This is the not the first time that Disney has tried to cinema-ize its Haunted Mansion attraction. That perennial favorite got the film treatment 20 years ago with Eddie Murphy heading an indifferent story and a sentimental subplot that I found to be more interesting than anything involving Mr. Murphy. Alas, this latest attempt fares… Read More »
TOP FIVE = Top Flight
TOP FIVE starts a little out of chronological sequence with two protagonists walking down a Manhattan sidewalk discussing art and life. Specifically art versus life with one opining that a movie is just a movie while the other disagrees. The man, as we will shortly learn, is Andre Allen (Chris Rock), superstar funnyman and recovering… Read More »
SEVEN POUNDS
SEVEN POUNDS is an ambitious film tripped up by its execution. Full of noble intent, and the brave choice to (mostly) eschew sticky sentimentality in favor of a more clinical approach to the issue of a man obsessed with death, alas, the result is a film that is for the first three-quarters of its running… Read More »
UNSTOPPABLE
UNSTOPPABLE is a formula thriller, to be sure, but one in which everyone is at the top of his or her game. The premise is that of a runaway train with explosive cargo barreling into a major population center, and is played against a nice sub-plot of corporate weenies in their skyscrapers second-guessing and undercutting… Read More »
ZOOKEEPER
The annoying thing about ZOOKEEPER isnt that its a bad movie, though it is, and a very bad one at that. The annoying thing is that Kevin James in the title role is so very good. It sets up a damnably uncomfortable tug-of-war between hating the flick and yet enjoying the work that James does… Read More »
10 YEARS
There is nothing unexpected in 10 YEARS, a tale of the eponymous high school reunion. Instead the emphasis is squarely on the similarly unsurprising cross-section of high school types, which is a risky proposition but one that pays off with a superior cast allowed to do what they each do best, and with writing that… Read More »
TRANCE
TRANCE is a thing of grotesquely fascinating beauty, an evolved noir designed to provoke and to disturb in equal measure as it toys with the audience’s notions of absolute certainty. It begins with the winsome James McAvoy addressing the audience directly, his sadly earnest face a perfect picture of open honesty as he sets up… Read More »
RENT
Perhaps the stage version of RENT won its Pulizter Prize for the way it dignified the people that society marginalizes out of existence, lumping together the junkies, the drag queens, and the rest who don’t fit into the pigeonholed roles that make the world at large comfortable, giving them a voice an identity beyond the… Read More »
CLERKS 2
CLERKS 2 isn’t just everything a perfect sequel should be, it’s everything a superb film should be, too. Right on top of the zeitgeist, and fiendishly clever in it commentary on it, it skewers political correctness within a profane framework that unwaveringly champions middle class values with an infectious elan. It picks up with the eponymous… Read More »