STARDUST, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman, starts with that most wonderful of fantasy conceits, a magical world that exists side-by-side with the real world, but in which no one chooses to believe. Most aren’t even curious enough about it to notice that it’s there, and that in itself is curious, since the magical… Read More »
THE NANNY DIARIES
THE NANNY DIARIES rises above its whiffenpoof premise of a middle-class anthropologist charting the strange and treacherous milieu of an unfamiliar culture and comes up with something that is almost but not quite substantial. The anthropologist in question is the eponymous nanny, and the culture is the Upper East Side New York society in which… Read More »
THE INVASION
The original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS was the product of a particular time, place, and mentality. Those would be the 50s, the United States, and the paranoia rampant at the time over the Communist Menace. Or the 50s, the United States, and the suffocation of conformity. Either way, it was a potent message at… Read More »
THE LAST LEGION
THE LAST LEGION tries to ride the coat tails of the Arthurian romances with a new take on who Arthur was, where his sword Excalibur came from, and how the Roman empire involved itself in mixing it all up into a proto-Camelot. And it does all of this without cracking an R rating. That, in… Read More »
THE 11TH HOUR
With the exception of Leonardo DiCaprio, who produced and hosts this trenchant and occasionally lyrical documentary, you might not remember the names of everyone involved in the extended dialogue that makes up THE 11TH HOUR. It doesn’t matter. The ideas they expound, and the passion they exude, will remain indelibly etched in your mind. Their… Read More »
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP
RESURRECTING THE CHAMP shows the importance of casting and directing in turning a good script into a great film. Based loosely on the experiences of writer J.R. Moeringer, the writing here is solid, but Josh Hartnett as Eric Kennon, Jr., a reporter struggling the shadow of both his famous father and of his rising star… Read More »
BALLS OF FURY
Christopher Walken’s essential star quality, his absolute uniqueness as a performer, is never more apparent, or welcome, than when he appears in dreck. Even in the worst films, ENVY comes to mind, he is there, effortlessly finding something, anything, in a bad script and worse directing, to which a hapless audience can cling until the… Read More »
2 DAYS IN PARIS
2 DAYS IN PARIS has one of the nicest establishing shots in cinema. From overhead, the audience watches a couple (Adam Goldberg and Julie Delpy) sleeping peacefully on a train heading from Venice to Paris. The narration, by co-star/writer/director Delpy, introduces them as Jack and Marion, traveling Europe after two years together. A tricky time,… Read More »
EASTERN PROMISES
EASTERN PROMISES is a gloriously dark and compelling thriller that plays cat and mouse with its audience the way that the characters involved play cat and mouse with each other. The tension, though, in this well-plotted suspense yarn arises not so much from the evil that the villains purvey, it’s the way that the underworld… Read More »
SILK
SILK, based on the novel by Alessandro Baricco, is a singularly uninvolving bit of piffle crafted as though those who made it were afraid of waking someone. The scenery is lovely, which is a good thing, because there is nothing else happening here worth seeing. And from this we learn a valuable lesson. Art direction… Read More »
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- …
- 12
- Next Page »