Movie Reviews

The Story: A cowardly public relations man forced into battle against aliens finds himself repeating the day every time he gets killed. The Lowdown: Clever and fast-paced with a welcome streak of dark humor, this sci-fi actioner is undeniably entertaining, if ultimately not terribly substantial, despite an intriguing premise.

The Story: A trio of eco-terrorists blow up a dam. The Lowdown:  A very slow-moving thriller that doesn't deliver much in the thrill department, although it's worth considering that most critics found this much better than I did. Fans of director Kelly Reichardt will definitely be interested.

The Story: Two teens suffering with the effects and after-effects of cancer fall in love. The Lowdown: A goopy, manipulative little movie that suffers from inefficient plotting, flat direction, a milquetoast disposition and some truly wrongheaded story decisions.

In Brief: One of those thoroughly charming little films that got lost in the shuffle, The Emperor's New Clothes showed up in Asheville with no promotion from Paramount Classics (remember them?), was shunted to the upstairs theater at the Fine Arts and lasted, unsurprisingly, one week. It was in no way a reflection of the…

In Brief:  SHOWING CANCELLED. Neil Jordan's beautiful, brilliant, lonely and weirdly moving rethinking of the vampire movie, Byzantium. never made it to Asheville. It was deemed lacking in audience for our town, which I dispute, but that's another matter. What it really lacked was a big name star and serious promotion from IFC. However, here's the…

The Story: Documents America’s obesity epidemic and the various nefarious causes of it. The Lowdown: A well-intentioned, occasionally convincing doc that simply goes on too long, often losing focus.

The Story: An inept sheep rancher becomes involved with a notorious gunslinger's wife. Predictability ensues. The Lowdown: Stupefying in its unfunniness, arrogance and outright narcissism, A Million Ways to Die in the West is a shoo-in for my Worst of the Year list come December.

In Brief: Admirers of the Coen Brothers' Miller's Crossing will find much of its plot is drawn from both Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel, The Glass Key, and from Stuart Heisler's 1942 film version. Conceived as a follow-up to cash in on the surprise popularity of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake in This Gun for Hire (1942), Paramount…

The Story:  A look into the lives of a group of aimless, upscale teens. The Lowdown: A mixed-bag debut for writer-director Gia Coppola. A lot of it is typical lifestyles of the ennui-ridden overprivileged, but there are moments of near brilliance and an ending that makes up for much.

In Brief: Possibly Luis Buñuel's most accomplished Mexican film, Nazarin is a complex work about the impracticality — even impossibility — of living a life by the strict example of Jesus Christ, as depicted in the efforts of one priest who tries to do just that, but finds himself constantly at odds with the Church and society.…

The Story:  Retelling of Sleeping Beauty that presents the evil Maleficent as a scorned woman seeking revenge on the man who betrayed her. The Lowdown: Despite an amusing performance from Angelina Jolie, Maleficent is a sloppy, overly designed movie that completely disposes of the appeal of the title character.

In Brief: More than a simple remake of F.W. Murnau's silent classic Nosferatu (1922), Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) is more of an extension of and homage to the Murnau film. Herzog, of course, was free to drop the pretense that this wasn't Dracula (copyright on the book had lapsed) and called his characters…

In Brief: The Legend of 1900 (1998) was Giuseppe Tornatore's bid to really take the next step after the art house success of his Cinema Paradiso (1988). Nothing else had had its success, so he decided to make something similar in style and scope — and in English. The results were not what he hoped…

The Story: An upscale chef finds himself when he quits his job and starts his own food truck business. The Lowdown: An unfailingly pleasant little comedy that would benefit from more conflict and a sharper tone, but it's a proven crowd-pleaser that will play well to food and food-truck aficionados.

In Brief: John Ford's Pilgrimage (1933) is one of the director's best films — and one of his least known and revived. The reason is not hard to fathom — just look at the cast list. How many of them have you ever heard of? Exactly. You've probably seen Henrietta Crosman, but not many movies…

In Brief: Hammett (1982) was supposed to be Wim Wenders' big breakthrough to English language filmmaking, but constant friction between him and producer Francis Ford Coppola deemed otherwise. In fact, some estimates place Coppola's reshoots as comprising 70 percent of the finished film. However, the movie is still an amazingly atmospheric film that works as a…

The Story:  After shooting an intruder, a rather ordinary man finds himself plunged into a labyrinthian criminal underworld where little is what it seems. The Lowdown: A striking, startling breakthrough film for director and co-writer Jim Mickle. An always suprising, intense and completely satisfying neo-noir thriller that may remind you of the Coen Brothers' Blood…

The Story:  Wolverine is sent from the future to 1973 to rewrite history in order to prevent the implementation of a program that means not only the extermination of the X-Men, but a great part of the world. The Lowdown: Intelligent, witty, exciting, emotionally effective — and all those things that comic book movies almost…

The Story:  A man risks — and may have lost — everything in order to drive through the night to be with the woman who is bearing the child he fathered. Not because he cares for her, but because he believes it is the right thing to do. The Lowdown: What seems like a limited…

In Brief: When it debuted in 1930, L'age d'Or caused a riot. The theater showing it was vandalized by scandalized patrons, the producer was threatened with ex-communication and the film was effectively banned for 49 years. For that matter, it would be almost 20 years before Buñuel made another film — and he made that…

In Brief: No, it has nothing whatever to do with flesh-munching zombies. Michael Curtiz's The Walking Dead (1936) is the director's return to the horror genre (and his last horror movie) after an absence of three years. It's a strange, not entirely successful mix of horror and gangsters. It's essentially a Boris Karloff vehicle made…