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
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
I admitted in my review of 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that I hadn’t turned a page of a single Harry Potter book, and things haven’t changed since. Nevertheless, I immensely enjoyed Goblet of Fire as a chapter of its own, loaded with action, wit, and wonder.… Continue reading
Being the male that I am, I spent several of my elementary school years reading The Hardy Boys books. They were quick reads, loaded with action and wit. There was even a line of books that teamed up The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, the subject of Andrew Fleming’s latest… 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
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
It seems like virtually every animated film these days has an agenda. Is it because the genre has crossed over so successfully to adults? Or do kids really care about socio-economic issues these days at a young age? The trailers would lead one to believe that Happy Feet is just… 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
How does one even begin to approach a film as silly, boring, and self-indulgent as M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water? Considering the current trend is to bash Shyamalan mercilessly (a surprising number of people just can’t seem to get over The Village), I have no shame whatsoever in… Continue reading