April 2010
22 posts
Rod Lott Review: The Losers
A crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn’t commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire … The A-Team. That’s how the 1980s TV...
Joshua Blevins Peck Review: Death at a Funeral
Remakes, for better or worse (I gravitate toward the latter), are just a part of the movie industry these days. There’s no stopping them from raiding the multiplex because they are generally cheap (inexpensive to hire, young cast), require less thinking (who has the time to come up with an original idea?) and already known by name to the audience (previous film was built in marketing).
Most...
Rod Lott Review: Kick-Ass
Kick-Ass is an unlikely name for a costumed crime fighter who’s more zero than hero. Given his powers are nil, the moniker strikes a bit of braggadocio and hyperbole, much like the movie itself. Although certainly entertaining, “Kick-Ass” never quite reaches the levels of, well, kicking said ass.
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Phil Bacharach DVD Review: The Private Lives of...
Just the title alone, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, hints at a deep, dark interior world of fantasy and secrets. Oh, well. So much for truth in advertising. Writer-director Rebecca Miller, in adapting her novel of the same name, burrows into the psyche of a dutiful wife and mother, but the results are not terribly interesting.
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Gene Triplett DVD Review: Pirate Radio
Imagine the best elements of Robert Altman’s “M*A*S*H” and “National Lampoon’s Animal House” set adrift on an old tanker in the middle of the North Sea with a super library of ’60s rock ’n’ roll, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of the high level of irreverent mirth and great music that float “Pirate Radio.”
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George Lang Review: Death at a Funeral
“Death at a Funeral” has enough slapstick belly laughs to keep even the most solemn undertaker in stitches. It’s wildly uneven, but thanks to Tracy Morgan and a scene-stealing performance from Oklahoma native James Marsden, this comedy has some deadly funny moments.
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George Lang Review: A Prophet
With the realism of great documentary work but the epic storytelling and intense performances of a classic gangster drama, Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” depicts the rise of a mobster in a way it has never been told before. Few films scream out for a sequel quite like “A Prophet.” The compelling story coupled with Tahar Rahim’s performance deserve a “Godfather”-like second...
Jeffrey Huston Review: Leaves Of Grass
The script—with its twists, turns, and eventual descent—is a well-constructed risk-taker. It boasts an endless flair with character-rich dialogue. It has a colorful sense of place that includes Oklahoma’s most bizarre pastime, “Okie Noodling” (look it up). It’s inventive in making a local rabbi a secret drug lord. And it’s also philosophical, earnestly pondering...
James Vance DVD Review: Sherlock Holmes
So-called purists howled like mastiffs on the moors when director Guy Richie’s high-octane “Sherlock Holmes” hit the big screen – too violent, they said, too much action and too little cozy armchair detection – but those deerstalker-worshiping fanboys should just lower their pinkies and relax. This is one of the most entertaining and, yes, most authentic film versions of Arthur Conan...
George Lang DVD Review: An Education
Carey Mulligan achieves a kind of breathless balancing act in Lone Scherfig’s “An Education.”
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George Lang Review: The Runaways
“The Runaways” can be stunningly evocative of the ’70s all-girl rock band’s slight rise and steep fall, capturing the altered moods and glorious burnout music of the era. But Floria Sigismondi’s biopic often bears the obvious scars of litigation or historical skimming — anyone who comes to “The Runaways” with knowledge about Joan Jett, Cherie Currie and Lita Ford’s groundbreaking band...
Brandy McDonnell DVD Review: The Blind Side
Captivating, multidimensional characters and first-rate performances, particularly Sandra Bullock’s Oscar-winning star turn, protect “The Blind Side” from becoming just another inspirational sports drama.
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Brandy McDonnell Review: The White Ribbon
With his Oscar-nominated film “The White Ribbon,” often-controversial Austrian auteur Michael Haneke (“Funny Games,” “Cache” [“Hidden”]) weaves a creepily spellbinding mystery that studies the dehumanizing effects of cruelty and by extension, the roots of Nazism.
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Michael Smith Review: The Runaways
As far as music movie bio-pics go, “The Runaways” works because of its unsentimental honesty and its great music.
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Michael Smith Review: The Art of the Steal
A new documentary, “The Art of the Steal,” is a story of politics, deep-seated revenge, cultural elitist greed and tourism dollars.
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Kathryn Jenson White Review: The White Ribbon
Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” is one of the most interesting 3-D films of 2009. Obviously, its 3- D has nothing to do with the special visual effects of “Avatar” or “Alice in Wonderland.” In fact, it is a black-and- white film that’s almost surreally two-dimensional in its look.
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Mike Robertson Review: The Secret of Kells
While people of a certain mind-set view making and enjoying art as a lazy, self-indulgent and ultimately wasteful activity, a lot of other people view it as absolutely necessary for preserving identity — whether that identity is individual, familial or national. Set somewhere around the year 800, “The Secret of Kells” explores this theme through the adventures of Brendan (newcomer Evan McGuire), a...
Joe O'Shansky Review: Clash of the Titans
I really wanted to like Clash of the Titans, and, to a degree, I do. It’s not bad, but it isn’t really any better than its source material either, while losing most of the silly charm in the process.
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Joshua Blevins Peck Review: The Last Song
I have come to despise Nicholas Sparks. He’s a novelist who has had a spate of his books adapted to the screen in recent years. Just the mention of his name sends a shock wave through my brain as I know what will be coming my direction: a manipulative, heavy handed, contrived, melodramatic romance. The Last Song is the latest Sparks vehicle made to be endured by anyone with a smidgen of good...
Michael Smith Review: The Last Song
I know that films based on Nicholas Sparks’ writings are supposed to touch your heart, but “The Last Song” just made my head hurt.
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Michael Smith Review: Clash of the Titans
The 3-D adventure romp “Clash of the Titans” is the kind of remake that I wish Hollywood would make more of: Take an old film that had great ideas but wasn’t a great film, and get it right the second time.
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Brandy McDonnell Review: Clash of the Titans
For the second time, Hollywood has created a “Clash of the Titans” as visually compelling and structurally unsound as a sprawling Greek ruin.
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