To paraphrase Stephen Colbert: Is Southland Tales a great disaster or the greatest disaster? While Southland Tales won’t end a studio, as Heaven’s Gate did, it’s also a much, much worse movie than that legendary failure. Southland Tales is like Heaven’s Gate, though, in that it seems to be a product of unrestrained hubris, a … Continue reading
BUY IT FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!MSRP: 14.95AUTHOR: Craig McDonaldPUBLISHER: Bleak House BooksPAGES: 300Author website You’ve never heard of Hector Lassiter? Pulp novelist. Screenwriter. The man who lied about his age to ride in the Pershing Expedition? Who went overseas to fight in Europe? Notorious womanizer. He had that famous falling out with Hemingway and had a … Continue reading
I knew that Beowulf would be a quality bit of spectacle after seeing the 3D preview at Comic Con this summer. I was blown away by the visuals and especially by the 3D experience, but nothing I saw in that footage indicated to me that Beowulf would be anything other than a novelty thrill ride. … Continue reading
BUY IT FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!MSRP: $14.95AUTHOR: Richard KadreyPUBLISHER: Night Shade BooksPAGES: 256 This is my favorite fantasy novel of the year, and I hate fantasy*. It’s an old and somewhat tired concept: Regular guy has his eyes opened to the weird wonders of the world and beyond and finds that he’s the better for it, … Continue reading
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