No, not the legend of an American tennis star, nor of the heroine of a Michael Jackson song, but rather of a Texas teenager who, in trying to collect $608 to repair her brother's "trashed" scooter, finds herself on the wrong side of the law but on the right side …
Vintage Jackie Chan, ca. 1994, retitled, re-recorded, re-released. (Drunken Master 2, originally.) Some of the stunts command respect, but not so much as to offset the silliness and tedium. Words of wisdom from the kung-fu master: "Many drunken boxers become nothing more than drunken fools." Directed by Lau Ka Leung.
Renny Harlin (remember The Long Kiss Goodnight?) spills his director's paintbox all over a perfectly serviceable B movie, leaving almost no scene unstained. Wash it out, saturate it, amp it up, slow it down, and above all, have something drifting through the air — ashes, rose petals, dandelion seeds, whatever. …
From writer/director Isaiah Saxon and starring Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard, Emily Watson and Willem Dafoe.
Frederic Lilien, an aimless Belgian, found his mission by seeing and then keeping photographic vigil on Pale Male, a great hawk that nests on prime real estate facing New York’s Central Park. Lilien’s documentary is padded with music and sage thoughts about life, but the bird is glorious and the …
From a quarter-century away, Volker Schlöndorff returns to the battleground of The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, the "glory days" of Left-wing terrorism in Germany, when concepts such as "imperialism," "oppression," "pigs," "the ruling class," "revolution," etc., were freely bandied about. Coolheaded, nonjudgmental, perhaps a touch nostalgic, the filmmaker knows …
Sergei Paradjanov's (and co-director Dodo Abashidze's) gorgeous illustration of a Georgian folk legend -- and about as purely, loftily, inspirationally cinematic a use of the cinema as you are likely to run across. To say that it is dreamlike is both over-obvious and insufficient, so we must push on at …
Sixteenth-century Siamese epic, written and directed by a genuine prince in the Thai royal family, Chatri Chalerm Yukol, who appears to have taken Scorsese's Kundun for his model. The camera keeps tracking, dollying, craning -- trying to coax some life from the poseurs in costume, and give some emphasis to …
At one point in David Yates’ lush depiction of Lord John Greystoke’s reluctant return to Africa, plucky damsel in distress Jane (Margot Robbie) taunts wicked schemer Leon (Christoph Waltz) by telling him that his moustache is a trifle lower on one side than the other. But the really remarkable thing …
Big-budget remake of the 1994 Jet Li film Fist of Legend, which was itself a remake of the 1972 Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury. Beneath all the fists and feet, the story is nothing more than a piece of idealized nationalism. Donnie Yen (donning a Kato costume) plays the …
Computer-animated antifascist children's story of, and for, the birds. A puffed-up heroic epic punctured by self-conscious self-mockery and incomprehensible combat. With the voices of Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving, Helen Mirren, Abbie Cornish, and Geoffrey Rush; directed by Zack Snyder.
Zero. The obligatory sequel finds our mid-19th-century Batman in marital trouble, continually called away to fight for California statehood and never able to get away on a vacation with the wife and kid, now ten years old even though it's only seven years since the previous installment. "If you walk …
Under Genghis Khan, the Mongolian army pushes west to destroy the Jin Dynasty, setting its sights on the Song Dynasty next. Amid internal conflicts among martial arts schools, Guo Jing unites the Central Plains’ warriors to defend Xiangyang, embodying courage and loyalty in the fight for the nation.
Midwestern Miss Dorothy (Lea Michele) must return to Oz with her little dog Toto to help her old friends The Tin Man (Kelsey Grammer), The Cowardly Lion (Jim Belushi), and The Scarecrow (Dan Aykroyd) defeat the evil Jester (Martin Short). (Hey, weren't those guys comedians once?) Along the way, they …