The Kingdom is a contemporary example of what a serious war action/drama used to be, even just a decade ago. Here we stand in a war that has already lasted longer than all of World War II and Hollywood’s method for handling the material is to shoot for the jugular,… Continue reading
Dane Cook plays a dentist in Good Luck Chuck, but the movie plays that part straight. Having had braces, three tooth extractions, three bone graphs, and three dental implants, I can say with relative ease that none of that was as painful as watching this pathetic waste of celluloid. The… Continue reading
The Brave One is alarmingly misguided; a film that wants so bad to be important and to have something to say. What is this supposed to be? A revenge drama? A satire on the films that precede it (i.e. Death Wish)? A black comedy? The screenwriters (all three of them)… Continue reading
Resurrecting the Champ is a stellar drama and lesson in morals; something we are sorely lacking in the world today. Rarely these days does an overwhelming theme stick with an audience, but this film is refreshing in that its characters own up to their faults and fully realizes the scope… Continue reading
No Reservations, a remake of 2001’s Bella Martha (Mostly Martha here in the States), should have been a standard romantic comedy vehicle and nothing more. All of the ingredients (pardon the pun) are in place: The uptight, independent working woman who desperately needs a change of pace and some substance… Continue reading
Writer/Director Judd Apatow may just save the R-rated comedy yet. Between this and The 40-Year-Old Virgin he has proven himself to be the go-to guy for uproarious, thought provoking comedies with real characters. Even more dazzling is the fact he can achieve such emotion without sacrificing the kind of lewd… Continue reading
Mr. Brooks is that uncommon celluloid specimen that succeeds not only as a thriller, but as a biting black comedy. That this mix stays involving for its full runtime is a true rarity, but the screenplay, by director Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, manages to stay a step or… Continue reading
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
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