BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONEY PORN is neither for the intellectually timid nor the prudish. Radu Jude’s romp through cultural hypocrisy and the human penchant for being not just cruel, but also idiots, is designed to confront and confound with savage humor and brutal satire. Lest we have any illusions about the direct approach Jude… Read More »
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA: TRANSFORMANIA is a relentlessly obvious and overplayed exercise in draining the last dregs from a moribund franchise. Let me put it this way. Adam Sandler, not known for discriminating taste in projects, took a pass on this material that continues the saga of Drac, the vampiric proprietor of the titular establishment that caters… Read More »
THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2
There are many words that spring to mind when viewing THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2, and few of them are laudatory. The twisted humor of Charles Addams’ original cartoon, or of the cult-classic of the 60s television series, or of the previous incarnation of the franchise are little in evidence in this dreary exercise in, of… Read More »
COPSHOP
Click here for the flashback interview with Joe Carnahan and Frank Grillo for THE GREY. There has rarely been such an effusive, even whimsical, satire on violence as that which is found in Joe Carnahan’s COPSHOP. This blackest of black comedies adroitly combines tension and goofiness with an insouciance that is nothing short of breathtaking.… Read More »
JUNGLE CRUISE
Disney surprised us all when it turned one of Disneyland’s attractions, Pirates of the Caribbean, into a top-notch action/adventure/comedy. Alas, Disney has surprised us again, but with JUNGLE CRUISE, based on one of the venerable attractions from that ci-mentioned theme park, it’s more along the lines of disappointment. We relive that attraction in due course,… Read More »
TOO LATE (2021)
TOO LATE is a noir fable about the dark side of show biz. Deadpan and droll in its exploration of monsters and their enablers, it doesn’t so much expose anything new about what people are willing to do in order to succeed as present it with a puckish flair and a wicked sense of irony.… Read More »
THE HITMAN’S WIFE’S BODYGUARD
When last we saw ex-Triple A rated bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds), he had succeeded in getting notorious hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) to the Hague to testify against a genocidal dictator (Gary Oldman). He had also taken a bullet for Darius, which is part of a bodyguard’s job. It would have been better… Read More »
CRUELLA
It’s somewhere In the third act that CRUELLA goes from being a frothy Disney confection to a Guy Ritchie knock off. Until then, this origin story about the woman who wanted to turn 101 dalmatians into outer wear is pure eye candy with a villainess more deliciously reprehensible than Cruella herself, and even more overdressed.… Read More »
TWO LOTTERY TICKETS (Doua lozuri)
In a puckish bit of self-reference, one of the characters in the Romanian comedy, TWO LOTTERY TICKETS, opines that Romania doesn’t make good movies anymore. They’re all doom and gloom, completely missing the essence of Romania. In his second film, Paul Negoescu sets out to change that single-handedly and does a tidy job of it.… Read More »
THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL
There is an air of Celtic melancholy running through the, ahem, deadpan humor of THE BOYS FROM COUNTY HELL. That touch elevates the, further ahem, stakes in this horror comedy that takes a few swipes at fraught family relationships, a sinking economy, and Bram Stoker’s relevance when a real vampire resurfaces. The supernatural is almost… Read More »
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