Alright, I’ll admit it. I enjoyed this film a lot more that I expected. Yes, there are parts of it that are patronizing (many caused from playing the younger brother for laughs), and the story is too saccharine for my tastes. But there are worse films one could imagine being offered on a long flight. [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Capsule'
The Blind Side
May 30th, 2010 · No Comments
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama · Family · Popcorn
Nine
May 17th, 2010 · No Comments
Fergie is pretty great. That’s something I’d never have imagined being in a position to say. As a cinema lover, though, there’s a lot more going for Nine than just Fergie. But none was as big of a surprise to me as she – and the choreography of her number, “Be Italian,” with its direct [...]
Tags: Capsule · Drama · Ensemble · Musical · Romance
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
May 17th, 2010 · No Comments
The biggest reason for the smile on my face when I think about this film is that I cannot, for the life of me, explain why it is as good as it is. Like its central character (played by an actor I often don’t care much for), this film is an absolute train wreck. And [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Crime/Noir · Director
New Moon
May 11th, 2010 · No Comments
Yes, I want these three hours of my life back. What’s that you say? It was only two hours and ten minutes? Well, that’s still about two hours longer than the story could sustain. You know what they say: when you try to pile teen angst onto an incredibly anemic script, you can . . [...]
Tags: Capsule · Drama · Romance · Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Shall We Kiss?
May 7th, 2010 · No Comments
Of the many French movies I have seen in the last decade, Shall We Kiss? is, without a doubt, the most French.
Tags: Capsule · Comedy · Drama · Foreign Language · Romance
Red Cliff: Part 1
April 24th, 2010 · No Comments
Now being half-way through the expanded (original) version of John Woo’s historical epic, I have no doubt that, despite really liking the pared-down “theatrical” version of the film I first saw at the past year’s Chicago International Film Festival, this original, five-hour version of the film is the only form that should ever be seen. [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Director · Drama · Ensemble · Foreign Language · Romance · War
Exit Through the Gift Shop
April 21st, 2010 · No Comments
Tags: Capsule · Comedy · Documentary
Precious
October 14th, 2009 · No Comments
If one of the independent film organizations had an award for the cast who most allowed themselves to look bad on film, there is no question but that the award would go to Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. (And yes, the length of the film’s official title is annoying.) The festival centerpiece [...]
Tags: Capsule · Drama · Ensemble
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
October 10th, 2009 · No Comments
Here is a sure indicator that a movie franchise has gone too far: when the latest installment, despite the spectacle of its explosions and special effects, is more or less a bore. That is, sadly, the state of things in the X-Men department. By the look of things, the film has left the caretakers of [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Comic Book · Popcorn · Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Scoop
October 6th, 2009 · No Comments
I’m just going to come out and say it: there isn’t enough going on in Scoop to justify it’s existence to anyone but die hard Woody Allen completists. Admittedly I have a love/hate reaction to Allen’s work. There is no doubt that he is a supremely gifted filmmaker, but Scoop is another example of his [...]
Tags: Capsule · Comedy · Director · Romance · Thriller
The Private Life of Henry VIII
September 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
This next film in my exploration of the Alexander Korda Eclipse box set, (after having seen Don Juan) provides another mild, but ultimately more enjoyable, discovery. The still image here of The Private Life of Henry VIII almost suggests King Henry as a vampire. Indeed, he did seem to chew through spouses at an alarming [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama
The Private Life of Don Juan
September 23rd, 2009 · No Comments
One of the ideas behind Criterion’s Eclipse series is to facilitate cinematic discoveries, to introduce unknown films to, in the company’s words “adventurous home viewers.” The four film set entitled “Alexander Korda’s Private Lives” had all the makings of a discovery for me, in that I had no previous exposure to Korda, a prolific director [...]
Tags: Capsule · Comedy · Drama
Surveillance
September 17th, 2009 · No Comments
Behind the scenes of Surveillance sits an underdog story with considerable appeal.  A staggering 15 years passed between Jennifer Lynch’s directorial debut feature, Boxing Helena, and this, her second effort. Despite its patent absurdity, I rather fondly recall Boxing Helena, a film which is perhaps underrated due to its inability to stand up next to the [...]
Tags: Capsule · Crime/Noir · Horror · Thriller
Next
September 15th, 2009 · No Comments
I just really can’t reconcile the number of films that have been made which star Nicolas Cage as the mildly vacant character swept up in some sort or frenetic intrigue. If there is any definitive proof that Hollywood is catering to the the least ambitious part of our collective movie consumption, it has to be [...]
Tags: Action/Adventure · Capsule · Sci-Fi/Fantasy · Thriller
The Soloist
September 13th, 2009 · No Comments
How does a film with impressive turns by both Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx ultimately underwhelm? At first I thought the failing might have been making Foxx’s character, the Julliard musician turned mentally ill street performer Nathaniel Ayers, too quirky and flamboyant. But this is film based on real people, and the disc’s interview with [...]
Tags: Biographical · Capsule · Drama
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
