Despite having no footage or interviews of The Replacements or any clips of their music, the rock documentary “Color Me Obsessed” calls itself “the potentially true story of the last best band.” It’s showing at 10pm tonight ONE TIME ONLY at Liberty Hall, and although this sounds like a horrible, horrible idea for a movie — it’s getting some pretty decent reviews.

The Replacements are one of the best rock n’ roll bands of all time, and they deserve the kind of cultish following they’ve received. Nobody has had the mix of aggression, pathos, self-awareness, and assured self-destruction since Paul Westerberg and company. Director Gorman Bechard got some pretty big heavy-hitters to talk about the band on camera, such as Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart and Greg Norton, Kids In The Hall‘s Dave Foley, The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn, and Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. Let me know if it’s any good, cause I won’t be there. I’ll be hosting the 2102 Topeka Air Guitar Championship, where we’ll be celebrating rock n’ roll without any instruments. Same aesthetic as a rock doc with no music?

An independent movie with mainstream appeal is out now on DVD, and it was partially filmed right here in Kansas, including some scenes shot in Eudora. “Sweet Little Lies” is directed by William Saunders, the son of former Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders.

A road-trip film about two kids who steal a car on a journey to find one of their long-lost parents, “Sweet Little Lies” is an odd hybrid. Some computer-animation fantasy sequences heighten the movie’s low budget, but the uneven script is a bit of a problem, especially when it can’t pull off some of its comedic moments. That said, actor Bill Sage ties the film together emotionally and the story of finding yourself is a pretty universal one.

It’s tough to make a 100-year-old story fresh, especially when it sounds like and looks like so many fantasy and sci-fi films before it. “John Carter,” adapted from characters created in 1912 by Edgar Rice Burroughs, won’t feel new to modern audiences.

(Although I bet modern audiences would have loved to see the Princess of Mars buck naked like she is throughout most of the book. Pretty sure that wouldn’t be a Disney movie anymore…)

It opens today everywhere, and it’s part “Star Wars” and part “Lord of the Rings,” with an ordinary character–in this case a Civil War captain–transported to Mars to fight a battle waging between the planet’s inhabitants. John Carter, played rather blandly by Taylor Kitsch, falls in with four-armed aliens known as Tharks and eventually a princess.

Director Andrew Stanton, who helmed “WALL-E” and “Finding Nemo” has a sure storytelling hand, but the familiar parts of “John Carter” grow a little unwieldy during its two-hour-plus running time. Still, the look of the film is spectacular and there are a couple of character-deepening flashbacks and a nifty framing device that gives the story more emotional resonance than you would think.

Since its story inspired every mainstream fantasy right up to “Avatar,” “John Carter” may seem a little old-fashioned, but it’s a solid piece of fantasy entertainment that’s equal parts corny and poignant.

http://www.lawrence.com/users/Eric_Melin/photos/2012/mar/8/231296/

The 2012 Kansas City Japanese Film Festival is showcasing some of the best in classic and contemporary Japanese films this weekend, and all proceeds go to the tsunami earthquake relief fund. Yasujir? Ozu‘s amazing “Tokyo Story” and the 2011 Academy Award Nominated short “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” are just two of the films showing March 10-11.

This film festival is a benefit in two locations right across the street from each other to help Japan rebuild one year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami. 100% of all donations will go toward the JETAA USA Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. Full schedule available on the festival website: www.heartlandjetaa.org

http://www.lawrence.com/users/Eric_Melin/photos/2012/mar/8/231283/

I believe God will use this movie (“October Baby”) to help a lot of people heal and move forward with their lives.” – Cheri Hamilton, Author, Raising a Soul Surfer

What’s God’s endorsement worth? A lot, in these days of targeted marketing to niche groups. Here’s a quick heads up about a movie opening March 23 that stars “The Dukes of Hazzard”‘s John Schneider, among other dignitaries. From the pro-life political front comes “October Baby,” a film that eschews standard Hollywood wisdom and goes straight for a tagline right out of the Bible: “You saw me before I was born.” – Psalm 139:16

As a promo tool to rally support from the pro-life movement, the movies promotions feature a YouTube documentary series called “Every Life Is Beautiful” that feature real-life stories from actors/filmmakers who starred in this and other Christian-themed films like “Fireproof,” starring that ol’ gay-hating son of God, Kirk Cameron.

I wonder if the audience for this film is the same one I saw getting bussed in from the church and forcing their kids to see Mel Gibson’s torture-porn extravaganza “The Passion of the Christ.” I’m telling you, these fringe marketing campaigns really freak me out.