Screen
Wadiya do that for?
Although it turned many a talentless friend into an amateur impressionist, Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance as Borat was inarguably hilarious. The improvised, horribly racist, legitimately brilliant film that put Cohen on the map was a straight-up phenomenon and a ...
High-flying fun
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is tremendous fun, non-stop action and an adventure film with an appealing story. The film starts with Dastan (William Foster), a beggar boy living by his wits in the bazaar in Persia, getting caught stealing. Seconds before he’...
A tale of dirty, stinking apes
What if there was a research drug in the laboratory right now that had a good chance of curing Alzheimer’s but needed more testing on animals before it could be released for human trials? And what if that same drug made its research subjects smarter? That’s the ...
‘When in Rome’ fails as romantic comedy
You'd think by now Hollywood would have romantic comedies down to a cell-phone ap any studio exec could access...
Luke, who’s talking now
Immediately following the last episode, the new installment of Star Wars redefines the Force, reframes the central themes of the series, introduces the best...
Squash the spider, man!
Spider-man’s new costume looks swell, and Emma Stone is charming. Those are the only two things about The Amazing Spider-Man 2 I didn’t hate with the fiery anger of a thousand exploding suns. Every other performance, every last bit of dialogue and plot, every ...
Reel to reel | Week of June 21, 2012
17 GIRLS Based on a 2008 headline-grabbing news story about an alleged pregnancy pact among 17 high school girls in the fishing town of Gloucester, Mass. — an act at once unexpected and incomprehensible to adults and boys in their world. At Denver FilmCenter/Colfax...
reel to reel | Week of Feb 23, 2012
ACT OF VALOR After the rescue of a kidnapped CIA operative leads to the discovery of a terrorist plot against the U.S., a team of Navy Seals is dispatched on a worldwide manhunt to foil the attack. At Century. Colony Square, Twin Peaks. — Los Angeles Times/MCT ...
An era on screen
A crime drama about rival street gangs, a romance between two high schoolers, a history of shadow politics and a young man who feels...
Quirking on something different
To alter a phrase from Twain — who probably won’t mind because he’s dead — writer/ director Wes Anderson repeated history until he figured out how to rhyme. Barring a brief foray into stop-motion animation, Anderson’s oeuvre for the last decade redundantly hit the ...
