Screen
Neeson vs. wolf
The title 8 Million Ways to Die was already taken, so The Grey had to settle for The Grey, named for the plus-size wolves waging war on the desperate human survivors of an Alaskan wilderness plane crash. Tough situation. Frostbite. Wolf bite. Drowning. Falling from ...
Details matter
A man edges along the 21st-story ledge of a midtown New York City hotel. He’s an ex-cop and a convicted thief on the lam, straight out of Sing Sing, and he’s threatening suicide. Sam Worthington, of Avatar and Clash of the Titans, plays this character, Nick Cassidy, ...
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 ...
Right story, wrong script
Red Tails squanders a great subject, reducing the real-life struggles and fierce heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen to rickety cliché. Some of the action is fun. But if something about that statement doesn’t sound right, well, there’s your chief problem with Red Tails. ...
Carano lacks punch
In terms of its title, Haywire doesn’t quite go there; it’s more “Haywire-ish.” But it’s eccentric, and the on-screen violence is sharp and exciting — brutal without being either subhumanly sadistic or superhumanly ridiculous...
reel to reel | Week of Jan. 26, 2012
3 Superstars in Berlin Three of the biggest names in opera come together for a once in a lifetime performance. At Boedecker Theater and Chez Artiste. — Boedecker Theater 16 Love Sixteen-year-old Ally “Smash” Mash lives between the carefully painted white lines of ...
Upcoming IFS season promises collaborations and festival favorites
The International Film Series, which kicks off today, is an outlet for experimentation, and this season IFS Director Pablo Kjolseth created a program full of original ideas...
Gospel slop
Assembled from spare parts of Footloose and Sister Act, the serviceable gospel contraption Joyful Noise takes place in an economically hard-hit Georgia town, where the multiracial members of the Divinity Church Choir raise voices and spirits under the direction of ...
Wahlberg pulls through
Playing a reformed cargo smuggler sucked back into the game, Mark Wahlberg is the star of Contraband, a fairly entertaining remake of the 2008 Icelandic thriller Reykjavik-Rotterdam...
reel to reel | Week of Jan. 19, 2012
16 Love Sixteen-year-old Ally “Smash” Mash lives between the carefully painted white lines of Junior Tennis. Unbeaten and about to go pro, she has no time for lazy newcomer Farrell Gambles. But when fate and a twisted ankle intervene, she teaches Farrell what it ...
Jerry Garcia documentary in the works after years of delays
Deadheads rejoice — a new documentary chronicling the life of the late guitar-god Jerry Garcia is in the works for an end of the year release.Filmmaker Malcolm Leo has teamed up with former Eagles manager John Hartmann to tackle the life of Grateful Dead frontman ...