LAW ABIDING CITIZEN is a competently made thriller that attempts to make up in panache what it lacks in credibility. It fails. Taking a distinctly right-wing point of view when considering the not inconsiderable problems with the American justice system, it shamelessly pushes all the right emotional buttons as it tells the tall tale of the… Read More »
COLLATERAL
Max (Jamie Foxx) is an easygoing guy who is going places. For now hes driving a cab, but its just temporary until his limo business gets off the ground. Okay, its been twelve years, but there are a lot of details to work out. Tonight, though, he is on a roll. A gorgeous woman (Jada… Read More »
RAY
Taylor Hackford’s RAY does what the best of biopics should do, tell not just who someone is, or what someone has done, but the why behind it all, in this case Ray Charles. Based on his decades of knowing the man himself, Hackford takes facts and mixes them with a healthy dose of poetic license… Read More »
RAY — DVD
Taylor Hackford is not originally from the south, but he has the soul of a southerner when it comes to storytelling. In RAY, he uses it to blend past and present in ways that don’t just show how the former affects the latter, but how in the emotional landscape of the title character, the legendary… Read More »
STEALTH
For a prime example of Hollywood’s dearth of imagination one need look no further than STEALTH, a derivative bit of drivel whose makers obviously thought firestorms and really fast planes are all it takes to make a film worth seeing. It steals in equal parts from Star Trek (TOS: THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER) and Knight Rider… Read More »
DREAMGIRLS
If Jennifer Hudson never makes another movie, if she never sings another song, if she drops off the radar tomorrow, her place in cinematic history will nonetheless be cemented forever by her acting debut in DREAMGIRLS. It’s as though fate has conspired to keep the Broadway hit loosely based on the rise of Diana Ross… Read More »