A tall tale about a tall tale, the bogus "authorized autobiography" of Howard Hughes, peddled by Clifford Irving to McGraw-Hill in the early Seventies. Richard Gere, as the hungering writer ("The middle of my life is at hand. I don't have a couch"), has some funny bits imitating Hughes's speech …
More of the same from director Peter Jackson, here pulling a proper Lucas and giving us the first installment of a prequel trilogy to his earlier three-parter, The Lord of the Rings. (Then, he was adapting three books; now, he's stretching just one, packing a straightforward quest with all manner …
Look, if you were as bloated as The Hobbit trilogy, you'd probably be showing signs of exhaustion toward the end of a nearly nine-hour runtime, too. And if your films were as stupidly profitable as director Peter Jackson's, you'd probably be just as blind to your own cinematic sins. So …
Here it is, folks: the longer version of this.
Peter Jackson continues his mad quest to transform a ripping children's book into an all-encompassing epic. The result is a road movie with entirely too much baggage, a slog through the mires of exposition and special effects. With all the dwarves, wizards, hobbits, orcs, wargs, elves, spiders, dragons, man-bears, enchanted …
Fans of Middle Earth: at this point, you maybe kinda sorta have to wonder if Peter Jackson is just trolling you, no? First, he takes a short book written for children and stretches it into a monster epic trilogy. Now he's releasing extended versions of those three films? That takes …
Randall Wright’s documentary about the English artist is forced to trade drama for detail: that’s what happens when your still-living subject has led a relatively happy, comfortable life. (Yes, he was born into English austerity during the war years, and yes, it wasn’t easy being gay, but he still comes …
Three resurrected weird sisters (the rat-toothed Bette Midler, the bimbo-esque Sarah Jessica Parker, the jello-y Kathy Najimy: three broad actresses) chase after three dull youths in present-day Salem. This could have been prevented if only the talking black cat had spoken up before the virgin lit the black-flame candle on …
Three resurrected weird sisters (the rat-toothed Bette Midler, the bimbo-esque Sarah Jessica Parker, the jello-y Kathy Najimy: three broad actresses) chase after three dull youths in present-day Salem. This could have been prevented if only the talking black cat had spoken up before the virgin lit the black-flame candle on …
Three resurrected weird sisters (the rat-toothed Bette Midler, the bimbo-esque Sarah Jessica Parker, the jello-y Kathy Najimy: three broad actresses) chase after three dull youths in present-day Salem. This could have been prevented if only the talking black cat had spoken up before the virgin lit the black-flame candle on …
Ten-ton commemorative monument, forged by Danny DeVito out of swooping cranes and swelling adagios and a two-thirds empty widescreen -- as puffed-up and stiff as the body of Jack Nicholson in the title role. (What would you say, doctor? Napoleonic overcompensation on the part of a diminutive director?) Still, the …
Typically silly Robert Ludlum thriller, the full silliness of which does not come to light till the end: something about a coalition of neo-Fascists and Third World terrorists, organized and financed by a long-dead Nazi who still wants to conquer the world and, at the same time, avenge himself on …
Comedy of bad taste, set among the mixed-nuts occupants of an El Monte trailer park: bad enough to raise the specter of Pink Flamingos, not bad enough to raise an eyebrow. With Max Parrish, Adrienne Shelly, Andrea Naschak, Diane Ladd, Sean Young; written and directed by Joel Hershman.
Mathieu Amalric's directorial effort is a French drama that paints a portrait of one woman's fractured psyche. She runs away from her family, forcing her husband to take care of the children she left behind. Directed by Mathieu Amalric, starring Vicky Krieps.