Mark Palermo

Were Atonement released in the spring or summer, it would be regarded as an above-average literary adaptation, and left at that. But because it’s opening at the end of the year, it’s a big Oscar film. This take on Ian McEwan’s novel unfolds in a way in which, if you’re unfamiliar with the source material, […]

Alvin and the Chipmunks skewers commercial pop garbage with its music-industry satire of how three rodents rise to the top of the billboard charts and are exploited into plush merchandise. Oh wait, I’m reviewing a movie version of a TV cartoon that was made because the screen incarnations of Scooby-Doo and Garfield made money. Good […]

Will Smith’s performance as Robert Neville, the last man on Earth after a virus outbreak in 2009, redeems I Am Legend from its familiar surface. Francis Lawrence, director of Constantine and various pop videos, lacks adventure in his dead-silence approach to urban isolation, but occasionally leaves a profound impression—the abandoned buildings of New York are […]

The musician biopic isn’t my favourite genre. Most movies can’t find new ways of expressing that all celebrities’ lives are the same. Here’s how these films work: Musician gets a record deal, big fanfare, takes a wife, develops a drug problem, isolates his family, hits rock bottom and has a comeback. Death is optional. The […]

It might seem obvious to point out that The Golden Compass is New Line’s latest hope of capturing the Christmas box-office dollar of The Lord of the Rings and Narnia franchises. But it’s that corporate cynicism that ruins the movie. The Golden Compass plays so cautiously in its need to please that it never transcends […]

Published December 08, 2005. The Hammer Horror Series Directed by: Terence Fisher (Universal) The movies from the British studio are all examples of horror films that excel through encroaching atmosphere before shock effects. They’re nicely transferred on disc, but here’s the main selling point: You get eight of them, for the price of a single […]

Published December 08, 2005. Very crudely yours, John Waters Directed by: John Waters (Alliance/New Line) John Waters never lost it, although his most recent film A Dirty Shame runs out of steam after 30 minutes. This very pink box collects Waters’ New Line releases, from gutter punk nasties like Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble to […]

Published December 08, 2005. Batman/Batman Returns Directed by: Tim Burton (Warner Home Video) The realistic tone of Batman Begins appeases some tastes, but the gothic surrealism of Tim Burton’s Batman films made a more surprising impression on pop culture. The mainstream blitzkrieg Bat-man created is exhaustively chronicled in hours of commentaries and bonus features?these discs […]