“Grindhouse” is a minor cinematic event. More of an overall theater-going experience than merely a movie, writer/directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez pay tribute to an exploitative style of filmmaking that is long dead with a double feature that is literally exploding with the dead. All told, “Grindhouse” is three hours and fifteen minutes of […]
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A small town in rural Kansas City is not the most obvious place to set a heist picture starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Isla Fisher, two of Hollywood’s brightest up-and-coming stars. Additionally, centering your movie on a brain-damaged bank janitor is about as far away as you can get from glitz and glamour, but that is […]
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Sometimes the best movie in town isn’t actually in the movie theater. DVD has singlehandedly saved the reputation of older movies, which can now be enjoyed by the cinephile and the average moviegoer at once without any crappy pan-and-scan ruining the experience. some of these are older movies, some are ones you just may have […]
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So often in movies, characters never really do the things that real people do in everyday life. We rarely see them at work, listening to music, or playing videogames. When a tragedy occurs in a movie, grief can be overcome quickly with a brief montage. In real life, the healing process is long and involved. […]
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…with clips from “300”! Eric and J.D. discuss the most violent movie since “Apocalypto” and the gayest movie since “Brokeback Mountain.” Click on the photo for the Windows Media version of this on-camera review.
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In terms of stylistic overkill, the new big screen adaptation of Frank Miller’s uber-violent graphic novel “300” ranks right up there with “Moulin Rouge.” Where Baz Luhrmann’s movie musical was overflowing with ripe emotion, though, “300” is a bombastic and cold affair, not unlike watching the story sequences between levels in a video game. Outmatched […]
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In “Zodiac,” Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Robert Graysmith, a former political cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle who becomes obsessed with finding the serial killer who taunted police and terrorized the Bay Area in the early 1970s. Although it was directed by David Fincher—the man behind “Seven”—this new movie has more in common with Gyllenhaal’s […]
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“The Astronaut Farmer” is not a movie for cynics. From a laughable title with a jokey double meaning to a formulaic plot that charges ahead seemingly unaware of how ridiculous it is, this is one bold movie. The latest strange concoction from the filmmaking duo known as the Polish brothers (Michael writes and directs, Mark […]
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Ever seen tractors and hay bales on the red carpet? In the midst of a dramatic chemical fire (that we have no footage of), Eric met up with Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen, along with the producer/writer/director team of the Polish brothers at the Kansas City premiere of their new film “The Astronaut Farmer.” […]
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Browsing through YouTube.com at work today, I came across some clips of the new comedy “Reno 911!:Miami.” The movie’s studio put them there to promote the movie during its ever-so-crucial opening weekend. The tagline attached to the clips read: “Borat with a Badge.” Yeesh. It’s typical marketing—piggy back a new film with a mega-successful one […]
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Scene-Stealers.com is having an Oscar Party AND I’m even helping you out in the biggest categories worth the most number of points. Could there be a nicer host? It’s that simple; that clear–I want you to win big. Come for the money, come for the poster giveaway, come for the drinks, the big screen, and […]
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For a movie that places so much emphasis on the soul, “Ghost Rider” is conspicuously devoid of one. “Ghost Rider” is another ham-fisted Marvel comic adaptation from Mark Steven Johnson, the writer/director who made “Daredevil” such a tedious bore four years ago. Johnson has the uncanny ability to make the extraordinary seem ordinary, as evidenced […]
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From its handsome black-and-white images and heavy use of shadows to its low-key lighting and back-projected car backgrounds, “The Good German” is a loving tribute to the noir melodramas of the 1940s and 50s. It’s a shame that the film can’t muster the emotional weight that marks the best of those movies. Blame the dense […]
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Steven Soderbergh’s new noir melodrama tribute “The Good German” starring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett inspires Eric and J.D. to take a detour of their own, and their true feelings about each other are revealed. Click on the photo for the Windows Media version of this on-camera review.
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George Cukor may be the prototypical “women’s director” of Hollywood’s classic period, but nobody can write witty, sympathetic roles for modern women like Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar. And where Cukor had a rousing multi-picture partnership with Katherine Hepburn, Almodovar again teams with one of his favorite heroines, Penélope Cruz, in the genre-busting new film “Volver.” […]
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