Nicolas Cage’s capacity to act as though he’s constantly living the most agonizing moment of his life is at least justified in Knowing. As astronomer John Koestler, he’s set off when his son’s grade-school class unearths a 1959 time capsule of students’ future predictions. The seemingly random series of scrawled numbers that his son received […]
Mark Palermo
Posted inArts + Music
The Last House
When Wes Craven made The Last House on the Left in 1972, he was a recently retired humanities professor who had barely seen any movies, much less directed one. Though the amateur quality and decadence of The Last House on the Left (renamed after original title Sex Crime of the Century failed to sell tickets) […]
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Miss March
An odd thing happens about 15 minutes into Miss March. The comedy, which until that point is desperate and met with uncomfortable audience silence, is suddenly funny. But it isn’t meant to last. Director/writer/star duo Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore (of MTV’s The Whitest Kids U Know) hit when the comedy is physical. But they […]
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Watchmen
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. […]
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I’ve Loved You So Long
The tragedy of a woman’s wasted life first drives Philippe Claudel’s debut I’ve Loved You So Long. But once the tale expands, and Claudel has the option to turn against estranged sister Juliette (Kristen Scott Thomas), he takes the high road and doesn’t. To reveal specifics would harm the experience, which depends upon viewers coping […]
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Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
Don’t give me the “it’s escapism” defense. Escapism would be welcome. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is purgatory. It’s not really even a movie. It’s barely up to the standards of the narrative scenes between levels of a video game. The success of the Street Fighter games already spawned one movie (a rather unequal […]
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Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience
Don’t give me the “it’s escapism” defense. Escapism would be welcome. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is purgatory. It’s not really even a movie. It’s barely up to the standards of the narrative scenes between levels of a video game. The success of the Street Fighter games already spawned one movie (a rather unequal […]
Posted inArts + Music
Fired Up!
There’s trouble in a comedy when the preppy bad guy who is going out with the girl the good guy likes is no more intolerable than the good guy who complains how intolerable he is. I don’t care if the bad guy is mocked for listening to Chumbawumba and Lou Bega, Fired Up! has no […]
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Madea Goes to Jail
It’s easy to dismiss Tyler Perry’s movies as cheap and preachy, but they need to be viewed in a full audience to be appreciated. Seeing Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail revives a sense of film-going as a social experience. He deals with relationships in spiritual and broadly comedic terms, and audiences are invited to […]
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Push
A scene early in Push got my hopes up. Nick (Chris Evans) and Cassie (Dakota Fanning, looking tough with Avril Lavigne hair) are being chased through a Hong Kong fish market. Their pursuers are able to scream at such a pitch that it makes ears bleed and windows shatter. As the chase continues, there are […]
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Friday the 13th
A director of photography named Daniel C. Pearl is credited immediately following a beheading in Friday the 13th. Either the editor of this sequence is clueless about historical events and Angelina Jolie movies, or he’s making an inappropriate joke. But to get worked up about this revamping of the Friday the 13th franchise isn’t easy. […]
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Confessions of a Shopaholic
Give Confessions of a Shopaholic points for being upfront. The flack that “women’s movies” take for promoting consumerism—marry rich, fight for your dream wedding and shop your blues away—is here made front and centre. The adaptation of Sophie Kinsella’s popular novel is sound because it’s willing to look at material excess as its subject. It’s […]
