Author:   Ken Hanke

Showing 1639-1659 of 5225 results
Starring: Johnny Depp, Frank Langella, Lena Olin, Emmanuelle Seigner, Barbara Jefford

The Ninth Gate

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Roman Polanski's 1999 supernatural thriller The Ninth Gate is perhaps the closest the filmmaker has ever come to making a straightforward horror movie — even if it takes a good deal of the film's running time to get to the straightforward horror content. (Well, it's Polanski, after all, and he's not known as…
Starring: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy, Moon Bloodgood, Annika Marks

The Sessions

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Fact-based story about a man in an iron lung and his efforts to have sexual relations. The Lowdown: The Sessions largely fulfills its promise as a frequently amusing, sometimes touching little movie of the uplifting variety, but never quite transcends this sense of well-intentioned TV drama.
Starring: Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, Albert Finney, Ben Whishaw

Skyfall

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: James Bond comes to grips with whether his type of agent still has a place in the modern world while taking down a revenge-seeking cyber-terrorist. The Lowdown: Slick and good to look at, Skyfall does some things very well, but goes on too long and wants to be weightier than it is.

Cranky Hankes Weekly Reeler November 14-20: A Late Breaking Lincoln Session

Posted on by Ken Hanke

OK, we have four movies opening this week — everything from old Honest Abe to twinkly vampires. I haven’t seen those — though I already saw one movie about Lincoln this year (which maybe doesn’t count). I have seen the two art titles, but you will be surprised to learn than only one of them has thus far been reviewed. The one thing I can pretty well assure you — even without seeing two of the movies — is that there’s nothing opening this week that’s apt to get you as high as last week’s Holy Motors.

Starring: Abel Salazar, Germán Robles, Ariadna Welter, Carmen Montejo, Jose Luis Jiminez

El Vampiro (The Vampire)

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: El Vampiro is the movie that really kicked off the always interesting and entertaining — if often somewhat silly and illogical — Mexican horror films of the 1950s and '60s. It's a reasonably straightforward vampire picture of the Dracula school — albeit one made under obvious budgetary constraints, which is generally offset by…
Starring: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Kylie Minogue, Elise Lhomeau, Jeanne Disson, Michel Piccoli, Eva Mendes, Leos Carax

Holy Motors

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A wildly inventive surreal excursion into a day in the life of a man -- apparently an actor -- as he assumes a variety of strange roles. The Lowdown: Probably the most strikingly original and inventive work of the year, but one destined to baffle -- even possibly anger -- some viewers, who…
Starring: François Truffaut, Nathalie Baye, Jean Dasté, Patrick Maléon, Jane Lobre

The Green Room

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: François Truffaut directs and stars in this adaptation of two Henry James stories -- an odd and decidedly small-scale work for the filmmaker. The story concerns a man who is obsessed with his dead wife -- and indeed all of the dead people in his life. It's certainly interesting — occasionally fascinating —…
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Sydne Rome, Hugh Griffith, Roman Polanski

What? (Diary of Forbidden Dreams)

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Roman Polanski's little-seen — and much maligned — 1972 film What? is undeniably one of the director's strangest works. In essence, it's a variation on Alice in Wonderland — except played out in surrealistic terms as a sex comedy. It's no wonder that no one seemed to know what to do with it…
Starring: The Four Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd, Ruth Hall, Rockliffe Fellows

Monkey Business

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: In what is probably their most anarchic film, the Four Marx Brothers became stowaways on a ship, get mixed up with rival bootleggers, impersonate Maurice Chevalier and generally create mayhem wherever they go — seemingly because they want to and they can. A perfect Marx Brothers experience without a pause for anything as…
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman

Flight

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An alcoholic pilot manages a remarkable feat of flying that saves a lot of lives, but his condition at the time raises legal and ethical questions. The Lowdown: Despite a strong opening, the film quickly turns into a dramatically dubious "problem picture" about alcoholism. Good performances are not enough to change that.
Starring: (Voices) John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk

Wreck-It Ralph

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Video-game bad guy Wreck-It Ralph wants to become a hero and leaves his own game in search of that goal in other games. The Lowdown: It's not actually bad (though it sure didn't need to be as long as it is by about 20 minutes) and John C. Reilly puts his all into…
Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger, Sig Ruman

Nothing Sacred

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Wrongly diagnosed with radium poisoning, a young woman becomes the toast of New York because she's dying — only she isn't. The Lowdown: William Wellman's unflinchingly cynical screwball comedy about the cult of celebrity scales the heights of satire as few films ever have. Stars Carole Lombard (gorgeous in Technicolor) and Fredric March…
Starring: Charles Laughton, Charlie Ruggles, Mary Boland, ZaSu Pitts, Roland Young, Leila Hyams

Ruggles of Red Gap

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Armed with what can only be called a dream cast, Leo McCarey turned the old warhorse (it had already been filmed twice) Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) into pure movie gold. If ever there has been a more perfect blend of comedy, sentiment and Americana, I've never seen it. Laughton gives one of…
Starring: Walter Huston, Lupe Velez, Conrad Nagel, Virginia Bruce, C. Henry Gordon

Kongo

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Unseen for years, Kongo (1932) is quite probably the most outrageous, bizarre and even downright sick horror film from the "classic horror" era. It's a remake of the 1928 Tod Browning-Lon Chaney thriller West of Zanzibar, but its excesses far exceed the original. Essentially more a gothic melodrama set in a sweltering jungle…
Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harrington, Sean Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss, Radha Mitchell, Malcolm McDowell

Silent Hill: Revelation

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: We return once more to the environs of Silent Hill for more of the same — only less so. The Lowdown: Some atmosphere, a good bit of blood, but nothing you didn't see done far better in the 2006 original — unless 3D body parts comin' at you is a selling point for…
Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, James D'Arcy, Doona Bae

Cloud Atlas

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: Six interconnected stories on the same theme over hundreds of years are intercut to form a kind of cinematic tapestry or symphony. The Lowdown: The most ambitious — and maybe magnificent — movie of the year. It's wonderful, a little bit nuts and sure to divide audiences by its sheer audacity. Whether you…
Starring: Cristina Sánchez Pascual, Julieta Serrano, Carmen Maura, Chus Lampreave

Dark Habits

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Pedro Almodóvar's first professional film, Dark Habits is pretty thoroughly what you expect from the filmmaker. It's an outrageous soap opera-esque story full of dysfunctional characters — in this case, mostly nuns, many addicted to drugs — presented with humor and nonjudgmental humanity. It's not as slick as his later works, but there's…
Starring: Joel Kinnaman, Matias Padin Varela, Dragomir Mrsic, Lisa Henni, Mahmut Suvakci

Easy Money

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: A social-climbing college student becomes embroiled in a complicated drug deal involving warring criminal factions in an attempt to keep his upper class pose financed. The Lowdown: Complex and involving Swedish crime thriller that pulls you into its story, but is ultimately a little too grim for its own good.
Starring: Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Dom DeLuise, Sid Caesar, Bernadette Peters

Silent Movie

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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In Brief: Mel Brooks' 1976 silent movie about Mel Brooks (as Mel Funn) signing up stars to appear in his silent movie. Broad slapstick and Borscht Belt comedy that will appeal more to some than others.
Starring: Zac Efron, Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, David Oyelowo, Macy Gray

The Paperboy

Reviewed by Ken Hanke on
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The Story: An investigative reporter and his black writing partner go to the reporter's backwoods hometown to seek the truth about a convicted man on death row. The Lowdown: This is overheated, impossibly lurid, oversexed exploitation filmmaking at its most outrageous. Let that guide you as to whether or not it's for you.