THE GUILT TRIP could have gone many ways, most of them unfortunate. Yet, in the able hands of Barbra Steisand and Seth Rogan, what could have been a painful excursion into the murky depths of schmaltz is, instead, a sharp and funny look at mother love and filial duty and what happens when the two… Read More »
PARENTAL GUIDANCE
PARENTAL GUIDANCE is a sloppy concretion inadvertently showcasing pretty much everything that can be done wrong in filmmaking short of forgetting to remove the lens cap. Though in this case, that last might actually have been an improvement. The story is incoherent, the characters are as thin as the wispiest of vapors, and the jokes,… Read More »
IDENTITY THIEF
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman are two of the funniest people on the planet. Theirs is the comedic version of perfect pitch, be it broad slapstick, or subtle irony, they take a line or a situation and wring from it every possibility for guffaws, chuckles, and even chortles. So why, when you have these two… Read More »
INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE, THE
THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE is a sweet little film about finding, losing, and then rediscovering a sense of wonder. Any sense of the ponderous, however, in telling this tale with a definite moral is more than offset by the gentle silliness with which the story is told. Its a deft bit of sleight-of-hand as befits… Read More »
ADMISSION
ADMISSION is a thoughtful comedy being tragically hyped as a comedy of the screwball variety. Its a disservice to a story that is both funny and intelligent, as well as to a ticket-buyer led to believe that he or she will be enjoying something mindless and fluffy. This is anything but. The theme is passion,… Read More »
STARBUCK
STARBUCK is a sweet little fable about procreating and growing up. In that order. Already in the process of being re-made American-style, this charmer from Canada deserves to find its audience before being overpowered by the Hollywood hype and the heinous habit that place has of taking something wonderful and ruining it with formulaic homogenization.… Read More »
HANGOVER III, THE
In this age of sequels and sequels to sequels there has come to be a standard clause in many contracts. If a film is a hit, the principals involved are obligated to take part in further installments of the story. Hence THE HANGOVER II, which substituted high-stages tomfoolery for the endearing character-driven nonsense of the… Read More »
THE INTERNSHIP
Google is a company for which innovation and original thinking are integral. THE INTERNSHIP, set at Google, is the exact opposite. A good-natured enough flick, it is, nonetheless, obvious, predictable, and painfully low on actual laughs. That last wouldnt be such a problem if it werent putatively a comedy. It gets worse. Starring and co-written… Read More »
THIS IS THE END
THIS IS THE END is a ribald frolic of a film that willfully, gleefully skewers both film conventions and the cult of celebrity. As the world collapses into fire, brimstone, and anatomically correct demons, an inept band of well-known actors attempts to keep death at bay while the film careens through every horror fiick ever… Read More »
I’M SO EXCITED (“Los amantes pasajeros”)
IM SO EXCITED is pure Almodovar. With a nod to his early films that were full of mayhem, comedy, and tragedy in equal measure, this literally high-flying fantasy is all that with a wicked sense of satire. In Almodovars universe, absurdity is the rule, extrapolating reality to its farthest possibilities to make a point that… Read More »
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