Here’s the inevitable remake for George Romero’s The Crazies, a movie whose name recognition evidently spells dollar signs, even though most people haven’t heard of it. But the new version is less interested in recreating Romero’s ramshackle original than in copying a dozen other movies. As a virus is transforming an Iowa town’s human population, […]
Mark Palermo
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Horrors delivered in Shutter Island
Especially in its middle-section, involving a search through a forbidden part of a mental ward and a rendezvous at a lighthouse, Shutter Island delivers the pulp excitement of digging too deep, crossing the point of no return in a dark mystery. Adapting Dennis Lehane’s novel into a homage of 1940s evoke-more-than-you-show thrillers, Martin Scorsese delivers […]
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Book of Eli all slaughter, no heart
Decked out like Blade, with shades on and a sword on his back, Eli (Denzel Washington) ventures through decimated civilizations preaching the good book. He’s taken it all to heart, except the Thou Shalt Not Kill part. The Book of Eli directors The Hughes Brothers get off on silly over-the-top slaughter, while still expecting their […]
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Edge of Darkness down in the hole
Mel Gibson’s publicized blowup and now grizzled appearance inform his perception as Thomas Craven in Edge of Darkness. Both loving father and gruff duty-bound cop, his daughter’s murder pushes him to the brink of madness. Gibson embodies Thomas, physically and spiritually, as someone who has been to hell and back. The rest of Edge of […]
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Crazy Heart pulls the strings
Crazy Heart fits The Wrestler mold of a morose look at an ex-star falling apart. Only it’s more slight, in both impact and design. Music vet Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) is now an alcoholic reduced to playing bowling alleys, cherishing any moment of fan recognition. Director Scott Cooper forms the movie equivalent to country music—Crazy […]
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No magical kiss for The Princess and the Frog
Returning to hand-drawn animation, The Princess and the Frog is traditional to a fault. The cultural pinnings and influences of 1920s New Orleans are whitewashed into a retread of the same-old. Aspiring restaurant-entrepreneur Tiana, Disney’s too-late first African-American cartoon heroine (then they turn her into a frog), fills the role of the working class dreamer-girl. […]
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Youth in Revolt not rebellious enough
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is the world’s most talkative introvert. Socially inexperienced, constructing elaborate sentences and fascinated by foreign films and French songwriters, he falls hard for Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday)—an equally highbrow teen, who’s hot enough that her cool factor is miles above his own. Youth in Revolt‘s indie intellect is cliche, and that […]
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Decade in review: Palermo on Palermo
Partly, I loved having the excuse. I didn’t have to worry about my dignity when walking into Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. “You’re actually going to see The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas?” a friend would ask. “Yeah,” I’d say. “It’s my job.” Sometimes it is a job. Sometimes going to see Saw V is a day […]
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Ritchie keeps Sherlock Holmes elementary
The lure of a different kind of blockbuster, with intellectual gameplay and fast wit, is discarded by Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. It fits the exact mould of a prefab blockbuster. Ritchie portrays Victorian London with a grey and brown emphasis on dust and dirt. But it’s only set dressing. The movie’s too frantic in its […]
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Nine is not Italian
Despite its nauseating refrain of “Be Italian,” there’s not an Italian actor among the main cast of Nine. Rob Marshall’s song-and-dance take on Fellini’s 8½ is a let’s-play-dressup front–a fictitious reduction of another director’s autobiographical classic. Marshall’s numbers have neither flash nor scope. They enter the movie as psychological explorations of Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), […]
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Brothers reaches for emotional truths
The baseless nihilism of so many Hollywood Oscar films gets shown up by Brothers. To the embarrassment of some, director Jim Sheridan wears his heart on his sleeve, but his melodrama is attentive to emotional truth—attaining real intensity and recognition. Out of his depth with the 50 Cent showcase Get Rich Or Die Tryin’, Sheridan […]
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Cage indulges in lunacy in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
The sight of a road accident in which a car flipped over a jaywalking alligator sets the tragic/absurdist tone of Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. It’s a fascinating cinematic image, and Herzog’s darkly funny spin on police procedural dramas is full of these moments of loosely connected dementia. At its centre […]