Most of what’s good about Zack Snyder’s Watchmen was already good about Alan Moore’s graphic novel. But give credit: For a generally faithful adaptation, Snyder commendably lets Watchmen feel like a movie. Comic-book fans can be as bad as Harry Potter fans for flipping a lid whenever a film adaptation deviates from its source. Since […]
Mark Palermo
Posted inArts + Music
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
There’s a small detail in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen that cuts to the heart of Michael Bay’s tact. Teen hero Sam (Shia LaBeouf) sits in his university astronomy class, where somehow every enrolled female student looks like a Maxim model. To appreciate some of Bay’s movies, one must learn to accept that his interests […]
Posted inArts + Music
Even cavemen deserve better
Year One‘s director Harold Ramis has explained that what separates his Old Testament comedy from Mel Brooks’ The History of the World, Part I is its narrative continuity. Because Year One has no unifying point or point-of-view, that difference is negligible. This is still an episodic sketch film, and a mostly flat one at that. […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Proposal gets turned-down
Playing the stereotype of a cold, power-tripping female boss seems beneath Sandra Bullock’s interests. Her appeal has always been that she’s unpretentious and unassuming. Of course The Proposal has to be about her regaining that warm charisma. To avoid losing her job as a Manhattan publishing executive and being deported to her home country of […]
Posted inArts + Music
Away We Go’s an indie booster seat
Indie rock’s childhood obsessions are seeping into indie films. The Juno-style crayon-drawing title on the Away We Go poster signals director Sam Mendes’ effort to break from his imperfect but cinematic oeuvre (American Beauty, Jarhead, Road to Perdition) for a quirky folk rock-scored comedy, written by real-life couple Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. It’s a […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Taking of Pelham 123 remake almost works
There are two Tony Scotts. The first one set the standard for high-end action movies in the late ’80s and early ’90s, giving Days of Thunder, Beverly Hills Cop II and True Romance a look of bold colours popping through pervasive LA fog and haze. This Tony Scott died at the time of 1998’s Enemy […]
Posted inArts + Music
The Hangover is ultimate bromo movie
The secret society of white man-children in their 30s is currently the most represented group in American comedies. For this reigning (and tired) subgenre, The Hangover represents a high point. It’s more quick-witted, and just as character-based as I Love You, Man and its director Todd Phillips’ Old School. The best scene involves the three […]
Posted inArts + Music
Land of the Lost fun in short bursts
The root of Land of the Lost‘s charm is also the limit of its appeal. Against the stone-faced big summer blockbusters (most exemplified by the zero-fun Terminator Salvation), this adaptation of the camp mid-’70s series has deliberately hokey sets and special effects. This makes for an unassuming take on Saturday morning TV—a light retro distraction, […]
Posted inArts + Music
Easy Virtue a light concoction
The friction in Easy Virtue crosses class, manner and continent. John Whittaker (Ben Barnes) returns to his family’s British estate with his American wife Larita (Jessica Biel). For John’s mother (Kristin Scott Thomas), pent-up with anger over the decline of the aristocracy post-WWI, Larita’s carefree manner is vile. The film version of Noel Coward’s stage […]
Posted inArts + Music
Drag Me to Hell a return to form
The lasting cult of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead trilogy leads to Drag Me to Hell, a return to the energetic horror-comic style the filmmaker helped innovate. It’s weird in execution: Not an Evil Dead movie, but it frequently behaves exactly like one: The gore-gags were edgier before CG was involved. And though Drag Me to […]
Posted inArts + Music
Angels & Demons is a lot less than pretty wild
How is Robert Langdon interesting? Played by Tom Hanks, the symbologist explains his outlook: “I’m not meant to believe. Faith is a gift I’ve yet to receive.” But the disparity between his work and belief isn’t used to make him any more charismatic in Angels & Demons than in its even-worse predecessor, The Da Vinci […]
Posted inArts + Music
X-Men Origins: Wolverine lacks emotional drive
The “origins” chapter for X-Men: Wolverine barely even serves as filler. At the end of the movie, Wolverine loses his memory. This implies that viewers shouldn’t be bothered to keep track of Wolverine’s backstory, when he can’t even remember it. The only justice is that the movie’s forgettable, anyway. It lacks a concise emotional drive. […]
