Tangled: Why Knot?
Even for Disney, coloring by numbers doesn’t always add up to a good product. But what about in the case of "Tangled" (which was renamed from the original "Rapunzel" into something less outwardly...
View Article‘Black Swan’ Movie Review: Dark Descent is ‘En Pointe’
Director Darren Aronofsky’s new film, 'Black Swan,' channels the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski at their most psychologically dark and sadistic. Where 'The Wrestler' toyed with a sense of...
View ArticleThe Last Airbender: Bad . . . but Is it ‘That Bad’?
Eviscerated as it was by critics, one might wonder why anyone would bother seeing M. Night Shyamalan's 'The Last Airbender.' Well, my curiosity, she is a morbid thing. I’ve watched all of Shyamalan’s...
View ArticleSubjects Shine in ‘Kings of Pastry’
'Kings of Pastry' is a documentary that focuses on several pastry chefs who yearn for and compete for the Meilleur Ouvrier de France in the category of Pastry-making, an elite tradesperson award in...
View ArticleThe Hangover: Part II — At Least There’s a Monkey
The inevitable sequel to the crass comedy hit 'The Hangover: Part II' brings back Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis, the bachelor party trio from hell. But it’s just not clicking this...
View Article‘Drive’ Thrives on Full Tank of Style, Narrative
Drive, starring the currently ubiquitous Ryan Gosling, is in part an homage to Walter Hill’s The Driver (1978) and quite an earnest endeavor: a post-modernist situation lacking most of the tropes and...
View ArticleThe Secret World of Arrietty Bears Mark of Miyazaki
It’s a sad fact that one day, we will live in a world without Hayao Miyazaki actively making movies. What we have in The Secret World of Arrietty is perhaps the next best thing to a film directed by...
View ArticlePrometheus: Should Scott Have Gone Back to the Well?
Does Ridley Scott's beautiful and engrossing return to sci-fi overcome its late-movie cliches? 'Prometheus' reviewed.
View Article‘Queen of Versailles': Money, Greed, Excess (Perfect Holiday Film?)
The Queen of Versailles (directed by Lauren Greenfield) is an excellent, fascinating, compelling documentary about money, greed, excess, and ultimately what all that does to a person.
View ArticleZero Dark Thirty: A Thrilling Return to Form for Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow’s first feature film since her award-winning effort, "The Hurt Locker," returns to the Middle East-- but this time its focus is less the front lines and more the back rooms, the CIA...
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