FilmWeek

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig of USA Today, Wade Major of boxoffice.com and Charles Solomon, animation critic and historian for amazon.com discuss the week’s new film releases including Despicable Me, Predators, The Kids Are All Right, and The Girl Who Played With Fire, among others. In the movie Love Ranch, Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci play a married Nevada couple running one of the first legalized brothels in the country. But their lives are complicated when the husband enters a business endeavor to revive an Argentinean boxer's career. Directed by Mirren's husband Taylor Hackford, the film is based on the lives of Joe and Sally Conforte and boxer Oscar Bonavena.

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Jean Oppenheimer, Andy Klein of Brand X and Charles Solomon, animation critic and historian for amazon.com discuss several of the week’s new film releases including The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The Last Airbender, Love Ranch, and South of the Border among others. Larry will also open up the phones for “Twi-Hards” to sound off about Eclipse. Are you “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob?” Later, Oliver Stone is one of America’s most famous film makers, known for such master works as Platoon, JFK and Wall Street. He’s putting the finishing touches on a sequel to Wall Street, returning to one of his most famous characters, Gorden Gekko. But he’s also a political activist with a keen interest in developments in South America. This weekend his newest film comes out, South of the Border. It’s a documentary comprising interviews with South American leaders, most notably Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. In the film, Stone sets out to show that American media and policy makers unfairly demonize Chavez. Larry caught up with Stone earlier this week.

Guest host David Lazarus and KPCC film critics Jean Oppenheimer and Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com discuss the week’s new film releases including Knight and Day, Grown-Ups, The Killer Inside Me, Restrepo, and Let It Rain among others. TGI-FilmWeek! Later, Larry Mantle talks with actress Pam Grier about her candid new memoir detailing her life and career. She shares her thoughts on being a “Blaxploitation” star, (describing herself as “Chekhov in a wet T-shirt!”), working with Roger Corman and Quentin Tarantino, remembers her relationships with Richard Pryor, Freddie Prinze and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and talks openly about her childhood and her battle with cancer.

KPCC critics Lael Loewenstein and Henry Sheehan review the week's releases, including Toy Story 3, Jonah Hex, Cyrus, Anton Chekhov's The Duel, I Am Love, 8: The Mormon Proposition and Stonewall Uprising. Later, Larry talks with the director of Toy Story 3.

Larry Mantle and critics Andy Klein of Brand X and Wade Major of boxoffice.com discuss the week’s new film releases including The A Team, The Karate Kid, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, and Winter’s Bone, among others. Later, Larry Mantle sits down with Director Debra Granick and actress Jennifer Lawrence to discuss their new film, Winter’s Bone, which portrays the trials and tribulations of a young woman growing up deep in the Ozark mountains. The film was the recipient of the both the Grand Jury Prize and the Screenwriting award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Larry Mantle and KPCC FilmWeek Critics Claudia Puig of USA Today, Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor, and Charles Solomon animation critic for amazon.com and animation historian, join Larry to discuss this week’s new film releases including Get Him To The Greek, Splice, Marmaduke, Ondine, Perrier’s Bounty, John Rabe, and Micmacs, among others.

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Claudia Puig of USA Today and Lael Loewenstein of Variety discuss the week’s film openings including Sex And The City 2, and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, among others. Lael and Claudia will also discuss the uptick in films made for women in light of the opening of Sex And The City 2. Are these films done well for women? Are they usually any good? What is your favorite “chick flick?” What type of women’s movies do you like? Later, John Rabe on John Rabe.

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Jean Oppenheimer, Andy Klein of Brand X and Charles Solomon animation critic and historian for amazon.com, discuss the week’s new film releases including Shrek Forever After, MacGruber, Solitary Man, Holy Rollers, Kites, Looking For Eric, The Best Worst Movie, The Oath, and The Father Of My Children among others. Later, this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Henry Sheehan of henrysheehan.com, and Wade Major of boxoffice.com discuss the week’s new film releases including Robin Hood, Letters to Juliet, Just Wright, Princess Kaiulani, The Complete Metropolis, and The Thorn in the Heart. Later, the business backstage at Cannes, and the fine art of preserving classic films.

Larry talks with KPCC film critics Jean Oppenheimer and Henry Sheehan about the week’s new movie releases including Iron Man 2, Mother And Child, Babies, The Human Centipede, Casino Jack And The United States of Money, Behind The Burly Q, OSS 117: Lost In Rio, Mercy, and The Lightkeepers. When DreamWorks was founded in 1994, it was the first new Hollywood studio in 60 years. Headed by director Steven Spielberg, music mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, and ex-Disney executive David Geffen, the company set out to build a media empire dedicated to talent and where employees didn't have titles. DreamWorks had its share of successes – American Beauty, Gladiator, Shrek. But it also had numerous, costly failures, and by 2005 the studio was sold to Paramount. In The Men Who Would Be King, reporter Nicole LaPorte tells the story of the company's flare-ups and failed ambitions.