Film

COSTA MESA — U.S. Open of Surfing winner Rob Machado on Friday will host a 7 p.m. screening of his most recent film, "Melali: The Drifter Sessions," accompanied by his band at the Hurley Headquarters in Costa Mesa. The film follows his 2009 big screen debut in "The Drifter," which told the story of the nomadic, solitary lifestyle of a surfer through Machado's travels searching for the perfect wave. His second film came out in July and focuses on the best surf sessions taken during the filming of "The Drifter," many of which ended up on the cutting room floor.

The 1st Battalion, 5th Marines is the adopted U.S. Marine Corps unit of Costa Mesa. "Patrol Base Jaker" is a documentary of the deployment of the 1/5 to Afghanistan in 2009-10. These films usually center on combat operations. But this one zeros in on the vital aftermath of combat: helping the local population to build a secure life. This film pulls no punches in presenting the complaints of the villagers. The Marines have pushed out the Taliban fighters who took over the area, but severe challenges remain.

With the legendary DreamWorks studio behind "Megamind," you know this animated offering will have first-rate special effects and production values. The studio fully delivers this film's expected technical quality. The movie won the weekend with almost $50 million in box office receipts and the promise of family-friendly entertainment. The plot features silly super heroes at odds with each other. They have common human flaws that interfere with their ability to have successful relationships.

Meryl Streep is without question an actress of extraordinary and seemingly limitless talent who was recently recognized as one of our national treasures. Her portrayal is so uncannily believable we are persuaded Streep is Margaret Thatcher. She is truly a phenomenon, convincing us what we see is actual reality, not virtual reality. That the famed Weinstein brothers — whose Weinsten Co. made the film — have used the greatest living actress to humiliate Baroness Thatcher is both disgraceful and unforgivable.

Andrew Edwards Not all adventure movies are based on space travel, robots or mysterious realms. Some are true stories. Tonight will be the sixth year Orange Coast College will host a stop of the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, college librarian and event organizer Carl Morgan said. The show will include a sampling of movies exhibited last fall at the festival in the Canadian Rockies. Morgan described the festival as being "like Sundance in a way, except they're all outdoor adventure films."

"Lucky Number Slevin" transplants the snappy dialogue form a '40s noir film and places it in a hip, stylish crime movie. If you like your movies to come at you swinging wildly, this one is a fun ride. Josh Hartnett plays Slevin, who, after losing his job, apartment and girlfriend in a stretch of bad luck, decides to skip town and visit his friend Nick. Once there, the streak continues. He gets mugged, finds his friend missing and is accosted by hired goons who have been ordered to grab Nick.

Elia Powers When former Corona del Mar resident Caryn Waechter came across the script for "God is Good," she immediately signed on to the project. "I was drawn to the film because of the possibility for great imagery," said Waechter, 27. "I felt it was a universal story that needed to be told." Her task: to tell it in less than the time it takes to watch a sitcom. Using skills she learned at Columbia University's graduate film school, Waechter completed the 23-minute film for her thesis project.

Do you enjoy laughing at the expense of another man's shortcomings? If so, you'll enjoy "The 40 Year Old Virgin." If you're easily offended by sexual humor and crude language, take your money elsewhere. I like laughing at other people and sometimes I even make my living doing this and therefore, I highly recommend this movie. Guess what? "The 40 Year Old Virgin" is about a guy who is 40 years old and a virgin. I bet you didn't see that one coming.

"Atlas Shrugged" may serve as a quasi-bible to many objectivists, but the film adaptation of the novel, which came out Friday, isn't rousing more than a nod from some Ayn Rand fans. The film took creator John Aglialoro, a former Wall Street trader, nearly 20 years to make. After close calls with studios, Aglialoro went solo, recruiting a horror writer and producer and putting its direction in the hands of former "One Tree Hill" actor Paul Johansson. Ayn Rand's 1957 novel, set in a futuristic Depression-era U.S., questions governmental regulation of business, as embodied through the main characters, steel magnate Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad.

Today could not come too soon for Adam Genzink and Sunny Peabody. The two Vanguard University seniors are eagerly awaiting thepremiere of a short film they directed and produced for Genzink's senior project. The eight-and-a-half minute silent film, "A Hero's Heart", will debut tonight at the campus' Lyceum Theater. What the audience won't see however, are the blood, sweat and tears that went into making the film on a tight deadline and an even tighter budget.

Jon Favreau was right - it's an exceptionally bad idea to watch "Chef" on an empty stomach. Slow-cooked cured meats, golden-brown grilled cheese sandwiches, sugar-sprinkled beignets and undeniably delicious-looking Cuban sandwiches drew murmurs of appreciation from all who watched his latest project Thursday. But the "Wolf of Wall Street," "Elf" and "Swingers" actor doesn't consider himself a foodie. Although he enjoys eating, he won't necessarily hunt down restaurants in different cities or work his free time to be able to taste different types of preparations.

Ballots from the 15th annual Newport Beach Film Festival have been turned in and accounted for. While the selection committee reviewed more than 2,000 submissions, viewers watched over 400 films from 50 countries. Each movie competed for honors in three categories: Jury Awards, voted on by a panel of film experts and industry insiders; Festival Honors, given by the event's staff; and Audience Awards, determined by ballots from filmgoers. Here's a roundup of this year's victors: *JURY AWARDS Best Feature Film: "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Actor: Blake Robbins, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Actress: Aunjanue Ellis, "Una Vida" Best Director: Blake Robbins, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Cinematography: Lyn Moncrief, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Best Screenplay: Jason Strouse, "Teacher of the Year" Special Jury Prize for Actress in a Feature Film: Laura Kirk, "The Sublime and Beautiful" Special Jury Prize for Cinematography of a Feature Film: Patrick Jones, "The Last Lonely Place" Best Documentary: "The Honest Liar" Special Jury Prize for Documentary Film: "Who Took Johnny" Best Narrative Short Film: "Mr. Invisible" Best Documentary Short Film: "Aerodrome Best Animated Short Film: "Rabbit and Deer" Special Jury Prize for Animated Short Film: "Rhino Full Throttle" * 2014 FESTIVAL HONORS Feature Film: "Break Point," "Fort...

Angela Alford spent three months, silently, on the sidelines. The former professional athlete, who is 6-foot-5 and played for Vanderbilt University and USA Basketball in the 1990s, had a hard time believing the scene unfolding in front of her. A senior women's amateur basketball team from Raleigh, N.C., her hometown, was battling it out on the court. "I thought they must be genetic anomalies to still be playing in their 70s," she said. "Surely they just didn't age like the rest of us. " What started out as giving advice on a shot or calling out encouragement from the bleachers led to her coaching the Fabulous 70s at the National Senior Games in Texas in 2011.

Charlie Anderson only smoked for two years, but when he made up his mind to quit, the habit was hard to shake. So he talked about his problems - to the cigarettes themselves. "I would put a cigarette out there, right in front of me in plain sight, and every time I got the urge, I would sometimes pick it up and act like I was, you know, I would threaten the cigarette," Anderson said. "'I'm in control here, not you.'" That image stayed in Anderson's mind, even as he neared two decades without a smoke.

Filming "Brahmin Bulls" was not a breeze. Director Mahesh Pailoor valiantly balanced budgetary issues and his cast's schedules while shooting the entire movie out of order. He even faced an unexpected foe - the 85th annual Academy Awards. "We only had one day to shoot in a hospital and that day happened to be the day of the Oscars, which Mary Steenburgen was presenting at," he recalled. "We were running up against the clock and only had time to do a few takes per shot. Mary and Roshan [Seth]

Ellen Fisher was in for a surprise. Determined to avoid a repeat of last year's Newport Beach Film Festival opening night - where she arrived a half hour before the start of the film - the Orange resident made her way to Edwards Big Newport with two hours to spare Thursday. "We were almost late," the 70-year-old recalled. "We were way down the street in line. " Although Fisher and her husband, Bill, 66, expected to be quite a ways down the road, they found a spot right at the top of the queue.

For Charlie Darby, love is intimately linked with lunacy. From the outside, the grade-school principal in the movie "Lovesick" - played by actor Matt LeBlanc - has everything: a great circle of friends, a supportive family and a satisfying job. All that's missing is a relationship. He seems to have trouble in that department because while he is perfectly sane, it's a different story when he falls in love. Although not biographical, the story is based loosely on the experiences of Bel Air-based writer Dean Young.

Dennis Baker is inclined to associate with winners. That's not to say he won't help an organization, initiative or individual get closer to victory. But, when that doesn't work, he has no misgivings about cutting loose or moving on. "My energy goes to where I see success," the Corona del Mar resident said. "I like being associated with things that work. I like to think that I'm part of why they work. " One such alliance is with the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2001, Baker, then a member of the city's Arts Commission, attended an event where he met Leslie Feibleman, director of special programs and community cinema.

Director David Ayer is known for his ultraviolent police epics like "Training Day" and "End of Watch. " Screenwriter Skip Woods ("A Good Day to Die Hard") is also no stranger to action movies with a high body count. These two masters of death and treachery join up with an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger to create a new cop thriller with lots of blood and guts. "Sabotage" has a subdued Arnold playing the legendary leader of a team of undercover DEA agents. As the strong but quiet godfather of the operation, he puffs his cigar while the younger actors do the stunt work.

However long other ticket buyers stand in line to see "Don't Quit: The Joe Roth Story," Mike White has waited longer. Nearly four decades, in fact. White, the former football coach at UC Berkeley, has hoped to see a film about the story of Roth, the promising quarterback who played two seasons on the university's team, since shortly after Roth's 1977 death at age 21 of melanoma. For years, White heard rumblings about proposed scripts, but no project ever came to fruition. Then, five years ago, a pair of Berkeley alums who attended the school after Roth's time there got to work on a documentary.