Spies often make for subjects of great films, but how often do we really think about them in the real world? Billy Ray’s Breach explores the tailing and arrest of Robert Hanssen (Cooper), now classified as the biggest spy and traitor in American history. A loving, church-going family man on… Continue reading
Director Joe Carnahan made one heck of a big studio splash with 2002’s Narc, one of the most under-appreciated gritty cop flicks of the past twenty years. With Narc he displayed a knack for pacing, atmosphere (you could practically taste the grunge of the Detroit back alleys), and dizzying, enthralling… Continue reading
The Hitcher kicks off with some road kill (literally), and never really gets much better from there. Aside from the obvious lack of need for such a remake (the original hit theaters a mere twenty years ago; yes, kids, that’s recent history), the entire production suffers from a fundamental, and… Continue reading
The Good Shepherd is the kind of film that a director, in this case Robert De Niro, makes more for themselves than an audience. De Niro is endlessly fascinated with the birth and evolution of the Central Intelligence Agency, but his film is such a mind-numbing bore that it is… 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
Go ahead and yawn. Turistas is just another disposable piece of pseudo-exploitation trash that has arrived in the wake of the success of Hostel, a film that, while flawed, at least had the benefit of some psychological plausibility. Nightmares of isolation and unendurable pain are the calling card of this… Continue reading
It is a fact of life that we, the audience, are expected to suspend our disbelief as we enter the theater. After all, isn’t that what makes the movies so fun? But it comes with a catch: the plot must be airtight and, more importantly, grounded in a reality that… Continue reading
It is a common assumption that most men want to be James Bond, and why not? He beats up the bad guys, beds the pretty ladies, and is as suave as any man can be. After viewing the “torture sequence,” as the MPAA has chosen to call it, I doubt… 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