The incisor that slowly falls from the hockey player’s mouth, just after his blood forms Pollack-like droplets on the ice, casts Goon as a film that celebrates controlled violence. Puccini’s “Diecimile anni al nostro Imperatore” accompanies this scene, as do cheers from the crowd and smiles on the face of the enforcer who protected his team’s marquee […]
The Rum Diary is a movie full of missed moments, seemingly at times of ranting to its audience. At the same time, this film falls prey to the same devices that sunk Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In both films, Depp channels the journalist alter egos of Thompson, but in The Rum Diary, the poignancy […]
Spiderman will clearly be the biggest draw this weekend unless you are part of the millions of Katy Perry fans who have never been able to afford to see her live. In that case, you can watch her story unfold before your very eyes. Or, you could check out Oliver Stone’s most recent film in which he explores […]
In one sense, 21 Jump Street is retelling of The Prince and the Pauper wherein economic disparities are replaced by the gulf between the socially admired and the socially anemic. Truthfully, I was expecting little from the large-screen adaptation of the 1980’s television series about undercover police officers who infiltrate reprobate-filled highschools. However, this film is less longer […]
From the beginning of Ted, writer / director Seth MacFarlane blends fairy tale and nostalgia into one film. MacFarlane-as-baritone narrator indicts the people of world for no longer believing that wishes come true. As if channeling the virtues of Jiminy Cricket, the narrator brings us into a wintery landscaped-Massachusetts, on Christmas Eve, “that time of year when […]
Over this weekend, we will learn to be careful what we wish for, know that even strippers can become movie stars, wonder if we have a long-lost sibling, ask ourselves what will happen after fifteen years of marriage, and ponder who keeps paying to see Tyler Perry films. Enoy! Ted: In one sense, Seth MacFarlane’s new film […]
Ostensibly, everything on the fictional island of New Penzance is out of a Normal Rockwell painting. The colors are clean, the children are adorned with suspenders, crisp hems, and Sunday school shoes, and everything has its place. Such is the life imagined in Wes Anderson’s new film Moonrise Kingdom. This film shares a number of character elements […]
The King’s Speech is well acted, (characteristically by Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth, who won the Oscar he should have won for A Single Man) and decently directed by Tom Hooper, though I still feel David Fincher and Christopher Nolan were ignored for their work in The Social Network and Inception, respectively. Overall, the film is touching […]
Jun22
Weekend Arena: 6/22
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: In general, I’m a fan of fairy tailish, revisionist history. So long as the film includes enough farcical moments to subtly remind the audience that it is not watching a biopic or docudrama, I see no harm. Inglourious Basterds might be the prime example of this gimmick done well. From the beginning of […]
If Jack and Jill wasn’t enough, That’s My Boy is full of harbingers that Adam Sandler’s career as audience pleasing comic is coming to an end. For sure, he won’t go broke, and every now and then he’ll step away from his own production company and make a decent film like Funny People or Punch Drunk Love, […]