* It’s Gasparilla International Film Festival time again. The six-day event that begins next Tuesday (March 19) will play mostly at Centro Ybor 20 as well as Cinebistro in Hyde Park. GIFF is also officially celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Punisher that filmed around Tampa Bay. The movie’s star, Thomas Jane, will be in attendance.
But there is a bit of a down side. While The Punisher, an action flick based on a Marvel Comics series, was filmed locally, including Ybor City, it was not particularly good. In fact, it stunk. Worse than Cop and a Half. But it was cool seeing those local venues like the Columbia Restaurant and the Beer Can building.
* Speaking of bad movies, Spring Breakers, apparently a classic druggie-gangbangers-meet clueless-bimbos send-up, opens today. In case you missed the trailer, you’re not alone. It was deemed too explicit (in all the ways movies can be explicit) for theaters to show. Among those officially offended: mayors and police chiefs of Pinellas beach communities. No, they can’t all be Dolphin Tale.