On one level, THE CROODS is a funny, heartwarming, and imaginative look at life in the original dark ages, those of prehistoric humankind crouching in their caves surviving, barely, in a state of perpetual fear of the dark. And it would be perfectly fine to enjoy this animated film from Dreamworks in just that way.… Read More »
ADAPTATION
ADAPTATION is the story of one man’s epic quest to adapt the unadaptable. In this case, turning THE ORCHID THIEF by Susan Orlean, into a feature film. The problem is that the non-fiction book is a rambling account of a rogue orchid hunter with the history of orchid mania and a glimpse of contemporary Seminole… Read More »
NATIONAL TREASURE
There are many things that an action-adventure flick should be and NATIONAL TREASURE manages to not be most of them. For over two hours, there are car chases, shoot-outs, snarling bad guys, a snarky side-kick, and, because this is the typically overproduced Jerry Bruckheimer effort, explosions, the first a restrained 15 minutes into the proceedings.… Read More »
ANT BULLY
It’s very hard not to read current events into the story of the animated kid’s film, ANT BULLY, but that has as much to do with its dissection of human psychology as it does with this animated film’s prescience. Based on the book by John Nickle, it takes a look at the bullying pecking order… Read More »
WORLD TRADE CENTER
In this offering from the fecund imagination of Oliver Stone there is no hyperbole, no bombast, and no vast paranoid conspiracy. Instead, with World Trade Center, he has turned his considerable gifts, and using actual events, to recreate what it was like to be at Ground Zero, literally and figuratively, on the day that everything… Read More »
THE WICKER MAN
There’s no point in trying to pretty this up. T his remake of THE WICKER MAN, rewritten from Anthony Schaffer’s original screenplay by Neil LaBute and directed by him is a complete flop. With little more than the threat of an estrogen-fueled society to render audiences weak with fear, and none of the zeitgeist of an… Read More »
GHOST RIDER
GHOST RIDER is the first guilty pleasure of 2007. Driven along strictly by the personalities involved, never surrendering to an internal logic that might slow things down to bring them back to earth, it barrels along a dicey path between camp and melodrama and rises above them both while never for a moment demanding to be… Read More »
NEXT
NEXT is a lackluster bit of nothing that fails to work up much interest in itself, much less in the audience unfortunate enough to be watching it. Based on an excellent story, “The Golden Man”, by Phillip K. Dick, this adaptation by ary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh, and Paul Bernbaum gut what is best in Dick’s… Read More »
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS
NATIONAL TREASURE: BOOK OF SECRETS is a cutesy and inane follow-up to the only slightly less cutesy and inane NATIONAL TREASURE. The plot feels like it was cobbled together from the sort of random ideas tossed out during the wee hours of the morning during an all-night brainstorming session, ideas that seem like genius when… Read More »
SORCERER’S APPRENTICE, THE
THE SORCERERS APPRENTICE starts with so much promise. Nicolas Cage as Balthazar, the eccentric and eponymous sorcerer on a quest to find Merlins heir and with him conquer the evil sorcerers bent on ruling the world by first destroying it. Jay Baruchel as Dave, the sweet but stuttering science geek and, as a magic dragon… Read More »