If you’re only reading the Clog, you’re missing out on info on the upcoming Philadelphia Film Festival. No worries, we have the skinny on our arts blog Critical Mass:

The Philadelphia Film Festival announced it will open with the locally-shot and set Law Abiding Citizen and close with Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire, by West Philly’s Lee Daniels.

This year marks the fest’s 18 1/2 birthday … wait, what? And a half? Usually the Film Fest takes place in the spring but when the Philadelphia Film Society split last year, TLA/Cinema Alliance’s Ray Murray kept the season and renamed the venture CineFest, while the Film Society moved to October and retained the name. The fest takes place Thu., Oct. 15-Mon., Oct. 19 and features 28 films from 14 different countries.

Keep reading on Crit Mass.

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Don’t know what to do tonight? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

Every so often life affords a second chance that allows us to cast aside regret or to simply come to our senses and seize the moment. Such is the case with the Troc’s showing of Crank: High Voltage tonight. Unlike a certain Rob Zombie-directed film about a guy who just won’t die, Crank is gleefully self-aware, delivering non-stop hilarity through a continuous thread of action that quickly leaps from the improbable to the outright ludicrous. Then again, you need to have a sense of humor when you resurrect your lead character after he face plants on the streets of L.A. from a helicopter at the end of your first film

The premise is simple: Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) needs to keep his temporary, mechanical heart charged with electricity by any means necessary, while hunting down the original (this, opposed to maintaining a super high heart rate in Crank I due to a nasty poison). Some films are made to be dissected on so many levels, while others are meant to be enjoyed with a few beers and the riotous laughter of your friends surrounding you. This is one of the latter.

Whoa, X-Men Origins: Wolverine came out this summer? It’s May release date feels like ages ago considering all of the Star Trekking, Transforming and District 9ing that’s gone on since.  So now that the season’s on the wind-down, let’s not forget about the crap that we most certainly forgot. Hell, we even put the sucker on our cover chilling with M. Nuts, the Phanatic and Santigold and I still thought this movie came out last year.

Madam Tussaud’s Hollywood decided to cast the Clawed One in wax (in order to preserve it’s inherent mediocrity?) and are taking it out for a spin on a five-city tour. You can catch a glimpse of the Jackman-a-la-wax this Wednesday from noon to 2 p.m. at FYE, 100 S. Broad St.

It’s all in the name of promoting the DVD. Drew Lazor was lukewarm on the whole affair:

If you’ve got your priorities straight, your reasons for sucking down a big-budget Marvel flick should be identical to your reasons for sucking down a big fat burger — while both are questionably beneficial to your well-being, frivolous transgression is fun, whether you feel guilty about it or not. As expected, Gavin Hood’s spin on The Clawed One’s back story doesn’t build empathy for Wolverine as much as it provides a platform for Hugh Jackman to go “RAAHHHH!” and be shirtless a lot. And that’s fine. The director starts by establishing Wolfy (aka Logan) and bloodthirsty Sabretooth (a hulking Liev Schreiber) as siblings who never got along — things come to a head when they’re part of the black-op Team X that provides the latter brother with plenty of chances to cut up the innocent. Skip to later, with Wolfy splitting logs in Canada with his girl (Lynn Collins); Sabretooth starts knocking members of the old squad off, luring Logan and his anger issues back into the mix. Special effects are suspect at points, and characters are shot out all sloppy and rapid-fire like spuds out of a potato gun (it’s the first in what will be many single-hero X-Flicks, so you gotta get those fenceposts in the ground). But if you’ve got your priorities straight, you’ll take will.i.am’s goofy role as teleportin’ cowpoke John Wraith as a sign not to think too hard about this.

Philly filmmaker Gary E. Irwin tells us that he’s a Top 5 finalist for the Your Amazon Ad contest. Watch his vid and vote local. Winner of the Jury or Audience award gets a $10,000 Amazon gift card. So Gary, if you win, you’re totally going to treat us to that 55″ Plasma TV we had our eye on for the conference room (read: my apartment), right?

James Cameron is returning after 14 years with his highly anticipated Avatar, which many expect to trigger a new era in cinema through its sharp use of CGI coupled with live action. (It was filmed with 3-D cameras rigged for high-def, along with cutting-edge motion capture technology.) The hype from a brief preview at this year’s Comic Con continues to ripple thanks to shrewd marketing like “Avatar Day,” a 15-minute preview of the film at IMAX theaters this Friday. A morality tale that cuts to the heart of the individual and social psyche, the film (opening Dec. 18) is set on a planet crafted to Cameron’s vision, which pushed his firm, Digital Domain, toward major advancements.

According to the movie’s site, the only area showings are taking place in Jersey. As of yesterday evening, only the AMC Hamilton 24 was not sold out, but bad news — as of this morning it appears that all the tickets have been spoken for.

Hey filmmakers, the Asian American Film Fest wants you (yes, you!) to make a trailer for their upcoming festival, which takes place at the Ibrahim Theater at iHouse and the Asian Arts Initiative, Oct. 9-11.

Here are the guidelines from the site:

1) Promote the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival in an original and creative way.
2) Include original/new footage & music. No copyrighted work accepted & will be disqualified.*
3) Must be exactly 30 seconds.
4) End with this downloadable PAAFF still for the final 5 seconds.
5) Upload to our Youtube group & tag with “Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival�.
6) Notify us by sending an email to Ron with a link to your youtube video.
7) Deadline is September 13, 2009. Finalists must be able to send 2 dvd copies of their trailer to us by September 20, 2009.

The contest is open to Asians and non-Asians alike and judges include music vid director Todd Angkasuwan (Snoop Dogg, KRS-One and so on) and producer Phil Lam.

Need inspiration? Here are the prizes:

Grand Prize: $250, 2 All Access Film Festival Passes, trailer screened during film festival and on website
1st Runner Up: $100, 2 All Access Film Festival Passes, trailer screened on website
2nd Runner Up: 2 All Access Film Festival Passes, trailer screened on website

Here’s the recently released trailer for F. Gary Gray’s all-local, all the time Law Abiding Citizen. It looks a little more twisted than your average revenge thriller. Philly doesn’t play a huge role in the trailer but I gotta say that end fire-filled scene looks pretty badass. My fave part, though? Gratuitous Gerard Butler naked scene. Does he need to get arrested in the buff? Probably not. But, honestly, why the hell not?

Also, DA cage match time: In a bare knuckle brawl, who would win? Jamie Foxx or outgoing DA Lynne Abraham? Honestly, I’m going with Abraham. That lady looks like she’s got some spunk in her.

Thoughts?

Law Abiding Citizen opens nationwide Oct. 16.

The 12th Annual FirstGlance Film Festival, which takes place Oct. 22-25, announced it’s line-up. Take a gander after the jump. I talked to Kathilynn’ Phillips, who was trying to sell Chasing the White Dragon (among her many other projects) at the Philadelphia Film Market back in June. Don’t forget to go all the way down the bottom for videos from three out of the four music video entrants.

Like last year’s fest, this year will have an online component: Beginning Sept. 22, 30 to 40 online films will be posted online. You vote on your fave and the winner gets a shot at the closing night ceremonies and $2,000.

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National Constitution Center CEO Linda Johnson announced today that Steven Spielberg will receive the 2009 Liberty Medal. While I think Spielberg’s greatest contribution to mankind is Indiana Jones, I gather the members of the Medal selection committee don’t agree — he’s getting the award for founding the Shoah Foundation, which preserves the stories of Holocaust survivors. He also gave mad money to the National Museum of American Jewish History, aka, what that construction site across the street from Independence Mall will be and I’m sure that didn’t hurt the local angle. I think it must be noted that Indiana Jones has saved the world four times. How many times has Steven Spielberg?

So let’s have at it. Fave Spielberg movie? I tend not to like Serious Spielberg (although, I gotta give it up for Saving Private Ryan), and much prefer the Movie Geek With Big Toys Spielberg, mainly because if I’m gonna watch something seriously, I’m going to watch something better but no one does blockbuster better than Steven. I obviously love Dr. Jones and his exploits, I’ll always watch Jurassic Park when it comes on TV (no, seriously, always) and Jaws has sentimental value

Your turn! Give me your favorite Spielbergian moment in the comments below and we’ll discuss.

In this week’s Agenda Section, Kristen Humbert wrote about a discussion between Temple prof. Samuel Delany and Avery Brooks, aka Captain Sisko from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/current Rutgers professor. Here’s what she said:

Samuel Delany wants to see the term “race” thrown out.

A black Temple professor and prolific sci-fi writer of such novels as Babel-17 and Nova, Delany doesn’t believe that race has any relevant genetic basis. He and actor Avery Brooks, the only black captain on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and currently a professor at Rutgers, will discuss whether or not that’s true at the Franklin Institute, in accordance with its dual exhibits on Star Trek and race.

Read on.

But loyal CP readers remember Delany from a previous piece. At the 2008 Philadelphia International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (now called QFest), Sam Adams profiled Delany because of The Polymath — a doc about how, essentially, Delany’s prolific output as a science fiction and the claims to have had sex with … well … a lot of people:

By Delany’s estimate, he would have sex with as many as 10 or 15 men in the course of a normal day, while still logging a full day’s work at the typewriter. He puts his lifetime total at something on the order of 50,000 partners. “I don’t know whether it resolves any particular conflicts,” he says. “You learn a lot about different people, different groups — and it’s a lot of fun.” Although he does not practice safe sex, he has remained HIV-negative, in part because he engages only in nonpenetrative sex.

Read on … you know you want to.

Fri., July 31, 7 p.m., $5, Franklin Institute, 222 N. 20th St., 215-448-1254, fi.edu.

Remember when Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler were painting the town red last winter? They were filming F. Gary Gray’s Law Abiding Citizen and production company Overture just announced that the flick will hit theaters Fri., Oct. 16.

From the press release:

LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is a thriller about a brilliant sociopath (Gerard Butler) who orchestrates a series of high-profile murders that grip the City of Philadelphia—all from inside his jail cell—and the prosecutor assigned to his case (Jamie Foxx) who realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror.

After the screening for Butler’s recently released The Ugly Truth, former CP listings goddess Monica Weymouth and I both agreed that the movie’s biggest failure (among many) was he had to speak with an American accent, rather than his natural Scottish one. Come on, guys, don’t detract from the sexy! Maybe Butler’s character wouldn’t have seemed so one-dimensionally misogynist if sounded prettier. I figure he also toned down the brogue for LAC, but maybe hearing Butler pronounce it “woodah” will help the proceedings.

Related: Getting Foxxy on the set of Law Abiding Citizen

Related: And now, an extremely realistic rendering of Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler’s 2:15 p.m. audience with King Nutteridas Mayor Nutter

The Flickering Light film series, which focuses on both short and feature length independent films posted their fall schedule. Here goes:

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Earlier this week, the theater world was all atwitter due to rumors that the Prince Music Theater would, essentially, become a rental-only facility with limited programming. Those rumors were swiftly denied by producing director Majorie Samoff.

These stories got me thinking about how I haven’t been to the Prince in ages, mainly because they stopped playing rep films and I don’t give a shit about cabaret (unless it’s Cabaret). But the Prince was perfect for rep. There are two venue sizes (450 and 150 seats) to choose from, depending on the film, the sound is good and I’m huge in-theater-viewing proponent — you haven’t seen Xanadu until you’ve seen Olivia Newton-John roller kate writ large.

While guys like Andrew McElhinney of Andrew’s Video Vault/Tuesday Night at the Movies and Jay Schwartz of Secret Cinema hold it down rep-wise, they each serve a niche and their programming nights are more like events. Series and retrospectives are near-impossible because they don’t have the consistent venue. A place like International House has the capability, but it’s also tied to Penn and serves a niche different from a more populist rep house. The Ritz’s Midnight Madness doesn’t have the same cinematic range as IHouse and are slaves/beneficiaries of the midnight movie formula. At the same time, they did well enough charging $9 for old movies that they extended the program through the rest of the summer. We need a place that can play both an Ozu retrospective, Liquid Sky and Caddyshack, all in the same spot.

So do I think the Prince would be wise to start programming rep again? Sure, but it has to be the right kind of rep, taking into consideration the schedules/niches of McElhinney/Schwartz/IHouse. Do I think they’ll actually do it? Probably not. But you know who should? (Ideally, it would be the old SamEric but that ain’t ever gonna happen.) The guys at the 941 Theater. With the right movie programming and advertising, it wouldn’t be that hard to sell and they already have a screen/projector in place. I worked at a video store in college that had a small theater about the same size of 941 in the back and they always did better on rep nights. Plus, every time I’ve talked to those guys, they reiterate how important it is to see movies in a theater and not on a tiny computer/iPod screen (amen!). So why not give people the opportunity? Not to mention their proclivity for serving booze at various events. Indiana Jones and the Temple of PBR Cans? Yes, please.

As always, you can check our rep film listings at citypaper.net/repfilm.

Courtesy of Rosalie Kicks

The one upside to rain? This adorable new logo.

Way back in June, I wrote about the second annual Cupcake Bandit Film Festival:

The Cupcake Bandit’s having an identity crisis: An ineffective villain with a sweet tooth, CB doesn’t know if he’s chosen the right career path. His existential crisis is the crux of Rosalie Kicks’ short film Pinheads!, shot around her South Philly home and a Manayunk bowling alley. This is the fest’s second time around, featuring short films; performances by local bands like Twenty30 and Dark Horse; and, of course, its titular confection: Kicks promises cupcakes by Flying Monkey, Bethlehem’s Vegan Treats and her very own kitchen.

But the gods didn’t look kindly upon Philadelphia that weekend and the film fest needed to be re-scheduled. Rosalie shot me an e-mail letting me know that the rain date is this Saturday, July 25 at Jefferson Square Park, with tunes from 5-8 p.m. and films from 8-11 p.m.

Cupcake Band Film Festival rain date, Sat. July 25, 5-11 p.m., free, Jefferson Square Park, Washington Ave. between 3rd and 4th streets, banditfilmfestival.com.