I take back everything I ever said about 1998’s Armageddon being the epitome of sensory overload. The Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer is certainly an ambitious visual project, but aside from that it is a misfire without much of an audience (it seems to be aiming squarely for the pre-teen, sugared-up… Continue reading
I realize the divorce rate is 50% here in the States, but does that mean that nearly every Indie flick has to be about dysfunctional families? I’ve had about enough of these sad sack snobs – and as a film critic I’m supposed to be one! Smart People, whose title… Continue reading
I’ll give Martin Lawrence credit; the dude tries. That’s more than can be said for a lot of so-called comedians out there, but why must he continually subject himself (and us) to these sappy, over-the-top, slapstick-riddled sitcoms-turned-movies? Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins really only differentiates itself from Lawrence’s past few efforts… Continue reading
What’s with this trend where sitcoms get to be movies? It’s one thing to adapt a sitcom or TV show (and it’ll more than likely be a big mistake), but to deliberately take ideas and scripts that would barely pass a Screenwriting 101 class and green light them for the… Continue reading
A SNL skit stretched out by about eighty-five minutes, First Sunday is a comedy of the most desperate type. It goes for slapstick. When that doesn’t work it tries one-liners. When that doesn’t work it goes for sentimentality. Stuck in the middle are Ice Cube and Tracy Morgan, two occasionally… 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
The original Fantastic Four had very little to offer, and this sequel has even less. That the first film was such a box office success came as a surprise to me at the time, but in hindsight 2005 was probably the apex of the comic book adaptation craze. The past… 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
If this is where so-called “epics” are headed, count me out. Ugly, lunk-headed, and apparently written by a middle school class, 300 is just the kind of “visionary epic” that studios love to hype this time of year as a precursor to the summer movie season. Padded with so much… Continue reading
Who is this movie for? Kids will likely be bored by the slow-paced elements of a man’s mid-life crisis. Adults will see right through the smokescreen and identify Charles Farmer for what he really is: a selfish, irresponsible man with passive-aggressive tendencies. The message may be tried-and-true (reach for your… Continue reading