Movie Reviews
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...
Free Williemina? Whale Rider dark and deep
Published on Jul 10th, 2003
0 comments For 30 years, American movies have been empowering young women with the message they can be anything and do anything they want. Now the message has reached the rest of the world, specifically New...
Blonde bomb: All bend, no snap
Published on Jul 3rd, 2003
0 comments On paper, Legally Blonde was a recipe for disaster: There's like, this blonde sorority girl who's like, totally self-absorbed, but she turns the blonde jokes on their head when she proves to be like...
No better, no worse: Angels sequel is a ringer
Published on Jun 26th, 2003
0 comments A TV series that lasted five seasons, back when seasons were longer than they are now, should provide material for more than one movie. Hence, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, which crams about a...
Supersized: Hulk's not Hogan's hero
Published on Jun 19th, 2003
0 comments Frame for frame, Ang Lee is one of the best filmmakers around, but when it comes to combining those frames into a full-length feature, his results can be as erratic as anybody's. The Hulk isn't as...
Overkill: Hollywood Homicide has it all-- and then some
Published on Jun 12th, 2003
0 comments Just as critics are beginning to feel summer movie overload, along comes an overloaded summer movie that gives us a good evening's entertainment. Hollywood Homicide brings together two generations of...
Far from home: Nowhere in Africa defies stereotypes
Published on Jun 5th, 2003
0 comments Like any film about the Holocaust, the deserving Oscar winner Nowhere in Africa is concerned with survival, but it's even more about questions of identity. In this true story, Jettel (Juliane Kohler...
Fish story: Nemo wows the small fry
Published on May 29th, 2003
0 comments David Letterman would love to introduce two box office champions: "Neo, Nemo... Nemo, Neo." Somewhere between sentimental scenes at the beginning and end, amid enough melodramatic cliffhangers for a...
Folkin' A! Spinal Tap unplugged
Published on May 22nd, 2003
0 comments Fans of Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show don't have to be told to see A Mighty Wind. It will take a court order to keep them away. A Mighty Wind is slicker, not as laugh-out-loud funny as its...
Black is back! Machine-made, but still awesome
Published on May 15th, 2003
0 comments For the 99 percent of you who are so stoked about The Matrix Reloaded that I couldn't keep you away with nuclear weapons, a two-word review will do: awesome, dude! Rather than leave the rest of this...
Doubles: Pleasures multiply in Good Thief
Published on May 8th, 2003
0 comments For those of us who liked The Truth about Charlie– OK, both of us– here's another trip back to France in the mid-20th century, updated to a tense present. The Good Thief is a character...
Down to business: X-2 an X-cellent adventure
Published on May 1st, 2003
0 comments We had to endure X-Men so X2 (the subtitle X-Men United was added to the advertising as an afterthought, perhaps a subtle suggestion of patriotism) could happen. There was too much background to...
Grab fast: Foley's style keeps Confidence alive
Published on Apr 24th, 2003
0 comments Watching the average movie about a con game is like someone throws a thousand-dollar bill in the air and ten people grab for it; your chances are one in ten of getting it. Watching Confidence is like...
Dig it! Holes not too deep for kids
Published on Apr 17th, 2003
0 comments In the 1960s, when America emerged from its age of innocence, Walt Disney Pictures lost their grip on what constituted "family viewing." Television began to catch up with reality, but Disney produced...
Robbed! City of God should have won
Published on Apr 10th, 2003
0 comments The "chicken run" sequence that opens Fernando Meirelles' City of God (Cidade de Deus) is almost worth the price of admission. It includes an amazing shot of the bird running under a moving van and...
Too familiar: A man playing a part
Published on Apr 3rd, 2003
0 comments As a man playing a part in A Man Apart, Vin Diesel proves himself the best actor among the current action heroes, arguably the best since Harrison Ford. He manages this within the context of an...
Don't! Don't ask, tell... or see
Published on Mar 27th, 2003
0 comments After all the schedule changes that followed the 9/11 attack, it's incredible that Columbia went ahead and released Basic during the war in Iraq. It's not as if there wasn't plenty of warning this...
Catchy : Formula works again for King
Published on Mar 20th, 2003
0 comments Dreamcatcher sucks. Not the movie, the title. Maybe if Stephen King could make up better titles, he'd sell more books, right? It's catchy, no pun intended, and original, but its meaning is so...
Take Dad: Cody Banks wows big guys, too
Published on Mar 13th, 2003
0 comments Things to Do After School: Find a date for the dance Homework!!! Save the world Obviously inspired by Spy Kids, Agent Cody Banks moves the young secret agent premise a step closer to reality, in part...
Regal romp: Queen brings down the house
Published on Mar 6th, 2003
0 comments If Queen Latifah got an Oscar nomination for her minor role in Chicago, she deserves sainthood for what she does in Bringing down the House. This is an extraordinary entertainer whose singing styles...
Dig it! Cradle 2 Grave rocks
Published on Feb 27th, 2003
0 comments Biker Boyz was expected to be the black version of The Fast and the Furious, but it turned out to be a dud. Now here's the multiracial Cradle 2 the Grave, which is nonstop, fast and furious action...
Obvious Life: If you can't figure it out, well...
Published on Feb 20th, 2003
0 comments Alfred Hitchcock used to tell the audience everything and trust their intelligence and imagination to generate the suspense. In The Life of David Gale, Alan Parker tells the audience almost...
One of the best: Talk isn't cheap
Published on Feb 13th, 2003
0 comments Pedro Almodovar explores uncharted regions of the human mind and heart in Talk to Her (Hable con ella). The writer-director seems to get better with every film, and this one ranks among his best. It'...
How-to movie: 10 minutes and audience is gone
Published on Feb 6th, 2003
0 comments Two cute people with opposing agendas have 10 days to fall in love– or not– in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, a comedy so formulaic the structure shows through the trappings hung on it. In...
Too clever by half: "The Recruit" fools everybody
Published on Jan 30th, 2003
0 comments That Colin Farrell will be a major star has never been questioned by the 12 people who saw Tigerland, but no one has been able to answer the When? question. The War Zone and American Outlaws also...
Your Father's "Jackass" : Em-Barris-ment for all concerned
Published on Jan 23rd, 2003
0 comments At first glance you may think Chuck Barris deserves Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. Has there ever been a more negative biography of a living person, other than a politician perhaps? Has anyone,...
Hip hop: Kangaroo Jack lost in the Outback
Published on Jan 16th, 2003
0 comments Charlie Carbone and Louis Booker meet at the beach at the age of ten, and moments later Louis saves Charlie from drowning. Twenty years later, they're still the best of friends, but since that first...
Shooting ironic: Bang, bang-- you're dead
Published on Jan 9th, 2003
0 comments The people who say irony is dead probably tried to kill it with a handgun, but the post-ironic age will never arrive while Michael Moore (Roger & Me) draws breath. With a lifetime membership in...
2002 in film: Success from old stars and old styles
Published on Dec 26th, 2002
0 comments It wasn't the best of years at the movies, but some of the best moments came from stars of long standing doing some of their best work, and younger directors emulating the old pros.   Top Ten...