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Screenwriter Daniel Handler, the evil genius behind the delightfully misanthropic children’s books by “Lemony Snicket,” here loosely adapts the opera Rigoletto — with film editor turned director Curtiss Clayton (Made) — and the result is malicious, ironic cruelty dealt with a deft and subtle hand. Verdi’s story of lust and revenge is transplanted to a … more…
All cop movies — at least all the really fun, pulpy ones — are about the thin line between cop and criminal. But this diabolically clever movie, the apotheosis of the Hong Kong police thriller, plays with that theme better than any film I’ve ever seen. There’s a cop (Tony Leung) who’s gone deep undercover … more…
I mean, who, precisely, said you couldn’t have a zombie romantic comedy? Why can’t the male lead express his undying devotion for his ladylove by bashing dead people in the head with a cricket bat?
Geekdom is global. In case there was any doubt, now there’s Trekkies 2, Roger Nygard’s followup to his 1997 celebration of Star Trek fandom. Denise Crosby, The Next Generation‘s Lt. Tasha Yar, hosts this Trek travelogue, from the German convention (or con, in geek speak) that draws 5000 fans to the Italian priest Trekker who … more…
The “world’s dumbest criminals” (Will Friedle and Chris Owen: October Sky) hit on a grand get-rich scheme: marry two rich old broads (Louise Lasser: Requiem for a Dream and Renée Taylor) and kill them for their money. Unfortunately for the boys, the broads, secretly dead broke, have only married the idiot twins in order to … more…
Quick: How long did Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom last? Four episodes? Ten? Maybe it eeked out a full season? Get this: Ellen, one of the blandest, most generic sitcoms in recent memory, endured for five years and one hundred episodes — there’s a hole in your pop-culture memory only because the series, or at least the … more…
It’s hard to conceive of the alternate universe in which “reality TV” hit The Apprentice approaches actual reality. Like a Mafia don drunk on his own power, Donald Trump — holding court from a would-be intimidating oversize executive chair in an underlit conference room and, hand to God, referring to himself as “The Donald” — … more…
It’s downright tragic to see a cast so wasted as the highly appealing stars of Wimbledon are. This floppiest of the floppy-haired British romantic comedies shoehorns the agreeably brambly Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) into the Hugh Grant role, where he fits comfortably as aging tennis pro Peter Colt, … more…
William Makespeace Thackeray’s beloved novel gets another filmic adaptation, and if the sprawling lushness of its epic length is lost in the reduction to two and a half hours, that’s more than made up for by wickedly witty humor, sumptuous visuals, and the delightfully impish Reese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde 2: Red White and Blonde) as … more…
In *Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,* a digitized ‘Laurence Olivier’ appears as the Man Behind the Curtain in what is a lousy, pointless remake of, among many other classic films, *The Wizard of Oz.*
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