With EVAN ALMIGHTY, the sorta, kinda, not exactly sequel to BRUCE ALMIGHTY, we learn that treacle is neither better nor worse than puerile. It’s a lateral move and they are both annoying. Jim Carrey, the Bruce of the previous film, opted out of the sequel, and so the powers-that-be turned to Steve Carell’s character, the boorish… Read More »
KNOCKED UP
An ad campaign is supposed to attract a target audience to a film. Let me amend that. It’s supposed to attract the >right< target audience to a film. In the case of Judd Apatow’s KNOCKED UP, a huge mistake as been made. To judge by the commercials and such, this is a raunchy comedy with… Read More »
LICENSE TO WED
Like so many young lovers embarking on the adventure that is marriage, LICENSE TO WED begins well, full of hope and the promise that this will be a trip to the moon on gossamer wings fraught with fun. Alas, as with 50% of all marriages in this country, this film breaks down irretrievably, leaving all… Read More »
RATATOUILLE
The story of Pixar’s latest animated triumph, RATATOUILLE, is as audacious as its hero. Not only is it as light and airy as a soufflé, it’s also as complex as the precise physics and flavorings that makes it a miracle. The hero is an unlikely choice in animal hero, a rat, albeit one drawn with… Read More »
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY
I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY is another self-indulgent, unfunny wallow in what Adam Sandler thinks is funny. From the first fart joke (10 minutes in) to the second fart joke (11 minutes in), to the self-congratulatory deus ex machina ending that is supposed to redeem the previous excruciating two hours, it is a… Read More »
BALLS OF FURY
Christopher Walken’s essential star quality, his absolute uniqueness as a performer, is never more apparent, or welcome, than when he appears in dreck. Even in the worst films, ENVY comes to mind, he is there, effortlessly finding something, anything, in a bad script and worse directing, to which a hapless audience can cling until the… Read More »
2 DAYS IN PARIS
2 DAYS IN PARIS has one of the nicest establishing shots in cinema. From overhead, the audience watches a couple (Adam Goldberg and Julie Delpy) sleeping peacefully on a train heading from Venice to Paris. The narration, by co-star/writer/director Delpy, introduces them as Jack and Marion, traveling Europe after two years together. A tricky time,… Read More »
DELIRIOUS
DELIRIOUS is like a tidy little zen koan from Tom DiCillo. The story is about paparazzi and the celebs that they stalk, but both the comedy and the tragedy in this gentle satire comes from the schizophrenic struggle between public image and reality in those lives. The lesson involves three stories that intertwine by chance… Read More »
GOOD LUCK CHUCK
It’s not like one goes into a film like GOOD LUCK CHUCK with great expectations. And so it is all the more remarkable, dispiriting rather, when even a low bar, a very lowered bar, isn’t met. This flick isn’t just bad, it falls into that rare category of works that are actual harbingers of the… Read More »
HEARTBREAK KID, THE
It takes chutzpah of a particularly flagrant sort to update the Neil Simon/Elaine May classic, THE HEARTBREAK KID. The Farrelly Brothers obviously pack that sort of gumption, taking the droll but deadly humor of the original and rethinking it with their trademark penchant for slapstick and silliness. It may not have the same wry weltschmertz… Read More »
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