Screen
reel to reel | Week of Feb 2, 2012
Addiction Inc In the 1980s, Victor DeNoble was a research scientist at a major tobacco company, where he was given the task of finding a substitute for nicotine that would not cause heart attacks. He succeeded, but in the process he proved something that the ...
Out with the old, please
Two years ago, with the world economy about to be credit-defaultswapped right in the kisser, the first Sex and the City feature made $415 million worldwide. Its pre-sold fan base, already nostalgic for Cosmopolitans, heaved a collective, economically envious sigh: ...
Liveaction Oscar shorts a big deal
Start small. That’s the guiding dictum for everything from biological evolution to filmmaking. The live-action shorts that mark the start of most directors’ careers rarely see the light of day outside of specialized festivals; that is, except for the lucky bunch ...
Forgettable
If you’ve ever seen an online profile picture, chances are you’re familiar with the pursed-lips, craned-neck, supposedly slimming contortion known affectionately as “the duckface.” Total Recall is the sci-fi tale of a quasi-postapocalyptic duckface war between Kate ...
Remake worth watching
Most of the big laughs in 21 Jump Street arrive in the first half, but take a moment to consider that phrase “big laughs.” What was the last stupid Hollywood comedy — good-stupid, not stupid-stupid — to offer actual, audible big laughs? Heartily raunchy and rather ...
Reel to reel | Week of November 21, 2013
About Time A father explains to his son that all men in the family can time-travel. So the son goes back in time to find a girlfriend, which turns out to be harder than he thought. Rated R. At Century and Colony Square. AKA Doc Pomus Paralyzed with polio as a ...
Perry gets serious
It’s dated, theatrical and overthe-top. In the 35 years since the play’s premiere, it still doesn’t cut black men a lot of slack...
Violence that bores
In a new introduction to the eight-part comic book series Kick-Ass, which was created in tandem with the film version, Image Comics co-founder Rob Liefeld describes the chief strength of Mark Millar’s superhero lark as extolling “hyper-real super-violence,” “so far...
reel to reel | Week of Nov. 24, 2011
3 Hanna and Simon, a couple in their early 40s, live together in Berlin. With their 20th anniversary looming, they both become restless. At Denver FilmCenter/Colfax. — Denver Film Society Arthur Christmas Arthur Christmas is not a perfect gift, but it does ...
