Screen
‘Ninja Assassin’ run-of-the-mill
In Japan, where the blades are shiny and sharp and if the...
And the award goes to…
Instead of using that tired old cliché, “Big things come in small packages,” let’s rely on another one; one a little more apropos to...
A winning ticket
It`s hard out there for a kid from the projects who scores a $370 million lottery payoff, but must wait for the claim office to reopen (infernal federal holiday!). Suddenly he is pursued by “a premature crack-baby felon” straight out of prison and willing — eager, ...
Royal triumph
Imagine you’re second in line for the throne of England, right behind your selfish, womanizing brother, your father the King is in ill health, and you have a terrible stutter. Your father despises you for the impediment, your country is poised to enter World War II, ...
Home viewing: Silent clowns
It’s mid-June, which means we ought to be full swing into Chautauqua’s Summer of Silents — the annual celebration of cinema sans dialogue. And...
Control-Z Cruise
Every time Tom Cruise, the greatest modern matinee idol, makes a new movie, everybody rushes to fuse artist and art and spews out some variation of “I just don’t like him anymore.” America’s collective moral stance seems to be that we should never forget that someone...
Thank god for Mendes
Midway through one in a manic string of chase sequences in the animated Rio, the uptight macaw voiced by Jesse Eisenberg says, “I would love to go five minutes without almost getting killed.” This is the movie’s strategy: near-perpetual peril, dialogue that’s almost ...
‘Once upon a time in Uganda’
Isaac Nabwana was a bricklayer with movies on his mind. But Uganda didn’t have the resources for Isaac’s dreams. By Isaac’s admission, his neighborhood,...
Tennis, anyone?
Politics, cinema and literature can lie, not sport. —Jean-Luc Godard
When one considers the history and scope of cinema, rarely do “how to” instruction videos...
