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
An American woman is accidentally shot in the desert of Morocco by two native boys. Her husband must find her immediate care before she bleeds to the death. The couple’s children are home in San Diego under the care of a Mexican nanny, who winds up taking them to Mexico… Continue reading
It is at this time that I feel like borrowing and reworking a phrase coined by the one and only Roger Ebert: “I didn’t feel like a viewer during Running with Scissors. I felt like an eyewitness at a disaster.” Here is a film so loathsome, so pointless, and so… Continue reading
Never before have I seen so many moviegoers flail their arms as they exit the theater. In fact, an astute patron would liken the reaction to that of a crowd that has just seen an amazing magic trick. I have a feeling that’s exactly how the screen writing team of… Continue reading
“Every jackass thinks he knows what war is, even if he’s never been in one.” So begins Flags of our Fathers, easily one of the year’s finest films. Based upon the book of the same name by James Bradley (son of John Bradley, one of the six men who raised… Continue reading
Not since The Break-Up has a film been so mis-marketed. One would assume, after viewing the trailers and TV spots, that Man of the Year is an edgy political satire examining just what would happen if a late night comedian got elected President of the United States. One would be… Continue reading
Welcome back, Marty. After trying to score Oscars for Gangs of New York and The Aviator (both solid films, don’t get me wrong), Martin Scorsese is back to the old stomping grounds with The Departed. You know the good stuff: crooks, double-crosses, mafia, brutal violence, corrupt cops, colorful language, the… Continue reading