Unlike Team America‘s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, writer/director John Sayles leaves no room for speculation on the nature of his political leanings with Silver City. The movie’s Boobus Americanus gubernatorial candidate, Richard “Dim Dickie” Pilager (Chris Cooper, Adaptation), is the scion of a wealthy political empire headed by ruthless Sen. Judson Pilager (Michael Murphy, […]
Another older, worthy film returns to the area with Kirk Jones’ Waking Ned Devine, a genial, critically acclaimed comedy of the “old school.” In terms of both plot and characterization, not to mention execution, this gentle, quirky movie is cut from the same cloth as such venerable Ealing comedies as A Run for Your Money […]
Queen Latifah handily walked away with the show in Chicago. She enlivened the uneven Bringing Down the House. Her scenes in Barbershop 2 were among the film’s highlights. So what is it with her and these steaming piles of donkey crap like The Cookout and the dreadfully unfunny, unexciting, uninspired and occasionally offensive Taxi? I […]
I’m already getting the sense that it’s going to be fashionable to look down on Peter Chelsom’s Shall We Dance? as inferior to the Japanese film Shall We Dansu?, on which it’s based. Because, of course, Chelsom’s update features J-Lo in its cast. While I’ve not seen the original, I’ve little doubt that Audrey Wells’ […]
Hilary Duff’s latest vehicle ought to be a hearse carrying the ashes of her career. OK, I admit I’m not a fan. But I did opine that most of what was wrong with her previous film, A Cinderella Story, (and there was plenty) wasn’t her fault. And while there are some problems with Raise Your […]
I can’t imagine anyone not enjoying this bone-crunching true story of dreams in a dusty land. And you’ll love it if you’ve ever lived in a small town where kids count the days until they can leave, and adults wallow in regret that they didn’t. Or if you ever wanted to win so bad, your […]
It’s curious and yet apt that the day before I saw Bright Young Things, I’d spent an hour talking with a group of very bright and savvy home-schooled teenagers at a “career day” program (apparently, some of them would like to be movie critics). The topic somehow turned to literary adaptations, specifically the Harry Potter […]
The so-called portmanteau film — a collection of stories in a single vessel — is by its very nature a tricky proposition. Even the best of them — Julien Duvivier’s Tales of Manhattan, the multi-director Dead of Night — rises and falls on the quality of the individual episodes. Duvivier’s film, for example, soars in […]
Shark Tale comes from at least some of the people responsible for Shrek, and there may even be a few moments that will remind you of the latter film, and also of Shrek 2 (Shark Tale‘s shrimp, in fact, almost seem lifted directly from the Shrek flicks). However, there’s a gap about 20,000 leagues wide […]
With only one short film to his credit, writer-director Joshua Marston appears on the movie scene with a credible, well-intentioned and largely successful debut feature — thanks in no small part to another newcomer, Catalina Sandino Moreno, in the title role. Moreno hits just the right note as Maria. This is essential to the film, […]
I don’t know when I’ve seen a movie so completely smug in its belief that its audience is on a par with Pavlov’s dogs. Ladder 49 wants to be the ultimate tribute to firefighters — or at least its makers want us to think that’s what they set out to make. I’m not convinced their […]
Even while ruminating over the idea that Woman, Thou Art Loosed would likely sell a lot more tickets if it lost that final “d” in its title, I still held some hopes for the film before seeing it. After all, it boasted a generally recognizable cast and director, an actual (albeit small) releasing company and […]
I hardly needed to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show again to write this review. That said, I watched it anyway — if for no other reason than that I had an excuse to do so. And seeing the film anew reminded me that there’s really a lot more to it than its status as […]
The Forgotten is very aptly named: I’d forgotten a lot of it by the time I hit the lobby (I think I was trying to block its pervasive preposterousness and rampaging ridiculousness from my mind). Not that I didn’t enjoy the film in bits and pieces — mostly for its unintended hilarity (there are far […]
Francis Veber is probably better known for his writing than for his direction — and best known for having penned La Cage aux Folles, which spawned the U.S. remake The Birdcage. (Hollywood seems to like remaking Veber’s scripts and films, having annexed The Tall Blonde Man With One Black Shoe, The Toy, Les Comperes and […]
Oh, Forest Whitaker, you big, brilliant actor. You who exploded on the screen in Platoon (1986), made yourself a young legend as jazz great Charlie Parker in Bird, engraved yourself forever in my memory as the doomed black British soldier in Crying Game (1992), and then proved you were just as good behind the camera […]
There’s a certain unschooled line of thought running through many of the things being said about Jehain Noujaim’s documentary Control Room. Time and again, her “objectivity” is trotted out as something apparently surprising in the wake of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. I’m not sure what’s surprising. Noujaim’s previous work as co-director on Start-up.com and as […]
Let’s just get this out of the way: Zatoichi does indeed include a big tap-dancing production-number finale complete with overhead Busby Berkeley shots, as reviewers have made much of. And, yep, the splashy ending actually works within the confines of this original and unique film. What I’ve not seen really addressed, though, is why it […]
I spent a good deal of time during Richard Loncraine’s Wimbledon thinking: You know, Resident Evil: Apocalypse is really loud (since it was playing in the next auditorium, and could be heard through the wall). I spent some more time mulling over the fact that Kirsten Dunst has rather odd teeth. And I then I […]
The Beloved Rogue (1927) is probably John Barrymore’s greatest silent film, with the possible exception of the previous year’s Don Juan. It’s as worthy a representation of the Great Profile in the silent era as Svengali and Twentieth Century are in the age of sound pictures. Likewise, it’s a reminder that the great Barrymore was […]
Yes, this is a stunt picture (I don’t think anyone would deny that a movie in which only the actors are real could be anything but). That said, several films that we now regard as classic or semi-classic — King Kong being the most famous — were originally stunt pictures as well. So that can’t […]
