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A war movie with science fiction trappings, Battle: Los Angeles is unfortunately a missed opportunity mired in cliche, banality, and cornball sentimentality. It hits the ground running, quickly (too quickly) introducing most of the characters in-between faux coverage of a bizarre meteor shower that quickly turns out to be the vanguard of an alien invasion. … Continue reading
Both fascinating and frustrating, the school-is-hell art-house drama Detachment is alternately shrill and sharp to an almost fatal degree. Written by Carl Lund and directed by British artist and occasional filmmaker (it’s only his second feature, the first being American History X way back in 1998), it is a potent, provocative, and sometimes effective condemnation … Continue reading
After re-inventing himself with the gritty crime fare of A History of Violence (2005) and Eastern Promises (2007), director David Cronenberg turns in a surprisingly disappointing follow-up with A Dangerous Method, a limp and uninteresting historic drama that would thrive on — but is completely lacking — the psychosexual tension that usual permeates Cronenberg’s work. … Continue reading
The latest entry in the in the live-action series based on the Hasbro toy line is every bit the sort of bombastic spectacle we’ve come to know and loathe from director Michael Bay; it’s also less of a beating to sit through than the previous entries thanks to a tiny amount of restraint. Granted, that’s … Continue reading
Though a very literal adaptation of the 1973 TV movie, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark nevertheless manages to stand on its own merits as a creepy, suspenseful, squirm-inducing thriller that impressively taps into all those irrational dreads and fears that plagued us as children. Bailee Madison gives and impressive performance as Sally, an elementary … Continue reading
The first real event movie in a year littered with them, The Hunger Games is poised to inherit the mantle of “Next Great Young Adult Novel Franchise Turned Blockbuster Film Franchise” from the concluded Harry Potter series and the wish-it-never-had-been Twilight series. Many have tried and failed (we’re looking at you, I Am Number and … Continue reading
After seven movies in ten years, the Harry Potter film franchise comes to a bittersweet but satisfying conclusion in the form of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2. It delivers the pay-off that the plodding first part so selfishly promised but declined to deliver, and rewards the years of dedication and anticipation that … Continue reading
It’s a good thing Attack the Block opened in the UK back in the merry, merry month of May 2011; its scenes of a squalid section of South London reduced to a flaming war zone might not have played too well in British megaplexes during the riots that erupted last Spring. On this side of … Continue reading
An engaging throwback to the cynical Cold War espionage movies and paranoia thrillers of the 1970s, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy plays like a time capsule of an era when civilization seemed pertually on the brink of annihilation, good vs. evil was painted in shades of gray, and high-tech surveillance in the pre-digital age meant sneaking … Continue reading
The much-anticipated American adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s novel (or remake of the Swedish film version, depending on how you look at it) The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finds director David Fincher in fine form, returning to the dark, twisted pulp that he does so well but hasn’t touched since Zodiac in 2007 and Seven in 1997. Like those films, Dragon Tattoo is a seedy … Continue reading
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