Overbudget and behind schedule, BABYLON A.D. crept into theaters without a press screening. This never bodes well and this would-be epic lives up, or down, to that boding. Vin Diesel stars as Toorop, a mercenary in the Russia of the not-too distant future. Not your typical mercenary, though. Sure, he’s tough, sure he’s intimidating, sure… Read More »
TOURIST, THE
THE TOURIST is a leisurely thriller, more interesting than heart-stopping, with an unfortunate tendency to stall. Designed to showcase the good looks and star quality of its Venice locations, and of its stars, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, it is a picture postcard of a flick. At its center is a bait-and-switch caper devised by… Read More »
SOURCE CODE
THE SOURCE CODE is an action thriller in which the action is strictly incidental, there to ratchet up the level of tension that superbly pervades the film. It advances the point of the story, rather than being the point of same. As for the point, its a divinely complex consideration of right and wrong, justice… Read More »
PARANOIA
PARANOIA is a flabby congealed thing that is in no way helped by lackluster direction and a derivative script. The hook is industrial espionage in the high-stakes, and even higher-egos, of hi-tech. Based on the novel of the same name by Joseph Finder, it is a morality tale with no sting, and a thriller with… Read More »
THE EXPENDABLES 3
To say that THE EXPENDABLES 3 is the best installment of the franchise is sort of like saying that having hayfever is better than contracting bubonic plague. Theyre both unpleasant, but one is infinitely preferable, not to mention survivable, than the other. Theres also the fact that the former is caused by posies (as well… Read More »
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS (La March de L’Empereur)
It’s not that Luc Jacquet’s documentary, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, tells the penguin lover in all of us anything about them that we didn’t already know. It’s that he frames it in such a way that the audience is allowed to experience the emotional life of these birds in a way that is compelling, intimate,… Read More »