The original stories of THE BROTHERS GRIMM were the folk tales that the fraternal pair, linguists by trade (Grimm’s Law of Phonetic Transformation has always made me weak in the knees), collected from the peasants in the countryside of the German-speaking world. They were dark, they were dangerous, and they were unforgettable. Full of archetypes… Read More »
THE FOG
You have to admire the way director Rupert Wainwright never lets a little thing like the specifics of plot interfere with the plodding pace he has set for THE FOG. It is as though he is following the exacting beat of a metronome and be it a scene of a babysitter watching a game show… Read More »
16 BLOCKS
Think of 16 BLOCKS as Bruce Willis’ transition film. It’s as though now that he is gamely moving towards his golden years, he is also gamely moving beyond the action films that filled his cinematic oeuvre and bedeviled those who had to endure them when he kept making them even after they had reached the… Read More »
BREACH
In a moment of supreme and unintentional irony, Robert Hanssen, the quarry in BREACH, tells his assistant, Eric O’Neill, who doesn’t know yet what his real assignment concerning Hanssen is, that he was never interested in making headlines, only history. Of course, they will shortly be making both, but neither of them is aware of that yet.… Read More »
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM isn’t so much a thriller as a race, a breakneck one, with no quarter given for anyone wanting to catch his or her breath, much less anyone keeping track of the internal logic at work here. Secret meetings in Turin, heartfelt confessions in Paris, sudden changes of allegiance in Madrid, and a… Read More »
CLOVERFIELD
CLOVERFIELD is brought to you by many of the folks who bring us television’s “Lost”, which is a series not known for being either obvious or direct. The same can be said of their film, which offers a refreshing update on the classic genre of a big monster stomping a major metropolitan city into dust… Read More »