Perhaps the genre of joyously absurd action films isn’t dead quite yet. Underworld: Evolution borders on taking itself too seriously from a narrative standpoint, but the marriage of a complete disregard for science as we know it and kooky overacting by Bill Nighy saves the film from a grisly F-grade… Continue reading
One could consider Albert Brooks’ humor a bit of an acquired taste; his comedy is heavily dependent upon bizarre situations and dry quips, but there is no denying that the man is very funny. In Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (which was canned by its original distributor because… Continue reading
I have no doubt that Queen Latifah is a wonderful person. All of her performances have exuded likability and charisma – this even includes the Pizza Hut commercials. Her project choices, however, have made it difficult for me to fully appreciate her talents. With dreck ranging from shameful knockoffs (Beauty… Continue reading
The PR hype machine loves Eli Roth, and I ’m sure he loves it right back. His big studio directorial debut, 2002’s Cabin Fever, had the likes of Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi spewing praise. The film attempted to cover every genre in the book with extremely mixed results. But… Continue reading
I confess that I did not know what a Geisha was before seeing this film. For the uninitiated and those who have not read Arthur Golden’s novel of the same name, a Geisha is essentially a diversely talented prostitute. I say diversely talented because they are proficient dancers and well-versed… Continue reading
C.S. Lewis was ahead of his time. A hot stove topic of late has been that shortly before his death in 1963; Lewis made public his wishes that no film or TV version of his Narnia books was to be made with live actors portraying the animal characters. Well, someone… Continue reading
Derailed is yet another wannabe yuppie thriller that shows you just how bad things can get when you choose the ways of infidelity. Fatal Attraction started this trend and by now the premise is worn. Infidelity is bad. There’s no way to justify it. Part of the problem with these… Continue reading
And now for something different. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a marriage of old film noir elements with more modern black comedy techniques, and the result is an occasionally funny and entertaining film that ultimately tries too hard and cannot maintain the breakneck pace that the first act antes up.… Continue reading
Chicken Little is Disney’s first in-house computer animated release since their split with Pixar (and the demise of their 2-D department), and if this is what we are to expect in the future I will set my expectations appropriately lower next time around. It’s not that Chicken Little is bad,… Continue reading
A heavy-handed drama with a dash of standard superhero fare, A History Of Violence is a mishmash of ideas and emotions that never gets the response it desires. Director David Cronenberg’s penchant for excessiveness interferes with an otherwise constructive character study that winds up as a black comedy. This analysis… Continue reading