And so we have come to the end of Daniel Craig’s tenure as 007. NO TIME TO DIE provides both him and us, with a veritable cornucopia of Bond-ness, from a supervillain’s lair on a remote island, to the finely honed quip we’ve come to expect as James takes out a minion with yet another… Read More »
HOLMES AND WATSON
One comes away from HOLMES AND WATSON bemused. The stunning lack of entertainment value in a film starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly is almost a body blow, such is its unremitting ineptitude. Using as its premise the same spoofery done much better by the Wayans Brothers in their series of SCARY MOVIE riffs,… Read More »
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS
KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS continues Laika’s string of arresting, unconventional stop-motion animated films that are both sophisticated and enchanting. Like PARANORMAN and CORALINE, KUBO is audacious enough to tackle serious subjects and to do so with no pretense about the finality of death, or the reality of evil. Taking its cue from Joseph Campbell’s… Read More »
HAIL, CAESAR!
If Douglas Sirk had directed a film noir written by Billy Wilder, it might have looked something like HAIL, CAESAR!, the latest thoughtful tangle of philosophy and whimsy from the Coen Brothers. Taking place in a 1951 Hollywood not entirely unlike the one that actually existed, it mixes Cold War paranoia, carefully managed studio PR… Read More »
SPECTRE
There are very specific things we want in a James Bond film. Great action, dastardly villains who are larger than life and twice as buggy, and Bond girls who have evolved over the years to be a bit more than merely a pulchritudinous interlude. In Bond, as incarnated by Daniel Craig, we want a steely… Read More »
DUCHESS, THE
THE DUCHESS is a middling film about a larger-than-life historical character from the 18th century. That would be Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley), fashion icon, darling of the public and of the media, she was beautiful, rich, used her position and fame to influence politics, and married to a man who was indifferent to… 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 »
CLASH OF THE TITANS
It takes about 15 minutes to realize that the remake of CLASH OF THE TITANS is an irredeemable loss. Unfortunately, there is still another 105 minutes or so to endure until the ordeal is over. Where the original, no masterpiece to be sure, had a cheesy sort of charm, this offers only the irritation of… Read More »
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 2 begins with a bang and doesn’t stop. Starting right where the last film ended, it barely has time to catch its breath, or go into florid exposition, before diving right into the final face-off between the boy, now man, wizard (Daniel Radcliffe), embodiment of all that is… Read More »
MAID IN MANHATTAN
Shes the best-looking maid working at any posh New York hotel. Hes the best looking politician around and hes staying at her hotel. Naturally, romance will bloom because shes Jennifer Lopez, hes Ralph Fiennes, and the fairy tale that theyre starring in is MAID IN MANHATTAN. Leave reality at the concession stand along with your… Read More »