If you are going to re-imagine the 16th president of the United States as a vampire hunter, go big or go home. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER has chosen the former. If the book on which the film is based took a more literary stance, echoing the idioms of scholarly inquiry and historical documentation, the film… Read More »
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN
With only five years since the last Spiderman blockbuster, it might have seemed too soon to reboot the franchise, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, however, puts such worries to rest. The screenwriter is Steve Kloves, who has a keen understanding of character and story as evidence in his scripts for the Harry Potter films. Hes working up… Read More »
WATCH, THE
Simultaneously subverting and celebrating several genres of he-man testosterone flicks, from horror to buddy action flick, to, heaven help us, the existential suburban angst of John Updike, THE WATCH does what a good synthesis should. It becomes more than the sum of its parts, inviting the audience in on the joke, and then taking that… Read More »
ICE AGE — CONTINENTAL DRIFT
ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT is a sweet film that, like its predecessors in the franchise, delivers the same earnest message about friendship and family. Exactly the same message. If the lessons to be learned by the characters old and new, though, have a too familiar feel, and if some of the tropes are barely a… Read More »
TED
From the fertile and unconventional mind of Seth MacFarlane (FAMILY GUY, AMERICAN DAD!) comes TED, the rude yet surprisingly sentimental tale of male bonding as played out by a boy, his magical teddy bear, and what happens when adulthood is thrust upon them. The biting wit and sophomoric sensibility of the writing is not a… Read More »
TWIXT
The kinetic interaction between sub- and super-conscious that drives the creative process is at the heart of Francis Ford Coppolas TWIXT. A heady brew of fever dreams, absurd nightmares, and impotent despair, it uses the idiom of Edgar Allen Poe (Ben Chaplin) leading the ironically monikered, third-rate author Hall Baltimore (Val Kilmer) through the mysteries… Read More »
CAMPAIGN, THE
This being an election year, its natural for Hollywood to capitalize on it. Hence, THE CAMPAIGN, an ultimately disappointing melange of wit and silliness. There is much about which to make sport in the American democratic process, and much of it is covered here, but not consistently well, and with little originality. The eponymous electoral… Read More »
SPARKLE
SPARKLE, the remake of the film of the 1976 film of the same name, was set to be Whitney Houstons acting comeback. She was serious about it, too, having acquired the rights herself, as well as executive producing this incarnation, In it she succeeds in delivering a fine performance that is upstaged by the ferocious… Read More »
MARYAM
Ramin Serrys beautiful and thought-provoking film, MARYAM, tells a very personal story about what its like to suddenly become a stranger in ones own land. Set in 1979 during and just after the Iranian revolutions, East meets West in this most timely of tales and neither gains by what happens next as the drama plays… Read More »
MAID IN MANHATTAN
Shes the best-looking maid working at any posh New York hotel. Hes the best looking politician around and hes staying at her hotel. Naturally, romance will bloom because shes Jennifer Lopez, hes Ralph Fiennes, and the fairy tale that theyre starring in is MAID IN MANHATTAN. Leave reality at the concession stand along with your… Read More »
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