It’s not that THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is unwatchable. Quite the contrary. The special effects are stupendously unrestrained. The story is adorable, leaning towards a good-natured spoof of superhero movies as practiced in the 2020s. The performances can’t be faulted, even if Christian Bale as the god-hating ex-acolyte out for revenge is far darker, and… Read More »
THE NICE GUYS
Shane Black has the gift of making films that are nail-bitingly suspenseful and wickedly funny at the same time. He did it with KISS KISS BANG BANG, and he’s done it again with THE NICE GUYS, a stylishly acerbic and decidedly hard-boiled neo-Noir pitting nihilism against idealism during the candy-colored decadence of 1977 Los Angeles.… Read More »
BODY OF LIES
In BODY OF LIES Hollywood continues its attempt to examine the War on Terror while still making it palatable for a mass audience. It so very desperately wants to be this year’s SYRIANA, and for the first hour or so does a credible job of exploring the complexity of current events before succumbing to the… Read More »
ROBIN HOOD
Those hoping for a whiz-bang re-telling of the legend of merry men stealing from the rich and giving to the poor will be sorely disappointed with Ridley Scotts ROBIN HOOD. This is an origins tale, one that starts slowly and, despite anxious and insistent hand-held camera work to give the illusion of drama, never rises… Read More »
NEXT THREE DAYS, THE
Based on the infinitely superior French thriller, POUR ELLE, THE NEXT THREE DAYS is a road kill of a thriller. Flattened beyond recognition as being its particular genre, and with all its vital, life-giving juices mercilessly squished out of it. Whats left is a pulpy mess that is by turns painfully protracted and irritatingly stupid. Russell Crowe,… Read More »
BROKEN CITY
There is a scene in BROKEN CITY that serves as the perfect metaphor for the entire film. In it, corrupt New York Mayor Hostetler (Russell Crowe), and Billy Taggert (Mark Wahlberg), an ex-cop, are having an informal meeting to discuss the former hiring the latter to tail his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom he suspects of… Read More »
NOAH
In the old days, biblical epics were produced as much to have an excuse for prurient excess as for the moral lesson to be imparted by the retelling of a familiar tale of good and evil. Darren Aronofsky’s NOAH is about as far from that trope as it is possible to get and still be… Read More »
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD
Finally, an adventure film for grownups. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD, based on the wildly popular Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’ Brian, is brought to vivid life with a literate script, intelligent performances, and a respect for its audience. While the story takes place during the Napoleanic Wars, the focus is… Read More »
CINDERELLA MAN
Showing a lack of imagination and a willingness to mine every applicable sports cliché that is stunning in several senses of the word, Ron Howard has taken one of the greatest comeback stories ever and turned it into a cloying bit of fluff. CINDERELLA MAN is handsomely mounted, steeped in period art direction, and features… Read More »
A GOOD YEAR
In films such as A GOOD YEAR, there is never any doubt about how things will end. There’s precious little doubt about the plot arc that will lead to that ending. In fact, the only reason to see a film such as A GOOD YEAR is the charm of the main character to whom all… Read More »