RACING STRIPES is such a sweet, good-hearted film that one wishes that one could like it more. As it is, its a passable entertainment for kids that is hobbled badly by a formulaic plot and talking animals that, for the most part, dont have anything interesting to say. The Stripes of the title, voiced with eager… Read More »
BRIDE AND PREJUDICE
When Jane Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice two hundred or so years ago, she was doing more than telling a story about lovers at cross purposes, she was also dissecting with her society with a deadly precision and wry humor. Gurinder Chadha has taken that classic story and updated it to the multicultural 21st century… Read More »
HER MAJESTY
Writer/director Mark J. Gordon conceived of his first feature film, HER MAJESTY, as a fairy tale, and, like all good fairy tales, this one has dark undercurrents swirling below the sunny exteriors. In particular, the crushing of the Maori by the British during their annexation of New Zealand and the fallout that has resulted. Set… Read More »
DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN
With a title like DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN, one can be forgiven for expecting something edgy, raw, and raucous. Alas, this dismal little potboiler delivers only tedium. Kimberly Elise, who deserves better material, stars as Helen, a woman who in the course of the film will confuse learning how to lose her temper… Read More »
A WAKE IN PROVIDENCE
A WAKE IN PROVIDENCE isn?t groundbreaking, isn?t particularly original, nor is it something that you?ll still be mulling over days or weeks after you?ve seen it. What this blend of comedy and drama does have is one sterling virtue that places it in a very special category. I had a great time watching it. It?s… Read More »
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
From an evolutionary sense, anger makes sense. It might have sent civilization teetering off balance, but in individuals, it insures that you got enough to eat and a good seat by the fire, not to mention a better shot at having your chromosomes play in the genetic pool. Like most stuff that did us all… Read More »
ELIZABETHTOWN
If you are lucky enough to somehow manage to see only the first ten minutes or so of Cameron Crowe’s ELIZABETHTOWN, you will come away thinking that this has the makings of something interesting, dark, and just a little iconoclastic. Alas, it is followed by almost two hours of meandering randomness that quickly dispenses with… Read More »
SHOPGIRL
In the voice-over narration Steve Martin reads at the beginning of SHOPGIRL, based on his novella and for which he provided the screenplay, he informs the audience that the eponymous wage-earner of the piece, Mirabelle Buttersfield (Claire Danes), is special, if only people would realize it. He also informs us that she came to Los… Read More »
PRIME
It is a testament to Meryl Streep’s stellar acting skills that she had kept her role in PRIME from devolving into a shrill caricature of a Jewish mother. And this is especially important given that hers is the only fully realized character to be found in this otherwise dreary excuse for a romantic comedy. The… Read More »
2005 TOP TEN LIST — THE BEST AND THE WORST
The end of one year and the beginning of another is a time of both reflection and excess. The former expressed by taking stock of what has transpired in the year just ended, and the latter, perhaps spurred a bit by the former, part of a greater biological imperative to stave off winter’s cold by… Read More »
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