POSEIDON so whole-heartedly embraces its essential inanity that it’s very, very hard to dislike it. Though boasting a big budget and some spiffy special effects, its goal is a modest one: kill 99 minutes with some whiz-bang escapes and the chance to watch actors get paid a great deal of money to hold their breath… Read More »
DISTRICT B13
There will be no film cooler than DISTRICT B13 released between now and Labor Day, and by the end of this particular season, I would not be surprised if it doesn’t turn out to be THE coolest film of the summer. It starts at a fever pitch of rushing adrenalin and from there goes into… Read More »
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN — DEAD MAN’S CHEST
The original PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL offered up the unexpected delight of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, a joyfully addled pirate redux. He shared top billing with his co-stars, Orlando Bloom as the stalwart Will Turner and Keira Knightly as the plucky Elizabeth Swann, but it was Depp… Read More »
MIAMI VICE
My cat has coughed up hairballs that make more sense than MIAMI VICE. At least a hairball serves a vital physiological function that makes the feline’s existence more pleasant in the long run after an irritating 30 seconds or so. Michael Mann’s big screen version of the uber-hip 80s television series is just irritating, and… Read More »
FLYBOYS
Back in 1966, The Royal Guardsmen scored a hit with a minor novelty classic called “Snoopy and the Red Baron” about the imaginary World War I exploits dreamed up by Charlie Brown’s beagle. I bring this up because in FLYBOYS, one of the American pilots fighting World War I in the Lafayette Escadrille has the… Read More »
THE BRIDGE
Eric Steel’s documentary THE BRIDGE is strong stuff, taking as it does the taboos of both death and of suicide and focusing on them without flinching. Almost the first image on screen is that of an anonymous someone stepping over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge and while the world goes on around him,… Read More »
HARSH TIMES
In HARSH TIMES Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez troll the seamiest streets of Los Angeles looking for trouble and usually finding it. If this sounds very much like writer David Ayer’s earlier screenplay, TRAINING DAY, that’s because it is. In fact, it plays like the bits and pieces that didn’t make the final edit of… Read More »
SHADOWBOXER — DVD
SHADOWBOXER is that most wonderful of films, the kind that works on every level, but can’t be easily pigeonholed. If the usual pitch session is one line to sum up a script, the pitch for this would have to run to several pages and even then wouldn’t capture what is best about it. Director Lee Daniels… Read More »
CASINO ROYALE
At one point in CASINO ROYALE, the 21st official entry in the Bond franchise, the villain of the piece (Mads Mikkelsen) sets to work torturing 007 with little more than a rattan chair and a length of rope. The simple things, he opines, are the most effective. And so it is with this new take… Read More »
APOCALYPTO
Mel Gibson is many things, but subtle is not one of them. APOCALYPTO, his latest work as a filmmaker, is an example of why this is and isn’t a good thing. Taking on the pre-conquest New World, he is at once vibrant and excessive as he plows along using as his motto that too much… Read More »
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