THE BLIND SIDE takes what in lesser hands would have been a prime example of the hopelessly hackneyed and saccharine sub-genre of holiday feel-good flick, sports division, and, instead, makes of this uplifting true story a refreshingly sober film that brings good and surprisingly wholesome good cheer. The true story is of how Michael Oher… Read More »
BIG TROUBLE
BIG TROUBLE, you might recall, was pulled from its original fall 2001 release because of the incidents of 9/11. The film’s finale features a plane hijacking and a really big bomb. Releasing it then would have been so far beyond wrong that a whole new circle would have had to be added to Hell order… Read More »
GHOST WRITER, THE
In THE GHOST WRITER, Roman Polanski takes Robert Harris novel of the same name and gives it his own unique stamp. The tale is the classic one of an innocent man suddenly finding himself in the midst of intrigue and danger not of his making, The ominous overtones are pure Polanski. The innocent, who is… Read More »
CITY ISLAND
The Rizzo Family of CITY ISLAND is a family of secret smokers. That smoke, though, is just a screen for the many other secrets that lurk amid this close-knit but volatile family, one that has no problem expressing itself, but not as much talent in sharing confidences. In fact, most of the secrets, smoking included,… Read More »
GROWN UPS
The pain of watching a shlocky film is trivial compared to the torture of sitting through a shlocky film that has convinced itself that it has a message beyond being awful. The latter is the experience of GROWN UPS, a dismal interlude that in the first 10 minutes establishes that men are idiots, women are… Read More »
I SPY
Leaving aside I SPYs misogynist subtext that casts women as either mindless playthings or castrating bitches, lets focus on the real problem. Instead of bouncing along on farce and the chemistry of its co-stars, it chugs along bravely on its formula track to mediocrity. Its not particularly bright, either, so really, the only thing to… Read More »
WATER FOR ELEPHANTS
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 »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- …
- 27
- Next Page »