WATER FOR ELEPHANTS, based on the novel of the same name by Sara Gruen, is a grand romantic daydream of a movie. Suffused as it is with a bitter edge of melancholy of lost souls scrabbling for a happiness that they believe to be right around the corner, it is saved from the excesses of… Read More »
THOR
THOR is an exuberant blend of spectacle and fun. More in keeping with vintage Saturday morning movie serials than the fantasy and sci-fi blockbusters of more recent date, it is, nonetheless, not lacking in nifty special effects to showcase its stalwart heroes, black-hearted evil-doers, and the fine comic relief in the form of a slacker… Read More »
FAST FIVE
FAST FIVE understands its target audience and does nothing to disappoint it. The fifth installment of the FAST AND FURIOUS franchise, not tied by the restrictions of being chronologically later than the previous ones, incorporates as many of the elements and characters as it can from those outings into its two hours and ten minutes… Read More »
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN — ON STRANGER TIDES
Sometimes an actor finds a role that becomes his second self, so precisely does he embody it, and so identified does he become with it. William Powell had Nick Charles in THE THIN MAN series. Basil Rathbone became Sherlock Holmes to a couple of generations. Johnny Depp has Captain Jack Sparrow. Unlike Powell or Rathbone,… Read More »
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
The only real misstep in Woody Allens MIDNIGHT IN PARIS is, unfortunately, in the opening montage that shows the City of Lights progressing from morning to evening. While there is no denying that this is a city of seemingly limitless picturesque vistas that range from the familiar to the novel, Allen is entranced by too… Read More »
X-MEN – FIRST CLASS
X-MEN FIRST CLASS begins splendidly. The subtle character development, the rich backstory rooted in real history and equally real human experience, the vibrant storyline that is both a sharp consideration of the best and worst of human nature, and a thumping good adventure. And then, once the audience has been lulled into a sense of… Read More »
THE ART OF GETTING BY
At one point in THE ART OF GETTING BY, its disaffected protagonist declares that he is allergic to hormones. Ironically, so is the film that tells his story, and thats a shame because the seething turmoil of emotions at work need more than the anemic frame given them here. George (Freddie Highmore) is a self-described… Read More »
GREEN LANTERN
For a film that is based on a super hero’s ability to make anything he thinks of materialize in green glowing splendor, THE GREEN LANTERN is a film that is unusually flat in execution and uninspired in conception. It’s also painfully disjointed, as though there were a much longer, even more disappointing flick from which… Read More »
SOLARIS
In a move as audacious as it is disastrous, Steve Soderbergh has decided to push the edges of what filmmaking can be and created in SOLARIS not so much a motion picture as a still life. One that is more sleep-inducing than a warm glass of milk and a bottle of Seconal. It is remarkable… Read More »
CATWOMAN
Cheese on the silver screen can be a lot of fun in a kitschy sort of way. CATWOMAN, on the other hand, is cheesy in the cheese that you find in the back of your refrigerator way, the cheese that’s been there a really, really long time. So long, in fact, that it’s developed its… Read More »