Movie Reviews
<I>Sahara</I>: Testosteroni and cheese
Published on Apr 14th, 2005
0 comments   Remember when Matthew McConaughey was The Next Big Thing? He was never a bad actor, but his 15 minutes ran out before he established himself as a box-office draw. When you see him in a movie...
<I>Fever Pitch</I>: Farrellys deliver a softball
Published on Apr 7th, 2005
0 comments   For women who had to sit through Sin City last weekend, it's payback time. You remember the Farrelly Brothers, Bobby and Peter. They made their name during the Clinton years with raunchy, edgy...
Unstylish: Stereotypes way out of date
Published on Mar 31st, 2005
0 comments   If there's one overriding reason we can't all just get along it's because conflict sells. Beauty Shop (B.S. for short, which is apropos) was made by people with nothing but economic principles...
Chop shop: Robots revisit the makeover
Published on Mar 10th, 2005
0 comments Talk about a workout! Robots is the most exhausting movie in some time. It combines the manic energy of Robin Williams as the voice of a major character with one warp-speed action sequence after...
Bad fit: Watching The Jacket requires restraints
Published on Mar 3rd, 2005
0 comments When people talk about the subsequent work of Academy Award-winning actors, two words usually come up: Louise Fletcher. After winning the Best Actress Oscar for her supporting role in One Flew over...
Flying high: <I>Aviator </I>looks sweep-ish
Published on Feb 24th, 2005
0 comments Every year I write enough copy to reach to the moon and back (if printed in sufficiently large type), and the only column I'm embarrassed by is this one, in which I try to forecast the winners of the...
Dave's latest dog: Lots of saccharine at this grocery
Published on Feb 17th, 2005
0 comments A spoonful of sugar helps the saccharine (or Splenda, if you prefer) go down in Because of Winn-Dixie, a movie guaranteed to rot your teeth. You should ignore my cynicism if you've been waiting for a...
Happy Willentine's Day! <I>Hitch</I> worth hooking up with
Published on Feb 10th, 2005
0 comments For more than half its length, Hitch makes two points that surprised me: Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Hollywood can still turn out a good, commercial romantic comedy; and Will Smith...
Quasi thrilling: <I>Bad Education </I>nods to Hitchcock
Published on Feb 3rd, 2005
0 comments   Pedro Almodóvar keeps getting better and better. Bad Education (La Mala Educación) opens with Herrmannesque music in the manner of an Alfred Hitchcock thriller, but most of the thrills that...
Girlfighter: Eastwood earns respect, not love
Published on Jan 27th, 2005
0 comments Is Clint Eastwood touched by an angel in Million Dollar Baby? That's one explanation for one of the film's unanswered questions: Why does Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) decide Frankie Dunn (...
True grit: <I>Hotel Rwanda</I> shows horror, heroics
Published on Jan 20th, 2005
0 comments   Just when I'd settled on Saw as the best horror film of 2004, along came Hotel Rwanda with its depiction of real-life horror on a grand scale. The choice isn't as simple as Freddy vs. Jason,...
The Weitz Stuff: Company could be cult hit
Published on Jan 13th, 2005
0 comments 252"> The HooK: MOVIE REVIEW- The Weitz Stuff: <I>Company</I> could be cult hit // >> classifieds  >> personals  >> advertise ...
To the dogs: The Dave nods through Fern
Published on Jan 6th, 2005
0 comments Soon you'll be able to have a three dog night with Dave Matthews! Next month (February 18 to be exact) he'll be on theater screens in the girl-and-her-dog flick Because of Winn-Dixie, but his first...
2004 in REVIEW- Reality takes a big bite
Published on Dec 23rd, 2004
0 comments If a trend could be seen in this year's movies– and the first thing they teach in journalism school is trend-spotting– it was toward documentary and biographical films. Perhaps Hollywood...
Delightful: 'Lemony' keeps its pledge
Published on Dec 16th, 2004
0 comments While the debate rages about how young a child can be to watch Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events without being traumatized for life, the real question should be how childless adults can...
The clean dozen: Everyone's trying to be greatest thief
Published on Dec 9th, 2004
0 comments Sometimes the actors onscreen look like they're really having fun. They say what they have to say and do what they have to do to tell the story, but they don't make it look like they're working. If...
String-puller: Four of an unkind get <I>Closer
Published on Dec 2nd, 2004
0 comments The message I took from Closer is that relationships would be a lot simpler if you had one set of people to love and another set to have sex with. Of course, married men have been practicing this...
Misnamed: 'Alexander' the not-so-hot
Published on Nov 25th, 2004
0 comments History teaches us many painful lessons. Alexander is one of them. A lot of people put a lot of good work into this screen-filling tale of the young leader who conquered most of the known world in...
<I>Declaration</I> code: Founding Fathers left a riddle
Published on Nov 18th, 2004
0 comments   If your kids won't study history, take them to see National Treasure. It may not make them appreciate history, but it will show them there are worse things they could be doing than studying it...
<I>Polar</I> opposition: End of the line for the magic
Published on Nov 11th, 2004
0 comments Classic films don't grow on Christmas trees. We got spoiled last year when one holiday season gave us both Elf and Bad Santa. This year things have returned to the mediocre norm with Surviving...
Alfie's back: Laying down with Law
Published on Nov 4th, 2004
0 comments It seems like everything but Cher has changed in the 38 years between Alfies, but the 2004 version proves that isn't so. Cher's not even around. Her old title song (allegedly ditched for drawing...
Light <I>Ray</I>: Gentleman sings the blues
Published on Oct 28th, 2004
0 comments As happened with Halle Berry and Charlize Theron, a good actor who's generally been undervalued as a lightweight finally gives a performance that can't be ignored in Ray. Playing both the piano (...
'Bye, Thunderbirds: Bigger, longer, and cut
Published on Oct 21st, 2004
0 comments Two words from one of the songs in Team America: World Police will serve as a review too: "F*** yeah!" As a fan of Trey Parker and Matt Stone even before South Park, I was predisposed to love their...
Erin go bragh: Film captures Irish conference
Published on Oct 14th, 2004
0 comments Everyone no doubt remembers the hoopla surrounding last spring's international gathering, "Re-Imagining Ireland," at UVA. Sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, it brought such...
On the road: Travels with Che and Alberto
Published on Oct 14th, 2004
0 comments Every young person should take a Great Road Trip, seeing the country or the world with little or no money. It's more difficult and dangerous now than it was in the 1950s when Jack Kerouac was "On the...
Flaky film: What a Load of #$*!
Published on Oct 7th, 2004
0 comments Being as stupid as David Letterman pretends to be, I like movies that make me feel intelligent. Mark Vicente, Betsy Chasse, and William Arntz, the makers of What the #$*! Do We Know? (a.k.a. What the...
Karl & George: Bush's Brain explores Rove's power
Published on Sep 30th, 2004
0 comments Fahrenheit 9/11, Going Upriver: The Long War Of John Kerry, Silver City, The Manchurian Candidate (redux)– what a year for political films. If those haven't sated your political cravings, the...
Burnout: Firefighters without fire
Published on Sep 30th, 2004
0 comments Apparently Denis Leary hasn't put out– or ignited– all the fires on the East Coast. Ladder 49 is Backdraft for the post-9/11 world where firefighters get a little more respect. The action...
Apt name: The Forgotten probably will be
Published on Sep 23rd, 2004
0 comments You're not paranoid if they're really out to get you. It's not knowing that's such a bitch. And when she gets into that situation in The Forgotten, Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) can be a bitch too...
Ay, robots!: Sky Captain flies but doesn't soar
Published on Sep 16th, 2004
0 comments The good news about Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is that the tail doesn't wag the dog. With everything but the principal actors and a few props being created or assembled in the computer,...