Will Ferrell is the kind of comedic actor I root for. He was one of the only good things about “Saturday Night Live” for years. When he was popular enough to break out into movies, it was in forgettable SNL spin-offs like “A Night at the Roxbury,” “Superstar,” and “The Ladies Man.” He had funny, […]
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So I sit down at the screening of “The Matrix Revolutions,” the slightly less anticipated of the two “Matrix” sequels that came out this year, and the jackass sitting next to my brother says, without prompt, “Hey I hear Neo’s gonna fight a million Agent Smiths this time. My buddy saw it this morning.” We […]
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In the ads currently running for director Clint Eastwood’s newest film, “Mystic River,” I’ve seen the word “masterpiece” used. I’ve also seen that this is Sean Penn’s “role of a lifetime.” I don’t agree with either of these statements. “Mystic River” is a good movie. But if you want to see a Clint Eastwood masterpiece, […]
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Joel and Ethan Coen (“Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski”) create a very distinctive style of movie. Most often, critics complain that it is precisely too much style that gets in the way of connecting with their movies. For “Intolerable Cruelty,” there is a typical Coen mix of oddball characters and situations. But when you wed that […]
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Reaffirming his status as a grade-A talented filmmaker after a six-year hiatus, Quentin Tarantino scores big with “Kill Bill:Volume 1,” a fun, violent, trashy masterpiece. And it doesn’t even have an ending. From the very opening, in a disturbing scene featuring a blood-spattered bride (Uma Thurman) who receives a gunshot to the head, Tarantino is […]
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Jack Black, when let loose to do his thing, is hilarious. As the front man for hard rocking humorist legends Tenacious D, he brings foul-mouthed rock bravado to new levels. In “The School of Rock,” the PG version is on display. And while it’s not the full-on JB, it’s more than he’s given in a […]
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This latest Woody Allen misfire features Jason Biggs in the lead role of a neurotic joke writer and Christina Ricci as his oddball girlfriend. Their rocky relationship from beginning to end is chronicled with all the newness of an REO Speedwagon song. Allen has mined this same set up for many movies before, but the […]
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It’s rare when a movie can be this subtle, and yet also completely engrossing. Sofia Coppola has written and directed another superb tale of loneliness and alienation, following 1999’s excellent “The Virgin Suicides.” I’ve read that Coppola wrote this movie with star Bill Murray in mind. And it’s easy to see why. At times, he […]
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With 3 hours to kill before a show in Little Rock, Ark., I entered a theater with my band-mates to see this movie, mostly because the ads on TV featured positive quotes from Peter Jackson and Premiere magazine. It was a gamble, for sure. But every now and then it’s kind of fun to go […]
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In 1992, director Robert Rodriguez released an ultra low budget, high-octane action movie called “El Mariachi.” In 1995, he filmed a high budget remake entitled “Desperado,” starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. Now in 2003, comes “Once Upon A Time in Mexico,” the third and final movie featuring the mysterious El Mariachi, played once again […]
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It’s a premise ripe with comedic possibilities: a washed up former child star tries to get a career-reviving part in an upcoming movie. Frank Sinatra’s big Oscar-winning comeback in 1953’s “From Here to Eternity” is even mentioned as an example. But instead of using mob ties to ensure he gets the role like Sinatra did, […]
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Released slowly across the country earlier this summer, these two original European imports are currently causing quite a stink on the art-house movie circuit. Ironically, both films seem to want to give you one thing, and then sneakily deliver another while you get sidetracked with what you think to be the main story. At first […]
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Jason wins.
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It seems absolutely insane to me that the man who directed 1997’s box office and critical disaster/head scratcher “The Postman” could be behind such an assured and old-fashioned movie as this one. “Open Range” is a throwback to the same kind of John Wayne picture that you’d see some afternoon on Turner Classic Movies or […]
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Set during the Great Depression, when America was in desperate need of an underdog, “Seabiscuit” is an entertaining, yet mildly overwrought movie based on a true story. Writer/director Gary Ross (“Pleasantville”) has taken Laura Hillenbrand’s best-selling novel about a little horse that beat all the odds, changed a couple of facts, but left the spirit […]
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