On one level, THE CROODS is a funny, heartwarming, and imaginative look at life in the original dark ages, those of prehistoric humankind crouching in their caves surviving, barely, in a state of perpetual fear of the dark. And it would be perfectly fine to enjoy this animated film from Dreamworks in just that way.… Read More »
R.I.P.D
Its not enough that R.I.P.D. is bad, its also derivatively bad while also being mind-numbingly boring. Whatever wit or smarts or silliness the Dark Horse graphic novel of the same name by Peter Lenkov possesses, it is not found in this screen adaptation that is neither fun nor funny. In a messy pastiche of GHOSTBUSTERS,… Read More »
BLADE TRINITY
There is so very much that is so very irksome about BLADE TRINITY, the third installment in the Blade series and the one with the least reason to exist, that one scarcely knows where to begin. One is tempted to sum it all up with a short sentence warning potential audiences to stay away, but… Read More »
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
You’d think that in 86 minutes of screen time that the makers of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR’s 2005 incarnation could come up with at least one genuinely scary moment. Even if it’s just by accident aided and abetted by the law of averages. Alas, this dreary Z-grade schlock-fest is capable of producing only titters and yawns… Read More »
SMOKIN’ ACES
Somewhere in Joe Carnahan’s SMOKIN’ ACES there is a really good film trying desperately to get out. Several actually. And therein lays the problem. Dashing blithely as he does through several different genres Carnahan shows moxie and a genuine flair for each one: black comedy, gut-wrenching drama, farcical silliness, and a deeply affecting morality tale. It’s… Read More »
CHAOS THEORY
CHAOS THEORY is a torpid piece of filmmaking that is at once a fluffy drama and a dreary comedy. Like its hero, Frank (Ryan Reynolds), it’s decided never to make a definite decision and the shambles that results is as predictable as the story of which it is part. The story is told in flashback,… Read More »
BURIED
It would be easy, and a huge mistake, to dismiss BURIED as a stunt film. Sure, Ryan Reynolds spends the entire 94 minutes of the running time buried underground in a box, but such is the imaginative take on the subject by screenwriter Chris Sparling and director Roderigo Cortes, that the struggle of one confined… Read More »
BURIED
It would be easy, and a huge mistake, to dismiss BURIED as a stunt film. Sure, Ryan Reynolds spends the entire 94 minutes of the running time buried underground in a box, but such is the imaginative take on the subject by screenwriter Chris Sparling and director Roderigo Cortes, that the struggle of one confined… Read More »
DEFINITELY, MAYBE
DEFINITELY, MAYBE is a romantic comedy with bite as it follows the adventures of Will Hayes, a guy who started out thinking that he had it all figured out, and who, of course, didn’t. Rising above the commonplace and the cliché, it’s wry, smart and just sentimental enough to warm the cockles of an audience’s… Read More »