For most of BATMAN V SUPERMAN’s bloviated pretension, I was merely bored. This half-baked idea studded with ponderous pronouncements, shockingly sedate action sequences, and the simulacrum of serious philosophical inquiry plodded along, weighed down by an overstuffed plot and an underdeveloped narrative. But when we arrived at a meticulous recreation of the deposition from the… Read More »
THE TWILIGHT SAGA — ECLIPSE
It is as though the TWILIGHT franchise made the calculated but not necessarily unwise decision to cater to its enormous fan base and only to that fan base of overexcited adolescent females for whom hormones are a new experience. This is not a casual fan base. This is a fan base that was delighted to… Read More »
RED RIDING HOOD
RED RIDING HOOD begins well in its misguided attempts to plumb the rich territory of what lies beneath the surface of the most persistent of fairy tales, wallowing in the subtext that goes directly to the subconscious, but disguised in a form easily assimilated the most delicate of sensibilities. That remains true here, the unreality… Read More »
TAKEN 2
TAKEN 2 is an unnecessary follow-up chronicling the further mishaps of the Miller family when they choose to go abroad on vacation again. In TAKEN 1, it was daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) who was kidnapped by the 21st-century version of white slavers, leading to an improbable but rousing rescue by her ex-CIA agent of a… Read More »
THE GRUDGE
THE GRUDGE is that annoying blend of genuine scares and really, really dumb people. Sure, in order for most horror films to work, the principals have to be of the less than Einstein variety, lest they run screaming from the nasty whatever and end the proceedings in reel one. One, therefore, makes allowances, but suspension… Read More »
DISTURBIA
Any doubt about Shia LeBeouf being able to carry a film on his slim shoulders is put to rest almost immediately after DISTURBIA begins. It’s right after the traffic accident in which his character, Kale, is injured and his father killed. After Kale drags himself from the wreckage, he looks back into what’s left of… Read More »
DISTURBIA — DVD
Of the many things to admire about DISTURBIA, Shia LeBeouf not being the least among them, the way that the screenwriters (Christopher B. Landon and Carl Ellsworth) successfully re-imagined the Hitchcock classic, REAR WINDOW is pretty darned amazing. It’s the sunny suburbs rather than a noirsh big city. It’s a troubled kid instead of a… Read More »