The stakes have been raised so many times with event flicks that, when approaching one, hope is always tempered with experience about what to expect, to paraphrase Samuel Johnson. With AVENGERS: ENDGAME, though, hope wins out. The spectacle is everything it should be, and the story, of necessity a meandering thing, is nonetheless sustained by… Read More »
MORTDECAI is DOA
Sneaking into theaters without benefit of a press screening, MORTDECAI is a tragically unfunny attempt at lighthearted comedy. Based on the novel Don’t Point that That Thing at Me” by Kyril Bongfiglio, its efforts at whimsy fall flat, while its attempts to attain the quirky begin and end with the waxy curls of Johnny Depp’s… Read More »
COUNTRY STRONG
COUNTRY STRONG is a sorry piece of screenwriting with excellent music and an emotionally ragged and truthful performance from Gwyneth Paltrow that is one of the best of her career. The plot is a string of hackneyed plot points from every flick ever made about show biz. Though there are hints of ALL ABOUT EVE,… Read More »
CONTAGION
Steven Soderbergh begins CONTAGION with a black screen, the sound of a cough, and, when the picture comes up on screen, the caption Day 2 in appropriately lurid red letters. The cough belongs to Gwyneth Paltrow, one of the legion of stars that shuffle through this sprawling tale of social devolution, and in a nicely… Read More »
IRON MAN 3
The important thing to know about IRON MAN 3 is that after an iffy start, it zooms into the stratosphere as easily and as dynamically as Tony Stark himself does in the latest incarnations of his Iron Man suit. The past, however, haunts the present, with the trauma of wormholes and aliens vying with demons… Read More »
THANKS FOR SHARING
Fifty-plus years after THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, you would be forgiven for thinking that a contemporary film on a similar topic would have something new, or trenchant, or revelatory, or even different to say about addiction. Alas, THANKS FOR SHARING is the one that demands the forgiveness. This is a pasteurized, cliché-ridden piece… Read More »
VIEW FROM THE TOP
There is a cautionary tale from old Hollywood about ticking off the head of your studio. John Gilbert, a huge star of the silent screen, once punched out the lights of Louis B Mayer. Now, in all honesty, Jack was under a little emotional strain having just been stood up at the altar by Greta… Read More »
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
The most amazing thing about SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW is that the art direction isn’t the end of the story. Using sets created digitally and added to footage of actors emoting in front of a blue screen, writer/director Kerry Conran has fashioned an eye-popping roller coaster of a film that is a… Read More »
IRON MAN — DVD
Itâs not the reason for most of us to go out and purchase the IRON MAN DVD, but it is certainly worth noting that a preview for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek flick is on it. The real reason to buy the DVD, or at least rent it, is the whiz-bang action, the sense… Read More »
IRON MAN — DVD
Itâs not the reason for most of us to go out and purchase the IRON MAN DVD, but it is certainly worth noting that a preview for the J. J. Abrams Star Trek flick is on it. The real reason to buy the DVD, or at least rent it, is the whiz-bang action, the sense… Read More »