The Man (review)

Picture the scene. A police interrogation room. The lighting is harsh. The chairs are hard. Miguel Ferrer is the badass internal affairs guy. Samuel L. Jackson is the rogue ATF agent who breaks rules but gets the job done. Ferrer thinks Jackson is dirty, is riding him hard, is gonna bring him down, dammit! Jackson goes nuclear in Ferrer’s face — he ain’t gonna take this shit no more!

Transporter 2 (review)

The Transporter was downright adorable, a Maxim–ized cocktail of martial arts, stunt driving, and curiously circumspect sex — nothing you could get roaring drunk on, more a predinner aperitif with which to toast how absurdly easy it is to entertain boys and young men 13 to 24 years of age. Even star Jason Statham (Snatch), … more…

Underclassman and A Sound of Thunder (review)

When a studio declines to release a completed film, that’s the honchos saying that they don’t want to throw good money after bad, that they believe that despite an already enormous investment in the production of the film, it’s still not worth the additional dough to promote it, create a couple thousand prints, and ship those prints out to theaters around the country.

Shortcuts

These reviews have moved — sorry for the inconvenience. Beyond the Da Vinci Code The Cave Clarissa The Divine Bette Midler The Fantastic Four: The Complete 1994-5 Animated Television Series Father of the Pride: The Complete Series Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling Lois & … more…

The Constant Gardener (review)

The genius of *The Constant Gardener* is that its central question of suspense is not ‘What horrifying crimes against humanity are multinational corporations, in cahoots with governments around the world, committing this time?’ That is a small part of the film’s suspense, but only a small part, because, Duh, of course the powerful white men are up to *something* nefarious.

Undeclared: The Complete Series (review)

The creator of Freaks and Geeks moves from high school on to dissecting the vagaries of the higher-education experience with this smart and frequently painfully real dramedy about the freshman year of college. Each half-hour episode (actually about 22 minutes without commercials) is a gem of insightful, observant writing and perfectly pitched ensemble performances exploring … more…

The Office: Season One (review)

If you’ve ever worked in an office, then you’ll recognize the hypocrisy, the petty cruelty, the ass-covering buck-passing, and the daily, soul-sucking corporate hell on display in this American adaptation of the hit British TV series. Thoroughly refitted for this side of the Atlantic — the impulse to add a laugh track was, thankfully, resisted … more…

The Muppets’ Wizard of Oz (review)

It’s not on a par with the Muppet movie madness of old, but it’s darn close. The charming Ashanti (Coach Carter) stars as Dorothy is a waitress in her Auntie Em’s (Queen Latifah: Beauty Shop) diner in Kansas, but what she really wants is to be a pop-music star… and she just might get her … more…

Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (review)

The kiddies will be delighted, of course, with Stitch’s continuing “bad” behavior — turns out the little monster’s genetic engineering was never quite completed, and now he’s running a little haywire in ways that today’s Ritalin-dosed children can only fantasize about. Lilo, meanwhile, is forced to learn how to overcome her perfectly natural instinct to … more…