James L. Brooks didn’t invent the dramedy with Terms of Endearment, but it’s hard to imagine the seriocomic, quirk-laden likes of Steel Magnolias, Parenthood, Home for the Holidays, The Family Stone and, now, Dan in Real Life existing without it. These are films that aim for laughter through the tears. They want to broadly, but … Continue reading
There’s a sort of hometown loyalty that leads creators to represent their place of origin as a whitewashed paradise where undesirable elements are corralled and neutered, people are pretty and endings are happy, or at least palatable. Then there’s the hometown love you’ll see in Gone Baby Gone, a dark glass through which Ben Affleck … Continue reading
Gone Baby Gone puts the film critic at a disadvantage. For most of its 114-minute runtime, it’s content to be an above average detective yarn distinguished by some deep Beantown atmosphere and an impressive array of carefully modulated performances from old pros (Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman and the underrated John Ashton) and actors on the … Continue reading
Rarely outside of the ouvre of Michael Bay has a movie looked so good and been so well shot and yet been so completely, thoroughly moronic. 30 Days of Night is a stupid, stupid film, a disaster at the script and casting stages. It’s like a turd covered in tasty Ghirardelli chocolate – as soon … Continue reading
This review includes major spoilers for the ending of Into the Wild, although they won’t be spoilers for anyone familiar with the story of Christopher McCandless. For many people the death of Christopher McCandless is a chance to be condescending, or even worse feel superior as they sit on their asses and take no chances … Continue reading
BUY IT FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!MSRP: $12.99AUTHOR: Jeff SomersPUBLISHER: OrbitPAGES: 384Author Website (You really should take some time and explore this site. It’s a visual treat and eerie as hell and actually adds to the world Somers created) I don’t usually judge a book by its cover, but the cover to The Electric Church is … Continue reading
Diary of the Dead disappoints… by being too good. How’s that for a weird critique? If Land of the Dead was George Romero’s post-9/11/Iraq War zombie movie, Diary is his flat out 9/11 film. It’s back to the night of the living dead, except it’s taking place today. The world is obviously a very different … Continue reading
Apparently, I get to review all of the screenplays for upcoming films featuring combat veterans with loose screws… Having recently revisited the Rambo franchise, I was surprised by a couple of things. 1) Despite its superior pedigree (and by that, I mean to say that James Cameron toiled on the screenplay, was tossed, changed the Cong … Continue reading
When it was announced that Cate Blanchett would reprise her role as The Virgin Queen in a sequel to 1998’s Elizabeth (the film that vaulted her to international movie star status), there was much rejoicing amongst Anglophiles. Not only were they getting the 329th variation on the life of The Queen That Saved England (sans … Continue reading