There was a time not that long ago when any list of great filmmakers would have included Jean Renoir and any list of great films would have included Grand Illusion (1937). But fashions in film and filmmakers change. Still, Robert Altman’s Gosford Park (2001) was a thinly veiled hommage to Renoir’s The Rules of the […]
In the penultimate scene of Annie Hall, Woody Allen excuses the happy ending in his play about his relationship with the title character, noting, “You know how you’re always trying to get things to come out perfect in art because it’s real difficult in life.” That’s as good a summation as possible for what Tim […]
Awarding three and a half stars to Bride of the Monster (1955) deserves some explanation, since by any rational critical approach, it’s the sort of thing that ought to get one and half stars or maybe two on a good day. First of all, it’s a film — using the term rather loosely — that […]
This anatomically incorrect tale of party animals in the barnyard may be the best CGI-animated flick of the year. It stands out from the herd with clever action, witty dialogue, a fantastic string of musical numbers and some good old-fashioned messages about heroism and taking care of others. I loved it. My critiquing criteria were […]
Costa-Gavras’ Z (1969) was undoubtedly the first overtly political film I ever saw, and I’m sure that at the age of 15 I actually understood very little of it. (Hell, I was just proud of the fact that I got the joke when the general responded to the question as to whether he considered himself […]
Thoroughly unnecessary, extremely loud and occasionally mildly distasteful, there’s really not much that can be said about The Ant Bully except to note that it’s yet another in the seemingly unending series of computer animated films that are flooding theaters these days. At the end of the day, it’s not a lot more than the […]
The most captivating, congenial and consistently charming film of the year — well, along with Robert Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion — Woody Allen’s Scoop marks a return to form for the filmmaker. It also marks a similar return for Allen’s detractors, who have come out in force to kvetch that it’s not like his […]
I can’t imagine that anyone really wants to relive the days of the Miami Vice TV series, but assuming that someone does, I can’t think they’re likely to be satisfied with Michael Mann’s big screen version of the show he once worked on as executive producer. If you’re looking for flamingoes, art deco architecture, pastel […]
This is a somewhat enjoyable, insipid piece of teenage fluff. All the girls are gorgeous and so are the boys. The weather is always sunny. There’s one parent and she actually understands her daughter. Teachers are nonexistent. The school is so well-endowed with equipment and janitorial services, it probably has a higher operating budget than […]
Hot from the phenomenal success of Batman, filmmaker Tim Burton turned his attention to his first fully-formed personal film, Edward Scissorhands — the fantastic tale of an artificially-created young man (Johnny Depp), whose creator (Vincent Price) dies before he can replace the scissors that serve as makeshift hands with more traditional ones. The film not […]
What on earth is the director who would soon be one of the major architects of the James Bond series doing making a ballet film? Terence Young not only helmed the first Bond picture, Dr. No (1962), he helped develop it, and went on to make From Russia With Love (1964) and Thunderball (1965), not […]
This Richard Linklater film version of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly uses the same rotoscope technique the director employed for his Wanking … excuse me, Waking Life in 2001. The results this time are better in that there’s at least a story, but the film overall is clearly a product of […]
The Twelve Chairs — based on a 1928 Russian novel — had seen service quite a few times when Mel Brooks made his version of it in 1970, the most famous being the 1945 Fred Allen film It’s in the Bag. Oddly, the Brooks version is a lot tamer than the Fred Allen version (one […]
The question with My Super Ex-Girlfriend isn’t so much whether or not director Ivan Reitman has lost his touch as it is whether or not he ever had a touch to lose. Reitman became a hot director thanks to a pair of utterly disposable star vehicles, Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981), which became hits thanks […]
Prepubescent neighborhood-watcher DJ (Mitchel Musso) is convinced that evil doings are occurring at the run-down old mansion across the street. Mean, snaggle-toothed Mr. Nebbercracker (Steve Buscemi) is always yelling at kids to stay off his lawn. If they defy him — zap — their errant kites, balls and tricycles get sucked into the mouth-door of […]
Having been burned in 2002 by the smoke and mirrors of M. Night Shyamalan’s Signs — a film I gave a high rating, then thought about for a week and wondered if I could plead temporary insanity — I am very reluctant to lavish praise on his Lady in the Water. Will I hate myself […]
By the time the Monkees made Head in 1968, they had nothing to lose and they knew it — and they took advantage of it to make one of the most irreverent, subversive and downright peculiar films of the ’60s. Lacking anything that can even charitably be called a plot, it’s every inch a “head” […]
Supposedly Clerks II garnered an eight-minute standing ovation at Cannes. (Look at your watch for eight minutes and tell me you believe that.) However, it so offended critic Joel Siegel that he walked out of a screening — loudly proclaiming his departure, earning the even more vocal wrath of writer-director Kevin Smith. (Smith forgets this […]
A strange and often compelling film of the magical realism school in which elements of the fantastic, magical and/or supernatural occur as a matter of course in an otherwise realistic setting, Bedtime Fairy Tales for Crocodiles tells the story of the curse of the Juarez family through 100-plus years of Mexican history. Arcangel Juarez (Arturo […]
By the time this insufferably messy melange of romantic comedy and buddy comedy hit the 30-minute mark, I fully expected the projector to grind to a halt, slink away in embarrassment and do the decent thing by throwing itself off the building onto the pavement below. That, unfortunately, did not happen, though I have it […]
Let me freely confess this: When I pick up the Mountain Xpress on Wednesday, I first check the letters to see if anyone has sent me a … uh … valentine. Then I glance at the movie pages to see how they look. With that out of the way, I settle in to do the […]
