Advance word on this cosmic shipwreck was that it was offensive because it traded in gay stereotypes. Yes, it does, but the movie’s just plain not smart enough to be genuinely offensive. It’s just tired and trite and not very funny and again raises the question: Just exactly who thinks Cuba Gooding Jr. can act? […]
I have no idea what movie the critics who are fawning over Blue Crush saw, but I’m hard-pressed to believe it’s the same 104 minutes of cliches, tedium and unconvincing effects-work I slogged my way through on Friday night. So far as I’m concerned, this water-logged variant on the Britney Spears’ atrocity, Crossroads, is in […]
Ted Demme’s Blow — the director’s first truly “big” picture — is a film that attempts to do for drug trafficking what Boogie Nights did for pornography: that is, turn itself into an amazingly deep film about amazingly shallow people. And while the film comes close to achieving this goal, it never quite gets there. […]
It would take far more space than I’m given here to even begin to explain the history of “The Troubles” in Northern Ireland. That’s part and parcel the problem with Paul Greengrass’ Bloody Sunday — a two-hour movie can’t begin to present more than a very simplistic view of the situation that led to the […]
Toward the end of Blood Work the “mystery” killer asks the stoic Mr. Eastwood, “When did you know it was me?” to which the alert viewer is duty-bound to mutter, “About 45 minutes ago.” That’s part and parcel of what’s wrong with Blood Work. Much the same problem surfaces earlier in the film when the […]
Through the years, as Mountain Xpress teen reporters Amanda Levesque and Claire McLendon advance in age and wisdom, we notice that their film reviews advance in humor and discernment, as well. So, look out movie moguls, you’re not going to have Amanda and Claire eating out of your hands any more. A film has got […]
A huge disappointment and possibly one of the most grotesquely screwed up movies of all time, Blade II flip-flops back and forth between being one of the more interesting horror films of recent vintage and one of the worst — which makes for perhaps the most frustrating movie going experience of the season, if not […]
It’s not quite A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It’s more like Jivin’ Jamal Goes Low-Brow Medieval. Jamal (Martin Lawrence, What’s The Worst That Could Happen?)is a self-absorbed no-achiever who rightfully insists that people shouldn’t have high hopes for him. One day while at work at the down-in-the-moat Medieval World amusement park in Los […]
It calls itself a Ridley Scott Film, and in terms of style, panache and drive, it undeniably is — but it’s a Ridley Scott Film with the soul of Jerry “Louder, Bigger, Emptier” Bruckheimer. Black Hawk Down thinks it’s a serious work in the manner of Apocalypse Now and Full-Metal Jacket. The truth is that […]
A pretty tame comedy-thriller that sat around gathering dust for three years, Birthday Girl now sneaks into our world with precious little fanfare, in an obvious attempt by Miramax to cash in on Nicole Kidman’s successes in Moulin Rouge! and The Others. The likelihood of the film doing much for Miramax is slim, but it’s […]
From the windows in my home office, I can glimpse promises of the glories outdoors — a Sunday morning, cool and perfectly clear, the sun shining softly and seductively. The guy across the street is revving up his mint ’97 Softtail Harley, prepping to hammer his heart out on the motorcycle-friendly roads of Buncombe County. […]
If anyone had told me that I’d actually like a Tim Allen movie, I would have raised some pertinent questions as to whether or not said person should be allowed to walk around unsupervised … but I have to admit that I actually enjoyed this one. Maybe it has something to do with being an […]
Like lots of kids, 14-year-old Jason Shepherd (Frankie Muniz, star of Fox TV’s Malcolm In the Middle) tells stories. Well, er, to be perfectly honest, he lies. In fact, he lies a lot. If there’s anything in life that comes easily to Jason, it’s twisting the truth. But he’s sweet and audacious, and can do […]
Despite Bend It Like Beckham’s high level of critical acclaim, I approached it with some doubts. First of all, my interest in soccer (or football, as it’s called in Great Britain) is somewhere less than nil. Secondly, the film sounded for all the world like a teenaged version of Billy Elliott with soccer standing in […]
Maybe I just don’t get it, but Owen Wilson — with his whiny, nasal voice and flat acting — isn’t my idea of a movie star. But then again, Behind Enemy Lines isn’t my idea of a good movie, so maybe he and the film are strangely suited to each other. Oh, sure, it has […]
Frequently described as “episodic,” Julian Schnabel’s biographical film on Cuban poet Reinaldo Arena (Javier Bardem) is certainly that — not in the least because Schnabel and his co-writers, Cunningham O’Keefe and Lazaro Gomez Carriles, have insisted on trying to encompass all of Arena’s life into the body of the film. As a result, we are […]
Bedazzled opens with sweeping, high-speed shots of our planet and its denizens. When the camera pauses to isolate a particular person, a yellow tag gives a capsule description of the subject (i.e., “sleepy” or “anxious” or “cheats on his taxes”). It’s a kind of cinematic shorthand, and it got me thinking what a great innovation […]
Beautiful is a girl-buddy movie disguised as a beauty-pageant send-up. You have to realize three things: First, guys will hate it. Second, it’s the directorial debut of actress Sally Field. (We applaud her for having finally made it in the Big Boys’ game at age 54. On the other hand, you gotta wonder why she’d […]
Maggie West, our 13-year-old teen reporter (who you may remember from her review of Masterminds) was given her second assignment: to review Bean, the film version of the PBS television show featuring the misadventures of one discombobulated fellow known as Mr. Bean. Below, then, is Maggie’s take on this popular British comedian’s foray into the […]
The most important three things in a movie are the ending, the ending and the ending. You can forgive a whole lot of flaws in a flick if at its conclusion you can say, “Yeah, man, ultimately, that movie was satisfying.” But when Basic ends, you just mumble, “Huh?” It starts out exciting enough. Sgt. […]
Here’s a pleasant surprise — the first such of the fall movie season. Warm, funny, and with a kind of street-smart Frank Capra “message,” Barbershop is a movie that is probably not going to do the kind of business it ought to do because of misconceptions as to what kind of movie it is. If […]
