2008 Woodie Awards
Hot Flicks
Devine, Bob
Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: Life
With the semester underway, I wanted to share what will be coming to the Bengal Theater.
The surprise summer hit Iron Man is the feature film Friday, Aug. 29 and Saturday, Aug. 30 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:45 p.m. This movie is sure to have great crowds coming out to see Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as the metallic superhero. As Much as Iron Man's lead character Tony Stark sees the light of his evil ways and changes for the better, a once nose-diving career for Downey has been reborn from the ashes of his off-screen party days, and in his reformation he seems much more focused and crisp on the screen. Having Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard as his trusted helpers, along with Jeff Bridges, does not hurt the mega-superstar flash on the big screen, either. Definitely take the time if you have not seen this one.
Enough about Iron Man. I really wanted to give a big plug to The Great Debaters playing Wednesday, Aug. 27 and Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the Bengal Theater. When I took my wife to see this film it knocked both our socks off. The film stars are Denzel Washington, Forrest Whitaker and Denzel Whitaker (yes, the son of Forrest and named after Denzel). The Great Debaters is based on a true story about a debate team from Wiley College, Texas, from a small segregated African-American school in the Jim Crow south of the 1930's. Coach Melvin Tolson led the debate team, and as it turns out, he is a clandestine union organizer on the side, led the debate team. Facing racism, sexism and anti-union sentiments, the team and the coach struggle to succeed, first by defeating other "negro" college teams and then by breaking the color barrier to challenge national champion Harvard (in real life it was USC, but Harvard must have sounded better to the screenwriters). What results is a glimpse of the harsh conditions faced by those struggling for equality in the South, combined with a true underdog story of rising to achieve beyond expectations.
The surprise summer hit Iron Man is the feature film Friday, Aug. 29 and Saturday, Aug. 30 at 7:00 p.m. & 9:45 p.m. This movie is sure to have great crowds coming out to see Robert Downey Jr.'s performance as the metallic superhero. As Much as Iron Man's lead character Tony Stark sees the light of his evil ways and changes for the better, a once nose-diving career for Downey has been reborn from the ashes of his off-screen party days, and in his reformation he seems much more focused and crisp on the screen. Having Gwyneth Paltrow and Terrence Howard as his trusted helpers, along with Jeff Bridges, does not hurt the mega-superstar flash on the big screen, either. Definitely take the time if you have not seen this one.
Enough about Iron Man. I really wanted to give a big plug to The Great Debaters playing Wednesday, Aug. 27 and Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7:00 p.m. in the Bengal Theater. When I took my wife to see this film it knocked both our socks off. The film stars are Denzel Washington, Forrest Whitaker and Denzel Whitaker (yes, the son of Forrest and named after Denzel). The Great Debaters is based on a true story about a debate team from Wiley College, Texas, from a small segregated African-American school in the Jim Crow south of the 1930's. Coach Melvin Tolson led the debate team, and as it turns out, he is a clandestine union organizer on the side, led the debate team. Facing racism, sexism and anti-union sentiments, the team and the coach struggle to succeed, first by defeating other "negro" college teams and then by breaking the color barrier to challenge national champion Harvard (in real life it was USC, but Harvard must have sounded better to the screenwriters). What results is a glimpse of the harsh conditions faced by those struggling for equality in the South, combined with a true underdog story of rising to achieve beyond expectations.
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