Those who missed DISTRICT B-13 missed a superb filmed entertainment, but it will in no way impede an appreciation for its equally superb sequel, DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM. As with its predecessor, this is a social satire cleverly disguised as an action-thriller that succeeds on every level. Actually, it succeeds better than most films that confine… Read More »
FROM PARIS WITH LOVE
No one will mistake FROM PARIS WITH LOVE for a classic. The story is just so many set pieces that hang together by the most delicate of gossamer threads. Yet, they are set pieces that show off the best of stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, while allowing director Pierrel Morel to indulge in… Read More »
OF GODS AND MEN (DES DIEUX ET DES HOMMES)
OF GODS AND MEN, based on a real incident, is an engrossing consideration of the struggle for religion to exist in the modern world untainted by politics. Set in a rural Cistercian monastery with a long history in the Muslim country it serves, the film proceeds at a deliberate pace that serves to enhance the growing… Read More »
LOCKOUT
If there were a reason to see LOCKOUT, and there really isnt, it would be to savor the way Guy Pearce gleefully surrenders the last iota of credibility in exchange for whooping it up with good-natured abandon as a near-futuristic action hero. The rest of this Luc Besson-enabled collection of clichés barely registers in comparison.… Read More »
TAKEN 2
TAKEN 2 is an unnecessary follow-up chronicling the further mishaps of the Miller family when they choose to go abroad on vacation again. In TAKEN 1, it was daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who was kidnapped by the 21st-century version of white slavers, leading to an improbable but rousing rescue by her ex-CIA agent of a… Read More »
CLOSET, THE
French filmmaker Francis Veber is one of the finest filmmakers working today. The reason, I suspect that his is not a household name here in the United States like, say, Truffaut or Goddard, is that Veber has chosen to use comedy to examine the human condition. Yet there is more about what it’s like to… Read More »
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM (MONSIEUR IBRAHIM ET LES FLEURS DU CORAN)
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM is a journey from darkness to light, literally and figuratively. The guide is the M. Ibrahim (Omar Sharif) of the title, a guardian angel, metaphorically, who intervenes at the perfect moment to save Moses (Daniel Boulanger), a neighborhood kid, from despair and worse. Moses is being raised by his dour father, a man… Read More »
DINNER GAME, THE (DINER DE CONS)
There was in France a game in which a group of friends would meet for dinner. Each would bring an idiot and the competition, waged without the idiots knowing about it, was to determine who had brought the biggest idiot. Writer/director Francis Veber, who also penned LA CAGE AUX FOLLES, has gifted us with his take… Read More »
THE OTHERS
Are there things that are more scary than ghosts? Are close encounters with the other side, as it were, the ultimate in terror? Writer/director Alejandro Amenabar does a neat job of answering that question with THE OTHERS, a ghost story where neither good nor evil should be taken for granted. The story takes place entirely… Read More »
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC
There are some films that transcend their genre, that are so exquisitely realized, that so precisely capture the essence of what it means to be human, good and bad, that they take their place in the pantheon of great art, not just great art films. Such is Carl Theodore Dreyer’s THE PASSION OF JOAN OF… Read More »
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