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Movies
Pixar Triumphs Again
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
If there’s one thing to bet on in Hollywood, it’s Pixar. They are, without a doubt, the most consistent filmmakers out there. While everyone has their preference as to their favorite Pixar film, Up is just another home run in the greatest winning streak since the days of classic Disney animated films. More
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Movies
One Hell of a Return
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Ah, those gypsies and their mystical curses. What will they think of next? Nothing good, I suspect. Ancient curses and supernatural spells have long given filmmakers license to indulge their most exotic fantasies, inspiring scenarios so deliriously macabre they seem more surreal than shocking. And perhaps no American director has proved more adept at playing on our fascination with the occult than Sam Raimi. More
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Movies
Have You Been Conned?
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.
Rian Johnson achieved cult status with his low-budget take on classic, straightforward film noir in Brick. Not only did it have a great story but it was also set in a contemporary high school, the last place you’d expect to have a high stakes detective story. So as with any blooming writer/director, the bar is set high for his follow up effort. Fortunately for Johnson, and fans of Brick, he proves that even with a Hollywood budget he can still deliver one hell of a film. More
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Movies
It’s Not Personal - It’s Business
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
There is nothing warm, fuzzy or even erotic about Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, a movie bound to be remembered as much for its leading lady’s other on-screen exploits -- she’s world-famous porn star Sasha Grey -- as for its clinical depiction of a high-priced Manhattan escort as a passionless pro. More
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Movies
Yet Another Unnecessary Sequel
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Night at the Museum, a lackluster, family-oriented fantasy adventure, became a surprise hit, making $250 million in North America alone and $574 million worldwide. A sequel was, of course, inevitable and a sequel is what family audiences will get this weekend with the awkwardly titled Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Not all sequels, however, are made equal. More
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Movies
Machines Dehumanize
Terminator Salvation holds the rare distinction of being both a prequel and a sequel, set 34 years after James Cameron’s 1984 original, whose backstory it seeks to explain, and picking up more or less where Jonathan Mostow’s underappreciated Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines left off. More
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Movies
A Bore of Biblical Proportions
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.
Rarely before has wordy exposition been employed more excessively and to lesser effect than in Angel & Demons, Ron Howard’s middling follow-up to The Da Vinci Code. For those craving action and suspense, there’s little to be found here, despite a whirlwind denouement that sees our hero, Harvard professor and renowned symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), racing around Rome in search of an Illuminati killer. More
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Movies
Portrait of a Fighter Unhinged
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Former heavyweight champion turned cautionary tale Mike Tyson has been described as a lot of things -- a thief, a rapist, an animal and, during his professional heyday, the most terrifying fighter on the planet -- but rarely has he been presented as sympathetic. More
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Movies
Not So Merry, But Still Worth It
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Michael Keaton makes his directorial debut with The Merry Gentleman and it’s a welcome addition to his long but spotty repertoire. He hasn’t really made a quality picture since Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown in 1997 and it’s refreshing to see him make a comeback with such a quiet and intelligent film. More
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Movies
Jarmusch in Minimalist Mode
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
The Limits of Control, the first film from writer-director Jim Jarmusch in four years, is an allusive, elliptical, existentialist anti-narrative where everyday rituals and the rhythms gain new, often elusive meaning. A return to Jarmusch’s preoccupations with identity, alienation, isolation, and the limits of language and culture, The Limits of Control will definitely reward Jarmusch’s fans or moviegoers with a taste for the challenging, intellect-stretching films made by Michelangelo Antonioni or Jarmusch’s contemporary, Wong Kar-Wai. More
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