CRIMINAL is a trifle of a thriller. Sure, guns are fired, things explode, and Ryan Reynolds meets a grisly end shortly after the flick begins, but the necessary tension to keep us all on the edge of our seats is noticeably lacking. What we are left with is an intriguing premise, Gary Oldman at his… Read More »
Going Beyond BLACK OR WHITE
Mike Binder has a particular genius for showing people brimming with good intentions, but flawed, stumbling through life without the operating instructions that would help them negotiate the bumps along the way. He has the gift of showing humor and pathos as elements that are not so much disparate, as entwined, manifesting at oddest moments… Read More »
SWING VOTE
No, it couldn’t actually happen, but that doesn’t stop the plot of SWING VOTE from being an irresistible idea. A presidential race comes down to one vote, and that vote belongs to a guy who isn’t quite sure who’s running for office. As a matter of fact, voting not only wasn’t his idea, it wasn’t… Read More »
JACK RYAN – SHADOW RECRUIT
JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT harkens back to those taut Cold War spy thrillers of days gone by. Not the ones with the elements of fantasy to their supervillains, but the ones that took ordinary people who had chosen the spy game out of patriotic duty, not dry martinis, and put them and their loved ones… Read More »
OPEN RANGE
At the beginning of OPEN RANGE, Kevin Costners latest directing, acting and producing effort, a wagon becomes stuck in the mud after a torrential rainstorm. Kevin and his co-star Robert Duvall do get the wagon rolling again. Alas, the film itself remains mired in situ. Kevin returns here to the western genre and hes certainly… Read More »
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER
From an evolutionary sense, anger makes sense. It might have sent civilization teetering off balance, but in individuals, it insures that you got enough to eat and a good seat by the fire, not to mention a better shot at having your chromosomes play in the genetic pool. Like most stuff that did us all… Read More »
RUMOR HAS IT
RUMOR HAS IT, a dreary pseudo-sequel to 1968’s THE GRADUATE, tacks uncertainly between the far-fetched and the cliché as it hedges its bets rather than sharpens its claws with a story that dishonors the memory of that iconic classic. The action picks up in 1997 when Sarah (Jennifer Anniston) flies home from New York for… Read More »
MR. BROOKS
According to some, we live in an age of moral relativism, and Mr. Brooks, a clever script with mediocre performances, explores that concept with nicely honed dash of irony. Our anti-hero, the eponymous Mr. Brooks, aka Earl, is affluent, pro-life, pro-family, and so devoted to his wife (Marg Helgenberger) and daughter (Danielle Panabaker) that the… Read More »