Time has been kind to Disney’s ultra-ambitious Fantasia — time and the 1960s, that is. When it was released in 1940, old Walt’s huge vision of popularizing classical music was a huge disaster, and it only came to be embraced as a “classic” much later — not least in part because it fit the psychedelic […]
If you’re a comic-book geek, as a lot of my friends are, then this apparent travesty of the DC/Vertigo comic will probably annoy you. I say apparent travesty because I haven’t read a comic book since they cost 12 cents. Then again, even if I was familiar with the comic, I doubt I’d be bothered […]
Back in the late ’50s and early ’60s, when I was subjected to movies aimed at my age group that were supposed to somehow be “good” for me, this film would have been high on the list of M.S.U.D. — Movies Seen Under Duress. In all honesty, however, I would have vastly preferred this movie […]
Sure, it’s a bit much for the Disney folks to expect people to shake loose $7.75 for a scant 63 minutes of movie, and there’s nothing in Pooh’s Heffalump Movie you haven’t seen in Pooh’s previous screen outings. Still, there’s nothing really wrong with his new one. The movie has a good message about tolerance […]
If you’ve never heard of the improbably named filmmaker Bent Hamer, don’t feel so all alone. Until this odd little comedy came my way, neither had I. A little research brings up Hamer’s small filmography, none of which seems to have made the crossing to the United States in any significant capacity, even on the […]
No, this movie is not a great work of art, but it doesn’t pretend to be one. Yes, it follows a pretty set recipe, but there’s a huge difference between a recipe for creamed chip beef on toast (or “SOS,” as it is often so rightly called) and canard a l’orange. If Hitch isn’t quite […]
If you saw the previews, you’ve already seen every cute moment in Wedding Date, a lackluster attempt to gender twist the fairy tale, Pretty Woman. This clunker is about as charming as a bride and groom smashing one another in the kisser with wedding cake — it’s not romantic, and the act is so blatantly […]
I believe it was Rex Harrison (though it may have been James Mason) who penned the words, “A shot that doesn’t call for tracks is agony for poor dear Max.” And it won’t take many minutes of Max Ophuls La Ronde to make this clear to even the most casual observer. Nearly every scene in […]
Horror fans take note (the rest of you can sit this one out): Boogeyman is much better than you probably think it is, and certainly better than I thought it would be. Yes, in plot terms, the movie’s similar to the egregious Darkness Falls; but that’s like saying The Ring is similar to FearDotCom. And […]
Northern Ireland-born Terry George, who was once interned for being a suspected IRA member, has an understandable tendency toward working on what used to be called “problem pictures” — the sort of movies that address social injustice. He co-authored the screenplay for Jim Sheridan’s In the Name of the Father, co-wrote (again with Sheridan) and […]
Potential viewers should keep three things in mind before deciding to see Hide and Seek: 1) The movie’s not nearly as funny as director John Polson’s last film, Swimfan; 2) It does have several “Boo!” moments that effectively make the audience jump; and 3) Compared to the week’s other horrific offering, Alone in the Dark, […]
This little movie from first-time writer/director Michael Clancy would like to be a black comedy, but it lacks the courage of those convictions and never quite gets beyond a kind of dark gray. Clancy’s desire to make a viewer-friendly film — meaning one that could be as weird and nasty as it liked, as long […]
I know it’s January and that therefore the new movies are pretty much gonna suck. But there are limits to the amount of suckage that can be decently foisted on an audience. And I think director Uwe Boll (I’m betting his last name is really Weevil) has exceeded those limits and then some. There are […]
Jean-Pierre Jeunet exists to remind us to what creative heights movies can soar, and his latest work, Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles or A Very Long Engagement, is his most ambitious and best film to date. Viewers expecting the whimsy of Amelie will not be disappointed, but may be surprised — and even disturbed — […]
The first thing you should know about What Happened to Kerouac? is that the film is not really going to answer its own question. The second thing is that this is a documentary by the faithful, for the faithful. Neither of these qualities is necessarily a negative, so long as each is taken into account […]
Upon hearing that I’d seen this movie, a friend of mine asked, “How is Isabella Rossellini in it?” All I could say was that she gave the finest portrayal of a double-amputee beer baroness outfitted with glass-encased, beer-filled legs that I could imagine. That should clue you in on the level of utter strangeness at […]
The Media Arts Project brings us another collection of “cutting edge” short films with The Best of Resfest. As is invariably the case with an assortment like this, the quality of the films is uneven; but here the winners far outdistance the losers in this fascinating set. Of the 11 shorts in the collection, only […]
I’m not a John Carpenter completist; movies like his Prince of Darkness and Ghosts of Mars took away any possible desire to become one. So I’ve never seen Carpenter’s original, 1976 version of Assault on Precinct 13, and therefore can’t compare this remake to its minor cult-classic parent, which was itself an uncredited reworking of […]
This spectacularly unfunny comedy expends four full reels questioning the wisdom of procreation, only to turn around and conclude it’s the greatest thing in life in the fifth. Now, that bewhiskered chestnut may still have a mile or two left in it under the right conditions. Those conditions, however, would require something better than an […]
At 145 minutes, The Corporation somewhat overstays its welcome, but this is an important — and frequently infuriating — work about global corporations riding roughshod over the world in the name of commerce. As is often the case with films of this sort, the mouthpieces speaking in support of the practices being examined are frequently […]
At 149 minutes, the film may be way too long, but the utter humanity of Kim Dong-won’s examination of the repatriation of long-incarcerated North Korean spies saves it from seeming as long as it is. Often heartbreaking as it looks at the lives of these elderly displaced persons, this powerful film takes the trouble to […]
