LABOR DAY will leave you craving peach pie and your money back. Based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard, it is a leaden piece of work whose excellent acting and evocative direction cant overcome a dicey beginning. Jason Reitman, he of JUNO, YOUNG ADULT, and UP IN THE AIR, directs from… Read More »
THE MONUMENTS MEN
Its easy to be seduced by THE MONUMENT MENs swagger. Directed and co-written by co-star George Clooney, it is as much a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood filmmaking as it is to the brave men who thought that art and culture was worth defending with their lives. It is manipulative, it is at… Read More »
ROBOCOP
ROBOCOP is a laudable rethinking of the 1987 original. Told in broad thematic strokes, it still harbors in its soul a fine dialectic on identity, humanity, and even the reality (or lack thereof) of free will. Sure, its an action flick with shoot-em-up and blow-em-up sequences, but thanks to a grounding performance by Joel Kinnaman… Read More »
SON OF GOD
If SON OF GOD looks familiar, its because its derived from The History Channels series, The Bible. Producer Roma Downey (who plays Jesus mother in the series and the film) and her producing partner and husband, Mike Burnett, wanted audiences to have the shared experience of seeing the story on the big screen. Ordinarily this… Read More »
MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN
The only story more touching than that of a boy and his dog is that of a dog and his boy. In that respect MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN has outdone the original seven-minute cartoon that was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle universe that enthralled millions of us first as children and then as adults.… Read More »
SABOTAGE
I can’t fathom why when END OF WATCH was so dynamic, David Ayers directorial follow-up, SABOTAGE, is so inert. Where END OF WATCH had depth and energy, SABOTAGE is is rambling, and at times incongruous, as it unspools a set of stock characters dithering about in a cesspool of rubbery ethics and dogged determination. Perhaps… Read More »
THE PRIME MINISTERS: THE PIONEERS
History is full of a few objective facts, and a plethora of impressions and opinions. The former tells the undisputed truth of what happened, the latter is the insight into how those things happened. And one persons truth in that sense is not necessarily that of another. Subjective, personal, and colored with the baggage of… Read More »
CAPTAIN AMERICA — THE WINTER SOLDIER
fIn CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, Captain Steve Rodgers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), is experiencing an existential crisis. Its not just that he has a lot of catching up to do after being cryogenically asleep for seventy years or so. The novelty of Thai food and the internet dont get him down, its the… Read More »
OCULUS
There are many good things to be said for OCULUS, first and foremost of which is that is terrifying. As much a psychological consideration of the powerlessness of childhood as a ghost story of striking originality, it eschews cliché in favor of finding new ways to horrify audiences jaded with the genre. The supernatural element,… Read More »
RIO 2
RIO, an animated film about a snow-bound rare blue macaw and his human companion both finding love, is such a perfect little film that hearing a sequel was on the way filled one with trepidation. Fortunately RIO 2 bucks the usual law of diminishing sequel returns with a great story, even better new dangers, and… Read More »
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