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 »
THE HOUSE
If anyone could have saved THE HOUSE, it would have been Amy Poehler and Will Ferrell. Theirs is a deliciously insouciant sense of comedy delivered with deadpan sincerity that can make the most of anything tossed their way. And so it is with THE HOUSE, a raggedly written story with a creaky plot that no… Read More »
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION Rocks
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION is lean, mean, and seriously fun. There is not a wasted moment for fans of high-energy, slickly plotted action flicks of the popcorn variety, as this installment of the franchise finds the Impossible Mission Force shut down by the government, but not out of business. Not by a longshot. Their last official… Read More »
THE HURT LOCKER
Among the many arresting images in THE HURT LOCKER, the one that may be the best at putting the audience in the position of the American army bomb squad fighting a futile war in Iraq, is also one of the most quiet. Its during what started out as a routine mission to gather up bomb-making… Read More »
HANSEL & GRETEL — WITCH HUNTERS
HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS is a stumblebum exercise that explores many tones, skipping over the good as well as the bad, with an uneven script and curiously inert direction. This is a shame, because the irreverent re-telling of the Grimms fairy tale had so much potential, glimpses of which still peek through, much to… Read More »