Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, In the Mood for Love at Madison Sourdough, and Cinematheque closes up for the summer with Douglas Sirk’s Imitation of Life
Thursday
Prince of Foxes (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Andrea Orsini (Tyrone Power) begins to doubt his allegiance to Italian prince Cesare Borgia (Orson Welles) after the two fall for the lovely Camilla di la Baglione (Wanda Hendrix). Cinematheque ends their FREE penultimate series celebrating Welles’s 100th birthday (there’s one more coming this fall) with Henry King’s black-and-white period adaptation of the eponymous novel by Samuel Shellabarger. And you thought I couldn’t fit another funny name in this paragraph.
Battleship (8:30p — Brittingham Park)
After rain threatened to further soak the already dampened spirits of anyone wishing to see Battleship in a public place, Madison Parks rescheduled and relocated to Brittingham. Now your friends won’t see you enjoying Peter Berg’s star-studded turd unless they’re there to rent a boat or something. (FREE.)
All freakin’ weekend
Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (Sundance, AMC Star, Point, Stoughton Cinema Cafe)
One would think that after seven seasons, four movies and as many IMF Directors (the Glassdoor reviews for the Impossible Mission Force must be insane), the Mission: Impossible franchise would have hit the self-destruct button by now. Ever since John Woo’s misstep in 2000 though, each of Ethan Hunt’s (Tom Cruise) capers have arguably gotten better. This time, Hunt and Rebecca Ferguson’s kick-ass defecting British agent are out to expose a secret criminal syndicate and, does it even matter at this point? Promise me Tom Cruise running and a Ving Rhames cameo and I’m there.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (AMC Star)
Fri-Sun at 12:00p and Mon-Thurs at 12:00p and 10:00p. $5.
Friday
Imitation of Life (7:00p — 4070 Vilas Hall)
Apart from his steak, Douglas Sirk will be best remembered for thumbing his nose at the myth of post-World War II suburbia. All That Heaven Allows has Jane Wyman’s wealthy single mother fall for her younger, macho gardener (Rock Hudson), inviting scorn from the gossip hounds of the neighborhood. UW Cinematheque wraps their summer schedule this Friday with Sirk’s 1959 film. Again focused on the marginalized women of the time, Sirk directs Lana Turner (The Postman Always Rings Twice) as a working class single mom in an inversion of the femme fatale persona that made her famous. Turner takes in a homeless black housekeeper (in a brilliantly nuanced performance from Juanita Moore) and her daughter in this thematic exploration of class and racial identity. Bianca Martin has a fine review over at Tone Madison for C’tek’s final summer film. We’ll see you in September. (FREE.)
In the Mood for Love (8:45p — Madison Sourdough)
By 2000, Wong Kar-wai already had one of the greatest romances of all-time under his belt with Chungking Express, a ground-breaking and abstract distillation of love’s fragility. Six years later, Wong followed it up with this, a somber still life of a bond between Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung at a time when Hong Kong was on the brink of entering the modern world; it’s also one of the greatest love stories of all-time. (All of Madison Sourdough’s Patio Movie Nights are FREE.)
Sunday
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (10:00a — Point)
The Kevin James sequel you already forgot about also plays as part of the AMC Cares series, but it’s far more amusing to wonder how Marcus thought this would make for a fine family film. ($3.)
Freud (12:30p — High Noon Saloon)
Ostensibly Madison’s hot spot for ticketed local cinema, High Noon Saloon hosts this afternoon of Wisconsin-based productions. Headlining the event is Freud, a hazy 15-minute thriller between a helpless psychiatrist and his crazed captor. The $5 admission also includes a slate of as-yet-to-be-announced short films.
Monday
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (10:00a — Point)
$3.
Jerry Maguire (7:00p — Point)
Marcus Theatres’ “Hey it’s football season kind of!” series begins with a movie that feels like it has more in common with secret agents than the NFL this week. ($5.)
Con Air (9:00p — Memorial Union Terrace)
Featuring the debuts of Simon West and Nicolas Cage’s wig collection, “Die Hard on a plane” takes a deep breath before belching out its fiery, convict-stuffed, one-liner fest of a finale. Con Air hasn’t aged gracefully. It’s a stylistic mish-mash of a dozen Marines recruiting ads with an outrageously aggressive tone and a John Cusack performance stuck in the middle of John Malkovich’s mastermind Cyrus “the Virus” Grissom and Cage’s tank top-wearing Southern goodie. In other words: see it on the biggest screen possible. (FREE.)
Tuesday
Dragonball Z: Resurrection F (7:00p — Point)
With approval from series creator and pioneering pop artist Akira Toriyama, the 19th (!) film in the Dragonball franchise resurrects fan favorite villain Frieza, forcing frenemies Goku and Vegeta to team up — and further raise their power levels by a few more decimal places.
Mean Girls Brew ‘n View (8:00p — Majestic Theatre)
Doors at 7:30p. (FREE.)
Wednesday
Shaun the Sheep (AMC Star, Point)
Who’d have thought that the spiritual successor to Wall-E wouldn’t come out of Pixar? Aardman Animations, Bristol England’s stop-motion studio behind Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run, ports its sheep Shaun (from the Wallace and Gromit episode “A Close Shave”) to the big screen in a wordless “sheep out of water” story that has its titular character leading his flock back to the safety of Mossy Bottom Farm.
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (10:00a — Point)
$3.
Jerry Maguire (7:00p — Point)
$5.
Dragonball Z: Resurrection F (7:00p — Point)