Movie Reviews

In Brief: Almost impossible to critique as a film, The Mill and the Cross is a true cinematic oddity. It's a strikingly visual, but dramatically lacking, recreation of Pieter Bruegel's 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary, illustrating the elements, some of the models and the political allegory behind the art. As drama, it rarely works…

In Brief: Lindsay Anderson's landmark film If.... shook up world cinema, made a star of fairly obscure TV actor Malcolm McDowell and set Anderson on the road to creating his famous trilogy (If...., O Lucky Man!, Britannia Hospital). That's a pretty impressive accomplishment, but his tale of the resentment at an English boys school —…

The Story: In the distant future, a father and son crash their spacecraft onto Earth, which has now become a dangerous, uninhabitable planet for humans. The Lowdown: Despite some ambition and a surprisingly grim tone, the film suffers from its simplistic nature, silly acting and too much goofy sci-fi nonsense.

The Story: Four stage magicians perform an improbable heist live on a Vegas stage, and it’s up to a nay-saying detective and a professional debunker to thwart their next moves. The Lowdown: Convoluted and never as clever as it thinks it is. But as simple, pure entertainment, it’s none too shabby.

In Brief: Jack Clayton's 1974 film of The Great Gatsby is a good-looking, seriously miscast, painfully earnest attempt at capturing the novel. It's respectful of Fitzgerald's book to the point of calcification, but if you're looking for a film that gives you the story without disturbing anyone, this is it. It's not bad. It's just…

The Story: The boys of the Hangover movies return, as they’re forced to track down drug dealer Chow and return the money he’s stolen before their friend is murdered by a crime boss. The Lowdown: A surprisingly straightforward and unfortunately sentimental end to the franchise that feels limp and pointless.

The Story: Vin Diesel and company get brought in to catch a criminal mastermind and rescue the surprisingly resurrected Michelle Rodriguez. The Lowdown: Lots of mayhem, lots of bulked-up stars, lots of fast cars, lots of fiery explosions — and barely a brain cell in sight.

In Brief: An overlooked gem from the pre-code era, Bureau of Missing Persons (1933) is a rich "ripped from the headlines" melodrama that's played mostly for comedy by a cast that only Warner Bros. could assemble (while borrowing Lewis Stone from MGM). Pat O'Brien is his usual machine-gun talking self as a Bureau detective who…

In Brief: A long, fairly leisurely paced biographical drama is drawn from the autobiography of New Zealand writer Janet Frame — a woman whose withdrawn shyness caused her to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia and confined in a mental hospital. Told in three parts, the film examines her story with the kind of insight and humanity…

The Story: A shrunken teenage girl joins in to save a woodland society of tiny people — and assorted creatures — from destruction. The Lowdown: Nice to look at and skillfully executed with good voice acting, but overall average in the story department.

In Brief: No, it's not the 1934 classic, nor does it have anything to do with Edgar Allan Poe (though it claims otherwise). The 1941 film called The Black Cat is an old dark-house comedy thriller that's a very obvious attempt by Universal to cash in on Paramount's Bob Hope comedy thrillers. OK, so Broderick…

The Story: The life and times of a 27-year-old dancer as she navigates an uncharted course through New York, life and relationships. The Lowdown: A sparkling, sweet, sad, funny film that might restore your faith in indie film — all built around a winning performance from Greta Gerwig (who also co-wrote the film).

In Brief: Pack Memorial Library concludes its Cary Grant series with — appropriately enough — Grant's last film, Walk Don't Run. It's an agreeable enough remake of George Stevens' 1943 comedy The More the Merrier — moved from crowded wartime Washington to crowded Tokyo during the 1964 summer Olympics. The problem with it — from…

In Brief: This year's feature film winner of the Twin Rivers Media Festival marks the first time a horror movie has taken the prize. But David Mun's House of Good and Evil isn't your typical horror film. Rather, this is psychological horror about a couple trying to get their lives — and marriage — back…

In Brief: It's the first Godzilla sequel and, despite the fact that it was rushed to cash in on the original film so that it was in theaters within four months of Godzilla, it's still a reasonably good entry. It's also the last of the series that can be taken seriously — at least sort…

b>In Brief: The Coen Brothers' much misunderstood reimagining of the 1955 Ealing Studios Comedy of the same name finds Tom Hanks taking on the role originated by Alec Guinness — and making it his own. That's much the same thing the Coens did with the film — adhering to the basics of the story about…

In Brief: Riding in on the last of the late 1960s/early 1970s nostalgia wave, That's Entertainment positioned itself as a documentary about the Hollywood musical. In truth, it was a two-hour commercial for MGM that presented one seriously skewed version of film history. That's not to say the film doesn't include some pretty impressive (and…

The Story: A young American of dubious truth joins forces with a Muslim police detective to take down a crime lord and the terrorists he's helping. The Lowdown: An impossibly convoluted story, a pair of likable leads, a nasty villain and some solid action scenes make this OK, but ultimately not terrific. On its own…

The Story: Kirk and the rest of the Enterprise crew of the are sent on a mission to deal with a terrorist out to destroy Starfleet. The Lowdown: The plotting gets clunky and the action could be handled more effectively, but the characters — improved from the first film — keep this Star Trek entry…

In Brief: Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955) stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly (yes, this is where the famous fireworks kissing scene comes from) in one of the master's lighter and most pleasant 1950s films. The film is nothing more than a romantic suspenser soufflé of the kind that Hitchcock was rightly famous…

In Brief: The second ActionFest monthly screening is the same setup as last time with all proceeds going to Homeward Bound of Asheville, and the $10 admission includes free Ninja Porter (from Asheville Pizza) and soft drinks and popcorn from Carolina Cinemas. This time, viewers get the chance to see the film Java Heat starring…