Few directors could pull off the subtle irony and the profane humor of Tom Cruise, as rock god Stacee Jaxx, crooning a gentle ballad about wanting to know what love is to Malin Ackermans buttocks, but Adam Shankman can and does. ROCK OF AGES is a perfect blend of just those elements, the irony and… Read More »
TOTAL RECALL
TOTAL RECALL is a pleasant revisiting of Philip K. Dicks short story, I Can Remember It For You Wholesale that also, and with a whole heart, acknowledges its cinematic predecessor of the same name. While that version was plastic and kitschy, not unlike its star, Arnold Schwartzenegger, this one takes a grimmer view of a… Read More »
TRANCE
TRANCE is a thing of grotesquely fascinating beauty, an evolved noir designed to provoke and to disturb in equal measure as it toys with the audience’s notions of absolute certainty. It begins with the winsome James McAvoy addressing the audience directly, his sadly earnest face a perfect picture of open honesty as he sets up… Read More »
OLDBOY
I cant pretend that I havent seen the original Korean version of OLD BOY, the one that blew away an international audience and earned cult status. Yet, even knowing the twist, nicely rearranged for this remake by screenwriter Mark Protosevich, is not enough reason to dismiss this flick. Despite Josh Brolins committed performance as a… Read More »
BLENDED
Its never easy to see innocent children dragged into the madness of adults. Their fresh little faces and trusting innocence exploited by hard-hearted cynicism. And so it is with BLENDED, another in a seemingly endless series of Adam Sandler flicks designed to pay for his vacations. The venue this time is Africa, and the story,… Read More »
DELIVER US FROM EVIL
DELIVER US FROM EVIL is a curious blend of intensity and lassitude. Though rife with images of gory mutilations, animal and human, there is in its decorous pacing the whiff of the better Merchant-Ivory productions of times gone by, where things unfold in their own time and without any unseemly rush amid lush surroundings and… Read More »
GONE GIRL
GONE GIRL is an elegantly rendered, yet lurid potboiler of a movie. Director David Fincher brings his characteristic darkness, literal and figurative to an already dark tale of subterfuge, murder, and the secrets we keep from everyone, including ourselves. Based on the novel of the same name by screenwriter Gillian Flynn, it gifts us with… Read More »
REAL CANCUN, THE
THE REAL WORLD, for those of you not tuned into all things MTV, is a reality show on that network that pits, er, puts several college-aged kids together in luxurious digs for four months and lets us watch what happens. THE REAL CANCUN is the same concept and done by the same producers, Mary Ellis-Bunam… Read More »
SAVED!
What would Jesus do? That’s the theological conundrum at the heart of SAVED!, a smart, sharp, and ultimately compassionate consideration of just that question. And before anyone jumps to any conclusions, consider the biblical injunction to judge not lest ye be judged. Open your mind, the way many people in this film just won’t, and… Read More »
RED EYE
Most horror films are dedicated to the proposition that females are prey and little else.