If you want an object lesson in miscasting, look no further than Derailed. The two leads are playing roles they aren’t suited for, and what’s worse is that the only chemistry between them is what happens when an acid and a base meet. The soggy thriller is set in Chicago, except that no one seems … Continue reading
I hate The Goonies. I tend to hate the genre that the film exemplifies: the screaming kids genre. That sort of film is typically just a series of set pieces that young actors scream their way through. It gives me a headache. But I love Zathura, and that’s certainly part of the screaming kids genre. … Continue reading
Here’s a spelling word for you: fatuous. Bee Season is a terrible and smug film, a movie that made me actually angry. If that was the effect it was going for I would call it a masterpiece, but since I am pretty sure that inchoate rage is the exact opposite of what the filmmakers are … Continue reading
Jim Sheridan’s new film, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ has one huge, obvious flaw, and it’s fatal. His star, 50 Cent, aka Curtis Jackson, is painfully bad at acting. This is especially tragic as 50 is playing a character who is based completely on him, and whose life is based on his own. 50’s performance … Continue reading
War is hell. We know that from watching Hollywood’s output of war movies. Now Jarhead comes along to show us another side of that – no war is hell, too. Anthony Swofford has joined the Marines, making “a wrong turn on the way to college.” He’s got a pretty girlfriend back home wearing his USMC … Continue reading
BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!PUBLISHER: Da Capo PressMSRP: $17.50PAGES: 330What turns us on? What turns critics on? This is the question The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On (possibly the longest unwarranted title on this site so far) tries to answer by assembling articles … Continue reading
I’ve always been fascinated by Pete Best. What must it be like to be fired from The Beatles just before they become worldwide sensations? How do you deal with living life in Liverpool while the other three guys you used to hang out with go on to conquer the culture of the entire planet? That’s … Continue reading
I don’t know that I can ever truly forgive Nicolas Cage. I remember when this Coppola Clansman was so into his art and craft that he ate a live cockroach for a very, very shitty horror film. Then he began taking roles in obnoxious action films halfway through the 90s. At first I assumed The … Continue reading
BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!AUTHOR: Jane AustenPUBLISHER: PenguinMSRP: $10.00PAGES: 367 CHUD is a classy place, I tell you what. We eat finger sandwiches and commiserate about international politics. We indulge ourselves in clever jests about the failing relationships of our peers and elders. We read literature and then discuss it for hours, using words … Continue reading
The Mask of Zorro was a real breath of fresh air in the stale, stale year of 1998. That was the year of dueling asteroid films and Godzilla; it seemed like the Hollywood action film was about to go the way of the musical. But Zorro was lithe where the rest lumbered, and it presented … Continue reading