Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 1429-1449 of 5225 results
Starring: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Sam Waterston, Karen Black

The Great Gatsby

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Jack Clayton's 1974 film of The Great Gatsby is a good-looking, seriously miscast, painfully earnest attempt at capturing the novel. It's respectful of Fitzgerald's book to the point of calcification, but if you're looking for a film that gives you the story without disturbing anyone, this is it. It's not bad. It's just…

Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler May 29-June 4: After Frances Ha You See Me (Updated)

Posted on by Ken Hanke

A friend of mine who saw all three of last week’s releases (that’s one up on me) told me he’d convinced himself he didn’t see any new movies last week. His ability to block things from his mind is greater than mine. Plus, apart from this week’s art title, I see no great hope that this week is going to any better. However, that art film, Frances Ha, makes up for much.

Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Benedict Cumberbatch, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg

Star Trek Into Darkness

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew of the are sent on a mission to deal with a terrorist out to destroy Starfleet. The Lowdown: The plotting gets clunky and the action could be handled more effectively, but the characters — improved from the first film — keep this Star Trek entry…
Starring: Kellan Lutz, Mickey Rourke, Ario Bayu, Frans Tumbuan

Java Heat

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A young American of dubious truth joins forces with a Muslim police detective to take down a crime lord and the terrorists he's helping. The Lowdown: An impossibly convoluted story, a pair of likable leads, a nasty villain and some solid action scenes make this OK, but ultimately not terrific. On its own…
Starring: Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Debbie Reynolds

That’s Entertainment

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Riding in on the last of the late 1960s/early 1970s nostalgia wave, That's Entertainment positioned itself as a documentary about the Hollywood musical. In truth, it was a two-hour commercial for MGM that presented one seriously skewed version of film history. That's not to say the film doesn't include some pretty impressive (and…
Starring: Tom Hanks, Irma P. Hall, J.K. Simmons, Marlon Wayans, Tzi Ma

The Ladykillers

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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b>In Brief: The Coen Brothers' much misunderstood reimagining of the 1955 Ealing Studios Comedy of the same name finds Tom Hanks taking on the role originated by Alec Guinness — and making it his own. That's much the same thing the Coens did with the film — adhering to the basics of the story about…
Starring: Hiroshi Koizumi, Setsuko Wakayama, Minoru Chiaki, Takashi Shimura

Godzilla Raids Again

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: It's the first Godzilla sequel and, despite the fact that it was rushed to cash in on the original film so that it was in theaters within four months of Godzilla, it's still a reasonably good entry. It's also the last of the series that can be taken seriously — at least sort…
Starring: Rachel Marie Lewis, Christian Oliver, Marietta March, Jordan Rhodes

House of Good and Evil

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: This year's feature film winner of the Twin Rivers Media Festival marks the first time a horror movie has taken the prize. But David Mun's House of Good and Evil isn't your typical horror film. Rather, this is psychological horror about a couple trying to get their lives — and marriage — back…
Starring: Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, Jim Hutton, John Standing, Miiko Taka

Walk Don’t Run

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Pack Memorial Library concludes its Cary Grant series with — appropriately enough — Grant's last film, Walk Don't Run. It's an agreeable enough remake of George Stevens' 1943 comedy The More the Merrier — moved from crowded wartime Washington to crowded Tokyo during the 1964 summer Olympics. The problem with it — from…

Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler May 22-28: Fast and Epic Hangover

Posted on by Ken Hanke

You know it’s a pretty dire week when the thing I’m most looking forward to is Fast & Furious 6. (And you can imagine how much it pains me to type those words.) There’s not even a single new art title to brighten the weekend (no, last Friday’s ActionFest offering, Java Heat, going to a full run doesn’t count) — merely three mainstream movies I find it hard to get jazzed about. These are the conditions that prevail.

Cranky Hanke’s Screening Room: Late Night Musings on Critics and Review Aggregatio­n

Posted on by Ken Hanke

Sitting here, staring at my computer screen while not really watching—off to the side— a movie even I don’t recognize on TCM, I find my mind wandering into the realm of considering the state of film criticism in our media-saturated world—and I’m not all that happy by what I see. But it’s less the criticism that bothers me than the way the moviegoing public seems to be taking it.

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, Joel Edgerton, Elizabeth Debicki, Isla Fisher

The Great Gatsby

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Film version of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. The Lowdown: A big, daring, audacious interpretation of the novel that brings it to life in ways you probably never dreamed possible. It's every inch a Baz Luhrmann film, so that will probably tell you a lot. You may not like it, but I'm calling…
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Luis Gnecco, Néstor Cantillana, Antonia Zegers

No

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Fact-based drama about the campaign to overthrow Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet at the ballot box — and the marketing campaign that made it happen. The Lowdown: Funny, suspenseful, compelling entertainment that may only tell part of its historical story, but does so brilliantly.
Starring: Craig Robinson, Kerry Washington, David Alan Grier, S. Epatha Merkerson, Tyler James Williams

Peeples

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A working-class guy meets his girlfriend's upper-class family. Predicability ensues. The Lowdown: An energetic cast can do little to elevate this by-the-numbers, flat comedy that plays like a sitcom.
Starring: Bebe Neuwirth (voice)

Defiant Requiem

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
In Brief: Since the closing film of the Asheville Film Festival was not available for review, these comments are merely drawn from the film's press notes: "Defiant Requiem tells the little-known story of the Nazi concentration camp, Terezin. Led by imprisoned conductor Rafael Schächter, the inmates of Terezin fought back...with art and music. Through hunger,…
Starring: Eddie Cantor, Ethel Shutta, Paul Gregory, Eleanor Hunt, George Olsen and His Music

Whoopee!

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Like a wonderful time capsule, Whoopee! offers us a glimpse into a world that hasn't existed for a very long time: the 1920s Broadway theater. Almost no one who was a part of that world is still with us, and even those who might have seen such a show are seriously diminished in…
Starring: Walter Matthau, Ossie Davis, Amy Irving, Martha Plimpton, Craig T. Nelson

I’m Not Rappaport

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Playwright and sometimes filmmaker Herb Gardner brings his play I'm Not Rappaport to the screen with Walter Matthau and Ossie Davis in the leads. The first hour of its rather too expansive running time is very good indeed, if not especially great filmmaking. Matthau and Davis make an appealing pair of old men…
Starring: Davos Hanich, Hélène Chatelain, Jacques Ledoux / Stepháne Bertola, Gunnar Ernblad, Marienette Dahlin

La Jetée / Mousse

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962) has been shown by World Cinema before, so the real story here is the screening of this year's winner for Best Short Film at Twin Rivers Media Festival, John Hellberg's Mousse. This is a charming and quirky, fairly long (40 minutes) short that details a robbery gone wrong…
Starring: Lon Chaney, Jr., Evelyn Ankers, Milburn Stone / Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford, Arline Judge

The Frozen Ghost / Mysterious Mr. Wong

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: It's finally the makeup showing of the canceled The Frozen Ghost (1945) starring Lon Chaney, Jr. in one of his better Inner Sanctum mysteries. This time it's paired with the full-tilt nonsense of the delightfully silly Mysterious Mr. Wong starring Bela Lugosi in the title role, Mr. Wong — a criminal mastermind matching…
Starring: Kellan Lutz, Mickey Rourke, Ario Bayu. Frans Tumbuan

Java Heat

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: The second ActionFest monthly screening is the same setup as last time with all proceeds going to Homeward Bound of Asheville, and the $10 admission includes free Ninja Porter (from Asheville Pizza) and soft drinks and popcorn from Carolina Cinemas. This time, viewers get the chance to see the film Java Heat starring…
Starring: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams

To Catch a Thief

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955) stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly (yes, this is where the famous fireworks kissing scene comes from) in one of the master's lighter and most pleasant 1950s films. The film is nothing more than a romantic suspenser soufflé of the kind that Hitchcock was rightly famous…