“Brothers” boasts great dramatic prowess and a trio of talented actors in their prime. The only thing missing is originality. The family drama caused by a father leaving his wife and kids as he’s deployed to Afghanistan coupled with the terrors of post-traumatic stress disorder are – - as insensitive as it feels to say — nothing new, at least to the world of film. Read the rest of this entry »
There are countless ways to interpret a comic series for the big screen, not including story. “The Losers” could’ve been done as a straight-up action film about a team of black ops soldiers getting revenge on the man who left them for dead, but director Sylvain White opts to honor the source material with an equally slick production. Although it fattens the film up with action movie clichés, it gels with the tone of the script and the carefree romp that is “The Losers.” More importantly, it passes fun action movie rule number one: acknowledge your film is nothing more than a fun action movie. Read the rest of this entry »
As strange as the title “Hot Tub Time Machine” might seem, it oddly fits this movie. You can only expect so much from a flick that has two nouns in the title that are as seemingly opposite as “hot tub” and “time machine.” It’s the kind of title that says “I’m not going to make sense, but who doesn’t love hot tubs or time machines?” It’s a silly, mindless film that revels in time travel jokes and an assortment of gags related to the discrepancy between being middle-aged now and being a 20-something in the ’80s. It’s the kind of pure sugar fun you need to be in the mood for. Read the rest of this entry »
According to his friends and himself, Kirk (Jay Baruchel) is a five out of ten on a scale of general sex appeal. Funny, because that’s the exact score I give this film. Kirk’s a decent enough guy. A bit scrawny, has some self-esteem issues, but he’s funny at times, genuine and often charming. I don’t know about those negatives, but the positives could also be said about “She’s Out of My League.” Read the rest of this entry »
When Tim Burton and Disney present you a pretty little 3-D film with a tag on it that says “Watch Me,” you’re likely to indulge. The prospect of one of the finest fantasy directors (who’s a bit mad himself) creating the beloved and colorful world of Lewis Carroll’s classic children’s tales in the era of CGI and 3-D seems flawless. Yet somehow, the magic factor does not find its way where it is needed most: the story. Read the rest of this entry »
With “Black Dynamite,” it’s pretty simple: what you see is what you get. Blaxploitation at its finest, the film attempts to rediscover, through means of both tribute and satire, an oft-forgotten genre of the 1970s. Drug-dealing, flashy clothes, afros, kung fu and a soundtrack layered with wah-wah pedal all contribute to flawless period re-creation. Quite simply, “Black Dynamite” provides a nice care-free jaunt to an odd corner of movie history. Read the rest of this entry »
Crack open the mind of filmmaker Terry Gilliam and you’re likely to find something akin to the imagination world inside the mirror in his film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.” Known for surrealism, candy-coated visuals and deliberately hacking at all that stands for common sense, Gilliam applies these trademarks to the kind of film where they belong most: in a fairytale fantasy. Read the rest of this entry »
Mel Gibson returns to suitable form in “Edge of Darkness,” a revenged-fueled thriller by the producer and writer of “The Departed.” It’s not that anyone doubted Gibson’s prowess, especially in a role with motivation as clear as “you people killed my daughter and when I prove it I’m going to make you pay in ways you never imagined.” For some reason, we expected him to be rattled after eight years off which included his infamous DUI and the subsequent racist and anti-Semitic rants. The role of police detective Thomas Craven works for him. Heaps of praise are not warranted here, but this complicated mystery is a decent flick that he pilots with ease. Read the rest of this entry »
Rob Marshall knows how to direct a musical for the big screen. We learned that after his vision for “Chicago” earned a the big prize at the Academy Awards. That set the stakes high for “Nine,” the movie based on a musical based on a movie: “8 1/2″ by Federico Fellini. If that weren’t enough, the film assembles one of the most decorated female ensembles in cinema history: seven women, five who have won Oscars, one who was nominated and one who has a Grammy. Then there’s Oscar-winning lead male Daniel Day-Lewis. But while the amount of talent is flooring, the film is not. Read the rest of this entry »
To label “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” as Harry Potter with Greek mythology is to fault the zebra for having stripes because the tiger had them first. The hero’s journey story of a young protagonist realizing he or she has a destiny and entering a world previously unknown to him or her is as ancient as, well, Greek mythology. Was 20th Century Fox hoping that Percy would become the next Harry at the box office? Without question, but it should be judged on its own merits, no matter how similar the two are. Read the rest of this entry »
Rock ‘n roll embodies what we want out of our movies from time to time: letting loose and having fun: throwing aside order and morality for a time, however brief. In the ’60s, rock music was the essence of such “rebellion” and “Love, Actually” filmmaker Richard Curtis and his latest film, “Pirate Radio,” capture the rock ‘n roll spirit without dishing it out in the form of some “educational” period film. Read the rest of this entry »
As a fan of science fiction allegory, social experiment, “The Twilight Zone” and the thriller genre –no less all those elements combined — Richard Kelly and his film “The Box” should’ve at least won me over, but it doesn’t. It can’t even decide if it wants to remain completely mysterious or explicitly tell us what’s going on and any film that has to contemplate that is too complex for its own good. Read the rest of this entry »
It would be an insult to call “The Cove” the dolphin and porpoise version of a “Save the Whales” documentary. It is a documentary thriller filled with wildlife education, thorough journalism and top-notch espionage as much as it sheds light on an environmental/animal rights issue as deserving of our attention as anything else. Read the rest of this entry »
Vampirism seems like a disease in Hollywood these days, so “Daybreakers” will fall immediately go under the lens of skepticism. Believe it or not, however, Michael and Peter Spierig’s film separates itself through high concept futuristic science fiction. Although it ultimately spirals into an emotionless bloodbath, kudos to the film-making duo for taking the out-of-control vampire sub-genre somewhere it actually hasn’t indeed been before. Read the rest of this entry »
Often times a film lifts its star to new height, but every so often the film is the thing getting lifted by the star. Jeff Bridges’ Oscar-winning performance as raging alcoholic and chain- smoking 57-year-old country singer Bad Blake places the film “Crazy Heart” on his shoulders and creates something compelling out of another film about a music star fighting inner demons and finding some kind of inspiration to push through to the other side. Read the rest of this entry »
