There are a few flaws in Tony Scott’s reworking of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123, but the giddy exuberance of this character-driven thriller gets the audience over the rough spots with few regrets. The story has added cell phones and the internet to the mix without tarting up the proceedings with gratuitous special effects. It’s basically… Read More »
DISTRICT 13 — ULTIMATUM
Those who missed DISTRICT B-13 missed a superb filmed entertainment, but it will in no way impede an appreciation for its equally superb sequel, DISTRICT 13: ULTIMATUM. As with its predecessor, this is a social satire cleverly disguised as an action-thriller that succeeds on every level. Actually, it succeeds better than most films that confine… Read More »
FROM PARIS WITH LOVE
No one will mistake FROM PARIS WITH LOVE for a classic. The story is just so many set pieces that hang together by the most delicate of gossamer threads. Yet, they are set pieces that show off the best of stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, while allowing director Pierrel Morel to indulge in… Read More »
LOVELY BONES, THE
THE LOVELY BONES, based on the novel of the same name by Alice Sebold, is a somber tale told with vivid imagination about coping with death from both sides of the eternal divide. It’s very much a film of mood where emotions run deep and devastating, and those emotions are the most potent special effect… Read More »
BROOKLYN’S FINEST
BROOKLYN’S FINEST is an object lesson in situational ethics played without the comforting buffer of impersonal hypothesis. The eponymous cops in question are neither heroes nor villains, rather they are basically decent guys pushed to the limits that have warped their perceptions of right and wrong as considered moment by moment. Not for them is… Read More »
KICK ASS
Forget subtexts about the influence of media violence on young and impressionable minds. Forget the other subtext about effect of family dynamics in forming the characters of those equally young and impressionable minds. Though both are present in KICK ASS, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and employed as… Read More »
THE LOSERS
THE LOSERS, based on the DC Vertigo Comic, is not great cinema, it is merely a great time at the movies, and there is no shame in that. Granted, its working with a run-of-the-mill plot involving a group of idealistic but profane misfits out to save the world from a an evil genius with no credit… Read More »
IRON MAN 2
In IRON MAN, there was the inestimable delight in discovering the giddy elan and surprising depth that Robert Downy, Jr. brought to the titular role and his alter ego, Tony Stark. In IRON MAN 2, there is an equal delight in discovering that far from a retread, Downey has discovered even more subtle nuances to… Read More »
ROBIN HOOD
Those hoping for a whiz-bang re-telling of the legend of merry men stealing from the rich and giving to the poor will be sorely disappointed with Ridley Scotts ROBIN HOOD. This is an origins tale, one that starts slowly and, despite anxious and insistent hand-held camera work to give the illusion of drama, never rises… Read More »
KILLERS
KILLERS, a film released without a press screening, takes ones breath away with the depth, breadth, and sheer scope of its ineptitude. Director Robert Luketic has confused helming a frothy action romp through silliness with remaking Ingmar Bergmans SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE. Star Katherine Heigl may be many things, Liv Ullman is not one of… Read More »
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