reviews

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…

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.

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.

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…

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…

Shades of Moria, Batman! Atrociously mixed pop-culture references are nothing compared to the mishmash of elements from far superior creature features that got dunked into this aggressively mediocre film. A team of cave divers, led by the painfully bland Cole Hauser (2 Fast 2 Furious), descend into the Carpathian Mountains for a spot of exploration … more…

Based on the beloved novel by Francis Hodgson Burnett, this charming adaptation from the BBC has achieved classic status in the thirty years since its production, and it arrives now on DVD for the first time. The precocious Sarah Hollis Andrews stars as young Mary Lennox, newly orphaned and sent to live with her emotionally … more…

Studio Ghibli, the anime studio founded by groundbreaking filmmakers Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, is famous for producing films that are extraordinarily imaginative and passionately heartfelt, like the recent Spirited Away. And this 1994 film from Ghibli is a stunning example of the depths of emotion and the heights of fancy animated film can achieve. … more…