Category: 3 Stars
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J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III is preposterous and exhausting
A few disconnected thoughts on J.J. Abrams‘ Mission: Impossible III: I rue the day Terminator 2 (aka “T2“) came out and was a big hit; now every pre-ordained blockbuster comes abbreviated: ID4, LXG, AVP, X2, X3, and now of course M:I:III. Like most summer action blockbusters, M:I:III is at first enjoyably preposterous but quickly becomes […]
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Fascism by Common Consent in James McTeigue’s V for Vendetta
For all the negative buzz regarding V for Vendetta writer Alan Moore’s total disavowal of James McTeigue’s adaptation, I was surprised to find that the film kept far closer to the book than I expected. Closer, in fact, than the two other travesties of Moore’s comics, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell. Perhaps not […]
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Steven Soderbergh’s Bubble
As Bubble‘s loos into the lives of factory workers in an economically depressed town turns into a noir (as Steven Soderbergh himself notes on the commentary track), I caught a whiff of class anthropology. That said, I understand Soderbergh’s point that critics’ charges of exploitation are condescending; the non-actors are intelligent human beings who wholly […]
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Kelly Macdonald and Bill Nighy bond over extreme poverty in The Girl in the Café
Richard Curtis and David Yates’ The Girl in the Café, a BBC movie aired in the US on HBO, was incredibly cute, and my heartstrings were indeed pulled, but I couldn’t shake the sense the love story was mere dressing for the real purpose of the film: explicating the issue of extreme poverty to help […]
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King Kong (1933)
The original 1933 King Kong gets points for being so drenched with subtext you can swim in it. But whenever Kong isn’t on screen it’s dreadful.
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Shaun of the Dead
For most of it, I thought for sure Shaun of the Dead was a four-starrer, but it lost its way at some point. I’m not sure exactly of the transition point, but I felt that the tone had changed too drastically by the time the characters were trapped in the pub (in other words, I […]
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Sid & Nancy
And now to raise the gander of another friend. Sorry, Kevin, but I’m still not much of an Alex Cox fan. I can’t say that Sid & Nancy, his look into the lives of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, spoke to me. But no doubt, Gary Oldman is superb (the degree to which he disappears […]
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11’09″01 – September 11
11’09″01 – September 11 is a portmanteau film comprised of shorts inspired by or in reaction to the September 11 attacks, made by directors from nearly every continent. At first, I thought for sure I would be giving this one more than three stars, but the quality of the short films takes a steep dive […]
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Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Ever know you’ve seen a movie, but can’t really remember it? So after seeing the Tim Burton remake, I decided to put the original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory on my Netflix queue because I just couldn’t spark the brain cells that contained my recollections of it. This is the first of two posts […]
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Don’t leave Earth without Garth Jennings’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Yes, officer, I’d like to file a report. You see, I’m being threatened. I received word that If I don’t actually start writing stuff in my blog, I’m going to have my virtual pants pulled down in front of at least half a dozen complete strangers with well-tended blogs. Or is that if I DO […]