MR. AND MRS. SMITH probably started life as a script that was a very clever satire on the state of modern matrimony. What finally made it to the screen, however, is instead a schlocky vehicle for its stars, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. There are a few moments when one sees a dash of savvy… Read More »
BEWITCHED
The funniest thing in BEWITCHED is an oddly touching attachment Will Ferrell’s character, Jack Wyatt, develops for a bottle of ketchup he picked up during an off-screen interlude in New Mexico. It’s barely mentioned, but there it is in a couple of scenes, clutched tenaciously the way a kid clutches his blankie in times of… 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 »
DARK WATER
Anyone who has had to deal with the terrors of a leaky roof or faulty plumbing will find much to raise goosebumps, to cause the averting of the eyes, and, perhaps, to inspire one or two flashbacks to those unfortunate interludes while viewing DARK WATER. And if this were the intent of the makers of… Read More »
WEDDING CRASHERS
The urge to mate is a primal one and the one, arguably, over which we as a species have the least control. In pursuit of such a goal, much energy has been expended, including wars. John (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy (Vince Vaughn) The heroes of the WEDDING CRASHERS have simplified the process in a way… Read More »
BROKEN FLOWERS
There are those of us who, with wild abandon and without apology, worship at the altar of Jarmusch. There is in his off-kilter rhythms and deliberately deadpan aesthetic a peculiar, and peculiarly resonant, insight into how it is that human beings conduct their lives. His films, including his latest, BROKEN FLOWERS, are peopled with characters,… Read More »
THE ISLAND
We don’t turn to Michael Bay (PEARL HARBOR) for subtlety. Like Renny Harlin, he enjoys blowing things up real good and usually after he’s sent them careening along city streets at breakneck paces calculated to inflict the most bodily and property damage as possible en route. And so it was with some curiosity that I… Read More »
BAD NEWS BEARS
My oh my, but what mess has been made of THE BAD NEWS BEARS. Not that it was ever a classic, except in a minor sense for fans of Tatum O’Neal and Walter Matthau, but what Richard Linklater, a man capable of producing works of unorthodox beauty and beautiful complexity such as WAKING LIFE, has… Read More »
STEALTH
For a prime example of Hollywood’s dearth of imagination one need look no further than STEALTH, a derivative bit of drivel whose makers obviously thought firestorms and really fast planes are all it takes to make a film worth seeing. It steals in equal parts from Star Trek (TOS: THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER) and Knight Rider… Read More »
MUST LOVE DOGS
Click here to listen to Diane Lane’s interview forUNDER THE TUSCAN SUN. In MUST LOVE DOGS the outcome is never in question. We know that divocee Sarah (Diane Lane), though currently experiencing the doldrums that come with having been abandoned by her husband almost a year ago, will be paired off successfully and blissfully by… Read More »
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