More isn't always better, ventures the eponymous heroine. "Sometimes it's just more." Truer words never fell on deafer ears. Sydney Pollack's update of Billy Wilder's fairy-tale-for-grownups is, by virtue of fidelity to its forebear, a well-constructed piece of work, and (major assist to cameraman Giuseppe Rotunno) a gleamingly polished one …
The final film, before his death by cancer, of Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, made in Sweden with local cinematographer (and regular Bergman collaborator) Sven Nykvist — and recommendable on that count alone. In fact recommendable on the basis of the first shot alone, a placid, contemplative long-take, with leisurely and …
Set in the 5th Century B.C., Sacrifice tells the powerful tale of a Chinese general responsible for the ruthless slaughter of all but one member of a rival clan. The sole survivor, an infant prince named Cheng Bo, is secretly raised by the doctor who delivers him, a man that …
Todd Haynes's personal baptism in the commercial mainstream. It starts out as if it could be an extension of one of the three plot strands in his 16mm black-and-white homoerotic undergrounder, Poison -- the science-fictional strand to do with a "Leper Sex Killer on the Loose." An AIDS metaphor, unmistakably. …
A grimy homage to New York City before Giuliani applied the Disneyfied glaze. Wanted by Russian mobsters, the Chinese Triad, and his former NYPD allies, Jason Statham finds himself having to protect a four-year-old Chinese girl (Catherine Chan) whose photographic memory houses a precious numerical code. The story is so …
On the run from the law, big city gal Julianne Hough finds refuge in the arms of small town widower, Josh Duhamel. For its first hour, a regulation Nicholas Sparks teen romance, until all hell breaks loose in the form of maniac cop, David Lyons, and unintentional laughter reigns supreme. …
Denzel Washington rules again, his charisma little aged, but what’s the point of suavely dominating another spew of violent killings and barely credible suspense? Ryan Reynolds is a CIA agent whose boring life in South Africa is supercharged by the arrival of rogue super-agent Denzel. Also caught in the suction …
Lead-balloon comedy of mistaken identity. A struggling (and losing badly) Simon-and-Garfunkel-ish singing duo, in matching short-sleeve checked shirts and sleeveless V-necked red pullovers, is misidentified as a crackerjack safecracking team and framed by a Jewish mafioso into doing his bidding: knock over three safes of his choosing in one week …
TV news bulletin: a terrorist bomb has blown up a Marine headquarters in the Sinai, where one of the seven Springer brothers is stationed. The other six of them rally round the Springer matriarch, together with one girlfriend and the estranged husband and father, to await the casualty report. The …
Of all the silent comics, Harold Lloyd may have had the solidest sense of character, as evidenced by the setting-up of his eager-beaver Horatio Alger character in this movie's lovely first half. The second half contains the famous shot of Lloyd dangling from the hands of a clock. Which is …
A Proustian fairy tale for anyone old enough to have regrets, Safety Not Guaranteed is also good humanist sci-fi. The technology (whether or not it’s actually real) exists in the service of genuinely human problems. Disappointed young woman (Aubrey Plaza) sets out to write a story on disappointed older dude …