There are many things wrong with SECRET WINDOW, the latest in a long line of failed adaptations of a Stephen King opus. Top of the list would be how ridiculously easy it is to figure out the twist that I think was supposed to leave us gasping. While not an insurmountable obstacle, it is a… Read More »
CORPSE BRIDE
Tim Burton’s latest animated film, CORPSE BRIDE,is a whimsical bit of the macabre, gussied up with the rapture of first love in both its full flowering and something more sinister. It’s Petit Guignol as light and fluffy as a corner full of cobwebs and, once you get used to the talking maggots, the rotting flesh… Read More »
THE LIBERTINE
Johnny Depp, an actor who not only takes chances, but seeks them out with a ferocity to match the considerable talent at his disposal, is not, alas, enough to save THE LIBERTINE. Adapted from the play of the same name by its author, Stephen Jeffreys, this intimate look at John Wilmot, the second Earl of… Read More »
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN — DEAD MAN’S CHEST
The original PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL offered up the unexpected delight of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, a joyfully addled pirate redux. He shared top billing with his co-stars, Orlando Bloom as the stalwart Will Turner and Keira Knightly as the plucky Elizabeth Swann, but it was Depp… Read More »
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN — AT WORLD’S END
It’s as though the people involved with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END gave a great deal of thought to where exactly they hadn’t taken their heroes, villains, and Jack Sparrow, who is both and neither. Singapore, for one, and so the sequence in the seamier parts of that location. The polar climes, and… Read More »