If there were a reason to see LOCKOUT, and there really isnt, it would be to savor the way Guy Pearce gleefully surrenders the last iota of credibility in exchange for whooping it up with good-natured abandon as a near-futuristic action hero. The rest of this Luc Besson-enabled collection of clichés barely registers in comparison.… Read More »
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNSTMAN
It was certainly an intriguing enough idea, even a bold one, turning the Evil Queen in SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN in the tragic hero of the piece. It smacks of Miltons re-interpretation of Lucifer in Paradise Lost. Alas, a smack is as far as it goes here. Director Rupert Sanders is no Milton, and… Read More »
TAKEN 2
TAKEN 2 is an unnecessary follow-up chronicling the further mishaps of the Miller family when they choose to go abroad on vacation again. In TAKEN 1, it was daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who was kidnapped by the 21st-century version of white slavers, leading to an improbable but rousing rescue by her ex-CIA agent of a… Read More »
HUNGER GAMES — CATCHING FIRE
The thing to keep in mind about THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE is that it suffers from being the middle installment of an established trilogy. Which is not to say its bad. Far from it. Its a dynamic and genuinely exciting adventure flick. Yet, for those who are unfamiliar with either the first installment, or… Read More »
47 RONIN
Credit where its due. For all its faults, 47 RONIN doesnt Hollywood-up the traditional ending to the legend that inspired both it and the several other treatments filmed over the years. It also, in those final moments, finds a sweeping, bittersweet poetry that had been missing in the rest of the film. Not that it… Read More »
THE ISLAND
We don’t turn to Michael Bay (PEARL HARBOR) for subtlety. Like Renny Harlin, he enjoys blowing things up real good and usually after he’s sent them careening along city streets at breakneck paces calculated to inflict the most bodily and property damage as possible en route. And so it was with some curiosity that I… Read More »