MOONFALL is everything that a Roland Emmerich film should be. There are dazzling special effects. There are several plot threads happening simultaneously that occasionally show a puckish confluence. There are parent-child issues. And there is a huuuuuuuuuge story. This time, it’s the curious case of the moon shifting its orbit in a way that defies… Read More »
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — Part 2
THE HUNGER GAMES may be based on a wildly popular young adult series of novels, but the film adaptations have always tackled issues that are powerfully adult and presented as such. Set in an unspecified future, the class system has run so wild that the life and death of the proletariat class has become institutionalized… Read More »
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 1
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY — PART 1 is not unlike its iconic heroine, Katniss Everdeen. It’s bold, headstrong, no-nonsense, and impatient to get on with things. It begins almost directly from whence the last installment of the saga left off, and with little if any exposition about anything that happened before. For example, why those… Read More »
MECHANIC, THE
THE MECHANIC is slick, stylish, and fun. In short, everything for which an audience turns to an action flick for a few hours of escapist entertainment. Jason Statham again proves that he is the quintessential genre protagonist: cool, efficient, with an ironic edge and credibly cerebral. This last is critical, inasmuch as he is a… Read More »
THE EAGLE
THE EAGLE is a literate slog through Roman-occupied Britain. It’s a gritty, atmospheric experience where honor is the goal, and finding it takes some unexpected turns. Based on the novel of the same name by Rosemary Sutcliff, it starts with actual historical incidents, adds artistic license, and comes up with a metaphorical tale that speaks… Read More »
HUNGER GAMES — CATCHING FIRE
The thing to keep in mind about THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE is that it suffers from being the middle installment of an established trilogy. Which is not to say its bad. Far from it. Its a dynamic and genuinely exciting adventure flick. Yet, for those who are unfamiliar with either the first installment, or… Read More »
AMERICAN HAUNTING, AN
Despite nocturnal scrapings, shufflings, general bumpings in the night, not to mention several rounds of people getting smacked around by unseen hands, AN AMERICAN HAUNTING is just a whole lot of nothing going on. Not wanting to leave well enough or, rather, creepy enough, alone, the filmmakers have taken a fairly well-documented and completely unexplained… Read More »
FIERCE PEOPLE
There is little in life sadder to see than a film that thinks it has a great deal to say of a revelatory or profound nature, but doesn’t. And thus is it with FIERCE PEOPLE, which stretches metaphors beyond their inherent tensile strength in order to inform its audience that the rich are different. As… Read More »
FOOL’S GOLD
FOOL’S GOLD takes a radical approach to its genre. It is an adventure without thrills, a comedy without laughs, romance without heat, and a family drama without heart. A sublimely ironic deconstruction of cinematic conventions? If only. What we have here is filmmaking that is forced, flimsy and flaky. At best. Matthew McConaughey and Kate… Read More »