Flags of Our Fathers (review)
Half bitter and harsh, half propagandistic and hagiographic, this is the love child of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Pearl Harbor,’ too sentimental to be intellectually satisfying but too tart to serve as melodrama.
based on a book
The Da Vinci Code (review)
It’s ‘Comparative Mythology for Dummies’ done up Hollywood style, except there’s no smooching.
Poseidon (review)
Who knew there was so much on a cruise ship that could explode so spectacularly? Plus: ohmigod, Josh Lucas!
Curious George (review)
I am curious (yellow).
Walk the Line movie review: finding his voice
I left the screening room on Monday afternoon with Johnny Cash’s voice— no, with Joaquin Phoenix’s where’d-he-get-that-from baritone echoing in my head…
Pride & Prejudice (review)
This is what, the 18,562,012th film version of Jane Austen? How many times can Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy misunderstand each other and yearn and burn and fail to see past their own snobbery and stubbornness until they finally do? Oh my god, do we really need another *Pride & Prejudice*?
A History of Violence and Derailed (review)
I knew nothing about *A History of Violence* before I sat down to watch it, absolutely nothing except that it starred Viggo Mortensen, and that that was enough to make me want to see it. I had even managed to avoid hearing that this was a David Cronenberg film, knowledge that certainly would have colored my expectations about it, as would have the knowledge, which I did not have until just before the movie began, that this was based on a graphic novel.
In Her Shoes movie review: a touch of sole
Oh, it’s totally a chick flick: there’s all sorts of stuff about shoes, and there will be some happy tears at the end. But it’s the good kind of chick flick, about real women with real problems that other real women can identify with.
Thumbsucker (review)
Yup, this is the movie about the 17-year-old kid who still sucks his thumb. But don’t get too excited: there isn’t a lot of hot thumbsucking action or anything like that. Instead there’s a lot of adolescent angst, and the fact that it’s so achingly poignant and pointedly hilarious even if you’re way beyond high school makes me suspect that none of us ever really outgrow that teenage insecurity.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie review: think of the children!
How did a cautionary tale about obnoxious little kids and a celebration of nonconformity turn into a cautionary tale about the psychosis of reclusive oddballism and a celebration of obnoxious kids?
