The best thing I can say about HUNTER KILLER is that is it forgettable. This putative thriller of geopolitics and military bonding blows things up, sinks submarines, parachutes stoic guys through a thunderstorm, and fires endless automatic weapons, but when it’s all over, not much sticks beyond a nicely timed wrench catch, and the fortuitous… Read More »
THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD
In a way, it would be a shame to saddle Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds with too much plot in THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD. The snark fest that they provide as adversaries forced to endure one another’s company is its own reward as they travel from Manchester to The Hague while fending off some very… Read More »
CRIMINAL
CRIMINAL is a trifle of a thriller. Sure, guns are fired, things explode, and Ryan Reynolds meets a grisly end shortly after the flick begins, but the necessary tension to keep us all on the edge of our seats is noticeably lacking. What we are left with is an intriguing premise, Gary Oldman at his… Read More »
UNBORN, THE
Even for the sort of low-rent horror flick that is dumped unceremoniously into theaters during the month of January, THE UNBORN is an embarrassing jumble. A little Kabbalah, a little Holocaust, a spooky kid with eyes that are a little too blue, and a whole lot of nubile female flesh in tank top and underwear… Read More »
CHRISTMAS CAROL, A
A great deal of money has been expended in order to bring the Robert Zemeckis 3D animated version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL to the screen. And yet, for all the showy set pieces that have Scrooge (Jim Carrey) hurtling through the stratosphere at breakneck speeds creating dizzying tableaux of impressively changing perspectives, every woman in… Read More »
THE BOOK OF ELI
THE BOOK OF ELI is a laughably earnest exploration of religion in the decline and fall of civilization. It also wants to explore the way religion can also uplift a civilization, or at least members of it, but it evinces a theology of such a violent and disturbing nature that the advantages of religion are… Read More »
THE BOOK OF ELI
THE BOOK OF ELI is a laughably earnest exploration of religion in the decline and fall of civilization. It also wants to explore the way religion can also uplift a civilization, or at least members of it, but it evinces a theology of such a violent and disturbing nature that the advantages of religion are… Read More »
RED RIDING HOOD
RED RIDING HOOD begins well in its misguided attempts to plumb the rich territory of what lies beneath the surface of the most persistent of fairy tales, wallowing in the subtext that goes directly to the subconscious, but disguised in a form easily assimilated the most delicate of sensibilities. That remains true here, the unreality… Read More »
PARANOIA
PARANOIA is a flabby congealed thing that is in no way helped by lackluster direction and a derivative script. The hook is industrial espionage in the high-stakes, and even higher-egos, of hi-tech. Based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Finder, it is a morality tale with no sting, and a thriller with… Read More »
ROBOCOP
ROBOCOP is a laudable rethinking of the 1987 original. Told in broad thematic strokes, it still harbors in its soul a fine dialectic on identity, humanity, and even the reality (or lack thereof) of free will. Sure, its an action flick with shoot-em-up and blow-em-up sequences, but thanks to a grounding performance by Joel Kinnaman… Read More »