Movie Reviews
Maine event: Retiring president v. plumber
Published on Feb 19th, 2004
0 comments Maine is famous for two things: Stephen King and everything else. Welcome to Mooseport isn't likely to change that. This election-year comedy about an election would have been run-of-the-mill...
Forget it: 50 first dates too many
Published on Feb 12th, 2004
0 comments Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore had enough chemistry in The Wedding Singer that a re-teaming was inevitable in an industry where anything that works well is worked to death. It works again in 50...
Mighty pucks: Pumping up America's morale
Published on Feb 5th, 2004
0 comments We may know the answer by the time you read this, but I wonder which presidential candidate will co-opt Miracle as his personal vision, the way Ronald Reagan did Bruce Springsteen's song, "Born in...
Brush with Greitness: Nobody home at the Vermeers'
Published on Jan 29th, 2004
0 comments Subtlety can be a virtue in movies, especially since it's such a rare commodity in Hollywood. But like anything else in cinema, it can be overused. Girl with a Pearl Earring is about people who lived...
Things fall apart: One flutter, lots of waves
Published on Jan 22nd, 2004
0 comments The title and Chaos Theory are both explained by the opening title card in The Butterfly Effect. It informs us the flapping of a butterfly's wings sets in motion a chain of events that can ultimately...
Risk assessment: Polly needs a wisecrack
Published on Jan 15th, 2004
0 comments If I were an insurance risk assessment expert like Reuben Feffer (Ben Stiller), I could feed the positive and negative factors of a movie like Along Came Polly into a computer, hit "Enter" and have...
Nice enough: No hooks in Big Fish
Published on Jan 8th, 2004
0 comments Tall tales are Tim Burton's stock in trade, so a movie about tall tales isn't too big a departure as he tries to bounce back from Planet of the Apes by showing his two hands can handle a whopper. The...
In review: the great work ends in 2003
Published on Dec 25th, 2003
0 comments At the end of the first part of Angels in America, which would be high on the list of the year's best films if it had had a qualifying theatrical run, the Angel says, "The great work begins." The big...
Big little man: Big little movie
Published on Dec 18th, 2003
0 comments If you find anyone who doesn't love The Station Agent, it's time to reactivate the X-Files, because they're not human. Writer-director Tom McCarthy shot much of his film from low angles to help us...
Ring worms, Rejoice! Third time's a charm
Published on Dec 11th, 2003
0 comments Ringworms have reason to rejoice. As expected, since the trilogy was filmed all at once, director Peter Jackson hasn't blown it in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Although it's the...
Plath-tered: Suicidal tendencies are catching
Published on Dec 4th, 2003
0 comments Fame has its downside: paparazzi, autograph hounds, being ripped off by business managers, having trouble maintaining relationships... and the threat of being portrayed by Gwyneth Paltrow in a movie...
Missing: Dad comes back to save the day
Published on Nov 27th, 2003
0 comments The old story about the father who abandons his family and then tries to come back into their lives is retold in a Western setting in The Missing, Ron Howard's epic drama that's easily the best of...
Gothica: Flick goes from soap to nuts
Published on Nov 20th, 2003
0 comments Fearless prediction: Halle Berry will not win her second Oscar for her performance in Gothika. Not that she doesn't give a good performance, but: 1) It's a horror movie. Martin Landau won an Academy...
See-worthy: Crowe commanding on bounding main
Published on Nov 13th, 2003
0 comments Six months ago, who would have thought a historical adventure involving sailing vessels would draw an audience? The makers of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World fell back to let Pirates...
Matrix 3: All good things must come to...
Published on Nov 6th, 2003
0 comments Most Matrix fans, except the perverse few who want Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) to have his way with the universe, are rooting for Neo (Keanu Reeves) to prevail over the machines on behalf of humanity...
Cut to the chase: Women in lust and jeopardy
Published on Oct 30th, 2003
0 comments Call me a perv (I'll answer), but I've never had a desire to see Meg Ryan naked. Maybe it goes back to when I was punished for playing doctor with the girl next door, but I no longer think of girls...
Runaway hit: Jury 'duty's a pleasure
Published on Oct 23rd, 2003
0 comments Runaway Jury has the makings of a runaway hit. It's the kind of movie that got me hooked on movies, long before I got into foreign films and American indies. John Cusack, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman...
High expectations: <I>Mystic River</I> no Boston cream puff
Published on Oct 16th, 2003
0 comments The real Mystic River flows through Boston, between Charlestown and Chelsea. The metaphorical Mystic River flows between childhood and adulthood. Mystic River is a story of what can happen when that...
Fills the <I>Bill</I>: QT kills again!
Published on Oct 9th, 2003
0 comments MOVIE REVIEW- Fills the Bill: QT kills again! With his unique blend of dark humor and ultra-violence, Quentin Tarantino was the most imitated filmmaker of the 1990s, despite the fact that he was...
Class-ic rock: Who says <I>School</I>'s no fun?
Published on Oct 2nd, 2003
0 comments If you believe in rock and roll, clap your hands... to a triplet beat. Feelgood movies should have a separate category in award competitions. Their "end justifies the means" philosophy means certain...
Feel the pain: <I>The Rundown</I> kicks ass
Published on Sep 25th, 2003
0 comments If you enjoy seeing other people get hurt– a lot– The Rundown may be your favorite movie since Raging Bull. I think I counted 17 times when The Rock– or his stunt double– must...
Mane attraction: <I>Secondhand Lions</I> warms the heart
Published on Sep 18th, 2003
0 comments Secondhand plots are Hollywood's specialty. Although we critics get tired of them sometimes and long for independent films with fresh ideas, some recyclers know what they're doing and do it well....
En garde: Matchstick Men strikes two chords
Published on Sep 11th, 2003
0 comments If you walked out of Confidence humming "Won't Get Fooled Again," you're all primed for Matchstick Men. You know all the tricks con men and movies about them can pull, and you're too smart to get...
Queer eye: New Jeepers has strange slant
Published on Sep 4th, 2003
0 comments Watching Jeepers Creepers on cable in preparation for the sequel, I decided I had underrated it somewhat the first time around. Or maybe it's just easier to take when you're not locked in a dark...
About a girl: Me, you, a pig named Moo
Published on Aug 28th, 2003
0 comments What do a child and the US Army have in common? Never mind, the possible answers are too mind-boggling. I'll just give you mine: In the movies, they're both vehicles for turning perpetual adolescents...
Smile! Can Crest cure marital decay?
Published on Aug 21st, 2003
0 comments Make sure you have you have your kitchen chores done before you watch The Secret Lives of Dentists. A drama set in a TDTD family (two dentists, three daughters), it has countless scenes involving...
Antici-pation: 10 notable coming attractions
Published on Aug 7th, 2003
0 comments Lists are stupid. Looking over the schedule for the rest of 2003 (including films being released for award consideration that you may not see until next year, if at all), it doesn't...
Chemistry 101: Not Much 'Gee!' in Gigli
Published on Jul 31st, 2003
0 comments Sometimes actors who hate each other can still create sparks on screen, and sometimes off-screen chemistry can't be captured by the camera (and sometimes even if it is it can't save a lousy movie)....
3 men, one horse: Seabiscuit looks like a winner
Published on Jul 24th, 2003
0 comments There hasn't been a successful horseracing movie since– I don't know: National Velvet? The makers of Seabiscuit must have breathed a sigh of relief when Pirates of the Caribbean became a hit,...
Extraordinary! Connery steals the whole show
Published on Jul 17th, 2003
0 comments Action stars whose biggest fight is to keep their careers going in their 40s or 50s (T3 came right in time to save Schwarzenegger from following in the direct-to-video footsteps of Stallone and Van...