I was completely swept away by the 2009 reinvention of “Star Trek” (my favorite film of that year). Director J.J. Abrams approached an impossible creative challenge with startling confidence, restoring awe to a dusty brand name while removing the need to be slavish to Gene Roddenberry’s original creation as it paved the way for its own universe of ...
What “The Iceman” has to offer, we’ve seen before. It’s a hitman story, a bio-pic of sorts studying the cold-blooded career of Richard Kuklinski, a mafia enforcer who murdered over 100 people during his two decades on the job, dealing with all types of godfathers and hot-heads as he tried to raise a family in relative peace. It’s a tough guy saga t...
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that my introduction to Ricky Jay was through his acting credits, watching him perform in the films of David Mamet and Paul Thomas Anderson, completely unaware of his legacy as a sleight of hand master. His magical authority would come later to me, making his accomplishments and skill even more impressive, with his v...
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an Uwe Boll picture, going to back 2008 when his last theatrical endeavor, “In the Name of the King,” blew in and out of multiplexes with the speed of a spring breeze. Since that time, Boll has gone on to direct 15 movies, living up to his Ed Wood legacy by churning out features at an alarming rate, with one of...
Danish director Susanne Bier has built a career out of difficult pictures with hard edges, gracefully exploring the limits of vulnerability with a decidedly humane approach, always aware of natural behaviors that have generated some spellbinding cinema (including 2004’s “Brothers”). “Love Is All You Need” is an unnerving step toward mainstream acce...
After playing second fiddle to Gerard Butler in last month’s “Olympus Has Fallen,” it’s about time star Aaron Eckhart proved himself in the action arena. It’s only a shame “Erased,” as nondescript a title as can be, doesn’t reveal much ingenuity in the stale genre, electing to reheat plot elements and violent encounters viewed in other, better film...
I wish “The English Teacher” was as humorous and mischievous as it believes itself to be. A farce in serious need of speed and content, the picture doesn’t exactly achieves its minimal goals, falling short of its intended satiric aim toward high school theatrical productions, while lacking spitfire as a comedy of errors tinged with uncomfortable se...
“Midnight’s Children” is a sprawling motion picture that rarely pauses to allow its audience a moment to grasp the numerous leaps in time and enormous collection of characters. It’s based on the 1981 book by Salman Rushdie, who co-scripts and narrates this bizarre story of childhood trauma, magical powers, and crushing political changes, attempting...
“Aftershock” is a strange disaster film that desires to merge broad comedy with utter depravity, looking to concoct a pungent brew of exploitation for those who’ve developed a taste for such bitter screen insanity. Unfortunately, the feature is lopsided, unfunny, and needlessly aggressive, or, in other words, it was co-written by Eli Roth, the horr...
The marketing for “Peeples” has been stamped silly with the Tyler Perry brand name, though he only has a vague producer presence here, not a primary creative role. Actually, it’s probably a mistake to have Mr. Madea’s name anywhere near the picture, as Perry’s core fanbase will be expecting something volcanic from a movie that just wants to relax a...
Director Baz Luhrmann is not a miracle man, but he’s successfully restored pluck to fatigued material with his unique brand of cinematic voodoo. He made Shakespeare dizzy with 1996’s “Romeo + Juliet,” sent turn of the century Paris to Mars in 2001’s “Moulin Rouge,” and restored romantic sweep to a majestic continent with 2008’s “Australia.” However...
With “Down Terrace” and “Kill List,” director Ben Wheatley was striving for more of a severe atmosphere of family dysfunction and the dark unknown, creating interesting but indulgent cinema that fell short of its initial promise. “Sightseers” takes Wheatley in a distinctly broad direction, creating a pitch-black comedy that’s uproarious when it isn...
Continuing his barbed but playful filmmaking interests as of late, writer/director Francois Ozon works his way to an exploration of voyeurism with his latest effort, “In the House.” Playing to the helmer’s strengths as it details obsession and mental gamesmanship, the feature is a riveting endeavor that blurs the line between fact and fiction, work...
In the mid-eighties, there was bumper crop of films examining the plight of the red-blooded, family-oriented American farmer as they faced industry demands, corporate interests, and dwindling profits. In 2013, the vocation has changed radically, with little room for a personal touch, giving way to fields of crops born from genetically modified seed...
After securing blushes from teen girls worldwide with his supporting role in the “Twilight” series (playing Emmett, the vamp bruiser), Kellan Lutz is looking to break out on his own, accepting starring vehicles that require displays of strength and beefcakery. However, the true star of “Java Heat” is the Indonesian island where the location takes p...
“What Richard Did” doesn’t move in traditional melodramatic directions, preferring to sustain an air of realism that often results in startling turns of character. It’s a low-key production, perhaps painfully so to some viewers, asking those with patience to stick with the relatively mundane aspects of Irish teen life before it springs an act of vi...
The Bert Stern that we know is the legendary advertising and celebrity photographer, a man with a singular eye for feminine beauty and unforgettable composition, building his career on iconic pictures, most notably of Marilyn Monroe just before she passed away in 1962. The Bert Stern of the “Original Madman” documentary is an older gentleman with l...
When we last saw Iron Man saving the day, he was a member of the Avengers, teaming up with his superhero friends to save the Earth from a city-smashing alien invasion. Unable to topple that mighty achievement, co-writer/director Shane Black selects an insular path for the arrogant but lovable Tony Stark, and that unusual mix of spectacle and person...
“Gambit” announces its retro intentions right away, kicking off with an animated title sequence not unlike those found in the “Pink Panther” series. Although credited as a remake of a 1966 picture starring Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine, the new “Gambit” is more of its own thing, only retaining the comedic sensibilities of the 1960s, along with...
In 2004, writer/director/actor/producer/composer/editor Shane Carruth brought “Primer” into view. A no-budget but highly sophisticated picture that exhaustively explored the elasticity of the time travel subgenre, “Primer” was appreciated by a cult following that adored Carruth’s attention to detail and steely moviemaking approach. Nearly a decade ...
There are times when “Generation Um…” is an authentic indie production, and there are moments where it feels like a parody of one. At the very least, it’ll be the one film this year where the audience is treated to a sequence comprised entirely of star Keanu Reeves eating two cupcakes. Perhaps that alone should be a gauge to the must-seeness of the...
Vampire movies have had it rough lately, what with the “Twilight” saga managing to regress fearsome, sensual creatures into dour Teen Beat centerfolds, complete with shimmering skin. “Kiss of the Damned” isn’t a rebuttal to the world of Edward Cullen, but it does a fine job reminding audiences that bloodsuckers are far more amorous and reprehensibl...
It’s interesting to consider how some actors find their way into starring roles. A few years back, Colin Firth won an Oscar for his work in the worldwide smash “The King’s Speech,” and now he’s found himself in “Arthur Newman,” which is far removed from the high-profile screen challenges the leading man has enjoyed recently. Although the material i...
It doesn't take long, perhaps five minutes, before it's abundantly clear that "The Big Wedding" is going to be of no use. Commencing with vague introductions, the material is soon asking Robert De Niro to prepare Susan Sarandon for an impromptu session of oral sex on a kitchen countertop before Diane Keaton nervously interrupts, resulting in a touc...
"My Brother the Devil" has powerful individual moments, truly honest emotional searching that gives the material depth the movie doesn't otherwise possess. Though it comes across as yet another inspection of misspent youth in a rap-saturated council estate setting, writer/director Sally El Hosaini scratches a little deeper to explore the bonds betw...
The key to 2010’s “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” was its sincerity. It was a genuinely awful feature from an enormously incompetent filmmaker, a man who thought he could match his idol Alfred Hitchcock in the suspense department, only to make a mind-numbingly tedious, technically disastrous picture about global warming, attacking birds, and young peo...
The power of great cinema is a special thing. With “Mud,” the screening audience I attended the film with fell in love with the picture, physically and verbally invested in story and character to a degree I haven’t been exposed to in a very long time. It was a unique moviegoing adventure for a classically conceived effort, standing somewhere betwee...
After the 2011 release of the global blockbuster “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” director Michael Bay wanted to challenge himself again. After years of gargantuan features, “Pain & Gain” represented a return to roots planted with the 1995 action comedy “Bad Boys,” offering Bay a chance to cause a comparatively low-budget ruckus in his favorite fi...
“The Numbers Station” earns points for being a somewhat original take on the bunker thriller subgenre, using a spy vs. spy world of codes and assassination attempts to beef up an otherwise simplistic siege story. While not a terribly convincing picture, “The Numbers Station” has a few moments of workable suspense and puzzle solving, while star John...
After flirting with the abstract and the surreal in the midst of slasher film shenanigans with “Halloween II,” writer/director Rob Zombie has decided to scratch the itch in full with “The Lords of Salem.” A bizarre mind-bomb of a movie, the feature represents a slight change in direction for the helmer, who once had a ball raising hillbilly hell an...
