For all the meticulous detail in THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE about the early life of Tammy Faye Bakker, this biopic about the rise of fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker has an ending that is curiously sparse. It’s not just Tammy Faye’s second marriage to Roe Messner that is erased, though he does… Read More »
FATALE
FATALE is a densely plotted and devilishly twisted erotic fantasy of a noir. Filmed with self-conscious style, it offers a variation on FATAL ATTRACTION that is not without merit, yet with a bemused view of womanhood that gives one pause. We are firmly ensconced in the, admittedly noir Madonna/whore paradigm here, but making a woman… Read More »
THE GREEN INFERNO
With an Eli Roth film, one should know what one is getting into, as in, an unspeakably unsettling film that will feature violence, gore, and a side of human nature that does not show the species off to its best advantage.
GAMER
GAMER, released without the benefit of a press screening, is a big, loud mess that loses its few good ideas in a morass of convoluted storytelling that it has, sadly, confused with stylish innovation. It posits a world in the near future where gaming has lost its virtual quality. Sim-worlds are inhabited by real people… Read More »
REMEMBER ME
REMEMBER ME is a turgid excuse for a perceptive character study/romance that pins its hopes on a twist that is not so much a jolt as an affront. Not to give anything away, at least not more than the film itself in its opening moments, but suffice to say that the main action takes place… Read More »
KICK ASS
Forget subtexts about the influence of media violence on young and impressionable minds. Forget the other subtext about effect of family dynamics in forming the characters of those equally young and impressionable minds. Though both are present in KICK ASS, based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr., and employed as… Read More »
PIRANHA 3-D
It all began with JAWS. The summer blockbuster that kicked off the summer blockbuster concept, that was fun and well-made and not too taxing on the higher cerebral functions. PIRANHA 3-D is a loving homage to that film made by people who understand what made that film great, and who understand how to make it… Read More »
ARTHUR
Its not that Russell Brand has been wholly miscast as the titular character in the remake of ARTHUR, rather its that hes been given too much space in which to work. His performance of an impromptu and witty solo about being emasculated by his fiancee (Jennifer Garner) has about it the whiff of Noel Coward,… Read More »
THE GREAT GATSBY
The Jazz Age was a time of excess and self-indulgence across class distinctions that was unprecedented. The scribe of that age, F. Scott Fitzgerald, poured all of that into his writing, along with a generous dollop of angst about what it all meant. His successor, at least as far as depicting that ci-mentioned excess and… Read More »
THE QUIET ONES
THE QUIET ONES never really gets around to explaining its title, but it doesnt really matter. Produced by Hammer Films, that glorious British concern specializing in horror films that emphasize terror over gore, it is an elegant little flick, both creepy and atmospheric, that tells its tale of hubris and good intentions gone wrong with… Read More »