DEVILS DUE is a perfectly competent horror flick with a few nice twists scattered among its otherwise unremarkable storyline. The standard plot in not helped by the films indulgence in the latest horror-flick fad, pretending that the film has been cobbled together from bits and pieces of found footage. The films that started it all,… Read More »
I, FRANKENTSTEIN
I, FRANKENTEIN is the brainchild, via the Darkstorm Studios graphic novel, of Stuart Beattie, the driving force behind the improbably successful UNDERWORLD franchise. I say improbably because if you have seen one UNDERWORLD flick, you have by extension seen them all. I, FRANKENSTEIN is all but indistinguishable from its cinematic sibling, right down to the… Read More »
THE MONUMENTS MEN
Its easy to be seduced by THE MONUMENT MENs swagger. Directed and co-written by co-star George Clooney, it is as much a tribute to the golden age of Hollywood filmmaking as it is to the brave men who thought that art and culture was worth defending with their lives. It is manipulative, it is at… Read More »
ROBOCOP
ROBOCOP is a laudable rethinking of the 1987 original. Told in broad thematic strokes, it still harbors in its soul a fine dialectic on identity, humanity, and even the reality (or lack thereof) of free will. Sure, its an action flick with shoot-em-up and blow-em-up sequences, but thanks to a grounding performance by Joel Kinnaman… Read More »
POMPEII
POMPEII doesnt break a sweat until Vesuvius erupts. This is odd because so much of the story involves the sort of nasty, brutish hand to hand combat prevalent during the early Roman Empire. Perhaps the story seems static and stale because it is a rehash of so many, many other flicks, including but not limited… Read More »
SON OF GOD
If SON OF GOD looks familiar, its because its derived from The History Channels series, The Bible. Producer Roma Downey (who plays Jesus mother in the series and the film) and her producing partner and husband, Mike Burnett, wanted audiences to have the shared experience of seeing the story on the big screen. Ordinarily this… Read More »
MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN
The only story more touching than that of a boy and his dog is that of a dog and his boy. In that respect MR. PEABODY AND SHERMAN has outdone the original seven-minute cartoon that was part of the Rocky and Bullwinkle universe that enthralled millions of us first as children and then as adults.… Read More »
SABOTAGE
I can’t fathom why when END OF WATCH was so dynamic, David Ayers directorial follow-up, SABOTAGE, is so inert. Where END OF WATCH had depth and energy, SABOTAGE is is rambling, and at times incongruous, as it unspools a set of stock characters dithering about in a cesspool of rubbery ethics and dogged determination. Perhaps… Read More »
THE RAID 2: BERENDAL
Anyone can film violence for violences sake. Few filmmakers can film violence and make it not just part of the story, but also a metaphor for the brutality of life, and, beyond that, a disturbingly beautiful work of art. Gareth Evans is the latter, and his latest, THE RAID 2: BERANDAL is not just as… Read More »
CAPTAIN AMERICA — THE WINTER SOLDIER
fIn CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, Captain Steve Rodgers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), is experiencing an existential crisis. Its not just that he has a lot of catching up to do after being cryogenically asleep for seventy years or so. The novelty of Thai food and the internet dont get him down, its the… Read More »