GLADIATOR II has all the spectacle and pageantry (can you say cast of AI thousands?) of its predecessor, and certainly the same amount of gruesome deaths as only Ancient Rome could devise them, but it is a lesser thing story-wise. Not a bad film, but one that comes down firmly on the side of that… Read More »
EQUALIZER 3
There is a reason that the Equalizer franchise has been so enduring. From television series to franchise powered by Denzel Washington, and then back to a series with Queen Latifah taking over from Edward Woodward. There is something hopeful about seeing the wicked punished and the innocent vindicated. And so it is with EQUALIZER 3,… Read More »
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
It is as though Denzel Washington wanted his performance as the title character in Joel Coen’s THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH were conceived and executed as a tribute to the famous sleepwalking scene played by Lady Macbeth. He speaks the lines not trippingly from the tongue, but rather mumbled with little emotional affect, albeit with admirable… Read More »
THE LITTLE THINGS
THE LITTLE THINGS, or to be precise, “the little things” is a well-thought-out film, and if putting a film together with the pre-fab precision of a Lego® sculpture were all it took to make a great flick, such it would be. Alas, the overweening self-conscious sense of profundity fails to convince even the most willing… Read More »
THE BOOK OF ELI
THE BOOK OF ELI is a laughably earnest exploration of religion in the decline and fall of civilization. It also wants to explore the way religion can also uplift a civilization, or at least members of it, but it evinces a theology of such a violent and disturbing nature that the advantages of religion are… Read More »
THE BOOK OF ELI
THE BOOK OF ELI is a laughably earnest exploration of religion in the decline and fall of civilization. It also wants to explore the way religion can also uplift a civilization, or at least members of it, but it evinces a theology of such a violent and disturbing nature that the advantages of religion are… Read More »
THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123
There are a few flaws in Tony Scott’s reworking of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, but the giddy exuberance of this character-driven thriller gets the audience over the rough spots with few regrets. The story has added cell phones and the internet to the mix without tarting up the proceedings with gratuitous special effects. It’s basically… Read More »
UNSTOPPABLE
UNSTOPPABLE is a formula thriller, to be sure, but one in which everyone is at the top of his or her game. The premise is that of a runaway train with explosive cargo barreling into a major population center, and is played against a nice sub-plot of corporate weenies in their skyscrapers second-guessing and undercutting… Read More »
SAFE HOUSE
SAFE HOUSE is a curiously subdued film relying more on the charisma of its leading men, Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds, and on psychology rather than bombast for its suspense. The result is a film that occasionally becomes too languid for its own good, but is generally entertaining enough with an earnest style of gravitas… Read More »
ANTWONE FISHER
Denzel Washington may just win himself another Oscar nomination this year, though this time out it will be for directing ANTWONE FISHER, one of the most moving films of this or any other year. Not that his performance is anything but sterling, but the nuanced performance he coaxes from Derek Luke, who plays Fisher is… Read More »