Movie Reviews
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MOVIE REVIEW- More holocaust: <i>Defiance </i>can't match <i>Reader</i> Published on Jan 15th, 2009 0 comments
It wouldn't be Award Season without a Holocaust-related movie or two– or, this year, four or five. Defiance, which is better than Valkyrie but not as good as The Reader, has the most direct...
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MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Gran</i>'s grand: Eastwood is older and better Published on Jan 8th, 2009 0 comments
This may turn into a love letter to Clint Eastwood, for which I apologize in advance. The guy is the personification of, "I'm not getting older, I'm getting better." At 78, he's still doing some of...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Season's jeer: Nothing cheerful about <i>Holidays</i> Published on Dec 18th, 2008 0 comments
The 12 Plots of Christmas, courtesy of Nothing Like the Holidays:
1. The family converges on the Chicago home of Edy (Alfred Molina) and Anna Rodriguez (Elizabeth Peña) for Christmas.
2. Son...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Get <i>Milk</i> : Penn gives award-worthy performance Published on Dec 11th, 2008 0 comments
Having lived in San Francisco for 15 years, starting two months after the murders of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, I felt too close to the events and people depicted in Milk to be...
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MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Oz-stralia</i> : Down under flick's a downer Published on Dec 4th, 2008 0 comments
If you're keeping track of the supposed award contenders being released at the end of the year, you can cross Australia off the list.
Baz Luhrmann's pseudo-retro mystical historical Western romance...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Forgettable: <i>Four Christmases</i> no holiday classic Published on Nov 27th, 2008 0 comments
"You can't spell ‘families' without ‘lies.'"
That's the best line in Four Christmases, a movie that looks like it was written by a focus group and sounds like it was scored by an iPod...
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MOVIE REVIEW-<i>Bolt</i> is no dog: Disney effort delivers Published on Nov 20th, 2008 0 comments
Once, when John Travolta's career was in the toilet, he starred in the third of the Look Who's Talking movies, in which Diane Keaton and Danny DeVito provided the voices for talking dogs, before he...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Heaven or hell: <i>Rachel </i>is sometimes better, sometimes worse Published on Nov 13th, 2008 0 comments
With apologies to newlyweds, Jonathan Demme's Rachel Getting Married is much like marriage itself: Sometimes it's heaven, and sometimes it's hell.
This is the kind of movie that gets rave reviews...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Huggable: <i>Role Models</i> will make you laugh Published on Nov 6th, 2008 2 comments
If I ever wanted to hate a movie, it's Role Models. It's got a tired, formulaic, derivative plot about two guys who learn to be better men by mentoring boys, and it's got wall-to-wall homophobic...
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MOVIE REVIEW- ‘Frozen River': Giving indie films a good name Published on Oct 30th, 2008 0 comments
During the Great Depression, people went to the movies for Busby Berkeley musicals and other escapist fare. There's still escapism out there during our current maybe-recession, but there's also...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Countdown: Sad history of sad little man Published on Oct 23rd, 2008 1 comments
There was no way W. could completely satisfy anyone. The President's detractors want a total hatchet job, whether serious or satirical, while his few remaining supporters want a hagiography that...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Box ticket: No classic, but <i>Ember</i> entertains Published on Oct 16th, 2008 0 comments
The old story about rebels escaping from an oppressive underground civilization gets a visually interesting, family-friendly retelling in City of Ember.
Based on the novel by Jeanne Duprau, the...
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MOVIE REVIEW- East is east: But western same-old dominates Published on Oct 9th, 2008 0 comments
Ridley Scott makes movies in which things go bang and boom. They're usually more intelligent than movies by Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer in which things also go bang and boom, but if Scott has...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Gervais' awakening: 'Ghost' has more chance than that Published on Sep 25th, 2008 0 comments
Western Albemarle member of the class of '79 and movie star Billy Campbell plants one on bride-to-be Gwen (Téa Leoni), unaware that the ghost of Naked Guy (Jeff Hiller) is watching in Ghost...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Ready for Lifetime: Elegy lacks elegance Published on Sep 4th, 2008 0 comments
Like a rollercoaster, Elegy moves along slowly, slowly– then plunges downhill at dizzying speed, finally making a turn so sharp it will eject anyone who's not strapped in.
Adapted by Nicholas...
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MOVIE REVIEW- No prickly pear: 'Hamlet 2' rivals 'Thunder' for hoots Published on Aug 28th, 2008 0 comments
Where to begin a review of Hamlet 2 but with the final words of Hamlet 1, as it shall evermore be known:
Take up the bodies. – Such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Rock on: For folks who believe in second chances Published on Aug 21st, 2008 0 comments
Like The Full Monty, director Peter Cattaneo's only other film you're likely to know, The Rocker is a sentimental, hard-to-hate feelgood movie that gives itself a little bit of an edge with non-...
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MOVIE REVIEW- He's back: Woody Allen hits a homer at last Published on Aug 14th, 2008 2 comments
When Woody Allen's at the top of his game no one is better. His batting average isn't what it was in the ‘70s and ‘80s but at 72 he keeps turning out a film a year, and hitting an...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Reunion flop: ‘X' makes the z-list Published on Jul 31st, 2008 2 comments
If you've ever been disappointed seeing one of your favorite bands in a "once more for the money" reunion tour, you have an idea of what to expect from The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Twenty-first...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Man/boys overboard: Two pea-b rains in a pod Published on Jul 24th, 2008 0 comments
Please pardon the schizophrenia of this review. I'm really tired of the man/boy comedies where guys in their 20s, 30s, even 40s and beyond act infantile; and Step Brothers gives you a double dose of...
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MOVIE REVIEW- 'Dark Knight': Batman's back and worth several views Published on Jul 17th, 2008 0 comments
Two hours has rarely flown by as rapidly as it does in The Dark Knight. My jaw dropped so often I finally got tired of picking it up and let it lie there. Director and co-writer Christopher Nolan...
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MOVIE REVIEW- So what? 'Journey' missing only a brain Published on Jul 10th, 2008 0 comments
If you get your rocks off by having someone throw rocks at you (without hitting you) you'll find Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D a multi-orgasmic experience. I haven't seen the 2D, or "flat"...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Derailed: 'Hancock' so good 'til it goes bad Published on Jul 3rd, 2008 3 comments
There are so many different movies in Hancock it's like spending a day at a film festival, only much shorter. Hancock runs only 93 minutes, really brief for a Will Smith Fourth of July blockbuster,...
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MOVIE REVIEW- ‘Wanted': A potentially prophetic title Published on Jun 26th, 2008 0 comments
Wanted is every action movie you ever saw, at at least twice the speed. It should be the most original blockbuster of the summer. It's not a sequel or a comic book superhero adaptation, although it's...
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MOVIE REVIEW- ‘Wanted': A potentially prophetic title Published on Jun 26th, 2008 0 comments
Wanted is every action movie you ever saw, at at least twice the speed. It should be the most original blockbuster of the summer. It's not a sequel or a comic book superhero adaptation, although it's...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Going green: Remake gives deja Hulk Published on Jun 19th, 2008 0 comments
Would you let one bad movie stand in the way of a potential billion-dollar franchise? Neither would Universal Pictures and Marvel Comics, so they've attempted a cultural lobotomy on the order of "Pay...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Garcon! Le petit déjeuner at Tiffany's Published on Jun 12th, 2008 0 comments
If Priceless ("Hors de prix") makes Truman Capote turn over in his grave, chances are he'll be rolling with laughter. It's a virtual French remake of Breakfast at Tiffany's, with just enough...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Thunder-ready?: The fat and the furious Published on Jun 5th, 2008 0 comments
"Jack Black would smoke no crack..."
Then what accounts for his manic energy, his comedy-on-steroids approach unseen since Robin Williams' heyday? As Williams energized Disney's Aladdin, Black's...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Why the fuss?:Is there life after maturity? Published on May 29th, 2008 0 comments
Whether they're straight women or gay men, whether they saw the series on HBO, DVD or, somewhat sanitized, on TBS, there are enough Sex and the City fans to make a big-screen sequel economically...
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MOVIE REVIEW- Hunt's no find: Helen's unpromising directorial debut Published on May 22nd, 2008 0 comments
In April Epner's (Helen Hunt) 40th year, a lot of things change. Her husband, Benjamin (Matthew Broderick), leaves her, just when she's obsessing about trying to have a baby. Her adoptive mother (...
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