film

Some movies get rushed through production and hit theaters mere weeks after the final frame of film is shot. Others, for a variety of reasons, go through multiple edits and end up sitting on the shelf for years. A Good Old Fashioned Orgy (which was filmed back in the Spring of 2008) is the latter. […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

As a mediocre to dismal summer for films marked by remakes, reboots, and revisits comes to a close, “The Debt,” a movie chock full of the familiar – international espionage, maniacal Nazis, and beautiful counteragents – arrives in theaters. Can three Israeli operatives stationed in East Germany to hunt a notorious war criminal save the […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“The Devil’s Double” takes a healthy production budget and a compelling true story complete with a character in impossible psyche-ravaging situations, and manages to turn a sure win into a dud. Based on the life of Latif Yahia, the double for Saddam Hussein’s psychopathic son Uday, “The Devil’s Double” should have been a fascinating character […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Sometimes less truly is more, even when it flies under the radar. Such is the case with today’s excellent Overlooked Movie — one that is crying out for a deluxe Blu-ray reissue and a critical re-evaluation. Bill Murray has virtually cornered the market on understated acting, while writer/director Jim Jarmusch (“Dead Man,” “Down by Law”) […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“Sarah’s Key” tells two intertwined stories. The first takes place in present day Paris. Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), an American journalist, lives with her architect husband, Bertrand Tezac (Frédéric Pierrot). While they renovate an apartment that has been in Bertrand’s family since the 1940s, Julia, for one of her articles, investigates the infamous Vel’ […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

The germ of the idea for “30 Minutes or Less” may have come from a tragic true story of a pizza delivery driver forced to rob a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest, but this raunchy new comedy isn’t going for realism. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. This is big, broad humor […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Nick (Jesse Eisenberg), a mild mannered and lead-footed pizza delivery guy, has lost his way. While his friend Chet (Aziz Ansari) has finally landed full time employment as a Jr. High teacher, and Kate (Dilshad Vadsaria), the girl he’s in love with and Chet’s sister, just got an opportunity that will take her to Atlanta, […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Director Michael Rapaport has created a labor of love. “Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest” is the rare documentary that balances adoration and honesty as it takes the viewer on a journey through the career of the influential hip-hop crew, A Tribe Called Quest. The story begins in 2008 during […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Our bi-weekly movie-reference-happy comic strip here on Scene-Stealers is back. Each week his characters recreate a famous scene from a familiar film. Can you guess which one it is this week? Here’s strip number 12 of the original comic The Chicken and the Egg. The artist is Ben Townsend and he lives in the Southampton, […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

In it’s first few minutes, “The Change-Up” gives the viewer a glimpse of a CGI animated baby anus, which, as anticipated, shoots an incredible amount of crap into the surprised face of Dave (Jason Bateman), the exhausted father. When Dave opens his mouth to argue with his child’s backside, a final push fills his mouth […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.” Providing both a riveting portrait of Noam Chomsky as a figure in the American political and academic landscapes as well as a thorough exploration of its titular thesis, “Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media” is as fluid and richly cinematic a […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

“Crazy, Stupid, Love” may have one of the lamer and lazier titles given a film this year, but that is exactly the point. This film embraces many of the clichés of sexually driven romantic comedies, but in doing so comments on and critiques them. Just take a scene that occurs in the middle of the […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A good idea is just that, an idea. It may be chock-full of visual potential or hint at the possibility of an engaging story. Even if the idea is fantastic, there is an enormous chasm that stands between that idea and, in this instance, a well-crafted enjoyable feature film. Jon Favreau falls headlong into this […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Our bi-weekly movie-reference-happy comic strip here on Scene-Stealers is back. Each week his characters recreate a famous scene from a familiar film. Can you guess which one it is this week? Here’s strip number 11 of the original comic The Chicken and the Egg. The artist is Ben Townsend and he lives in the Southampton, […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Coming of age stories often come in two forms. Some explore the expansion and depth of a life just begun. Films like “My Life as a Dog” follow young adolescents as they blossom into a proto-sexual adulthood. The other type of coming of age story deals with the fleeting nature of life. In films like […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }