"A high-powered consultant in love with her upscale Miami lifestyle is sent to a middle of nowhere town in Minnesota to oversee the restructuring of a blue collar manufacturing plant. After enduring a frosty reception from the locals, icy roads and freezing weather, she warms up to the small town's charm, and eventually finds herself being accepted by the community. " New in Town (2009) More at IMDbPro, from imdb.com "..She's an executive on the move. But her career is taking her a little farther than she expected. ..
Sweet Land
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "...The parents of immigrant farmer Olaf Torvik (Tim Guinee) remain in Norway, where they met her. Dialogue reveals that the four of them have worked out an agreement that allowed her to emigrate to America for the purpose of marrying Olaf. The Minnesota farming village in which her intended husband lives is horrified to learn that she is a German immigrant with no papers. To make matters worse, she has accidentally obtained membership papers for the American Socialist Party. Scandalized, both the town's Lutheran minister and the county clerk refuse to marry them....
Purple Rain (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ".."The Kid" (Prince) is an aspiring and talented, but troubled Minneapolis musician with a difficult home life. He meets a singer named Apollonia (Apollonia Kotero), and they become involved in an untidy romance. The plot centers on Prince trying not to repeat the pattern of his abusive father, played by Clarence Williams III (best known for his role as Lincoln Hayes on The Mod Squad), and keep his band, The Revolution, and his relationship with Apollonia, together. His main antagonist is fellow musician Morris Day and his group The Time...
"A Prairie Home Companion Trailer "
Reviews:
Charlie Rose - A Prairie Home Companion / Daniel Gilbert...
"Segment 1: Guest host Peter Travers of Rolling Stone talks to Garrison Keillor about his film adaptation of "A Prairie Home Companion". They're joined by Robert Altman who directed the film.
Segment 2: We conclude with guest host Harold Varmus, a nobel laureate who is currently President of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He talks to psychologist Daniel Gilbert about his new book, "Stumbling on Happiness". "
"A gentle piffle, "A Prairie Home Companion" is the Summer's most lovely find - a movie that is easy on the ears and seemingly made of sheary, impossible gossamer that would spindle or crush under a more heavy-handed production.
The impressive cast seems to be having a whole lot of fun - Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, Lindsay Lohan, LQ Jones et al all have perfunctory if labored singing voices, but it is scripter Garrison Keillor that is the thread that stitches this one together so well. The result is an infectious, genial collection of characters and occasions whose easy charms stay with the viewer days after the film finally unspools its last credit.
Although I have never heard a PHC performance before, the film plays as a tribute to the old days of radio shows and more over, a loving though chilly valentine to the radio days of old. Anyone old enough though not near an NPR station might not know the show but most certainly can hum the tune.
Keillor, he with an alien-like E.T. observation of the goings-on at the final performance of his 30+ year-old live radio show, has a wonderful announcer voice and an above average singing voice that anchors the honest, down home corn-pone credibility of the film. He is a cypher through the picture - a guy you could listen to for hours chat about his exploits, introduce faux commercials and sing a song about nothing in particular. GK has such an ethereal presence that you look at him with such amazement because a "regular" joe like he earns such a shorthand with his audience and can stand toe to toe with aplomb next to Oscar winners like Kline and Streep. It's a great, understated performance.
The movie, directed by the legendary Robert Altman, has such a light touch that it's hard to not fall easily into it's flow. It's dreamy, slight and surreal, yet sets up its universe that is vaguely of today - but what world still has an actual radio show broadcast across the nation so detailed and entertaining as this? Altman and Keillor do the amazing - they deny the audience of any cheap emotion and pathos or short cuts to pay off the scenario. As much as this movie is about the wistful honor and simple entertainment of such a radio programs that used to rule the airwaves in the 1930s through the 1950s, both writer and director refuse to pander to suspected emotional payoffs or happy endings that lesser film creators might. This is a cold, simple and honest movie about the last kick at the can of a venerable institution, and as they choreograph it: so what? Every show, as Keillor says in the film, is the last show. Big deal.
Despite it's frigid demeanor, "A Prairie Home Companion" is filled with warm, quiet moments that offers each cast member has a shining, sterling moment of performance - though none takes centre stage and overpowers or overacts. If anyone goes swinging for the balconies, its Altman regular Tomlin, who creates such a wonderful counterbalance to Streep's simple, honest Minnesotan singing sister partner that she stands as the picture's meta heart - a desperate, hardened yet proud woman backed into a career corner who doesn't know what to do after her regular job is prematurely retired by big radio business. Tomlin deserves an Oscar.
For a film that is steeped in a sentimentality that no longer exists, Altman keeps his sharpened artist eye wandering the set for the most interesting player in the room instead of mourning the sad gone before. There's no release in the movie, no eulogy for the past. "A Prairie Home Companion" is a straight-forward document of what was, not what could have been or what will be.
The director's brilliance is that his lens cares about what technical and bits of business that come to affect in the making of the final show which really tell the story - of a group of people who spend their Saturday nights singing songs, telling stories and transmitting their folksy well-wishes to an imaginary audience listening in on their bedside table radio. In the movie, Altman and Keillor let their staged audience seated in the cavernous Fitzgerald Theater in Minneapolis or those sitting in shoebox movie theater in Anywhere, USA fill in the relevance.
One of the best movies of the year. "
Related Sites:
A Prairie Home Companion.
"A sleepy section of downtown St. Paul will get a dose of Hollywood glitter in coming weeks during the shooting of "A Prairie Home Companion," the movie. The film, directed by Robert Altman and written by Garrison Keillor, is based on Keillor's extremely popular public radio show. Most of the shooting will take place where PHC is performed, The Fitzgerald Theater. ..
The movie being shot in St. Paul is good news for Minnesota's beleaguered film industry, which has had trouble attracting high budget filmmakers in recent years. Meighan McGuire, Film Liaison with the Minnesota Film and TV Board says it feels good to have Hollywood pouring money into local coffers once again.
"The film, we know, is more than $5 million and probably less than 10.".. Wikipedia
Critical Response "A Prairie Home Companion opened the 2006 South by Southwest film festival on March 10, then premiered in St. Paul, Minnesota on a briskly cold May 3, 2006 at the Fitzgerald Theater, which had projection and sound equipment specially brought in for that purpose. The film's stars arrived in ten horse-drawn carriages. Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News anchored his newscast from neighboring Minneapolis that night so that he would be able to attend.
The general reaction to the film by critics was favorable, as it garnered an 80% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, a site that tallies prominent reviews. Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars, saying, "What a lovely film this is, so gentle and whimsical, so simple and profound."[4]
It had its detractors, however. Film critic Michael Medved gave the film one and a half stars (out of four) saying, "The entertainment value stands somewhere between thin and non-existent" and, "[it may be] the worst movie ever made that pooled the talents of four (count ‘em - four!) Oscar winners"[5]
Desson Thomson from The Washington Post came between the two, saying that while the movie had its strengths, it was weaker than it should have been, in a review headlined "Honey, You Could Ask For More" (a reference to the opening theme song of the radio show and film)[6].
Meryl Streep won the Best Supporting Actress Award from the National Society of Film Critics for her role in this and The Devil Wears Prada; Altman was also posthumously nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Director..."
-Stars:
Myspace LINDSAY LOHAN NO LONGER A TEEN, FOR A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, from youtube.com "It was mayhem on West 57 Street in Manhattan for the premiere of A Prairie Home Companion as the throngs of paparazzi and curious onlookers eagerly awaited the arrival of the film's star Lindsay Lohan. "
Garrison Keillor returns to Morris in February
"A Prairie Home Companion" to broadcast from the University of Minnesota, Morris on February 19, 2011 Published December 01 2010 morrissuntribune.com "Garrison Keillor will host “A Prairie Home Companion” at the University of Minnesota, Morris on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2011. The radio show will broadcast live from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Tickets will be available for the Morris show through the University of Minnesota Northrop ticketing system beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, 2010.
"A Prairie Home Companion” first visited Morris in 2006. With a filled-to-capacity Physical Education Center, the show included Keillor’s signature monologue—The News from Lake Wobegon, performances by the UMM Concert Choir, comedy sketches, and music.
Heard by more than four million listeners each week, “A Prairie Home Companion” is broadcast on 590 public radio stations and abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks in Europe and the Far East. If you are unable to attend the campus performance, listen to a live broadcast on a public radio station or to a live audio Web stream at www. prairiehome.publicradio.org.
An encore is rebroadcast on Sundays from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m.
To purchase tickets, visit morris.umn.edu/newsevents/aphc beginning on Dec. 10. Call (320) 589-6080 with questions." Hodgson, Keillor collaborate on UMM Concert Choir performance
'A Prairie Home Companion' will be broadcast from the University of Minnesota, Morris campus Feb. 19 and the UMM Concert Choir will be featured
Published February 13, 2011, 06:48 PM By: Tom Larson, Morris Sun Tribune morrissuntribune.com "The University of Minnesota, Morris Concert Choir will be featured during the upcoming “A Prairie Home Companion” broadcast from the UMM campus.
Garrison Keillor hosts the live radio show from the campus Physical Education Center on Saturday, Feb. 19.
The radio show will be broadcast live from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tickets are available for the Morris show through the University of Minnesota Northrop ticketing system.
UMM Concert Choir Director Ken Hodgson said he talked with Keillor recently about the show and musical selections. The choir will since the hymn "Lead Me Gently Home," and "Blow, Winds," a popular song in Latvia and one which dovetails with the choir's upcoming trip to Latvia and Finland this spring.
"Blow, Winds" is the "second national anthem" in Latvia, Hodgson said, and it provided inspiration for citizens during the Soviet occupation.
News of the trip may have provided Keillor some inspiration for the UMM show.
"I told him about the trip and he was excited about that," Hodgson said of Keillor. "He said he might talk about choirs traveling and being on the road, and maybe talk about Latvia."
But, you never know, said Hodgson, who worked with Keillor on his previous visit to UMM in 2006.
"You don't know what he's going to do," Hodgson said. "He changes things on the fly. That's not to say he wings it, but that's the way he does the show. They're always switching things. It's great fun."
Keillor hinted that he will talk about areas around Morris -- "He said, 'We have to talk about the prairie,' " Hodgson said. " 'We have to get a feel for the prairie.' " -- and singling out the students is not new. Hodgson takes choir students to the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul to watch "A Prairie Home Companion" rehearsals and that Keillor often stops to visit with the group.
"He has a heart for college students," Hodgson said.
Regardless how the show unfolds, Hodgson said the chance to perform is "a win-win situation for us."
"It's a great opportunity for the choir," he said. "We're counting our blessings."
In addition to the Concert Choir, the show will feature fiddlers Deena and Sedra Bistodeau, Catie Jo Pidel, and Richard Kriehn. The evening also includes Keillor’s signature monologue—The News from Lake Wobegon, comedy sketches, and more music.
Heard by more than four million listeners each week, "A Prairie Home Companion" is broadcast on 590 public radio stations and abroad on America One and the Armed Forces Networks in Europe and the Far East.
In addition to the live radio broadcast a live audio web stream can be heard. An encore rebroadcast is Sunday, Feb. 20 at 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Information is available at prairiehome.publicradio.org/stations.
For ticket information, visit morris.umn.edu/newsevents/aphc or call (612) 624-2345. Show guests are asked to be seated by 4:45 p.m. Email stuact@morris.umn.edu or call (320) 589-6080 with questions. "
The Mighty Ducks (1992) More at IMDbPro , from imdb.com "..Gordon Bombay, a hotshot lawyer, is haunted by memories of his childhood, when, as the star player in his champion hockey team... See more.. The Mighty Ducks (part 8) 10/2/1992 , from youtube.com "(filmed at the Met Center in South Bloomington, Minnesota and at Minneapolis, Minnesota) Adam finally joins the roster, and although met with uncertainty for being a former Hawk, he proves to be a valuable asset. Thanks to Reed's last-second slap shot, the Ducks are propelled into the playoffs. At this time, a budding romance begins to emerge between Bombay and Charlie's divorced mother, Casey Conway (Heidi Kling)."
IMAX Technology Can Be Found Currently Showing in Six Metro Locations "
Hearing the word IMAX used in conjunction with movie theaters is a bit confusing! Although the theaters themselves differ in size and design, it is the IMAX technology itself that makes movies shown in the specialized theaters into truly unique movie-going experiences.
As far as IMAX theaters go, there are big screens, and then there are giant screens. A campaign was launched November 1, 2010 by the Giant Screen Cinema Association to differentiate the size of the screens and to provide a logo for theaters to use when they qualify as having a giant screen by meeting certain requirements.
According to the Giant Screen Cinema Association, participating giant screen theaters must meet specific requirements, with giant screens at least:
•70 feet (21.3 meters) wide, or
•3,100 square feet (288 square meters) in total area for flat screens, or
•60 feet (18.3 meters) in diameter for domes, and
•Place all seating within one screen width of the screen plane
The GSCA has two icons, one for flat screen and one for dome screen.
As of this date, there are no IMAX theaters in the Twin Cities, Minn. area listed on the GSCA website. However, this is a new campaign, so that doesn't mean that there are no qualifying screens in this area, just not any "qualified" to date.
Whatever their size, all of the IMAX theaters in the Twin Cities have the IMAX technology that differentiates them from other theaters.
The specialized technology behind the genius of IMAX is best explained from the videos on the IMAX website:
IMAX theaters in the Twin Cities area
1) The Omnitheatre Science Museum of Minnesota is the only IMAX theater in the Twin Cities that has a domed screen. Location: 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., Saint Paul, Minn., phone 651-221-9444 .
From the Omnitheatre website: Few places on Earth can tell a story like the Omnitheater can. With its nine-story domed screen and state-of-the art surround sound system, the theater puts you right at the heart of the action. Get a behind-the-scenes peek into the process of putting on an Omnitheater show with Head Projectionist Chris Demko. View the Videos.
2) Great Clips IMAX, Minnesota Zoo. This theater was constructed as an IMAX theater. Theater information on the website tells more about the IMAX experience. Location: 12000 Zoo Blvd., Apple Valley, Minn., phone 952-431-4629 .
3) AMC Rosedale 14 & IMAX. This theater was retrofitted for IMAX. Location: 850 Rosedale Center, Roseville, Minn., phone 888-262-4386 .
4) AMC Southdale 16 & IMAX. This theater was retrofitted for IMAX. Location: 400 Southdale Center, Edina, Minn., phone 888-262-4386 .
5) AMC Eden Prairie Mall 18 & IMAX. This theater was retrofitted for IMAX. Location: 8251 Flying Cloud Drive, Eden Prairie, Minn., phone 888-262-4386 .
6) AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & IMAX. This theater was retrofitted for IMAX. Location: 12575 Elm Creek Blvd., Maple Grove, Minn., phone 888-262-4386 .
7) Pepsi IMAX, Valleyfair. Valleyfair is a seasonal amusement park. No information is currently available on the website regarding this theater, and no movies are showing at this time. A photo of the theater is shown on the Big Movie Zone website, along with some stats. Location: One Valleyfair Drive Shakopee, Minn., phone 952-445-7600 .
Wherever you live, you can find an IMAX theater near you by visiting the IMAX theater website. From there you can access information about the particular theater that you want to attend to learn if it is a dome, a giant IMAX screen theater, or a theater that has been retrofitted to accommodate IMAX technology.
I recently saw "Tron: Legacy An IMAX 3D Experience" at the AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & IMAX theater and found the theater to be extremely comfortable. The flat screen is the size of an average theater front wall, and there is stadium seating in that particular theater. The seats were very comfortable, with enough leg room to easily allow someone to pass in front of a seated individual for entering or leaving the row.
Our party sat about half-way up which was very satisfactory for me. I personally would not wish to sit way down in front of such a big screen, but each individual must gauge that for himself.
The sound quality was excellent, although loud, which is true for all theaters these days.
The plastic 3-D glasses at that theater were not fancy, but they did the job. Glasses are to be deposited in a barrel when you leave the theater, as they are recycled. I did not check out the concession stand area or the restrooms.
Ticket prices for the IMAX movies differ by the age of the ticket buyer, day of the week, times of day, and for holidays. The IMAX movie that I saw was at 1:30 p.m. on a Sunday afternoon. The ticket price for that time slot was $7.50 plus a $4.00 upcharge for IMAX.
The IMAX theater website
Other articles by R.C. Johnson:
IMAX Movie Review: Tron: Legacy (3D)
IMAX Will Plan Your Night Out with Family and Friends
3 IMAX Movies Now Playing; Tron: Legacy (3D) is the Newest
Sources:
http://www.imax.com/
http://www.bigmoviezone.com/
http://www.giantscreencinema.com/
DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION:
The Contributor has no connection to nor was paid by the brand or product described in this content.
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