Tired of pillaging Pirates, swinging Spider-men, and revolting Robots? Scratching your head wondering if the "Silver Surfer" is rising because the "Surf's Up" on "Ocean's 13"? Just how many sequels, prequels, and comic book movies can the Hollywood meat grinder feed us in one summer anyway? Well, Seattle serves up even more film, arguably for those with more discerning taste, in an endless stream of cinema from May through June. The Seattle International Film Festival, purported to be the largest film festival in the United States, had 160,000 attendees in 2006 and likely more in 2007.

Dan Ireland, co-founder and Board Emeritus of SIFF, spoke candidly with me during an interview about the very first festival in 1976. "We didn't know how the reception was going to be, because it was our first year, but the moment we opened our door it was mind blowing; we had the respect of the audiences and the film critics at large in Seattle at the time. That year we got to introduce The Rocky Horror Picture Show … it's really wild to look back."

"X-Men: The Last Stand"
When a "cure" for the mutant gene is announced by a corporation working with the government, the militant Magneto rallies his mutant brotherhood for a decisive strike against homo-sapien humanity. Charles Xavier and his school of X-Men prepare to respond in kind, but the return of a former teammate, thought to be dead, upsets everyone's plans, as the nearly limitless Jean Grey may pose the greatest threat to mutants and humans alike. A heavy toll will be exacted, lives will be lost, and the greatest sacrifice will be made as the X-Men take The Last Stand.

"Citizen Kane"
Starring Orson Welles,
Directed by Orson Welles
2 hrs. 23 min.

The film begins at the end… then proceeds to explore the life of a man in a series of vignettes, through the eyes of those who knew him… while this may not sound like a groundbreaking idea today, "Citizen Kane" was the first film to use non-linear storytelling like this. With its revolutionary writing and innovative use of lighting, contrast, and camera angles, many still consider it to be the best film every made, the measuring rod by which all other films are sized up and critiqued. It made sense, then, for Mars Hill's Film and Theology class to engage the picture to see not only why it has held such lasting impact on the film world, but also to examine its message about man's striving and achievement.

"Constantine"
Starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeaouf, Djimon Hounsou
Directed by Francis Lawrence
Rated R

Ah, Hollywood. While Hollywood often pillages books, television and comic books for film ideas, voraciously mauling the source material beyond recognition, the process never ceases to amaze me. Particularly in light of recent comic book adaptations that have been so successful ("Spider-man" and "X-Men" come to mind, as well as lesser known "The Road to Perdition" and "From Hell") I expected better from Francis Lawrence's Constantine. For every Doctor Octopus, however, I guess there's a Halle Berry in a ridiculous cat-suit.

"The Exorcist"

From a filmmaking perspective, the power of "The Exorcist", directed by William Friedkin and based on the book by William Peter Blatty, lies not in its gory visuals, or the flashes of demonic faces and images sprinkled generously throughout, but truly, ultimately, in the audio track. From the opening scene in Northern Iraq, with the sonic dissonance of a hundred pickaxes and the sound of hammers beating out metal on an anvil as the brilliant Max von Sydow struggles to choke down his heart medication, the film claws at your nerves in every scene. Even a harmless downstairs moment between Father Karras and the possessed girl's mother is made edgy by a rasping steam iron that hisses in and out like the demonic Linda Blair's hyperventilation. As the soundtrack alternates between Oldfield's seemingly mellow Tubular Bells and quick violin strings that strike without warning, the viewer is never allowed to relax, even when the scene is clearly removed from the source of danger. (It didn't hurt, either, that the Cinerama had the THX system maximized to the extent that the opening advertisement rattled my rib cage.)