Perhaps it’s suitable that MTV films has partnered with Paramount to bring us the story of U.S. soldiers who return home from the current war in Iraq and are very changed people. After all, it is the young generation that’s doing their duty; being sent to fight in that uneasy, messy conflict. (Earlier this week, […]
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It’s common knowledge that Judd Apatow and his merry band of improv comedians have helped to make movies like “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” way better than your average batch of raunchy comedies while simultaneously seeming more authentic. When Seth Rogen and his friends get in a room together to do improvise the hell out of […]
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If Graham Chapman from Monty Python were still alive, he’d be liable to walk into any theater showing this movie and stop the projector at will because it is getting far too silly.
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“Semi-Pro” is the new Will Ferrell sports movie. Set in the 1970s, it is the story of an over-the-hill basketball player who has an NBA championship ring—only now he’s on his last legs, slumming it in Michigan with an ironically-named American Basketball Association team called the Flint Tropics. The only problem is that particular character […]
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“Be careful what you wish for” is a notion that applies just as well to film as it does elsewhere. If you choose to employ a bold and complicated storytelling device such as showing the same event from the time and perspective of multiple individuals, it will build excitement and anticipation for a satisfying climactic conclusion. […]
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To say that Michel Gondry’s new movie “Be Kind Rewind” has a ridiculous premise would be correct, but it would be missing the point. This peculiar little film isn’t set in any kind of reality I’m familiar with, and that is wholly its charm. One clever moment that happens early in the movie is a […]
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In an era where teenagers are increasingly more familiar with psychoactive drugs as a socially-accepted way to deal with the pressures of high school, it is about time that a movie came along and shed an appropriately dark light on the touchy subject. “Charlie Bartlett” is not that movie. It wants to say something, but […]
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In spite of director Doug Liman’s track record of action genre prowess, with films like “The Bourne Identity” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” his latest high-speed adventure “Jumper” is a tale of woefully unrealized potential and modest execution. It’s clear that Liman knows how to make action movies, but it seems the personality police should […]
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If blood and guts is your thing, “Rambo” has what you’re looking for in spades. The fourth Rambo film is a sanguinary bonanza that is without a doubt bloodier than “Grindhouse,” “30 Days of Night,” or “Sweeney Todd.” The film opens with a montage of newsreel clips depicting the genocidal violence occurring in Burma , […]
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It is entirely appropriate to call writer/director Tamara Jenkins’ latest feature “The Savages” a comedy because it’s very funny. But like “About Schmidt” or “As Good As It Gets,” this film is also a poignant reflection on the human condition and on growing older in America. “The Savages” is tragic, acidic, hopeful, and full of […]
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Save for the thoughtful cinematography from director Joe Wright and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, “Atonement” verges awfully close to your garden variety British period piece. The film has moments of inspiration, but remains throughout little more than typical – like a well-funded BBC production, the type you might run into on some lazy Sunday while perusing […]
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When writer/director Todd Haynes decided to make a movie about Bob Dylan, he was faced with a pretty big question. How do you make a biopic on one of rock n’ roll’s biggest chameleons? Rather than go the straight route and chronicle the influential songwriter’s entire career with a happy epilogue tacked on about his […]
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There is a twisted sort of circular logic at play in “Margot at the Wedding,” writer/director Noah Baumbach’s newest look at self-absorbed East Coasters (which is the follow-up to “The Squid and the Whale,” his 2005 picture about self-absorbed East Coasters). Nicole Kidman plays Margot, a writer who has cribbed so extensively from her own […]
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Ever since their first movie, 1985’s low budget neo-noir “Blood Simple,” the writing and directing team known as the Coen brothers have always been visual stylists—not in a rich-art-direction-Baz Luhrmann (who fills every frame of “Moulin Rouge” to the limit with splashes of color) kind of way, but more in a Gregg Toland-deliberate-camera-placement-and-lighting-scheme kind of […]
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“The Mist” is the first Frank Darabont feature I can’t endorse. That’s saying something when you consider I’m one of a select few critics who is willing to publicly admit they liked “The Majestic.” Director/screenwriter Frank Darabont is perfectly capable of making modern classics like “The Shawshank Redemption” and “The Green Mile,” so “The Mist” isn’t clumsy […]
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