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 »
THE GOOD SHEPHERD – DVD
Doing the wrong things for the right, even honorable, reasons is the heart of the conflict in THE GOOD SHEPHERD, director Rober De Niro’s history of the CIA as told through the story of one of its founders. The tale is fictional, but the events, from the fall of the Third Reich to the Kennedy-era… Read More »
GRINDHOUSE
The mission of GRINDHOUSE is to recreate the magic of a night out at the sort of cheesy exploitation films that proliferated 40 years ago or so. Hence, there is a double bill, coming attractions, even an ad for a local eatery. It’s one of those ideas that sounds irresistible. In execution, it makes for… Read More »
PERFECT STRANGER
There was a reason that we were all warned as kids to be wary of strangers and PERFECT STRANGER reinforces that. Lifeless, plodding, pat, and predictable when it’s not being preposterous, this dreck is an assault on the audience’s intelligence. It doesn’t so much unfold as run out of steam, not that it had much… Read More »
HOT FUZZ
Co-writers Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright made an indelible impression with SHAUN OF THE DEAD, an unconventional look at what happens to human relationships when zombies run rampant through a London neighborhood. Wright directed, Pegg co-starred as Shaun, with Nick Frost as his pear-shaped and singularly unhelpful flatmate. All three of them are back in HOT… Read More »
FRACTURE
Hubris, as the ancient Greeks were oft wont to mull in their plays and myths, is a fatal flaw. It’s the one that the gods of those self same ancient Greeks couldn’t abide and hence, the one that got them interested in smiting the one showing it. FRACTURE is a film that would warm the… Read More »
28 WEEKS LATER
It’s not that we expect a great deal from a sequel. Few can be said to equal, much less surpass, their originals. There’s GODFATHER II, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, the second and third installments of the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. After that, the list dwindles. The list of sequels that land with a resounding thud,… Read More »
2 DAYS IN PARIS
2 DAYS IN PARIS has one of the nicest establishing shots in cinema. From overhead, the audience watches a couple (Adam Goldberg and Julie Delpy) sleeping peacefully on a train heading from Venice to Paris. The narration, by co-star/writer/director Delpy, introduces them as Jack and Marion, traveling Europe after two years together. A tricky time,… Read More »
SHOOT ‘EM UP
SHOOT âEM UP is a high-impact, adrenaline pumping, laugh-out-loud film that is so preposterously over the top that it is almost poetry. From the first 30 seconds when all is quiet, until the end credits roll, and then some, there is virtually not a moment when guns arenât firing, people arenât running, either towards them… Read More »