I get the feeling that there are a lot of people who think that movie critics are sad little people whose only true enjoyment comes from taking the piss out of movies that are really asking for it. Michael Bay’s futuristic “The Island,” starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as two runaway clones, is one […]
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If anyone else had tackled this remake of the 1971 classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” they would certainly have screwed it up. They would have made ittoo saccharin sweet, misunderstood the point and created a vacant Joel Schumacher/Chris Columbus disaster that even the world’s most optimistic, happy go lucky, sing-a-dang-do would have gagged […]
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“Wedding Crashers” is a high-concept, totally formulaic comedy that should not work. Any script that calls for the audience to have sympathy for two slimeballs who spend all of their free time preying on women’s emotional vulnerability at weddings is asking a lot, especially when it derails into forced sappiness. But thanks to two perfectly […]
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When a movie advertised as a suspense/thriller is practically devoid of suspense and contains no thrills, it usually results in a complete failure to entertain. Recent entries in this genre that leap to mind are “Hide and Seek” and “The Grudge.” “Dark Water” is certainly missing those key elements, but because of an attention to […]
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In 1931, Variety magazine wrote of Universal Studios’ “Dracula,” “The living-dead Count Dracula who sustains life by drinking the blood of his victims, seems almost plausible.” This was written about a soon-to-be-famous Hungarian actor with hypnotic eyes and a cape. “Dracula” was hugely successful at the box office, but the film was not considered great […]
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George Romero’s “Land of the Dead” is the fourth zombie movie in the last three years to be given a mainstream release in America. But one must only look as far as the name that appears before the title to realize that this is not a calculated attempt to piggyback the genre’s newfound popularity. Instead, […]
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From Oscar-winning producer Brian Grazer, Oscar-winning director Ron Howard, and Oscar-winning writer Akiva Goldsman, of “A Beautiful Mind,” comes “Cinderella Man,” another true story of a man who overcame all odds at a time when his country needed him the most, starring Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe and Oscar-winning actress Renee Zellweger. Some movies, by way […]
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Everybody knows how it is going to end. But what “Star Wars” fans are dying to know is precisely how it all unfolds. Or, more specifically, what terrible deeds will Anakin Skywalker carry out on his way to becoming Darth Vader? Anyone who has seen the lackluster Episodes I and II knows George Lucas must […]
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Who are we? Why are we here? What is the answer to the great question of life, the universe, and everything? And would a sperm whale suddenly called into existence in midair, miles above an alien planet, want to make friends with the quickly approaching ground? Like anyone who has [laughed out loud while reading] […]
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“Melinda and Melinda” is the thirty-third film Woody Allen has written and directed in thirty-nine years, and the first one since 1999’s underrated “Sweet and Lowdown” to not collapse completely under its author’s recently limited palette. Allen’s repertoire has become too predictable in the last four years with his DreamWorks-distributed movies, and his specialized audience […]
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Adventure novelist Clive Cussler is suing the producers of “Sahara,” the new Matthew McConaughey action flick, because his contract says he had final script approval and, he claims, they ignored that, despite his objections to the script. “All I can say is I don’t know whose book they adapted, but it wasn’t mine,” he recently […]
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“Fever Pitch” is clearly a Peter and Bobby Farrelly movie. It is easily identifiable not for the gross-out humor that made the directors’ names in “There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber,” but instead for the awkward sentimentality of recent misfires “Shallow Hal” and “Stuck on You.” Like those, “Fever Pitch” is chock full […]
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Maverick independent filmmaker Robert Rodriguez co-directs this hard-boiled comic book adaptation of “Sin City” with its author, Frank Miller. Blood runs white, red, and in one case, yellow as Rodriguez weaves three hyper-violent tales, each with a different damaged anti-hero looking for retribution, all set in the testosterone-charged and super-corrupt world of Basin City. The […]
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In the opening scene of “Kung Fu Hustle,” smartly dressed crooks with top hats and axes cruelly murder a rival and his crew on a stylized, neon-drenched street. The slain mobster’s girl is told she will not be harmed, but as she walks away, she is shot in the back. Then, typical of the wildly […]
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Henry Darger was a sorry saint who fought most of his life trying to protect children. It was not an easy task, because the evil John Manley and his child-enslaving Glandelinian army were always on the hunt for the seven angelic Vivian sisters. Darger himself always seemed just one step behind; never sure whether he […]
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