Most “one last job” movies are high-energy action flicks or thrillers driven by a veteran actor playing a character with a troubling back story, but Anton Corbijn’s “The American” operates as a character-driven mood piece, a precise and quiet visual portrayal of a man trying to quit his dangerous profession who is constantly haunted and pervasively paranoid. Read the rest of this entry »
Family drama can be cliché, but not when that family consists of a teenage brother and sister and their two moms. Hollywood’s family dramas have yet to break out of the traditional family structure for obvious albeit not necessarily defensible reasons, but independent film promoter Focus Features has found a gem of one in Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.” Read the rest of this entry »
As I left “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” a woman probably in her 40s or 50s exclaimed into her cell phone how it was the worst movie she’s ever seen. I rather liked it, though I’m definitely 20-30 years younger than she. That kind of split is evident of only a few films in cinema history: those that are radical and progressive. “Scott Pilgrim” is both. Read the rest of this entry »
The buddy cop comedy sub-genre has been limping about Hollywood as if shot in the leg from an awry 9mm bullet. Now it’s been found by the duo of Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the pair behind “Anchorman,” “Talladega Nights” and “Step Brothers,” whose brand of contemporary idiot humor has been steadily met with compounding criticism the last few years. But the combination of these two seemingly stale styles works somehow in “The Other Guys,” even if it’s not a total revitalization for either party. Read the rest of this entry »
By the film’s definition, inception is the process of entering someone’s mind through his dreams and planting an idea so deep within the subconscious that when he wakes up, the idea feels organic and natural. I would like to know who broke into Christopher Nolan’s dream space and dropped the seed that would become the idea for this film, because whoever it is, “it” is an indisputable genius. Read the rest of this entry »
If the cliché “sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll” has seemed obscured or irrelevant the last thirty years, it is no longer. “Get Him to the Greek” serves this unholy trinity buffet style. The latest Judd Apatow-produced laugh fest is a spin-off on the character Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) from 2008′s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” the licentious rock star with a drug addiction. How else, then, do you make a film about a walking stereotype other than expounding on the stereotypes? “Greek” suggests you roll with it, which is easy enough. Read the rest of this entry »
There’s only one pair of glasses that will make “The Last Airbender” a tolerable adventure and it’s not the 3-D kind. Based on the Nickelodeon animated TV series, “Airbender” is a kids movie, fully equipped with a PG rating and young protagonists asked to shoulder a majority of the workload. Expect just that: a film for young audiences. Read the rest of this entry »
Adam Sandler’s movies have almost always had a family element if they weren’t a major part of the story (parental responsibility in 1999′s “Big Daddy,” father-son relationship in “Billy Madison” and “Little Nicky”). But lately, especially since the birth of his first daughter in 2006, it’s begun to drastically shape his film choices. It started with “Click” in 2006, a story about appreciating family moments, and continued especially in 2008 when he teamed with Disney for “Bedtime Stories.” The emotional sweetness of family life has been a major force in Sandler’s work, but his patented insult and immature humor has not budged over that time. The latest result of that combination of family love and dirty adult humor is “Grown Ups.” Read the rest of this entry »
Pixar has taken the animation genre literally to infinity and beyond in the 15 years since “Toy Story” first changed the game forever. So when the ground-breaking production company decided to return to an old friend in 2010 after three straight years of cutting-edge family film-making, you had to know there was a compelling reason to go back to the toys that wasn’t merely monetary. Normally any movie title with a “3″ next to it is a warning sign, but not a Pixar film. “Toy Story 3″ is every bit imaginative, ingenious, funny and heartwarming as not only its predecessors but also every other animated film out there. Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to adaptations, sometimes you pity the fool who knows the source material too well. I knew nothing about “The A-Team” outside of premise and having been thoroughly entertained by it, I applaud my own ignorance as it may well have been the difference- maker. Joe Carnahan’s movie version of the ’80s television classic aims to not merely challenge the bar for inventive sequences that end in kaboom, but to rocket launch it off its post. Those like myself who have the privilege of not being able measure this 21st Century “A-Team” against the spirit of its source material will have a much easier time enjoying it as the recklessly fun overkill that it is. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer, how do you go about finding your next “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise? Well, you start by keeping the whole cast in long hair and eyeliner only you relocate them to the desert. “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time” is a familiar swashbuckling adventure only transplanted to the Middle East and outfitted with turbans, swords with even bigger curves, snakes and lots and lots of sand. Read the rest of this entry »
Superhero movie follow-ups have been a tough business lately. “Iron Man 2″ marks Marvel’s first sequel since “Spider-Man 3″ left millions disappointed in 2007. So to quell any lingering fears, “Iron Man 2″ is not a letdown. It’s far from it. To think director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. would lose sight of what they did that turned a lesser Marvel character into a multi-million-dollar franchise would be a gross underestimation. Read the rest of this entry »
Every comic-book fan has a fantasy lodged in the back of his or her head about what it would be like to be a superhero. “Kick-Ass” is the story of said average person and plays out that fantasy scenario under the most realistic conditions possible. How would being a superhero actually work in modern day? Perhaps “Kick-Ass” creator Mark Millar went overboard on the geek daydream by fusing as closely as possible both the world of classic comic fantasy and contemporary realism, but fans who hold the genre dear will convert easily to his wavelength and consequently will enjoy “Kick-Ass” far more than anyone else. Read the rest of this entry »
A good special-effects era mythology movie is bound to happen at some point, but we’re definitely still waiting. “Clash of the Titans” is merely a modern incarnation of the original that in the age of CGI monsters and impressive fight sequences plops lazily in the category of status quo, something its 1981 cult predecessor was anything but thanks to the groundbreaking stop-motion work of Ray Harryhausen. Read the rest of this entry »
Noah Baumbach (“The Squid and the Whale”) films are always difficult. The concept of going to the movies for the sake of escapism is lost on him. If anyone tried harder to make real life into a movie, they’d have to compete with Baumbach. If anyone tried to make a film where dialogue is king, they’d have to compete with Quentin Tarantino — and Baumbach. “Greenberg” is certainly one of his better films, but the casual viewer can only enjoy it to a point. Read the rest of this entry »
