The empire of Niflheim is determined to steal the sacred Crystal from the kingdom of Lucis in this Japanese computer-animated science fantasy film based on the video game. Director: Takeshi Nozue. Writer: Takashi Hasegawa. Stars: Aaron Paul, Lena Headey, Sean Bean.
I entered this spy franchise prequel cold after having called in sick for the two previous installments. Matthew Vaughn once again takes writer-director credit and were one to remove the CG gore effects and the occasional incompatible f-bombs (did they really curse in such a manner at the dawn of …
Director Matthew Vaughn’s first Kingsman movie succeeded through planned adolescence, from the lad in need of a dad who served as its hero, to the James-Bond-on-meth action and humor, to the clever-kid nihilism of saving the planet through the mass culling of humanity. If it was puerile and reactionary and …
Director Matthew Vaughn’s first Kingsman movie succeeded through planned adolescence, from the lad in need of a dad who served as its hero, to the James-Bond-on-meth action and humor, to the clever-kid nihilism of saving the planet through the mass culling of humanity. If it was puerile and reactionary and …
Simultaneous spoof, homage, one-upping, and debasement of James Bond, delivered with gory, self-conscious glee by the inimitable Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class) at his Matthew Vaughniest, working once again from a graphic novel by Mark Millar. Yes, there are British spies who dress nattily and imbibe impeccably, but they …
Documentary of an elite cooking competition in Lyon, France. In this highly pressurized event, chefs create sweet treats of Proustian nuance and flamboyant kitsch. The fall of a confectionary sculpture feels almost like a national tragedy. Along with sugar, the star is the tight fraternity of cooks, and the movie …
Two best friends, both in permanent disconnect from their parents, and an ethnic-looking, slightly addlepated urchin positioned to grace t-shirts as this summer’s huggable answer to Napoleon Dynamite’s Pedro, flee home to spend the summer cobbling together a dilapidated cabin in the woods. More Sundance-sanctioned tripe that never should have …
The third in a sort of trilogy of road movies by Wim Wenders goes a good deal further than its forerunners (Alice in the Cities, Wrong Moves), and not just in actual length. (On that point, however, it should be said that Wenders makes a positive value of length, stretching …
As masters of speech, British actors stutter superbly (think of Derek Jacobi in I, Claudius). This lovably intricate, humane film from Tom Hooper and writer David Seidler dramatizes how the unexpected king, George VI, overcame his handicap in uneasy 1936. There is wonderful acting rapport between Colin Firth’s stiff, shy, …
Pronounced "for-BID-'n SUB-jects." The ninth joint effort of Charles Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson is an improvement over their norm only marginally. If that. For one thing, Bronson either has undergone some fine-tuning of his latest face-lift or else is overdue for his next one, but in any case …
Painless gender-bender comedy about a staid old British shoemaking firm ("since 1895"), which, to survive in the brazen new world, seeks out a "niche market," namely women's shoes for men, under the counsel of a cabaret drag queen: "Look to the heel.... The sex is in the heel." (Quality craftsmanship …
Heavy-footed biopic on the controversial American sexologist Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson, suppressing his Irish accent into something not quite American and not quite British, but adrift somewhere in the ocean between). Writer-director Bill Condon apparently felt it was vital to establish his subject's upbringing under a puritanical father ("Electricity has …