It comes as no surprise that the late Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress was a breakout hit at Sundance this year. It’s the kind of sly, witty independent gem that rolls through every few years, lighting up crowds and forcing men to admit they were wrong when they thought they were being… Continue reading
Guys like Nicolas Cage, not in a disturbing way, but in a bona-fide man-crush kind of way. The same thing happens when Mike Ditka walks into an unsuspecting Chicago sports bar. Why compare the two? Because Cage, at least of late, has made ridiculously entertaining films (see “guilty pleasures”) with… Continue reading
The irony kills me. Here we have WWE Films releasing a feature whose message is that violence for entertainment is bad. Since the filmmakers lead us along the whole time with a straight face, how else are we supposed to react? The only reaction you’ll feel is the constant urge… Continue reading
It’s always a frustrating predicament when the performances in a film are so unabashedly superior to its script that, on acting alone, it’s almost recommendable. Director Gregory Hoblit’s Fracture is such a specimen; a film whose lead performances, by Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling, are engaging and chock full of… Continue reading
That Disturbia is being compared to Hitchcock’s Rear Window goes without saying. I guess you just can’t have a housebound Peeping Tom spying on his neighbors without that comparison, but it becomes clear very early on that Disturbia doesn’t have Hitchcockian aspirations. This is a teen-friendly thriller beginning to end,… Continue reading
Let’s face it: Just the premise of directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino joining forces to create a double feature of schlock in tribute to the films of their upbringing is about as tantalizing as movies get these days. As the details emerged (the film would be scratched to give… Continue reading
The Will Ferrell Movie has really become a genre of its own. Most people seem to either love or hate the guy, dating all the way back to his early Saturday Night Live career. He plays abrasive, often vulgar characters and would appear at first glance to be as one-note… Continue reading
Ever since the little quibble with Pixar, Disney has been saddled with filling in the gaps between the aforementioned studio’s releases. With Pixar considered the zenith of computer-animated features, and for good reason, Disney’s non-Pixar releases are almost destined to disappoint; look no further than 2005’s Chicken Little. Meet the… Continue reading
My love and admiration for 1985’s Commando never goes unspoken when given ample opportunity. Quite simply, it is the raddest action flick ever made. It took preposterous action to a level that has never been reached since and proved once and for all that you can pile up bodies and… Continue reading
Just when it looked like Sandra Bullock was getting her stuff together in films like Infamous and Crash she comes down with a bad case of Ashley Judd-itis (AJI, for the uninitiated) and retreats to the formulaic, gimmicky fare that put her on the map in the first place. Her… Continue reading