I’ve written and scrapped and written and scrapped a half-dozen reviews of this film. I’ve considered that maybe I need to go back and watch it again, and only then will I be able to grasp it. I’ve been thinking about this thing all weekend, and I’ve come to the conclusion that while I can’t … Continue reading
Let’s say, for all intents and purposes, this last summer began May 1st with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a title barely acceptable in comic book form, but unrelentingly dumb for a movie. Now, I did not see this film because, apparently, it really sucked, and any way you slice it that’s a rather … Continue reading
Over at USA Today, national enemy of thinking people, Scott Bowles, Film Editor and guy who believes that films suffer when their main character is unlikable, posted an article surveying the summer’s least original movies (and, for no reason, Public Enemies…apparently someone’s life is now a property) and how they fared with audiences and critics. … Continue reading
Martin Scorsese’s new film Shutter Island has been pushed back from October 2nd, the heart of Oscar season and frequently my favorite month at the movies, to February 19th of next year, a dumping ground for low-rent horror flicks, Norbit-style comedies, and the occasional fun action flick. Good. Look, like all guys who got into … Continue reading
So I’m working on expanding a piece I wrote about Howard Hawks’ Red River, and it’d been awhile since I worked on the piece or saw the film, so I popped on over to Netflix to stream it. Naturally, the system worked fine, but for some reason it was…wait for it…colorized. Why? To what end? … Continue reading
I have some good news and some bad news – District 9 is at once a whole lot smarter and a whole lot dumber than just about everyone would have you believe. Let’s start with the smart, since co-writer/director/creator Neill Blomkamp does. Yes, the film heavily invokes the apartheid that formally separated blacks from whites … Continue reading
As is my habit on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings, I rushed over to the NYTimes.com movies section to see what their feature articles would be this week (a habit born from the days when my parents’ subscription to the Sunday New York Times coincided nicely with my burgeoning interest in film), and was thrilled … Continue reading
Elizabethtown came out in October of 2005, and I was the only person at my school who cared that it existed, and the only person (at the time) who fell for it. The past few years have been about coming to grips with this fact, and the fact that aside from Almost Famous, it’s actually … Continue reading
This is inspired by a recent post at my girlfriend’s blog, who talked about her favorite representations of New York in cinema. Partially to show her up, and partially because about half of her picks would’ve been on my list, I decided to expand it to THE ENTIRE WORLD. Basically, using the same criteria by … Continue reading
I should hate this movie, but I just can’t. I should hate its truncated screenplay, its stock characters, and its completely unconvincing ending, and I sort of do, but not enough. There’s no doubt that the script for Sunshine Cleaning is, if not bad, then certainly incredibly uninteresting. Basically the story of two women down … Continue reading