Neither a remake of the turgidly depressing John Huston neo-western with Nick Cannon in the role originated by Montgomery Clift, nor a return to form by once-prospering action director Renny Harlin (Born American, Die Hard 2). It starts well enough, with narrator Ringo (Cannon) informing us that of the 19,000 …
John Huston’s modern dress western was a troubled shoot, best remembered for ringing down the curtain on Hollywood’s reigning King and Queen, Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe. Knowing what we do going in can’t help but contribute to the film’s prevailing status as consummate downer. MM stars as the disillusioned …
Miss Bala is nowhere near the muy mala dose of gun porn that’s promised in the trailer. How’s this for being as timely as today’s headlines: in the Americanized remodel of Gerardo Naranjo’s gritty 2011 crime thriller, Mexican actors assume the roles of kidnappers, rapists, border-jumpers, crooked federales and/or drug …
This twisted tale of kindness and cruelty begins 70 miles north of the Mexican border: Brooks County, Texas is the end of the line for many migrants looking to enter the United States the hard way. After a coyote deposits them at the crossing, it’s up to the human contraband …
After turning 50, Cambodian documentarian Rithy Panh began to search for his childhood “like a lost picture.” Rather than slapping together 92 minutes of file footage to illustrate the dehumanizing barbarity his countrymen endured at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, Panh takes us through a visual gentrification process where …
Brad Bird’s resolutely buoyant Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol repositioned a series of otherwise contrived money-spinning sequels on top of the summer tentpole, making it easy for an inevitable predecessor to sock out of the park. It’s back to business as usual when Cruise Factory gag-writer-turned-contract-director Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, Jack …
Following a pair of sojourns to the adorable Marigold Hotel, John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) takes a giant step forward with this perfectly timed tale of how to draw and quarter a lobbyist. “She pees standing up,” is how one of her colleagues describes Elizabeth Sloane (Jessica Chastain), an influence …
Another story about death that’s been done to death. Toni Colette goes full-cancer, Drew Barrymore acts the part of concerned BFF, and between them, the barbed one-liners metastasize almost as quickly as the tears. Though the outcome remains the same, if given the choice, in cases of terminal illness sagas, …
In spite of the forced, bully-boy shipboard comedy and mismatched attempts to stitch sumptuous location shots with obvious studio replicas, countless childhood viewings of a center-scan print of Mister Roberts on The Best of CBS render this title beyond criticism. It was far from Hollywood’s first service comedy, but Mister …
The gasoline should have hit the typewriter while this one was still in the pre-production stage. While on a suicide run through the desert, a tortured but terminally hip filmmaker (Garrett Hedlund) meets his evil twin in the form of Dennis Hopper-impersonating spree-killer Oscar Isaac. The nine minutes of Hedlund’s …
There is no room for sentiment in Emmanuelle Devos’ performance as an aching mother who escapes from a high-priced mental hospital to launch a personal investigation into the hit-and-run death of her teenage son. An eye-witness pegs the murder weapon as a rare chocolate-colored Mercedes, and a PI provides her …
Overheard before the show: “This one looks to be ‘Christ-y.’” Oy vey, the person in front of me wasn’t kidding! When properly presented, the occasional faith-based, spiritually correct film could act as a welcome relief to all the comic book nihilism, but dear God, give us something more to work …
“Situated on precipitous peaks above yawning canyons,” bellers our off-camera guide, “San Francisco thrusts itself into the bosom of the Pacific.” The cadence of the eloquent voice-over suggests ersatz Ed Murrow, but the salacious syntax is unmistakably that of Russ Meyer. After five minutes, all semblance of documentary realism is …
Welcome to Monrovia, a town that voted overwhelmingly in favor of Trump. A town where Sunoco 260 gasoline is spoken of in the same revered tones one would summon when speaking of a deceased parent. Unlike 99% of Americans, Frederick Wiseman resists mixing business with politics, treating such hot-button issues …
The highest-grossing Chinese film of all time shows the world that the Asian market has at last mastered the ancient Hollywood science of using special effects as an opiate to replace storytelling. Nothing much happens in this live-action/animated action fantasy about a mutant baby born to a human father and …