It’s impossible to feel very strongly one way or the other about National Treasure. It’s not great. It’s not terrible. It’s just sort of there. Watching this film, I never felt like I was wasting my time, but it’s doubtful I will remember much about it a year from now. Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin […]
Even at those moments when I didn’t like Alexander or thought it was unintentionally funny (which occurred several times in the course of the movie’s 173 minutes), I was still aware that this is a serious work by a forceful and important filmmaker who has a distinctive tone of voice. By way of comparison, I […]
Right off the bat, I need to say that: I’ve yet to meet a Robert Zemeckis film I like; I think Tom Hanks is the most overrated actor of our time; and I’d never even heard of the children’s book that The Polar Express is based on. Beyond that, from the moment I first saw […]
If you’re a horror fan, you might want to knock the rating on this one up to four stars, because Seed of Chucky really is an A-1 horror-comedy. We haven’t had one this good since Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator or Ken Russell’s Lair of the White Worm. No, this film is not in quite the same […]
Since 1989 there have been four films — this being the fourth — entitled Malevolence. I have no idea why. It’s not like the title struck pay-dirt for any of them, and judging by what I’ve heard, a large percentage of the admittedly small public for this film can’t pronounce it. (Asheville movie-goers have been […]
No, this movie doesn’t hold a candle to Sharon Maguire’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Did anyone honestly think it would? But neither is this sequel the atrocity so many seem to want to brand it as. It seems that too many people are going into Edge of Reason quite determined to hate it and tear into […]
Gorgeous and lusty young Lola Cirillo (Salma Hayek, Frida) wants nothing more than to watch the sunset from her seaside deck in the Bahamas. But for her older boyfriend, Max Burdett (Pierce Brosnan, Laws of Attraction), the prospect of eternal horizon-gazing is terrifying. After a few months, paradise has become a bore. Max is sick […]
There’s a certain irony in the fact that The Incredibles, with its undeniably gay-themed subtext about accepting those who are “different,” should arrive the same week conventional wisdom has it that the gay-rights debate cost John Kerry the presidency. It’s perhaps even more ironic that the film is apt to be welcomed with open arms […]
I think I was expecting too much from Finding Neverland. Since last year gave us what I considered the ultimate film version of Peter Pan, I was hoping that Finding Neverland would be the definitive biopic on the play’s author, J.M. Barrie. With Marc Forster, director of the heavy-hitting Monster’s Ball at the helm, and […]
Last week I called writer/director Charles Shyer a “lightweight,” and while I still don’t find credits like Irreconcilable Differences and Baby Boom impressive, I have to apologize for that remark in light of Shyer’s remake of Alfie. Whether or not this is a “necessary” film (in that it’s a remake), the movie is a remarkably […]
If you’re going to see Saw, be prepared for plenty of grisly doings, including the performance of actor Cary Elwes, who offers one of the most classically awful performances since the advent of the talking picture. Indeed, I have yet to encounter a limburger cheese less aromatic than his performance here. And while I won’t […]
Taylor Hackford’s Ray tells the story of musician Ray Charles, and features an inspired performance by Jamie Foxx that gets smothered in an uninspired movie. This disappointing effort is no great surprise, given Hackford’s generally lackluster filmography of largish movies that offer all the emotional and thematic depth of a mud puddle. Ray is the […]
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines levity as “excessive or unseemly frivolity,” while offering a secondary, alternative meaning: “lack of steadiness.” I’m guessing that writer/director Ed Solomon had the first definition in mind as an ironic comment on the rather gloomy events in his film, though the second definition might be nearer the mark. This 2003 release, […]
Jonathan Glazer could not possibly have chosen a more different film — or a more different approach — for a follow-up to his debut feature, Sexy Beast, than Birth. Where Sexy Beast was an aggressively loud film, Birth is an understated one that seems to have been made while the filmmaker was channeling Stanley Kubrick. […]
Yes, it’s Buffy the Feature-film Slayer in another non-Scooby-Doo attempt to make it on the big screen. It’s also the most desperate effort anyone is ever likely to make at copying The Ring — and a pathetically inadequate attempt at that. Director Takashi Shimizu brings a certain degree of style to this Americanized remake of […]
This is one of those movies that gets worse the more you think about it. Drew Latham (Ben Affleck, Paycheck) is a millionaire marketing genius who lives in a fabulous penthouse and has a girlfriend, Missy (Jennifer Morrison, Grind), who wants him to take her home to his family for Christmas instead of flying off […]
Calling a movie an “existential comedy” is a pretty tall claim, not to mention a risky proposition in today’s film market. But damned if writer/director David O. Russell hasn’t pulled it off! Russell’s now three for four with me. I have to admit I hated his second movie, Flirting with Disaster, which felt like warmed-over […]
In a sane world, this utterly charming, sweet little fantasy of a movie would boost Rhys Ifans to stardom. Of course, this isn’t a sane world, and hardly anyone is going to see this film, so that’s not likely to happen. But for anyone lucky enough to catch Danny Deckchair, the notion that Ifans is […]
For viewers, the question about this movie is whether they consider its quantum physics-based “truth-or-illusion” exploration profound or just so much cosmic codswallop. How you answer will probably dictate how you feel about the film in general. Myself, I’m somewhere between noncommittal and the codswallop league. Perhaps that’s because I’m just a soupcon on the […]
I wanted to like Team America much more than I did, and can’t quite decide why I’m less than thrilled with this movie. Because it so tends to fall flat between the good bits? Because messieurs Stone and Parker don’t know when to let a good gag alone? Because it goes on at least 20 […]
By this point, I think I’ve seen three different cuts of Paul Schattel’s Sinkhole. I’ve been assured that this latest version, which shows this Thursday at the Fine Arts, is the absolutely final one. And I hope that’s true, because Schattel has now fine-tuned the film to its best possible form. Sinkhole is, as it […]
