I won’t say this is going to be the shortest “Weekly Reeler” in history, but the fact that all we have is one mainstream title and one art one will factor in. The pickin’s are on the lean side, but, hey, they’re 50 percent higher than next week when no one wants to open anything up against a certain comic book hero.
Author: Ken Hanke
Showing 1786-1806 of 5225 results
People Like Us
The Story: When his father dies, a young man discovers he has a previously unknown half-sister. The Lowdown: Slickly made, but ultimately more a collection of the improbable and the cliched than anything of genuine merit.
To Rome with Love
The Story: Woody Allen drops in on four intercut stories that take place in Rome. The Lowdown: Witty, clever and frequently brilliant, Allen's latest is a fine, entertaining film from a master filmmaker — and a still sharp comedian.
Voyage of the Damned
In Brief: An undeniably high-minded, fact-based (with significant embellishments) story about a ship of Jews being allowed to leave Germany, but finding no safe harbor awaiting them. The problem is the film is also big, clunky, long and overstuffed with stars like a standard 1970s disaster film.
Death Takes a Holiday
In Brief: Mitchell Leisen's sophomore film is also perhaps his best, and is certainly his most distinctive. Fredric March stars as nothing less than Death, a shadowy figure who takes on the appearance of the recently deceased Prince Sirki in order to attend a house party at an Italian villa to understand life and discover…
Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection
The Story: For reasons best not examined very closely, Eugene Levy and his family wind up as witness protection guests of Madea and Joe. The Lowdown: A pretty big improvement in the run of Tyler Perry's Madea movies. It's ingratiating and frequently very funny. It hardly reinvents the wheel, but it provides a pleasant ride.
The Ambulance
In Brief: The great schlockmeister Larry Cohen scores an exploitation bullseye with this campy, trashy horror comedy about a comic book artist who unwittingly becomes involved in tracking down a demented doctor who -- with the aid of a phony ambulance -- kidnaps diabetics for his experiments. Possibly Cohen's best film.
Turtles Can Fly
In Brief: Often powerful — and somewhat controversial — film from Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi about impoverished Kurdish refugee children who eke out a bare existence by digging up and selling Iraqi landmines. An often grim, but ultimately uplifting film about our common humanity.
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler July 4-10: To Rome with Amazing Savage Katy Perry
It’s a confusing sort of week in that the studio folks can’t seem to figure out what day movies should open on. Is it Tuesday? Or maybe Thursday? (Thursday??) Or what about plain old Friday like normal people? Well, since boardrooms full of the finest minds in marketing (yes, well…) could not seem reach a conclusion, they decided to go with all three.
Brave
The Story: A princess in ancient Scotland refuses to follow her parents' wishes and tries to change her fate with the help of a witch. The Lowdown: It's a solidly OK animated fantasy from Pixar, but it's certainly nothing to get excited about.
Women in Love
In Brief: Ken Russell's 1969 film of D.H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love is the film that put the director on the map as a filmmaker of international importance -- and it also garnered Oscar nominations for Russell and cinematographer Billy Williams, as well as a Best Actress Oscar win for Glenda Jackson. It remains…
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
The Story: Amusingly nonsensical story of Abraham Lincoln as, well, a vampire hunter. The Lowdown: Of course, it's silly. (How could it not be?) But it has its share of effective scenes, good performances, some intriguing ideas and a splendid lead vampire.
Moonrise Kingdom
The Story: Two misfit children run away on an island in the summer of 1965. The Lowdown: Sweet, beautifully detailed, funny and very human tale of first love -- with all the trimmings one expects from Wes Anderson. Easily the best film of 2012 so far and a must-see, especially for fans of the filmmaker.
The Women
In Brief: Clare Boothe Luce's famous 1936 hit play The Women gets the super-glossy MGM treatment in George Cukor's 1939 film version. The whole thing is overproduced, but most of the play's brittle wit and clever dialogue are retained. And whatever else can be said about MGM, it had the cast for this.
Sansho the Bailiff
In Brief: Kenji Mizoguchi's highly-regarded 1954 classic Sansho the Bailiff is a striking film to look at and it tells a fascinating, compelling story -- with the feel of a legend -- that is meant to explore the origins of compassion and humanity. How successful it is in its lofty aims is open to debate,…
Exorcist II: The Heretic
In Brief: Much derided -- and re-cut -- at the time of its release in 1977, John Boorman's Exorcist II: The Heretic has come to be much more highly regarded in recent years upon reassessment of his original cut. It helps if the film is approached as much as a rebuke to William Friedkin's The…
Cranky Hanke’s Weekly Reeler June 27-July 3: Moonrise People Like Mike, Madea and Ted
Yes! The wait is over. It’s finally here! I mean the new Tyler Perry picture with Madea, you understand. Not seriously—although, yes, that’s coming as well, along with several other things. What I really refer to is, of course, Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. The question is whether or not it lives up to the praise that has preceded its arrival?
The Mad Monster / The Black Raven
In Brief: What more does one need to know about The Mad Monster other than the fact that it has a werewolf in bib overalls? Or that the werewolf in question was created "scientifically" for the purpose of fighting the Nazis? This is exactly the sort of thing to expect from the series of "poverty…
Rock of Ages
The Story: Film version of the "jukebox musical" play that's comprised of 1980s songs. The Lowdown: An almost hypnotic trainwreck of a movie with occasional flashes of cleverness. Neither those flashes, nor the two-headed-cow oddity value overcomes the excessive length or the painful blandness of the leads.
Hugo
In Brief: Martin Scorsese's masterful and beautiful film about a young boy living within the walls of a Paris train station turns out to be a great deal more than a fantasy for children (though it is that, too). It's also a movie about the movies, their history and their sheer magic.
Meherjaan
In Brief: Explosively controversial in its homeland because of its depiction of a love affair between a Bangladeshi woman and a Pakistani soldier, this Bangladeshi import isn't likely to have the same impact here, and plays more like a star-crossed love story with an agenda about "loving the other." Whatever its take, it's one gorgeous…