I don’t know if TOP GUN:MAVERICK holds the record for the time elapsed between the original and the sequel, but if waiting over three decades results in a film as terrific as this, I hope filmmakers everywhere will at least consider taking their own sweet time when making sequels. This is an adrenalin-junkie’s fantasy, tightly… Read More »
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION Rocks
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION is lean, mean, and seriously fun. There is not a wasted moment for fans of high-energy, slickly plotted action flicks of the popcorn variety, as this installment of the franchise finds the Impossible Mission Force shut down by the government, but not out of business. Not by a longshot. Their last official… Read More »
GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF
Alex Gibney has proven himself an able and engaging documentarian, bringing to light with films such as TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and most recently THE ARMSTRONG LIE, the hubris, self-deception, and other foibles of human nature that allow people to commit crimes without ever quite admitting to… Read More »
KNIGHT AND DAY
KNIGHT AND DAY is what a summer popcorn movie should be. Its big, its preposterous, and its a whole lot of fun. Boy meets girl. Boy behaves in socially inappropriate but oddly compelling ways involving guns and random acts of derring-do. Girl goes along for the ride, more or less willingly depending on where the… Read More »
ROCK OF AGES
Few directors could pull off the subtle irony and the profane humor of Tom Cruise, as rock god Stacee Jaxx, crooning a gentle ballad about wanting to know what love is to Malin Ackermans buttocks, but Adam Shankman can and does. ROCK OF AGES is a perfect blend of just those elements, the irony and… Read More »
OBLIVION
OBLIVION is a slow-moving behemoth of a film that has been art-directed into a coma. Sure, its gorgeous to look at, but is just as sterile and cold as the retro-futuristic home its hero occupies. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, it retains the static quality of the paper-bound format. In keeping… Read More »
EDGE OF TOMORROW
THE EDGE OF TOMORROW is everything a cracking good action/adventure/sci-fi film should be. Fluidly directed, ferociously acted, and intelligently written, it even takes the time to consider such lofty issues as the ennui of immortality and the nature of reality as it blows up nifty monsters from outer space. Blows them up real good. Its… Read More »
THE LAST SAMURAI
In THE LAST SAMURAI, we have a puffed up popcorn flick that is not without a certain kitschy charm. It is a throwback to those glorious action-adventure films that Hollywood churned out with astonishing regularity during its golden age with little regard for the limitations of reality. It was all flash, glamour and really pearly… Read More »
COLLATERAL
Max (Jamie Foxx) is an easygoing guy who is going places. For now hes driving a cab, but its just temporary until his limo business gets off the ground. Okay, its been twelve years, but there are a lot of details to work out. Tonight, though, he is on a roll. A gorgeous woman (Jada… Read More »
WAR OF THE WORLDS
There is a litany of inevitables in Steven Spielberg’s version of WAR OF THE WORLDS. There’s humanity turning on itself in a desperate scramble for survival. There are the vistas of CGI presenting hordes of extra-terrestrial killing machines cutting a swath across cities, suburbs and points rural. There are the seething tensions between an emotionally… Read More »