The problem with making a satire about Hollywood is that the real thing, ego-and money-driven to the point of madness, is so much more absurd than anything writers can come up with. TROPIC THUNDER succeeds as a brilliant piece of inspired lunacy because it doesn’t try to top reality, instead it reflects it with just… Read More »
STAR WARS — THE CLONE WARS
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, STAR WARS was fun. I miss that time. STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS, the animated annotation to the live-action films tries to recapture that magic. It begins with the same screen-filling title as the very first film. That immediately gives way to a prologue, spoken… Read More »
THE ROCKER
Rainn Wilson brings his particular brand of prissy, tightly focused outrage to the large screen in THE ROCKER, an uneven film with moments of wacky physical humor that mostly work, obvious lobs at the music industry done fairly well, and a soundtrack that is to die for. The effort may veer off the rails into… Read More »
LONGSHOTS, THE
THE LONGSHOTS is a formula film done exceedingly well. Keke Palmer and Ice Cube (who co-produced) offer the sort of multi-layered performances that elevate a predictable plot into something special. The script, based on the true story of the first girl to quarterback in the Pop Warner Super Bowl for kids, plays to more than… Read More »
DEATH RACE
DEATH RACE takes the stock characters of the more pedestrian action flicks and folds them nicely into a story that is interesting for more than the number of cars and people that go crunch before bursting into flames. Based on the kitsch classic by Roger Corman from the 1970s, it has been adapted by Paul… Read More »
AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
Near the beginning of Darryl Roberts’ disquieting documentary, AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL, he asks a young man why he prefers slender women. The young man assumes the thousand-mile-stare before owning up to not knowing exactly why that is his preference. Later this same young man will be asked why his flat stomach is not good enough, why… Read More »
THE HOUSE BUNNY
THE HOUSE BUNNY is yet another variation on the theme that it’s always better to be yourself. Only better. Of course, that takes a broad swath of heavy make-up, push-up bras, and platform sandals of dizzying heights. It’s a mixed message designed to sell what it purports to subvert, also known as having it both… Read More »
BANGKOK DANGEROUS
In 1999, The Pang Brothers made film called BANGKOK DANGEROUS. People liked it. It added luster to the Brothers’ reputation. They moved on to make other action flicks in Asia with great success and other kinds of flicks in America with less success. At some point the Brothers looked at one another, and this is… Read More »
TROUBLE THE WATER
Tia Lessen and Carl Deal went to Louisiana just days after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans with the idea of making a documentary about the Louisiana National Guard troops who returning home from Iraq to find their homes changed forever. Instead, while doing an interview for that film, two people walked up and introduced themselves.… Read More »
LAKEVIEW TERRACE
Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has very definite ideas about how things should be. His children, an adolescent daughter and a son a bit younger, must use proper grammar at all times, and there are rules about who and who can’t be a role model. His new neighbors, she’s black, he’s white, do not fit… Read More »
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