Watching HIT AND RUN, it is safe to deduce that writer, co-star, and co-director Dax Shepard is crazy mad for cars. Not just any cars, but the soup-up ones with massive horsepower, killer pickup, and torque capabilities beyond the ken of the standard-issue assembly line variety. Alas, his adoration for automobiles translates into a film… Read More »
PREMIUM RUSH
Told with a frenetic, breakneck style that nicely evokes the anarchic life- and riding style of the most dedicated bike messengers, Premium Rush is a thrill-packed entertainment designed to be both diverting and fun. The which it is and then some thanks to the cast of solid actors and a story that is almost never… Read More »
WORDS, THE
THE WORDS is under the impression that is making a profound artistic statement about the creative impulse. Its not. Though handsomely mounted, as they say, with a gifted cast gracing the screen, the film is diffuse, unfocused, and worst of all, dull, even when indulging in melodrama of the most fulsome variety. Using the slick… Read More »
POSSESSION, THE
The problem with THE POSSESSION is that all the spooky hokum has gotten in the way of what might have been a nicely rendered family drama about the toll of divorce. Saddled with a tepid turn by its director, and a script that never quite gets its act together, its one redeeming quality is, nonetheless,… Read More »
ARBITRAGE
Nicholas Jareckis ARBITRAGE brings up an age-old question. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? Only in this case, the world gained is not just a showcase home, a formidable company, and an enviable family life, its also an intangible thing made of high-finance maneuvers with no… Read More »
10 YEARS
There is nothing unexpected in 10 YEARS, a tale of the eponymous high school reunion. Instead the emphasis is squarely on the similarly unsurprising cross-section of high school types, which is a risky proposition but one that pays off with a superior cast allowed to do what they each do best, and with writing that… Read More »
WON’T BACK DOWN
WONT BACK DOWN is a formula film laid out with the precision of a well-honed lesson plan. With a hard-hitting opinion about the current state of public education, and many opportunities for the two stars of the piece, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis, to go big acting-wise, this has all the hallmarks of the sort… Read More »
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA is a sunny little animated film about vampires and other assorted creatures of the night. Co-written by Robert Smigel, he who makes those divine animated shorts for Saturday Night Live, there is enough, youll pardon the expression, bite to the humor to make this a mostly painless experience for adults. The film, though,… Read More »
FRANKENWEENIE
Decades ago Tim Burton created a short stop-motion animated film called FRANKENWEENIE, and this tale of a boy who brings his beloved dog back to life became Mr. Burtons entrée into the world of cinema. He revisits this tale in a feature length version, the which he has directed from a screenplay that John August… Read More »
PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4
With PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4, we see the decline of a once fresh and robust franchise into something dull and predictable. Worse, with this installment, we see the franchises transition into yet another entry into the slasher genre. The tale is still told via rough cinema-verite footage from surveillance cameras and other assorted forms of home video.… Read More »
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