City Paper film critic Al Hoff helps parse out the good from the bad.
2 Guns: Despite the talented co-starts, Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg, Hoff does not recommend seeing this action thriller. She say while the interplay between the two mismatched cops is engaging, the plot lacks credibility. “The whole thing descends into a giant shooting match that’s just boring.”
We’re the Millers: Jason Sudeikis plays a low-level drug dealer that must cross the Texas/Mexican border for a huge volume of drugs. To detract attention from his illegal parcels he creates a fake family that includes two children and a former stripper played by Jennifer Aniston. Hoff admits the filmcan be funny at times in a vulgar, “The Hangover” kind of way, but the comedy is pretty juvenile.
Sharkando:Coming on the tail of Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” this surprise TV movie hit will make its debuts the Hollywood Theater tonight. The film tells the story of a huge weather system on the west coast that scoops up sharks and dumps them in nearby cities. Disaster ensues.
13 Hours of Sci-Fi and Easy Rider: Theaters such as the Hollywood in Dormont cannot always afford to bring in the box-office hits, so they often find success by bringing in audiences based on niche markets and classics. This weekend the Hollywood Theater will be showing 13 straight hours of vintage c-grade sci-fi movies for one price thanks to the movie group known as “Horror Realm.”
The classic road trip film Easy Rider, is also screening at the Hollywood, ironically one of the film's female stars passed away Thursday. Hoff says of the film “On one hand it’s an exploitation movie, guys looking for drugs and women…but on the other hand, it’s also a downbeat study of America in a time of conflict.”
Trials of Muhammed Ali: This new documentaryfocuses more on the political and social life of boxer Muhammed Ali. The film explores what Hoff calls an “aspect of Muhammed Ali’s life that got lost over time.”
