The best caper films keep us guessing even while we’re watching the caper in progress. In that way, NOW YOU SEE ME 2 succeeds admirably. The return of the The Horsemen, a band of underground magicians dedicated to truth, justice, and outsmarting everyone around them, including each other, provides several set pieces that are fine… Read More »
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER
THE LAST WITCH HUNTER is a long slog. There are few genuine scares. There are few remarkable special effects. There is, instead, a pervasive and persistent lassitude to this tale of an immortal witch hunter, Kaulder (Vin Diesel), and the complicated relationship he has tracking down the eponymous practitioners of magic. Kaulder is very good… Read More »
IS ANYBODY THERE?
IS ANYBODY THERE? is the poignant title of a bittersweet film about life, death, and magic. Its also one of Michael Caines best performances, and thats saying a great deal. Hes The Amazing Clarence, a retired magician whose life hasnt turned out to be quite as amazing as his van insistantly proclaims. They, his life… Read More »
QUIET AMERICAN, THE
THE QUIET AMERICAN is a subtle, deeply disturbing film with a performance by Michael Caine that is a marvel of understated elegance, delivering an emotional punch of prodigious proportions. Based on the novel by Graham Greene, it tells the story of a romantic triangle that is emblematic of the intrigues surrounding Vietnam at the time… Read More »
THE STATEMENT
Conspiracy buffs will enjoy THE STATEMENT more than just about any other sort of moviegoer. For the rest of us, this story about a Frenchman who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II fails as the thriller that the filmmakers may have had in mind. It is, rather, more along the lines of a… Read More »
BEWITCHED
The funniest thing in BEWITCHED is an oddly touching attachment Will Ferrell’s character, Jack Wyatt, develops for a bottle of ketchup he picked up during an off-screen interlude in New Mexico. It’s barely mentioned, but there it is in a couple of scenes, clutched tenaciously the way a kid clutches his blankie in times of… Read More »
THE PRESTIGE
The first words heard in Christopher Nolan’s THE PRESTIGE come in a voice-over as the camera pans across an odd collection of silk top hats in disarray across a wintry landscape. It admonishes the audience to pay close attention to everything and that is excellent advice, but perhaps futile. David Attenborough, intrepid documenter of the… Read More »
CHILDREN OF MEN
In a here-and-now where the primacy of children is given ample lip service by proponents of any and all social issues, it is refreshing, and not a little thought-provoking, to see in Alfonso Cuaron’s CHILDREN OF MEN, based on the P.D. James novel of the same name, a world in which this is actually the case.… Read More »