Toward the outset of World War II, a devoutly religious but in-over-his-head Navy captain (Tom Hanks) leads a military escort of Allied ships though the North Atlantic — with a wolfpack of six Nazi U-boats hot on their tail. At a time when starring roles for middle-aged heroes are at …
An abecedarian, biographical approach to Edgar Rice Burroughs's Jungle Man (never called by the name of Tarzan; called only by John Clayton, Earl of Greystoke). This approach ensures some dull stretches, as we pick up the story before birth, proceed through infancy, childhood, and adolescence, hit all the major milestones …
Tim Blake Nelson's filmization of his own stage play invites viewers once again to be ground under the Nazi boot heel. It poses the timeless question of how low the human animal will sink for survival -- and not even for survival, necessarily, but just "for vodka and bed linens," …
Not unpalatable, but predictable and corny anti-gang message movie, based on the "TRUE STORY" (in preludial capital letters) of an experimental football program at Camp Kilpatrick juvenile detention center. Filmed in an in-your-face style by director Phil Joanou, with emphasis on coarse-grained closeups and pushy telephoto shots. Dwayne "The Rock" …
I am almost entirely unfamiliar with Tupac Shakur’s discography, but I can personally vouch for the quality of his performances in the half-dozen films in which he starred. This black comedy romp places near the top. Spend New Year’s Day with a trio of junkies — Spoon (Tupac Shakur), Stretch …
The New Year's Eve overdose of a Detroit jazz vocalist convinces her bassist and keyboardist to make a New Year's Resolution to kick their own habits. (The three are very close: flashbacks reveal they even pee together.) The bureaucratic obstacles ahead of them reach almost Kafka-esque proportions. But the raw …
One week behind the scenes of a daytime TV series, The Love Judge. "Campy trash," proclaims the show's producer in assessment of a script on circus lesbians. (The script goes in front of the cameras, anyway.) The description applies to the low-low-low-low-budget movie, too, notwithstanding some pit stops to ruminate …
Griff (Ryan Kwanten) is a bullied Australian nerd who finds relief as a suited superhero in dark alleys. He meets a brainy nerdette (Maeve Dermody), and their romance comes into focus as they work on becoming invisible. The stars are okay, the effects are quaint, but writer-director Leon Ford depends …
Atavistic film noir adapted from one of Jim Thompson's posthumously fashionable spit-and-chewing-gum jobs. The adapters (Stephen Frears, director; Donald Westlake, writer) have done well to eliminate a shockingly sentimental streak in the book, but in doing so they have further downshifted an already driftless plot. And the intermittent digressive flashback, …
Or: How the Grinch Sucked the Life out of the Multiplex.
Or: How the Grinch Sucked the Life out of the Multiplex.
It sounded like a fun idea at first. Two movies in one, a prepackaged double feature, in emulation of, or tribute to, the Golden Age exploitation films of the Sixties and Seventies, the last of the B-pictures, the Joe Bob Briggs drive-in movies, the 42nd Street grindhouse fare. Planet Terror …
Another action/drug comedy that does as much to promote Mexican tourism as our President. Director (and star Joel’s brother) Nash Edgerton (The Square) seems more interested in clogging his dithered narrative with sudden developments (many lifted from other movies) than he is in allowing his thoroughbred cast a little breathing …
The globe-trotting Werner Herzog digs up another of those border dwellers, those boundary pushers, he loves to document -- one Timothy Treadwell, b. 1957, d. 2003 -- along with a hundred or so hours of found footage, a treasure trove of video shot by the subject himself, mostly of himself, …
An all-night rave in a San Francisco warehouse, with an ensemble of unfamiliar faces. Vastly knowledgeable, thinly informative, nowhere near as slick and entertaining as it means to be. With Mackenzie Firgens, Lola Glaudini, Denny Kirkwood, Hamish Linklater, Rachel True; written, directed, and edited by Greg Harrison.