Flames are never far from Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper), starting with those lapping near, but not too near, his heels as he exits the house that he’s just set alight over the body he’s deposited beneath the floorboards. In Guillermo del Toro’s oneiric vision of William Lindsay Gresham’s 1946 novel, NIGHTMARE ALLEY. Notice, too, the… Read More »
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES
And so it is our last visit to Middle Earth, and a bittersweet one it is. Peter Jackson’s finale to his pair of trilogies is a triumph of spectacle and humanity, notwithstanding that the human beings of the piece are not the main characters. It’s only flaw, and that is a relative one, is that… Read More »
DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
There are many deeply creepy moments in DONT BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, a re-imaging of a 1973 television movie of the same name. There are also many terrifying interludes, but the image that may be the most unsettling is that of a doll that has had its teeth gnawed away. Innocence and violence in… Read More »
PACIFIC RIM
PACIFIC RIM is a blockbuster of a curiosity. A film top-heavy with plot, but one that plods along at a oddly pedestrian pace as it charts the end of the world as we know it. It is also oddly populated with leads that are wafer-thin characters, and supporting players that, while not necessarily deep, are… Read More »
THE HOBBIT — THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG is the best middle film that money and talent can produce. This is not an indictment, it is, rather, an embrace of the inherent problem of the second of three filmic installments, viz to wit, if you havent seen the first one, there is little even the most resourceful… Read More »
HELLBOY
There are a lot of tentacles in HELLBOY, squiggly, slimy-looking, Lovecraft-inspired killing machines with a taste for human flesh. Actually, any flesh. And theyre done with a nod to special effects legend Ray Harryhausen. Theres just a suspicion of his brand of stop-action movement that makes for a bit of 50s-style nostalgia amid the impending… Read More »
HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY
The most important thing to know going into HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY is that the chances are excellent that you will leave the theater humming Barry Manilow. Barry Manilow at his treacly, pop music-est. The next most important thing to know is that this outing, though Hellboy creator Mike Mignola gets a co-story credit,… Read More »