Category Archives: Reviews

Meek’s Cutoff – The Bleakest Western you’ll ever see.

Posted on June 20, 2011 by | Leave a comment

A vast, desolate wasteland with no shelter on the horizon. A man at the end of his wits carving one word, his worst fear, into a stray log: Lost. A trickling creek breaking up the hopeless landscape. The camera pans up, and all we can see are a few women gathering water in slow motion-except then we realize there is no camera gimmickry going on here; the women are simply burdened by the weight of their own weariness. These are the shots that open Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff, and they set the pace, tone and themes of the film in motion without ever uttering  a word. Meek’s Cutoff is as difficult to watch as the terrain its characters traverse, its painstaking journey is incredibly rewarding. Continue reading →

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Kung Fu Panda 2 a great 3D sequel

Posted on June 19, 2011 by | 1 comment

Running too late to catch the 2D screening of Kung Fu Panda 2, I reluctantly accepted the 3D glasses from the usher, anxious about the eye strain that was soon to be mine.  To my surprise, despite a bloody 3D Friskies commercial jammed between film trailers, I was able to enjoy Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D.  In fact, it was the best 3D film I have seen (yep, even better than Avatar) and it 3D actually added to the film experience.  Did I also mention this was a genuine sequel, setting out to develop characters and their story beyond the initial volley?  Kung Fu Panda 2 is full of surprises. Continue reading →

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Sci-Fi Channel’s most expensive film, Green Lantern

Posted on June 19, 2011 by | 2 comments

A studio head chomps on a cartoonishly oversized cigar, flipping through pages in a binder.  The cover reads “Green Lantern” and he parts with his cigar for the occasional guffaw over certain passages.  The man is so delighted he bellows for his assistant to write a check for $300,000,000 to make this amazing, amusing work of cinematic genius.  I spin this fictional yarn because it would be great if someone actually loved the film they were making instead of packaging a soulless product – and ultimately I’m getting tired of this shit. Continue reading →

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Midnight in Paris – A Journey through Nostalgia.

Posted on June 15, 2011 by | 3 comments

Nostalgia. Once upon a time it referred to a certain kind of mental illness, describing someone unable to live in his or her time.  Now the word has been relegated to the cute, adorable, kitschy part of our lexicon. We think of nostalgia as a kind of benign obsession–only that’s not quite the word either, for nostalgia tends to describe something far more tame. Gil Pender, played brilliantly by Owen Wilson, suffers from a strange nostalgic notion that the 1920’s in Paris were far better than the present day. Through Gil’s adventures in the half-darkened streets of the City of Lights, Woody Allen weaves a fantastical tale completely unlike anything he has ever done. Midnight in Paris is simultaneously a fascinating portrait of a city, and a study of that particular kind of nostalgia that drives us to live in a past we never had and to forget a present that is passing us by. Continue reading →

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Hobo with a Shotgun lives up to its name and then some

Posted on June 12, 2011 by | 5 comments

There’s been a spat of high-concept, low-brow send-ups to terrible exploitation films over the last several years (Drive Angry 3D, Black Dynamite) and we owe a debt of gratitude to Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, the masterminds behind Grindhouse, which started it all.  Rodriguez failed to live up to his faux-trailer for Machete in the actual feature-length format, but Hobo with a Shotgun (which was a faux-trailer shown with Grindhouse in Canada) lives up to the insanity of its initial trailer draft thanks in part to Rutger Hauer, inventive kills, and actors who know they’re in a depraved, cackling, over-the-top, fucked up movie. Continue reading →

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Super 8? More like, Super Gr8! (seriously though, it’s good)

Posted on June 10, 2011 by | 5 comments

Super 8 is likely the best movie of the summer. Continue reading →

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Mel Gibson not the main man in The Beaver

Posted on June 10, 2011 by | Leave a comment

In the wake of embarrassing and terrible personal information bleeding out over tabloid pages and gossip sites, much has been made of Mel Gibson’s attempt to return to the film industry with his most recent film, The Beaver.  Even the film’s trailer seems to play up the connection between Gibson’s real life personal troubles  and those of his character – which is funny because he’s not the film’s true star. Continue reading →

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The Greatest Movie Ever Sold: title fail

Posted on June 8, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Morgan Spurlock’s debut documentary, Super Size Me, didn’t offer any revelatory information (eating McDonald’s everyday is bad for you?  Say it ain’t so!), but actually seeing the food’s physical effects on Spurlock in heavy doses made you question the merits of even the occasional Big Mac.  Spurlock’s latest venture, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,  again declares the obvious (product placement exists), but gives little motivation to ring the alarms. Continue reading →

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X-Men First Class gets B- (but kind of hates women and minorities)

Posted on June 3, 2011 by | 9 comments

The re-boot: what an intriguing concept. A production company just Etch A Sketches the previous narrative to start a new one.  One motive is the hope of re-invigorating a franchise that’s hobbling along; both Spider-Man and X-Men got their re-boots (Spider-Man hits next year) after weak third installments. Or maybe you just don’t want to spend the money to maintain your now-expensive lead actors and directors.  For the audience it’s almost like losing the lottery: you spend three films (over the course of a decade) investing in the characters and their narrative, only to be told you’ll have to re-invest (maybe that’s more like the stock market).  Fortunately X-Men First Class offers some legitimate incentives to do so, but it’s not without its flaws. Continue reading →

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Everything Must Go: Will Ferrell more than a funny man

Posted on June 1, 2011 by | Leave a comment

The recent films of Will Ferrell have been hit and miss.  The Other Guys was a fantastic return to the improv magic of Anchorman (both were directed by Adam McKay), while Land of the Lost and Semi-Pro were not met with kind reviews or box office figures.  If Ferrell isn’t a guaranteed hit-maker, he does have a great opportunity to try his hand at other roles.  And as the lead in the drama Everything Must Go, he’s something to behold. Continue reading →

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