Movie Reviews

In Brief: Having tackled Macbeth in 1957 with Throne of Blood, the great Akira Kurosawa took on King Lear toward the end of his life with Ran (1985) — and the results were astonishing. Though his eyesight was failing, he managed to create one of his most visually stunning films with the help of his…

In Brief: Robert Siodmak’s Son of Dracula (1943) is a film that, but for one thing, would be one of the great horror pictures. Unfortunately, that one thing is a badly miscast lead, Lon Chaney Jr., as Dracula (or, if you prefer, his son) — and that’s a pretty big problem. (For kicks, you can always start a rip-roaring…

The Story: A pill-popping advertising executive gets involved with a new form of "virtual reality" in the course of his work. The Lowdown: You'd be hard pressed to find a better looking movie and a more interesting premise. But, dramatically, the film suffers from unlikable characters and a certain smugness.

The Story: Intercut parallel journeys through the Amazon by two ethnographers in different eras. The Lowdown: Rich and strange mystical film that is filled to the bursting point with dream images and bizarre characters. It's always a pleasure to look at and is endlessly intriguing, but it can't quite pull off its ending.

The Story: A young woman awakes from an accident to find herself in an underground bunker where she's told the world above has fallen prey to some kind of cataclysm that makes it uninhabitable. The Lowdown: This sort-of, kissing-cousin, pseudo-sequel to Cloverfield is really two movies joined together with very visible seams. It's not awful,…

The Story: An idiot soccer hooligan ends up teaming with his spy brother to save the world (more or less). The Lowdown: A collection of raunchy, vile, gross, disgusting, offensive gags — many of which are actually offensive and funny at the same time — packed into a spy-spoof that is not recommended for the…

In Brief: I first saw Fred Niblo’s 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur 44 years ago — a battered, 16 mm bootleg print courtesy of film professor "Knocky" Parker at the University of South Florida. The film was projected at silent speed (an error that made it last for what seemed like three days), looking very scratchy, with obviously missing…

The Story: A playboy is coerced into overcoming his fear of romantic entanglement through the incessant nagging of his family and friends, and with the help of that special someone who seems to be his perfect match: A woman who is just as sociopathic, bland and narcissistic as he is. The Lowdown: The only perfect…

The Story: A bronze medalist Olympic gymnast — and longtime local celebrity — is forced by circumstances to train a more-promising young contender. The Lowdown: When the film gets past its often noxious first 40 minutes and becomes a more appealing story, this raunchy rom-com comes into its own. But those first 40 minutes can…

The Story: The story of Jesus’ childhood. The Lowdown: Slow, long, plodding, self-serious, humorless religious tale that adds little to the story of Jesus and less to cinema as a whole.

In Brief: One of the most controversial and sexually frank movies of its decade, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003) is a classic example of a film that’s not for everyone. Fully earning its NC-17 rating, its themes are adult and the use of sex and nudity is pretty unflinching, and should be borne in mind. The story concerns a…

The Story: After American expats living in India lose their son in a tragic accident, the boy’s mother seeks out supernatural aid in order to say goodbye. The Lowdown: What’s on the other side of the bore? More boredom.

The Story: A journalist, bored with her career and life, becomes a war correspondent in Afghanistan. The Lowdown: An unfocused comedy/drama that never settles on a tone, but which remains likable and watchable, thanks to a small extent to Tina Fey.

The Story: Super Secret-Service agent Mike Banning must save the president from terrorists at the funeral of the British Prime Minister. The Lowdown: A brain-dead, obnoxious, toxic lump of xenophobia, flag-waving, stock footage, crummy CGI, dismal performances and worse writing. The jackpot of bad movies.

In Brief: Dracula’s Daughter (1936) marked the end of an era: the last of the original 12 Universal horror movies that started five years earlier with Dracula (aptly enough). And it’s never really gotten its due. Sure, it’s not quite the big finish you might wish for. It’s not even the film that was originally planned (that…

In Brief: A classic example of taking a fairly simple story and bitching it up by grafting on at least two, if not three, unnecessary, unpersuasive and largely inconclusive subplots, Bottle Shock raises the question of whether or not a pretty good movie can be killed by a really bad wig. In this instance, I’m going to…

The Story: A young female rabbit police rookie has 48 hours to solve a missing persons case with the aid of a possibly untrustworthy fox.  The Lowdown: Gorgeous to look at, clever, funny and with a solid and atmospheric mystery at its core. But there's more here in the film's timely and relevant thematic content.

The Story: Past and present collide when a 27-year-old office worker goes to the country for a vacation and remembers her childhood. The Lowdown: An absolutely magnificent animated romantic drama that captures the essence of how our past informs our present. Touching, funny, realistic and quite wonderful.

In Brief: Gorgeous black-and-white cinematography marks every scene — indeed every shot — of Robert Bresson’s art-house perennial Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), a methodically paced, symbolic film that centers on the life of a donkey named Balthazar. That may not sound like the most appealing material for a feature film, but the key word is “symbolic.” This…

In Brief: Rouben Mamoulian's Queen Christina (1933) is probably the best film the legendary Greta Garbo ever made. It’s certainly in the running, and has two of the most iconic Garbo moments in her entire filmography. The film is more or less a biopic of the 17th-century queen of Sweden, but it’s not that interested in history.…

In Brief: Brian De Palma fell into the category of the unruly little brother in the 1970s trio of him, Scorsese and Coppola. He was the one who was more interested in having fun with filmmaking than he was in being controlled or making any kind of a statement. Nothing about tackling “weighty” material seems to…