Thursday, August 14, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Film: Beyond the Multiplex

This week's special screenings

Agent Cody Banks

2 stars (PG, 102 min.) Frankie Muniz is the mini-007 in Harald Zwart's lame, 2003 kiddie spy spoof. Crown Neonopolis, 450 E. Fremont St., 383-9600, free. Thu., Aug. 14 10 a.m.

The Devil's Backbone

(R, 106 min.) [El Espinazo del Diablo] Cronos director Guillermo Del Toro's 2001 ghost story, about a 10-year-old (Fernando Tielve) coming of age in 1939 in a haunted orphanage, is an atmospheric allegory about the Spanish civil war and a nation disfigured by three years of conflict. With Federico Luppi, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes. (Spanish dialogue, with subtitles.) UNLV's CBC A106, 895-3547, free. Thu., Aug. 14 7 p.m. (Next week's movie: Cet Amour-Lˆ.)

Casablanca

5 stars (NR, 102 min.) "You must remember this." But if you recall Humphrey Bogart telling Dooley Wilson, "Play it again, Sam," in Michael Curtiz's classic 1942 melodrama then, like Bogey's embittered bar owner--whose ex-lover (Ingrid Bergman) arrives in Morocco en route for America with resistance leader Paul Henried--you were "misinformed." With Claude Rains, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre. Movies Al Fresco series, Montelago Village, 1600 Lake Las Vegas Pkwy., Henderson, 992-7347, free, (bring blanket/picnic). Thu., Aug. 14 8:30 p.m. (Next week's movie: Rear Window.)

Starlight Movie Series

Family flicks al fresco, phone 455-8278 for details, Mountain Crest Park, Lone Mountain and Durango, free, Fri., Aug. 15 8:30 p.m.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

(R, 95 min.) The perennial, kinky, audience-participation mock-horror hit. Sci-Fi Empire, 4331 W. Charleston Blvd., 314-0330, $6. Sat., Aug. 16 11:30 p.m.

Vivement dimanche!

(PG, 110 min.) [Confidentially Yours] When businessman Jean-Louis Trintignant is accused of killing his wife and her lover, his secretary (Fanny Ardant) has to prove his innocence. Franãois Truffaut's low-key 1983 swansong was based on Charles Williams' thriller The Long Saturday Night. (French dialogue, with subtitles.) UNLV's CBC A108, 895-3431, free. Mon., Aug. 18 7 p.m.

Free Family Film Series

Regal Cinemas' Colonnade, Boulder, Sunset and Texas Stations. Details: 221-2283. Tue./Wed. Aug. 19-20 10 a.m.

Lessons in Darkness/Fata Morgana

NOTBAD (Nevadans Organized To Better Address Diversity) presents two classics by German iconoclast Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo). Lessons in Darkness (NR, 50 min.) [Lektionen in Finsternis] A stunning, 1992 documentary showing the Kuwait oilfields in flames; Fata Morgana (NR, 79 min.) Herzog's 1971 masterwork juxtaposes scenes of industrialization and haunting images shot in the Sahara desert. (German dialogue, with subtitles.) Visual Poetry series, Clark County Library, 1401 E. Flamingo Rd., 507-3459, free. Tue., Aug. 19 4 p.m. (Lessons) and 7 p.m. (Morgana).--AA