The 120 year translation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes from futzy, spindly Victorian sleuth to deductive action hero is both surprising and absolutely delicious. Directed by Guy Ritchie, written by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Simon Kinberg, Lionel Wigram, based on characters created by Doyle, the pugilistic tone of “Sherlock Holmes” is set early on. Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.), after having deduced some private and unpleasant (to Victorian ears) facts about Watson’s (Jude Law)... Read more →
Once in a cinematic blue moon (or, in this case, two or three blue moons) there’s so much simultaneous brilliance going on second by second that trying to note this-or-that falls pathetically short. Such is the case here. James Cameron’s “Avatar, a story of an attempted and, mercifully foiled attempt to usurp, bastardize, and rape an edenic aboriginal albeit other-planet culture, is made for the big screen; the bigger, the better. Only netflix it if... Read more →
The premise of romantic comedy "Did You Hear What Happened to the Morgans?" shows great promise but the direction and the performances of the two leads don’t show it much love. Director Marc Lawrence wrote a story about an estranged couple, Paul (Hugh Grant), a lawyer and Meryl (Sarah Jessica Parker), a real estate agent, working through the issues – his infidelity – that prompted their separation. He’s puppy dog remorseful, she’s indifferent which here... Read more →
It goes without saying that “Up in the Air,” directed by Jason Reitman, written by Reitman and Sheldon Turner, based on the Novel by Walter Kirn, a story about a corporate downsizing hit man, is going to resonate with audiences in this economic climate. The question is, does it play well? The answer is a resounding yes. Ryan Bingham (George Clooney) travels around the country, doing the job that no manager wants to do: he... Read more →
You will be pleasantly surprised if you went into “Disney’s A Christmas Carol”, directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, more out of habit than anything else, thinking it was like being re-gifted with something droll for Christmas. It’s Dickens’s tale all right, but the details are surrealistic rendered, the voices and characterizations are spot-on, especially that of Jim Carrey’s Ebenezer Scrooge, and its designed as more of... Read more →
There’s a writer who paraphrased the meaning of Christ on the Cross thusly: whatever travails you’re going through, Jesus simply says, “Oh yeah? Me too.” That’s the significance of the impossible to believe but true story told in the wrenching but, in the end, redeeming “Precious,” directed by Lee Daniels, written by Geoffrey Fletcher, based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, namely, nothing could be worse than what happens here. The story’s set in Harlem,... Read more →
Ah, to be a kid again. The retro-splendor of Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, written by Clements, Edwards, Greg Erb, Don Hall, and Jason Oremland, will make you forget about special effects and spectacle divorced from storytelling and think about magic and enchantment. Clements and Musker have crafted an old school Disney tale that that transports you to a magic kingdom of all-things-possible if you can but... Read more →
It’s easy to see how “The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” directed by Chris Weitz, written by Melissa Rosenberg, based on the novel by Stephenie Meyer, nailed it’s target demographic: the two local sold-out midnight showings brimmed with teeming teenagers all a-twitter and agog: Robert Pattison, Taylor Lautner, both chiseled. You can enjoy the film for the spectacle of that particular spectacle – it is a cultural phenomena, after all - but if you’re watching it... Read more →
It’s said you never forget your first love, an utterance proved cinematically true in countless ways. It requires innocence on behalf at least one of the parties, a flowering, a deflowering, some magic, some awkwardness, and a final, wrenching fall from grace, after which time lessons are learned. However it plays out, it’s a scenario we can all understand and appreciate. All these qualities have to be present in an interesting coming of age movie,... Read more →
If ever there were any doubt about the power of music to affect and otherwise change lives, then “Pirate Radio,” inspired by true events, written and directed by Richard Curtis, irreverently, boisterously, magically, dispels it. The story’s set in England, in 1966, the explosion of rock and roll causing consternation among the establishment. As the BBC (as per the story; the truth was otherwise) had no outlets for such music, Radio Caroline, moored offshore, beyond... Read more →
If all you notice about a movie which features vast amounts of blood that is squirted, splattered, splotched, and gushed is the manner of its delivery, then you’re in for a boring movie. Indeed, all that commends itself about “Ninja Assassin,” directed by James McTeigue, written by Matthew Sand, J. Michael Straczynski, is the cool technique they use to depict blood splatter but, unless you’re Dexter of the eponymous Showtime TV series, blood splatters do... Read more →
For all its moments of high drama, “Brothers,” directed by Jim Sheridan, written by David Benioff, Susanne Bier, and Anders Thomas Jensen, is a wonderfully understated story of what happens when a soldier comes home. Sure, some of the scenes are harrowing, if not horrific. The crash that landed Captain Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire) into an Afghani POW camp (a hole in the ground) was a prelude to hell. As was the treatment he and... Read more →
If you’ve ever read the poem “Invictus,” written by the Victorian poet William Ernest Henley, perhaps you might identify with the sentiments it expresses (never give up, bigger issues like honor and dignity are involved here) while barfing at its chest-thumping histrionic prose. When you see the movie by the same title, directed by Clint Eastwood, written by Anthony Peckham, based on the book by John Carlin, you will marvel at how he’s taken the... Read more →
In “The Road,” directed by John Hillcoat, written by Cormac McCarthy and Joe Penhall, based on the book by McCarthy, something cataclysmic, unnamed – and more terrifying because it’s unnamed – has decimated the planet. All we know is that there was a sheaf of bright light and a rumble of the Earth, and then, nothing. All animals are dead, anything green has been obliterated, and the metallic gray sky roils with a miasmic fury.... Read more →
“The Fantastic Mr. Fox,” directed by Wes Anderson, written by Anderson and Noah Baumbach, based on a novel by Roald Dahl, is more than fantastic, it’s incandescent. The story works on a bunch of levels, the characters are suitably complex and interesting, the dialogue’s unbelievably sharp, and it’s done in stop animation (the same way they make Gumby: move the models, snap a shot, move the models, snap a shot), so it flows and the... Read more →
The title, “Men Who Stare At Goats,” directed by Grant Heslov, written by Peter Straughan, based on a book by Jon Ronson, is as silly as the movie, which isn’t saying much. George Clooney is good, irreverently if not plot-wise; so is Jeff Bridges, but Ewan McGregor acts like a wet noodle, which is unpardonable because, after all, it’s his story. The story trudges along, the parts that are meant to be funny really aren’t... Read more →
“2012,” directed by Roland Emmerich, written by Emmerich and Harald Kloser, is so sure what it wants to do – show in excruciating detail the annihilation of the planet - that it dispenses with anything like plot, character, and dramatic (as opposed to apocalyptic) tension that might get in the way. At least it’s consistent. It’s a purely visual film. The crescendo of the spectacle of the movie is spectacular. From that crack that appears... Read more →
The problem with “Amelia,” directed by Mira Nair, written by Ronald Bass and Anna Hamilton, is that it tries to do too much and ends up doing nothing. The film never left the ground, the pacing lacked momentum. The visuals, however, were fantastic: the flight sequences were just as majestic as those from “Out of Africa.” The fashion, especially the women’s attire, was spot-on though, as Amelia did mention, it did seem a little incongruous... Read more →
The title says it all. “This Is It,” directed by Kenny Ortega. That was it, that will be it, the swan song by pop’s greatest impresario, and it will never be again. It’s impossible to look at it without thinking about what went before (erratic behavior that splashed, ad nauseum, across the world’s stage; legal and financial woes) and what went after (R.I.P) and concluding, whether or not you’re a fan of his music, that... Read more →
At first you think, God, what a bloody bore. In the opening scene of “The Stepfather,” directed by Nelson McCormick, written by J.S. Cardone, Donald E. Westlake, Carolyn Lefcourt, Brian Garfield, David Harris (Dylan Walsh) is changing his identity in the bathroom of the family he’s just massacred. In the next moment he’s picking up Susan Harding (Sela Ward), a divorced mother of three in Portland and you think, So, we’ve seen the trailer, there... Read more →
Cringe, wince, and maybe even get sick all you want at the slow motion torture-deaths in Saw VI, directed by Kevin Greutert, written by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, but chances are that afterwards you might feel a teensy, weensy vindicated. It’s got gore galore but it’s not gratuitously gruesome. It’s got a backstory that gives context to some of the characters, but it isn’t necessary to Netflix the first five movies to enjoy this... Read more →
If you want something that is kid-friendly, won’t bore parents to death, offers a coherent story and even throws in some life lessons, then the animation “Astro Boy,” directed by David Bowers, written by Bowers and Timothy Harris, based on the comic series by Osamu Tezuka is not for you. The movie doesn’t know if it wants to be a moral tale, a cautionary tale, a science fiction drama, a David Copperfield orphan story, a... Read more →
Movies that feature vampires are a dime a dozen, so we want a new spin, a different take, something that takes the Bela Lugosi turning into a bat genre somewhere new. “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant,” directed by Paul Weitz, written by Weitz, Brian Heigeland, based on a series of books by Darren Shan, tries but it doesn’t. The design has promise, the visuals are imaginative. Two vampires, Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and... Read more →
For about the first half of the horror film “Paranormal Activity,” directed and written by Oren Peli, you think it’s a ho-hum reality show wannabee about a boyfriend who documents his girlfriend’s alleged experiences of demons. For the second half and, especially, the last three minutes, you want to get up out of your chair and evacuate the theatre (several did), but you’re too paralyzed with fear to move. The story has absolutely no buildup,... Read more →
That it’s a love letter to the city isn’t that exciting, we get that much from the title. What makes you say I love “I Love You, New York,” directed by Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, et al, written by Emmanuel Benbihy, Tristan Carne, Hal Powell, et al, are the turned inside out pockets of joy and humor and poignancy, the sheer randomness of the many and various encounters, the stellar cast (on any... Read more →
You would think from the title that “From Mexico with Love,” directed by Jimmy Nickerson, written by Glen Hartford and Nicholas Siapkaris, would find some way to join “Mexico” with “Love,” pride with affection. It tries to, but it doesn’t It did get the symbols and themes right. Everything revolves around the symbol of a spider. They appear on the boxing gloves that Hector (Kuno Becker) has inherited from his father. Bite-wise, they explain the... Read more →
“Law Abiding Citizen,” directed by F. Gary Gray, written by Kurt Wimmer, serves up a spectacular gladiator epic of good and evil, with all the shades in-between, set in Philadelphia a city that, in this movie at least, isn’t very brotherly. You’ve got Jamie Foxx as Nick Rice, an up and coming district attorney, supremely confident but not Ivy League arrogant (night classes, Fordham Law School), stylish but not a playuh, a good family man... Read more →
The title, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, written by Lord, Miller, Judy and Ron Barrett, doesn’t promise much, something vague that connects weather and food, hail with meatballs, and neither does its execution. The plot looks like a committee conceived it or else, too many cooks spoiled the broth. It’s linear and predictable but most of it made no sense. The pieces all fit together but they... Read more →
You already know that “Bright Star, written and directed by Jane Campion, is going to be a sensitive and cinemagraphically perfect portrait of the love story of John Keats, Romantic with a capital R poet, one foot in the grave, a destitute, panned-in-his-lifetime writer, and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne, a middle class, knows-nothing-about-poetry, seamstress and clothing designer. After all, Johnny Depp’s not playing Keats, so it’s not going to be a rollicking Pirates of the... Read more →
Instead of having something funny or otherwise interesting to say about relationships, “Couples Retreat,” directed by Peter Billingsley, written by Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, and Dana Fox, suggests that adults, not children should be seen and not heard. The movie is all fluff and cliché. Though the setting is lovely, the cast cinegenic, and the tone, for the most part, is breezy, the story is flaccid and the dialogue is limp. It’s easy enough to... Read more →
In “Good Hair,” directed by Jeff Stilson, written by Stilson, Chris Rock, Lance Crouther, Paul Marchand, and Chuck Sklar, Rock does to the hair of African-American women what Michael Moore does to capitalism: he shows us there’s much, much more going on than we ever dreamed about. It’s a documentary, with Rock as the peripatetic narrator. It begins with an innocent enough question posed by one of his young daughters regarding her hair, it’s bracketed... Read more →
If it weren’t for Ellen Page’s gawky, perky performance, “Whip It,” directed by Drew Barrymore, written by Shauna Cross, would be a dud. The story’s predictable but the acting is stellar. Page’s character, Bliss Cavender, is a square peg in a round hole. She lives with her mother, Brooke (Marcia Gay Harden), a former beauty contest winner, her father, Earl (Daniel Stern), a good old boy, and her Miss America-aspirant little sister, Shania (Eulala Scheel),... Read more →
With its well constructed argument and compelling message that he doles out with humor and concern, Michael Moore’s documentary, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” currently on view at The Art Theatre, shows how, like Dante, our middle-aged country took a horrible, wrong turn: At one point midway on our path in life, I came around and found myself now searching through a dark wood, the right way blurred and lost. His premise couldn’t be clearer. Is... Read more →
You would think that any film in which Jennifer Garner uses the word “masturbation” ten times in the first two minutes would promise at least some kind of visceral appeal. It does but, in spite of snappy dialogue, a clever premise, and an examination of our relationships with our fellow man and some Higher Power, “The Invention of Lying,” written and directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson, follows through with nothing but a blather... Read more →
“Zombieland,” directed by Ruben Fleischer, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, magnificently spoofs without becoming campy the current rage for the un-dead. It’s scary but it’s also goofy and tender. It merges graphic horror and low-brow comedy, forming a delicious hybrid held together by a storyline structured as a quest undertaken by four of the most unlikely protagonists you could imagine. The gore-scenes are frightening but never over the top. A virus has infected... Read more →
With its perfect pacing, elegant visuals and narrative design, and depth of characterization, “My One and Only,” directed by Richard Loncraine, written by Charlie Peters, offers an charming and engrossing, based on real life coming of age story. The movie reveals its treasures slowly, reflecting the patient character of Logan Lerman’s character, George. He’s a sensitive kid, incredibly mature for his age, forced to adapt daily to circumstances that, if they didn’t fuel his later... Read more →
“The September Issue,” directed by R.J. Cutler, is a slick and glossy, ultimately disappointing movie about the cult of haute couture and its high priestess, Anna Wintour. It tracks the production of the September 2007 issue of Vogue, arguably the beacon for that season’s fashions, and the efforts its iconic editor to push it through. The visuals are stunning, as would be expected. Clothes on racks, all of which look like sculpture. Clothes on models,... Read more →
Though the first fifteen minutes show great promise, “Pandorum,” a science fiction thriller directed by Christian Alvart, written by Travis Milloy, is a poorly constructed mess with an inconsistent script, awful visuals, and poor action sequences. The movie’s got potential, with a yowza premise It’s set about 65 years from now, with the Earth about to implode (food and water riots) from overpopulation. A very cool looking spacecraft, that looks like three stacked Gothic cathedrals... Read more →
Directed by Brandon Camp, written by Camp and Mike Thompson, “Love Happens” is a laminated, wooden cliché of love, loss, and redemption. It’s the kind of shiny, pretty thing you buy on a whim in a souvenir store when you travel but, when you get home, you wonder why. The script is predictable, the acting superficial. There are no surprises. There’s an alleged big secret that one of the characters carries but, once revealed, it’s... Read more →
“Surrogates,” directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by Michael Ferris, John D. Brancato, based on the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, spins a masterful, suspenseful tale by making an FBI agent, Tom Greer (Bruce Willis), solve a murder as the human who controls his surrogate clone. It’s a variation on a current cinematic plot device. An inventor, Center (James Cromwell), has created a software program with which handicapped people can perform normal, human... Read more →
“The Informant!,” directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by Scott Z. Burns, based on the book by Kurt Eichenwald, isn’t just a true story of Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), President of the BioProducts Division at Archer Daniels Midland, the guy who whistle blew ADM into paying hundreds of millions of dollars in fines for price fixing, it’s about the bittersweet consequences of his bipolar illness that led him on an amazing roller coaster ride through corporate... Read more →
Directed by Stewart Hendler, written by Josh Stolberg, Pete Goldfinger, and Mark Rosman, “Sorority Row,” a successful remake of the 1983 horror film, “The House on Sorority Row,” tells the story of a prank that goes fatally awry. It’s drenched with blood, gore, and terror and yet, behind all the viscera, lies a simple moral question: “Should one admit or cover up a monstrous mistake? It sets up the university’s Greek system well. There’s a... Read more →
“9,” an animated science fiction drama directed by Shane Acker, written by Acker and Pamela Pettler, offers a scary, post-human look at a world in which man-made technology has ravaged the humans who created and used it. Sound familiar? Think “Terminator,” minus the blustery, heartless destruction and bleak ending. It’s more like the song Dorothy Gale of Kansas’s Tin Man escort sings in Wizard of Oz: “Just because I'm presumin' that I could be kind-a-human,... Read more →
“Jennifer’s Body,” directed by Karyn Kusama, written by Diablo Cody, is a treatise on navel gazing. Not only does it feature many fine, well-shot scenes of Megan Fox’s bare midriff, it is full of mindless self-absorption, as if Ms. Fox’s body not only had something to do with the story (it doesn’t) but that people would throng to gaze it. This is one of those execrable movies in which you can imagine being a fly... Read more →
“Gamer,” a science fiction thriller written and directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, offers a sinister, dark, and foreboding what-if. What if virtual reality games were played with real people? A social game, for example, would feature real people with processor ships implanted in their brains, controlled by gamers. A warfare simulation, ditto. Then to make it even more real, what if the chip-controlled people were drawn from the ranks of criminals on death... Read more →
Tyler Perry got it right with “I Can Do Bad All By Myself,” which he wrote and directed. Unlike “Madea Goes to Jail,” which couldn’t decide if it was a comedy or a drama, this one clearly comes down on the side of a drama, with the formidable Madea’s appearances as a brief, well-integrated comic interlude. Dramatic as it is, it nonetheless packs humor galore. Feeding three would-be vandals, Jennifer (Hope Olaide Wilson), Manny (Kwesi... Read more →
“Ponyo,” written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is an enchantingly animated cautionary tale that suggests that we recalibrate our relationship with our environment. It’s a Romeo and Juliet story. Romeo is Sosuke (voice of Frankie Jonas), a 5-year-old boy, the son of Kazushige Nagashima (voice of Matt Damon), a sea captain and, Lisa (voice of Tina Fey), a senior center assistant (whose residents include characters with voices provided by Cloris Leachman, Betty White, and Lily... Read more →
As the title suggests, “Taking Woodstock,” directed by Ang Lee, written by James Schamus, based on the book by Elliot Tiber and Tom Monte, is a moving story about taking stock and then taking action. If you’re expecting a documentary or even a mocumentary about the events that took place from August 15 – 18, 1969 at Max Yasgur’s (Eugene Levy) farm in upstate New York, you’re in for a massive bummer, man. With the... Read more →
A riff on the Nice Guys Finish Last shtick, “Extract,” written and directed by Mike Judge, is an unsatisfying, blandly entertaining story of a decent enough guy who won’t put his foot down when his wife won’t have sex with him, nor when an injured employee threatens to sue and bankrupt the company. The tone of the movie reflects the character of Joel (Jason Bateman): it doesn’t force itself on you, it doesn’t ask for... Read more →
What’s a seven-letter word for “All About Steve,” an alleged romantic comedy directed by Phil Traill, written by Kim Barker? Tedious. The movie has promise. Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock) is cute but quirky woman who somehow makes a living as a cruciverbalist (or the equally clunky “crossword constructor”) for a local Sacramento paper. She lives in her own world, which is upbeat for her but peevish for us. She’s attractive, not a little sexy, but... Read more →