MAX PAYNE begins laudably enough. Based on the video game of the same name, it reproduces the graytone pen-and-ink world with appropriate shadows, stark lighting, and a hard-boiled protagonist that would make Sam Spade look like a cream puff. This is a man who literally crawls on broken glass without much noticing. Most of the… Read More »
QUANTUM OF SOLACE
QUANTUM OF SOLACE does a tidy job of building on its predecessor, CASINO ROYALE, while introducing a sinister cabal that fills the void left by the collapse of the Cold War. Yet, there is still room in this brave new Bond world for wacko villains who so entertainingly populate the Bond universe, and who are… Read More »
PUNISHER — WAR ZONE
THE PUNISHER is many things, but a good movie is not one of them. It is an extended trip to an abattoir. It is a script that makes no sense whatsoever. It is an unsightly mélange of genres trapped in a steel-cage death match. But worst of all, it’s a wasted opportunity. In Ray Stevenson,… Read More »
TRANSFORMERS — REVENGE OF THE FALLEN
One day, MichaelBay will fulfill his destiny and perhaps his fondest wish and make a film that is nothing but big explosions. With TRANFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, he has come very close. This benighted cacophony is a painful blend of overproduced action and shameless exposition. The sense of fun found in the original is… Read More »
GI JOE
Breaking up is hard to do, and sometimes the fate of the whole world hangs in the balance of how it plays out. Thats the theme driving G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA, an action film that is not quite as plastic as its namesake and certainly has higher production values. Its cheerfully cheesy with… Read More »
GAMER
GAMER, released without the benefit of a press screening, is a big, loud mess that loses its few good ideas in a morass of convoluted storytelling that it has, sadly, confused with stylish innovation. It posits a world in the near future where gaming has lost its virtual quality. Sim-worlds are inhabited by real people… Read More »
2012
With 2012 you got your big special effects, you got your overwrought melodrama, you got your colorful supporting characters, a passel of kids of varying cuteness, outrageous puns, and a plucky dog. What you got here is blockbuster of a popcorn flick that delivers on ending the world as we know it and takes a… Read More »
BOONDOCK SAINTS — ALL SAINTS DAY, THE
For those who wondered what became of the MacManus brothers, Michael and Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus) and their Da (Billy Connelly after the credits rolled on THE BOONDOCK SAINTS back in 1999, there is finally a sequel, and a brash and bracing piece of work it is. Stylish, tongue-in-cheek, and audaciously operatic, it… Read More »
OLD DOGS
OLD DOGS has a strong cast fighting a script that is labored, stale, and obvious. That cast is led by John Travolta and Robin Williams, both of whom are no strangers to comedy, nor to miscalculations when it comes to choosing scripts. They are Charlie and Dan, pals and business partners of 30 years. While… Read More »
TERMINATOR SALVATION
For all the explosions, gunfire, firestorms, and manly gnashing of teeth, TERMINTATOR SALVATION has an overriding weariness to it. The franchise, while robust box-office wise, has essentially been telling the same story now for a quarter of a century. A tale of time-travel, murderous cyborgs, and a father born decades after his son’s conception is… Read More »
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