ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR has several things going for it that make it a worthy addition to the martial arts oeuvre. There is the particular style spotlighted, Muay Thai, a variation that involves the use of knees and elbows to drive home the action with an intriuguing kind of violence. Mostly, though, there is… Read More »
THE AMITYVILLE HORROR
You’d think that in 86 minutes of screen time that the makers of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR’s 2005 incarnation could come up with at least one genuinely scary moment. Even if it’s just by accident aided and abetted by the law of averages. Alas, this dreary Z-grade schlock-fest is capable of producing only titters and yawns… Read More »
TALLADEGA NIGHTS — THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY
I can’t think of a film more rife with product placement than TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY. Yet, this backhanded homage NASCAR, not to mention every sports film cliché ever devised, requires nothing less to make one of its many satirical points. Hence the eponymous Ricky doesn’t just sport the name of a… Read More »
THE QUIET
The precarious balance of a dysfunctional family is thrown off kilter by a new member in THE QUIET. The unraveling makes for a disturbing drama that is as riveting to watch as it is challenging to contemplate. The new family member is Dot (Camilla Belle), an orphaned deaf-mute teenager who arrives at the home of… Read More »
CHILDREN OF MEN
In a here-and-now where the primacy of children is given ample lip service by proponents of any and all social issues, it is refreshing, and not a little thought-provoking, to see in Alfonso Cuaron’s CHILDREN OF MEN, based on the P.D. James novel of the same name, a world in which this is actually the case.… Read More »
ZODIAC (2007)
The pedestrian way to film the story of ZODIAC, the San Francisco Bay Area serial killer whose rampage extended from the late 1960s through the 1970s, would be to make a taut action thriller with snazzy directing tricks and gung-ho dialogue. Here was a psychopath who hunted people for sport and through a combination of smarts… Read More »
BLADES OF GLORY
Having taken on Christmas and NASCAR, Will Ferrell takes the next logical step with a typically loopy take on the seamy underbelly of competitive figure skating. The only obstacle he had in his way was making a farce that would be the equal of the doings in the real world of competitive skating. Tonya Harding,… Read More »
DRILLBIT TAYLOR
DRILLBIT TAYLOR is a labored and disjointed effort with identity issues. Part psycho thriller (not ineffective), part examination of the plight of the homeless vet (lunging out of left field), part screwball comedy (stereotypically obvious), and all punctuated with punch lines that can most charitably described as hit and miss. Emphasis on the latter. The… Read More »
THE OTHER GUYS
A rambling script that never quite takes the aim it meant to at the rarified world of high finance proves little impediment to THE OTHER GUYS, an uneven comedy redeemed by the inspired casting of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as cops with nothing in common paired up on a career-making case. Forget the brief,… Read More »
LOOPER
The sign of a great film is not just the story it tells. Its the way that story is told, with an attention to the tiniest detail that makes each second of screen time, the tiniest bit of action part of a whole that is holographic. Each element is a reflection of that whole that… Read More »
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