I’m put in mind of tea leaves. Good quality tea leaves that have rendered such a wonderful cup of tea that you wonder if maybe, just maybe, there’s enough of their essential, unique quality left to take one more infusion to make a cup as good as that first one. And so it is with… Read More »
CRIMINAL
CRIMINAL is a trifle of a thriller. Sure, guns are fired, things explode, and Ryan Reynolds meets a grisly end shortly after the flick begins, but the necessary tension to keep us all on the edge of our seats is noticeably lacking. What we are left with is an intriguing premise, Gary Oldman at his… Read More »
THE HOMESMAN
Tommy Lee Jones is a dour man, at least on screen. His carefully cultivated persona is a laconic one of few words and little patience. It is a character that he plays to perfection, and in THE HOMESMAN,he imbues it with a wonderful, understated quirkiness that makes his star quality all the more charismatic. As… Read More »
MEN IN BLACK 3
In MEN IN BLACK 3, the tone has shifted from one of hellzapopping fun to hellzappoping fun with a dollop of sentiment. It shouldnt work, but somehow it does. Not in the least because the script has a light touch when getting serious, and because Will Smith has some serious range. The premise is time… Read More »
THE HUNTED
Never have I missed Jet Li and Donnie Yen more than while watching Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones slug it out in THE HUNTED. It’s sort of like watching two Claymation figures go at each other with all the subtlety and artistry that that implies. Points for consistency, though. This exercise in entertainment futility… Read More »
MEN IN BLACK II
If you liked MEN IN BLACK, you will love MEN IN BLACK II because, and Im not exaggerating much here, it is EXACTLY THE SAME MOVIE. Its another tale of the super-secret agency whose agents, all male, even the dogs, wear sober black suits and keep the rest of us from finding out that not… Read More »
THE MISSING
Much will and should be made one day about the metaphor of the individual plot points and of the metaphysics that lie at the heart of THE MISSING. The way it portrays the clash of cultures between the white settlers and the Native Americans whose lands were taken, corrupting the souls of those on both… Read More »
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, is a nail-biting masterpiece of suspense, operating on a philosophical level that is as sophisticated as it is compelling. It takes its tropes and its idioms from classic noirs, but with nary a cliché, and with a soul more hard-boiled than the film… Read More »