Cradle 2 the Grave (review)
Overheard at the concession stand: ‘Hey, you got hip-hop gangsta movie in my kung-fu flick!’ ‘You got kung-fu flick in my hip-hop gangsta movie!’
reviews
Lawless Heart and Till Human Voices Wake Us (review)
Of all the traumas we experience and the realizations we come to when someone we love dies, one of the strangest is surely the sudden discovery of how that person connected us to the other people in our lives in ways we’d never considered before. A broken strand in that web of human interconnectedness is at the heart of *Lawless Heart,* from the writing/directing team of Tom Hunsinger and Neil Hunter.
The Life of David Gale (review)
Oh. My. God. Somebody actually made *Habeas Corpus.* You know, the ‘serious’ Hollywood film about the death penalty — the one that, if we’re gonna be honest about it, really isn’t even a Hollywood film at all — in which someone white and smart and well-off is sentenced to execution, because ‘that happens.’
Gods and Generals (review)
Line up philosopher-generals with fabulous uniforms and terrifying facial hair on either side of grassy fields. Advance ragtag lines of anonymous young boys and old men into musket- and bayonet-fueled battle against one another. Survey the legions of dead and dying who’ve given their lives for political concepts they scarcely grasp. Rinse and repeat. And repeat. And repeat.
Old School (review)
If the Animal House guys tried to recapture the wackiness of fraternity life when they were suddenly faced with the real-life demands — wife, job, kids, house — that come in one’s 30s, the result would be as sad as this would-be comedy. Luke Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums) is a charmer, as always, but his … more…
Dark Blue (review)
A rogue veteran police officer breaking in a naive new partner. The corrupt boss sending them down a dangerous path for his own sinister benefit. Brutal, cold-blooded felonies and murders. A racially charged cityscape ready to explode. The usual clichés get trotted out in this hard-bitten tale of the thin line between cops and criminals, … more…
Daredevil (review)
There, up on the screen! It’s–! It’s–! It’s Ben Affleck in a leather jumpsuit.
A Beautiful Mind (again) (review)
So whaddaya know? Ron Howard and Russell Crowe rode the short bus all to the way to the Oscars by playing the ‘we made a sensitive film about the mentally ill’ card. Which is complete crap, of course. *A Beautiful Mind* is pure made-for-Hollywood pap about the mentally ill in which schizophrenia is treated by Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman the way doctors used to treat it in the bad old days before we (some of us, anyway) were enlightened about diseases of the brain: Hey, snap out of it! Get over it! It’s all in your head!
Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony (review)
Amandla means “power” in the Xhosa language, and when people talk about the power of music, this is it, right here: the power to sustain the spirit of a people through a long and harsh period of oppression, and the power to eventually help throw over the oppressors. Documentarian Lee Hirsch makes an extraordinary feature … more…
Confession of a Florist (review)
Here’s a tasty delicacy for Valentine’s Day: Frank Patterson’s daintily turned black comedy about bigotry, gossip, and murder in a small Florida town. February 14 is only a few days away, and florist Rose (Leslie France), a timid little mouse of a thing with her pastel cardigans and floral skirts and doormat demeanor, is unable … more…
