The major studio release film for the week is Tom Cruise’s “Oblivion,” for which I never received a screening invite, and so it will not be reviewed.

From all accounts of hearsay and gossip, I may have dodged a bullet and spared myself a minimum loss of two hours never to be regained. Not to mention the drive time and waiting.

So let’s focus on the positive, which for now in our troubled times is increasingly difficult. But Turner Classic Movies (better known as simply TCM) has found a way to deliver joy, even if only for a long weekend.

In a short period of time, the TCM Classic Film Festival, held over four days in the heart of Hollywood, has established itself as the place where movie lovers from around the world can gather to experience classic movies.

Mark your calendar now, and make swift travel arrangements, to come to Los Angeles for Thursday, April 25, through Sunday, April 28.

In iconic venues like Grauman’s Chinese Theater and the Egyptian, you can enjoy great films as they were intended to be experienced: on the big screen, with the people who made them.

“Cinematic Journeys: Travel in the Movies” is the theme for the 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival, which will explore how movies can carry viewers beyond their hometowns to distant or imaginary locales, where they are transformed by great storytelling.

Bottom line is that the mode of travel may inspire films, or in most cases the trip itself serves as the central narrative, or what we would call the ever-popular “road movie.”

In that vein, “Road to Utopia” unites the legendary comedy duo of Bing Crosby and Bob Hope as former vaudeville performers who take a detour on their way to Alaska after discovering a gold mine map.

TCM will celebrate the 80th anniversary of “Flying Down to Rio” with a new print of a musical comedy about a band leader pursuing the woman of his dreams in Brazil. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire made their on screen debut together in this one.

A real madcap comedy treat will be the screening of “It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World,” a 1963 film with an all-star cast that gets involved in a wild chase to retrieve stolen loot.

Sadly, Jonathan Winters, one of the greatest comedians, recently passed away. He had been scheduled to appear at this film presentation. The good news is that Carl Reiner and Mickey Rooney will be on hand for a discussion about director Stanley Kramer’s comic gem.

On the dark side of road movies is the world premiere restoration of writer/director Terrence Malick’s landmark true-crime-based tale in “Badlands” of doomed lovers on a cross-country crime spree, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek.

To be sure you get a large enough dose of road trip crime sprees, “Bonnie and Clyde,” starring Faye Dunaway and Warren as the legendary criminal couple, is the ultimate Depression-era film of criminal infamy.

Interestingly, “Bonnie and Clyde” was at first consigned to B-movie release at drive-ins and second-run theaters, until noted critic Pauline Kael gave it a rave review, as opposed to others that panned the film.
   
Positive word of mouth grew, and Warner Bros. reissued the movie with a big ad campaign trumpeting “They’re young … they’re in love … and they kill people.” I guess this was the precursor to “Natural Born Killers.”

On a lighter note, it will be a treat to see Mel Brooks in person as he leads a discussion about one of his early works, “The Twelve Chairs,” a warm-hearted farce about an impoverished Russian aristocrat, a priest and a con artist searching for a dozen chairs that may contain a hidden treasure.

Between his more famous films “The Producers” and “Blazing Saddles,” Mel Brooks’ “The Twelve Chairs” starred Ron Moody and a young Frank Langella as a faded Russian nobleman and a handsome young beggar who join forces to search for a fortune in jewels.

“The Twelve Chairs” is an overlooked jewel for a film in which director Brooks inserted classic vaudeville and burlesque humor into his satire of the Soviet Union. Fortunately, Mel Brooks will personally offer his insights.

A midnight screening of “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is an homage to director Ed Wood’s low-budget sci-fi cult classic about extraterrestrial creatures planning to resurrect the Earth’s dead.

“Plan 9 From Outer Space,” a veritable cheesy classic, is a film so bad that it is actually good. Yes, a cinematic oxymoron, if you will.

Frankly, there are too many good movies on hand at the TCM Classic Film Festival, including Greta Garbo in “Ninotchka” and James Dean in “Giant.”

You just have to show up in Hollywood, as this is now a must-see event for film lovers.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.