Martin Scorsese, often cited as our greatest living director, is having something of a late-career crisis. He stormed onto the New Hollywood scene in the late 60s equipped with a singular vision, an intimate knowledge of crippling guilt and human nuance and the god-given talent to turn it all into truth-bearing films on par with [...]
This is a tipping point movie. Through some pretty good work on some pretty good films, Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were able to build a deep reservoir of goodwill that saw them through some less-than-spectacular collaborations. But this film is more than a misfire. Here they’ve crossed a line into a bizarre (not in [...]
“Remake” has become a dirty word thanks to Hollywood’s ever-increasing disregard for creativity and originality. Reactionary studio big-wigs no longer even sniff at projects that aren’t in some way associated with a comic book, toy, or some other established film property. The result has been an ocean of refuse amassed through the hiring of cheap [...]
Everything you’ve heard about “Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” is true. It is a poorly acted poorly written kids’ fantasy that borrows in equal parts from Harry Potter and the CliffsNotes of Greek Mythology. But should people with young teens see it? Sure. It’s bad, but not offensively so.
Logan Lerman plays Percy [...]
With “Crazy Heart,” first-time writer/director, Scott Cooper, aims to capture an authentic slice of Americana and the romance of the unwieldy west. If he succeeds, it’s no thanks to his direction or adaptation of Thomas Cobb’s novel. The only reason this rough-around-the-edges work of business-as-usual corporate cinema is getting any attention at all is because [...]
Zeppelin, Hendrix, Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Rolling Stones. These names, among others, are synonymous with the 1960s counter-culture revolution. Anti-establishment, DIY, independence, innovation, and peace love & rock ‘n’ roll turned a burgeoning, amped-up variation on the blues into a full-fledged institution. So influential were the sounds of the 60s and 70s that their [...]
“There’s nothing wrong with mustaches, except in the summertime when they get in the way of eatin’ ice cream cones.” Imagine that phrase uttered by a middle-aged, mustached, cowboy serial killer standing ominously behind the DJ table of a techno club just moments before he opens fire on a warehouse full of innocent young ravers. [...]
Biting social commentary, breathtaking imagery, an innovative take on centuries-old mythology and a respectable entry into the painfully saturated vampire genre.
Well, 1½ out of 4 ain’t bad.
“Daybreakers,” the second featured film (2003’s “Undead” being the first) from the twin brothers from Down Under, Michael and Peter Spierig, certainly aspires to turn the vast and exhausted [...]
Lenny isn’t your average incarcerated crook. He’s a young, good-looking guy with some serious connections on the outside. His father, Armando, is an extremely wealthy drug kingpin who wants nothing more than to see his son set free. The $2 million reward he offers to anyone who successfully breaks his kid out [...]
Inventive, spectacularly creative, intoxicating. Terry Gilliam’s whimsically absurd tale of a veteran vaudevillianesque performer who makes a deal with the Devil to live forever in exchange for his daughter upon her 16th birthday is at once delightfully preposterous and magically rewarding.
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” Gilliam’s 12th film, marks the former Monty Python member’s triumphant [...]
