The Good Shepherd is the kind of film that a director, in this case Robert De Niro, makes more for themselves than an audience. De Niro is endlessly fascinated with the birth and evolution of the Central Intelligence Agency, but his film is such a mind-numbing bore that it is… Continue reading
Ditching right to the front of the line and running away with this year’s “Most Unnecessary Sequel” award is Rocky Balboa, the sixth installment in what was an already-prolonged series before this brain fart even bubbled to the surface. Amateurish and unintentionally hilarious, the project reeked of desperation from the… Continue reading
Bill Condon’s Dreamgirls is a stunning cinematic experience. Vibrant, energetic, and exploding with life, Dreamgirls is another one of those increasingly rare examples of why we go to the movies in the first place. The musical genre is one of the hardest sells in Hollywood, despite its occasional comeback over… Continue reading
That darn “y” in “Happyness” has been bugging me for months. Not knowing Chris Gardner’s story, I had no clue of the meaning until about twenty minutes into The Pursuit of Happyness, a clearly Hollywood-ized account of Gardner’s entrance into the world of stock trading. Granted, the film has one… Continue reading
Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto is a machine of a film; racing amongst the endless forests to the towering Mayan temples. It may, in fact, be the first movie in history to contain a foot chase that lasts upwards of an hour. Like him or hate him, Gibson is a born filmmaker,… Continue reading
Thoughts of 2004’s Hotel Rwanda zipped through my head as I watched Blood Diamond. As you may recall, Hotel Rwanda told the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who took in thousands of Tutsi refugees to his establishment during their civil war with the Hutu militia. Blood Diamond is… Continue reading
Go ahead and yawn. Turistas is just another disposable piece of pseudo-exploitation trash that has arrived in the wake of the success of Hostel, a film that, while flawed, at least had the benefit of some psychological plausibility. Nightmares of isolation and unendurable pain are the calling card of this… Continue reading
It is a fact of life that we, the audience, are expected to suspend our disbelief as we enter the theater. After all, isn’t that what makes the movies so fun? But it comes with a catch: the plot must be airtight and, more importantly, grounded in a reality that… Continue reading
It is a common assumption that most men want to be James Bond, and why not? He beats up the bad guys, beds the pretty ladies, and is as suave as any man can be. After viewing the “torture sequence,” as the MPAA has chosen to call it, I doubt… Continue reading
It seems like virtually every animated film these days has an agenda. Is it because the genre has crossed over so successfully to adults? Or do kids really care about socio-economic issues these days at a young age? The trailers would lead one to believe that Happy Feet is just… Continue reading