Theres a reason that the animated television series Spongebob Squarepants has such a rabid following not just among the pre-teen set, but also among college kids and adults. Its funny with pitch-perfect timing and a self-conscious sense of its own absurdity. Those in the single-digits age-wise can enjoy the general goofiness of Spongebob and his… Read More »
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS
CHRISTMAS WITH THE KRANKS, based on the novel by John Grisham, is a singularly mirthless experience that could easily drain the last drop of holiday cheer from old St. Nick himself. Billing itself as a comedy, it lacks any of the requisite components to actually be one. There is no satirical edge, there is no… Read More »
BLADE TRINITY
There is so very much that is so very irksome about BLADE TRINITY, the third installment in the Blade series and the one with the least reason to exist, that one scarcely knows where to begin. One is tempted to sum it all up with a short sentence warning potential audiences to stay away, but… Read More »
BIRTH
One senses that in BIRTH everyone concerned was laboring under the delusion that they were creating high art. Let me put the brakes to that. What could have been an interesting consideration of love being stronger than death in more ways that one is, instead, an unpalatable trifle that plays more as a comedy that… Read More »
THE AVIATOR
Crash and burn is a painfully apt metaphor for the life of Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio) as told in Martin Scorseses THE AVIATOR. We even see two such events in the course of its almost three hours of running time. Unlike the tidier myth of Icarus, though, Hughes story is more than just genius meeting… Read More »
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
In THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU. Wes Anderson, of RUSHMORE and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS fame, again works in a rarified atmosphere with his unique auteurs voice that will leave some viewers wondering what all the fuss is about and other flinging hosannas to heaven. He blithely flits from the sublime to the ridiculous and… Read More »
SPANGLISH
SPANGLISH is neither particularly good, nor particularly dreadful. Its weak point provide an almost perfect counterbalance to its drawbacks, rendering it the sort of thing you might hit upon while flipping channels when nothing else is on, or buy a ticket for if everything else at the multiplex is sold out. In it, James L.… Read More »
THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, 2004’s version of the 1965 film, which was, in turn based on the novel starts with a bang. It ends with another, even better one, but, alas, sags in the middle with too much exposition and not enough suspense. Though people doing very silly things qualifies as a sort of… Read More »
MILLION DOLLAR BABY
MILLION DOLLAR BABY is a perfect film. Director and co-star Clint Eastwood has taken a story about people who live on the margins of life and turned it into a universal story about redemption and respect, and getting them the only way that counts, by being self-administered. The conceit is boxing, which Scrap (Morgan Freeman)… Read More »
BEYOND THE SEA
There is no doubt about it, Kevin Spacey adores Bobby Darin. He spent years pushing to get this biopic, BEYOND THE SEA, about the singer made, directing, starring, and co-writing the finished product. The problem is that Spacey is so wrapped up in his hero worship that the audience is left in the cold. Instead… Read More »
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