Weekend Movies

Critic's Choice: 'The Ten Commandments' on the big screen in L.A. area

A scene from "The Ten Commandments." (Paramount Pictures)

Kenneth Turan

Fathom Events and Turner Classic Movies are joining forces to allow big screen fans to take in the grandeur of Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 "The Ten Commandments," with Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner going toe to toe and the 10 plagues waiting in the wings.

Filmed in Egypt and the Sinai on some enormous sets, this Moses versus Pharaoh smack-down also featured parts for Anne Baxter, Edward G. Robinson, Yvonne De Carlo, Cedric Hardwicke and one very big wave.

Films will be screening at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. March 20 and March 23. Local theaters include the Burbank 16, the Cinemark 18, the Century 8 in North Hollywood and the Cinemark in Playa Vista.

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Movie recommendations from critic Kenneth Turan and other reviewers.

The Big Short

Adam McKay, with the help of Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt, has made a very funny film about a very serious situation, 2008's global financial collapse. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Brooklyn

Impeccably directed by John Crowley, feelingly adapted by Nick Hornby from Colm Tóibín's fine novel and blessed with heart-stopping work from star Saoirse Ronan and the rest of the cast, "Brooklyn" is about love and heartache, loneliness and intimacy, what home means and how we achieve it. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

Embrace of the Serpent

This Oscar-nominated Colombia film is a strikingly photographed black-and-white epic that intertwines a passionate attack on the depredations of invasive capitalism with a potent adventure story. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

Hail, Caesar!

A droll Coen brothers tribute to and spoof of Hollywood past that amuses from beginning to end with its site specific re-creation of the studio system and the movies that made it famous. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

The Lady in the Van

Maggie Smith stars in this sharp British comedy — written by Alan Bennett, based on his play and directed by Nicholas Hytner. A delicately written, boisterously performed movie about the difficult people who dare us to care about them. (Rebecca Keegan) PG-13.

Midnight Special

A Michael Shannon-starring drama that announces the arrival of Jeff Nichols as a filmmaker in total control of his technique as well as our emotions. A bravura science fiction thriller that explores emotional areas like parenthood and the nature of belief, it's a riveting genre exercise as well as something more. (Kenneth Turan) PG-13.

My Golden Days

Arnaud Desplechin's Cannes sensation contains an intoxicatingly realistic portrayal of the intense emotionality, the intertwined joy and pain, of first love. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Only Yesterday

Isao Takahata's classic of Japanese animation about a young woman and her younger self, was made 25 years ago but never before released in this country. To see it now is to understand both the reason for the delay and why the wait has been very much worth it. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

Ran

Directed by Japan's Akira Kurosawa and Inspired by Shakespeare's “King Lear,” 1985's “Ran” was the rare foreign language film to not only get multiple Oscar nominations, including director and cinematography, but to actually take home the statuette for costume design. (Kenneth Turan) NR.

Room

Brie Larson excels in a film able to give full weight to both sides of the emotional equation as it tells the story of a young woman imprisoned for years in a tiny shed and the young son who was born to her there and knows no other world. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Son of Saul

This drama set in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944 is an immersive experience of the most disturbing kind, an unwavering vision of a particular kind of hell. No matter how many Holocaust films you've seen, you've not seen one like this. (Kenneth Turan) R.

Spotlight

The saga of how the Boston Globe won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for uncovering sexual abuse by Catholic priests, the film is mightily impressive not only because of the importance of the story it tells but also because of how much effort and skill went into bringing it to the screen. (Kenneth Turan) R.

The Witch

Robert Eggers' impressive debut feature sows suspicion into nearly every frame, so intent on a darkening mood that the stillness of trees at the edge of a wood, or a child's face in demonic thrall, even an ambling goat, carries the same capacity to unnerve. (Robert Abele, Feb. 19) (1:30) R.

Zootopia

Bursting with a rich blend of timely themes, superb voice work, wonderful visuals and laugh-out-loud wit, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ latest is quite simply a great time at the movies. (Gary Goldstein) PG.

Enjoy the movies this weekend if your going. If not still, have a wonderful weekend!