Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 589-609 of 5225 results
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Allison Janney, Miranda Hart, Bobby Cannavale

Spy

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: When her field-agent partner is killed, a desk-jockey becomes a field agent herself to get revenge and finish her partner's last assignment. The Lowdown: While it's an improvement over the standard Melissa McCarthy vehicle — at least she plays a character rather than a caricature — this latest is too long and too…
Starring: Brian Dennehy, Chloe Webb, Lambert Wilson, Sergio Fantoni, Stefania Casini

The Belly of an Architect

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The Belly of an Architect (1987) is probably the closest thing there is to a straightforward movie (in a wholly relative sense) from Peter Greenaway. That may account for the fact that I've never particularly cared for it. Give me the full Greenaway treatment (preferably with a Michael Nyman score) or give me…
Starring: Wallace Ford, Leila Hyams, Olga Baclanova, Roscoe Ates, Henry Victor, Harry Earles, Daisy Earles

Freaks

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: After fulfilling his contract at Universal with two time-marking projects (Outside the Law and The Iron Man) and one landmark film (Dracula), director Tod Browning returned to his home studio, MGM. There, he’d made his mark with a string of slightly macabre — often circus- or carnival-themed — movies that frequently starred Lon Chaney. Browning’s…
Starring: John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Ralph Forbes, Etienne Girardot

Twentieth Century

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: With Twentieth Century (1934), director Howard Hawks — with a lot of help from writers Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur and stars John Barrymore and Carole Lombard — invented something new: the screwball comedy. It was new, in that the romantic leads were the central comedians and behaved just as outrageously as the wildest…
Starring: Ray Milland, Ruth Hussey, Gail Russell, Donald Crisp, Cornelia Otis Skinner, Barbara Everest, Alan Napier

The Uninvited

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Incredible though it may seem, The Uninvited was Hollywood's first serious attempt at a genuine ghost story — and a rare example of an A-picture horror film (even if the horror is more spooky than horrific). Earlier attempts at ghost stories were either comedic in intent, or had some — usually preposterous —…
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario, Ioan Gruffudd, Paul Giamatti, Archie Panjabi

San Andreas

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is on hand for a smackdown with a couple of earthquakes. The Lowdown: Exactly what you expect — massive computerized disaster, improbable heroics and 10 cents worth of dialogue. Efficient for what it is.
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Alfred Molina, Leslie Caron

Chocolat

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: In Chocolat (2001), Lasse Hallström walks a fine line with material that could easily have slipped into the realm of the too precious, but it never falters as it tells a predictable story of a woman (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter (Victoire Thivisol) who come to a small French town in 1959 and…

We Won’t Bow Down

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Chris Bower's visually striking and undeniably colorful documentary on the Mardi Gras Indians and their culture, We Won't Bow Down, has its Asheville premiere this Thursday at the Fine Arts Theatre. Though Bower never uses the term, the film is in the cinema verite style, which is to say that the film and…
Starring: Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, Joe Pantoliano, Leslie Philips

Empire of the Sun

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Empire of the Sun (1987) is Steven Spielberg still in his serious mode from The Color Purple (1985), and as serious Spielberg goes, you could do worse. It has nearly all of his strengths and weaknesses on full display. This story of the British imprisoned by the Japanese upon the fall of Shanghai…
Starring: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Giamatti, Jake Abel, Kenny Wormald, Bill Camp

Love & Mercy

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Two parts in the life of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson — separated by 20 years and used to illuminate each aspect. The Lowdown: Brilliantly conceived and almost as brilliantly realized, this is one of those rare musical biopics that truly gets to the essence of its subject — and in a creative…
Starring: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac, Jean Servais, Roger Dumas, Daniel Ceccaldi, Adolfo Celi

That Man from Rio (L’homme de Rio)

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Perhaps the most famous star of the French New Wave, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and almost certainly the least remembered director of that same Wave, Philippe de Broca, team up — along with Catherine Deneuve's tragically short-lived sister, Françoise Dorléac — for this wild and wooly adventure romp. Promoted as a spy spoof, though it…
Starring: Christopher Stamp, Kit Lambert (archival only), Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, Heather Daltrey, Terence Stamp, Richard Barnes

Lambert & Stamp

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Documentary on the men who helped shape The Who, and of the band itself. The Lowdown: A marvelously detailed — if ultimately messy and overstuffed — look into the history of The Who and the men who helped make it possible. Candid, perceptive and of interest even to viewers who aren't fans.
Starring: Tommy Tedesco, Herb Alpert, Hal Blaine, Glen Campbell, Carol Kaye, Leon Russell, Mickey Dolenz, Brian Wilson, Cher

The Wrecking Crew

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A documentary on the session musicians who helped shape American pop and rock music in the 1960s and ’70s. The Lowdown: It doesn't reinvent the documentary — nor does it try to — but this look into a largely unknown aspect of pop music is a treat as it celebrates the faceless musicians…
Starring: Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Richard Barthelmess, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Sig Ruman

Only Angels Have Wings

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: I first saw Howard Hawks' Only Angels Have Wings (1939) at two o'clock in the morning on the second day of a marathon festival of films from Columbia Pictures in a packed theater at the University of South Florida about 40 years ago. It had never to my knowledge popped up on any…
Starring: Sebastião Salgado, Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Lélia Wanick Salgado

The Salt of the Earth

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Documentary on the life and work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado. The Lowdown: Glorious to look at — at least when it sticks to black and white — and keenly perceptive, this isn't your standard documentary for most of its length.
Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Malachi Kirby, Ian Hart, Philip Davis, Pauline Collins

Dough

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The closing film for this year's Asheville Jewish Film Festival, Dough, is an unlikely delight. On paper — and to a certain degree, in practice — this sounds like a movie that packs every culture-clash and generation-gap cliche imaginable into one small space. Jonathan Pryce plays Nat, an elderly Jewish baker who refuses…
Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Shelley Winters, Jo Van Fleet

The Tenant

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Roman Polanski's 1976 psychological horror film about a Polish immigrant (Polanski) losing his own personality to that of the woman who previously lived in his apartment (and who committed suicide by throwing herself out of the window) may well be the director's best film. It is certainly his creepiest — and made all…
Starring: Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Bruno Zanin, Luigi Rossi, Maria Antonietta Beluzzi

Amarcord

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: If anyone ever asks why Federico Fellini is one of the greats of filmmaking, all that should be necessary is to direct them to his 1973 film, Amarcord. (If that fails, I suppose you might try 8 1/2 (1963), and if that fails, give up trying to reason with them.) Amarcord and 8 1/2 strike me as the most…
Starring: George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, Keegan-Michael Key

Tomorrowland

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An upbeat teenager and a disgruntled older man become involved in the world of Tomorrowland. The Lowdown: Yes, there are some bright spots in it, but the story is poorly constructed, the payoff is too slight, the thematic implications are between confused and alarming — and the final result little more than an…