[Avon-theatre-news] AVON THEATER EXTRA! EXTRA!

[Skip Huston]

AVON THEATER EXTRA! EXTRA! 

Hey July 4th Weekend Decatur Avonians!!
Just in case the obnoxious 3D robots, and superheroes, and kiddie fare have scared you away from the movies this summer, along comes TOM HANKS and JULIA ROBERTS in LARRY CROWNE to prove to you it is still SAFE for the more discerning Avon crowd to come see us! 

In fact, here is a review from Avon pal LEONARD MALTIN:
movie review: Larry Crowne
by Leonard Maltin

If you like, you can think of Larry Crowne as the anti-Transformers. It’s the opposite of an Event Movie for the summer season; instead, it’s an old-fashioned star vehicle, fashioned for the particular screen personas of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts by Hanks himself, who directed the film and wrote the screenplay with Nia Vardalos. (You may recall that he produced her breakthrough film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, a decade ago.) As such, it’s easy to take and lightly enjoyable. One might even call it a “nice” movie, which will surely please one segment of the moviegoing audience and repel another.

Hanks plays a hard-working store manager who is suddenly downsized; it seems he doesn’t qualify for a management position because he never went to college. (He served in the Navy instead.) Forced to take stock of his life, he decides to enroll at a local community college.



There he makes new friends, including a sprite played by British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw. She and her friends open Larry Crowne to a whole new world of experiences.

He also signs up for a class in informal public speaking taught by a world-weary Julia Roberts. She’s actually a very good teacher, but her marriage is imploding and she’s been numbing the pain with booze. Then she realizes that her new students aren’t a bad lot after all and are worth her time and effort—especially Larry Crowne.

There isn’t much more to the film. It has a relaxed feeling, and is populated by good actors, even in small roles. (Hanks is nothing if not loyal. Veteran military advisor Dale Dye, with whom he worked on Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, plays the guy who has to fire him. Nia Vardalos’ husband Ian Gomez runs the restaurant where Hanks takes a job as short-order cook. Of course, the star’s wife, Rita Wilson, has a small role as a bank manager; their son plays a pizza delivery boy.)

Whether you find the film too self-consciously cute is a matter of personal taste; there are definitely times that its whimsy seems forced. On the other hand, after several weeks of summer-movie bombast, it’s not so bad to sit back and relax with a harmless piece of fluff like this.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So, what more do you need to know, folks?
There is a movie for YOU to see this July 4th weekend, and its always BETTER at the AVON!!

-Skip Huston
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://theavon.com/pipermail/avon-theatre-news_theavon.com/attachments/20110701/c9aa95f1/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LarryCrown301.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 38701 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://theavon.com/pipermail/avon-theatre-news_theavon.com/attachments/20110701/c9aa95f1/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LARRYC1.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 31700 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://theavon.com/pipermail/avon-theatre-news_theavon.com/attachments/20110701/c9aa95f1/attachment-0001.jpg>