Category: ★½
-
Absolutely gorgeous, tedious mix of ballet and film–the twenty minute ballet sequence is twenty of the most beautiful minutes ever on film–but it’s a dramatic wreck. The script has a version of the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale playing out in a ballet company as it stages the same fairy tale. Moira Shearer’s dancing is…
-
Exasperatingly over-stylized adaptation of the Frank Miller comic has a bunch of good performances and a bunch of bad ones. The three stories–which are cut together in the regular version, separate in this extended version–range in quality big-time. As “Hard R” film noir… it comes off more like PULP FICTION with CW Network actors. Clive…
-
Absolutely gorgeous staging of Jules Barbier opera is completely lacking, dramatically speaking. Powell and Pressburger do color German expressionism, which–again–looks great. They also haven’t got any interest in making a film out of the opera. Might be more of a success if you’re in the mood to watch an opera and not, you know, a…
-
Mildly amusing horror anthology. The characters are too thin, the stories aren’t really uncanny enough, and the bridging sequence is a big time narrative cheat. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne appear in one of the segments as non-copyright infringing analogues to their LADY VANISHES characters. DVD.Continue reading →
-
Amusing special effects spectacular about evil little monsters wrecking havoc on a small town at Christmas. Chris Columbus’s script is shockingly slight, but the acting, directing, and special effects offset that deficiency. Zach Galligan’s a great lead and Hoyt Axton’s excellent as his father. DVD, Blu-ray, Streaming.Continue reading →
-
Middling but inoffensive Korean supernatural thriller about an Antarctic expedition; pretty soon expedition members start dying off one by one. Beautiful New Zealand locations, fine direction, and okay plotting can’t overcome weak characterizations or the script’s emotional cheapness. The acting is better than the writing needs or deserves. DVD (R3).Continue reading →
-
Sometimes lovely film about developmentally disabled Thornton (who stars, writes, directs) getting out of the mental hospital he’s been in since killing his mother and her lover as a child. He soon bonds with 12-year old Lucas Black, who’s experiencing his own traumas. Way too long, way too many montages. Embarrassing-to-the-production bad performance from Dwight…
-
Richard Carlson and Barbara Rush see a spaceship crash and can’t get anyone to believe them until it’s too late and the aliens start messing with the townsfolk. Arnold’s got a few big directing missteps (he races through every scene and doesn’t know how to compose shots on his sets). Simultaneously too short (at eighty…
-
Sometimes quite good cop movie about good cop Daniel Auteuil and good-but-complicated cop Gérard Depardieu jockeying for the same promotion and both becoming morally compromised (or worse). Loses its footing more and more as things progress. Auteuil’s good, Depardieu’s awesome, but they can’t save the film from director Marchal or the script. DVD.Continue reading →
-
Middling (at best), “handsome,” Oscar-bait adaptation of James Ellroy corrupt cops novel set in early fifties L.A.. Good performance from Russell Crowe and a great one from Kevin Spacey can’t make up for ineffective lead Guy Pearce, risibily bad Kim Basinger turn as femme fatale, or director Hanson and Brian Helgeland’s disjointed script. It also…
-
Widowed samurai Sanada Hiroyuki has given up the warrior life to take care of his kids. Then childhood love Miyazawa Rie comes to town and things start changing. Good performances–especially from Sanada–but the narrative’s disjointed and suffers from a constant lack of focus. DVD, Blu-ray.Continue reading →
-
Ray Milland’s a college professor with a science-powered baseball who becomes a star pitcher. Paul Douglas is his catcher, Jean Peters is his girlfriend. Great performance from Douglas and some good writing can’t save the dull film. Milland’s disinterested and charmless, Peters is good but not in it enough to matter. DVD, Streaming.Continue reading →
-
Mildly amusing and often sexist 1960s sex comedy with James Garner and his pals trying to set up a “bachelor” pad (only most of them are married) complete with in-house blonde (Kim Novak). Novak’s good, Garner’s okay (playing the bachelor and Novak’s de facto love interest); William Bendix has a great cameo as the boys’…
-
Kind of dumb but well-paced Fox propaganda picture has Nazis out to trap American newsman Dana Andrews in, you guessed it, Berlin. Andrews is great, Virginia Gilmore’s good as his girlfriend (who the Nazis have snooping on him). Martin Kosleck’s awesome as the villain. DVD.Continue reading →
-
Should be good, but isn’t thriller has blind musician Madeleine Stowe getting a cornea transplant, only to have someone target all the recipients of the donor’s organs. Aidan Quinn and James Remar are cops, Peter Friedman is the doctor. All of them are romantically interested in Stowe, maybe dangerously. Great performance from Stowe can’t save…
-
Strangely simplistic take on a 1920s West Virginia coal miners work stoppage. The film’s jumbo scale gets away from director Sayles in the script so he relies way too heavily on caricature. Great performances from Chris Cooper, Mary McDonnell, and David Strathairn. Very disappointing. DVD.Continue reading →
The Stop Button 