CATS & DOGS — THE REVENGE OF KITTY GALORE provides a sticky conundrum for those wishing to review it. On the one hand, the plotting is obvious, the jokes moreso, and the platitudes cloying. On the other hand, it is a harmless flick that the youngest members of its target audience have found enchanting at… Read More »
CENTURION
CENTURION mixes a thoroughly honorable high-mindedness with frequent and jarring examples of torture porn. While the ethics of using human beings as pawns in political games is the central theme of the story, the execution is less than astute. What may have aspired to be an intelligent action flick is instead a standard chase flick… Read More »
THE LAST EXORCISM
Anticipation, uncertainty, and the power of the viewers imagination are the most potent methods of creating an effective horror tale, and the faux-documentary, THE LAST EXORCISM, superbly uses those elements. The result is a film that lulls the audience into the same false sense of security as the sham exorcist at the center of the… Read More »
TAKERS
There are two stories duking in out in TAKERS. One is a glitzy caper flick with a clever leader of a group of glamorous thieves with hearts of gold (mostly). The other is a gritty L.A. cop drama with a dedicated detective, the kind beset with the usual assortment of personal problems, trying the crack… Read More »
THE AMERICAN
George Clooneys charisma and powerful screen presence have never been more integral to a film, nor used in a more futile effort, than in THE AMERICAN, a virtually silent opus that trades on Clooneys unassailable ability to seduce the camera. Based on Martin Booths novel, A Very Private Gentleman, it is less a action thriller… Read More »
GOING THE DISTANCE
A solid underpinning of the reality of these economic times makes GOING THE DISTANCE more than just another rom-com. A pair of charismatic leads in Drew Barrymore and Justin Long invest the career-stymied lovers with real chemistry as well as a real depth of feeling that becomes more that just physical attraction. Though there is… 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 »
I’M STILL HERE — THE LOST YEARS OF JOAQUIN PHOENIX
IM STILL HERE: THE LOST YEARS OF JOAQUIN PHOENIX begins as yet another chronicle of celebrity excess and self-indulgence and ends in jaw-dropping excursion into the self-destruction of a once-respected artist. Its one that is all-access, with brother-in-law Casey Affleck recording the pivotal moments of a year in turmoil, the year Phoenix announced his retirement… Read More »
MACHETE
MACHETE, Robert Rodriquezs homage to grindhouse genre, is a bracing concretion of advocacy filmmaking and raucous hyperbole. In spirit, it is the unexpected successor to the likes of Rabelais, who used giants and satire to bring low the status quo. The giant here is the title character (Danny Trejo), a former Mexican federal agent out… Read More »
DEVIL
There are a great many examples of no in DEVIL, the latest effort from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan, this one released without benefit of a press screening. No suspense. No scares. No originality. No fun. No reason to bestir oneself to see it. Told in the form of a fable, perhaps to account… Read More »
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