Screen
Awful everything
The good news for Paul W.S. Anderson is that Uwe Boll, his only serious competition for worst movie-maker in the biz, has another BloodRayne movie on the way...
Dull expectations
When an idiosyncratic talent seeks a wider audience for her work, there’s a danger in trading the offbeat for something more on-the-nose. This is what has happened in Friends With Kids, a smooth but frustrating third feature with an extremely good ensemble cast. In ...
‘Fury’ is missing fast
Inside of writer/director David Fury is “we will hold this line” war movie populated with complex characters and surprisingly good performances. Problem is, it was slipped into the carcass vAC of a dirty, confused, overly serious, inconsistently grotesque snoozer in...
Poorly timed gun fetishization
Slipping into a funk while watching half of Los Angeles get shot up in the second half of The Green Hornet, I was struck by the sheer unluckiness of this film’s timing...
For ‘Shutter Island,’ the wait may be worthwhile
Movies can be like wine: Once uncorked, they don't often last long on the shelf. But Hollywood history could be a lot kinder to the postponed "Shutter Island," and the movie's last-minute date change might actually work to the thriller's advantage...
Crass and fun
It`s not good to start a review by saying that the film wasn’t anywhere near as bad or as stupid as I was afraid it’d be, but that’s exactly how I felt about the inane satire MacGruber. Crude and sophomoric, it still had lots of laughs and a surprisingly polished ...
Review: ‘Lone Ranger’ is Kemosloppy
Good news, Washington Redskins! For one glorious weekend in the summer of 2013, your unapologetically racist franchise mascot is not the most grotesque pop culture representation of Native Americans! One can only imagine owner Dan Snyder pounding copious shots of “...
A conspiracy full of holes
Heartbreakingly average, director Robert Redford’s The Conspirator errs in the way so many films do, especially films about unsung pieces of American history. It focuses on the wrong character — in this case the white male, i.e. the “bankable” one, instead of the ...
Snapshots from the rum haze
Johnny Depp was a pal of the late Hunter S. Thompson, and the frustrating but thickly atmospheric film version of Thompson’s early novel The Rum Diary finds Depp and writer/director Bruce Robinson paying tribute to the author, freelance gonzo journalist, career ...
Reel to reel | Week of December 12, 2013
All is Lost Robert Redford is brilliant in his role as a nameless man who must survive after his sailboat sinks leaving him lost at sea. Rated PG-13. At Colony Square. The Armstrong Lie In 2008, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets: The ...
‘An Education’ a good adaptation
"Why was I, a conventional Twickenham schoolgirl, running round London nightclubs with a con man?” British journalist Lynn Barber asks herself this question in her memoir, published earlier this year. The question has now led to a movie, which answers Barber’s query ...
