Plane movie review: ‘Sully,’ but make it badass
Entertainingly ridiculous? Or ridiculously entertaining? The slick of wild nonsense slapped over an uninspired undercoat is enjoyable enough while you’re onboard, and then it’s instantly forgettable.
Cast Away
Welcome to Marwen movie review: toying with our sympathy
The plastic terror of The Polar Express melded with the kooky charm of Forrest Gump is a bad, sometimes outright icky, way to tell a tale of trauma and recovery, and does a disservice to Steve Carell’s sensitive performance.
In the Heart of the Sea movie review: here be monsters (and whales)
Solid, old-school man-versus-nature adventure melodrama, with a simmering green awareness; rollicking, smart, breathtaking, and sobering.
All Is Lost trailer: but where is the tiger?
Hmm. Is there something in the zeitgeist that’s prompting movies about desolation and survival in harsh conditions?
Flight (review)
Appears to poke, and not kindly, at how our society enables abusers of drugs and alcohol… until it stops being that interesting.
Life of Pi (review)
Fanciful and visually lavish, yet very grounded in human reality.
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked (review)
Hey, wouldn’t it be neat if Alvin asked Dave, “Am I a pet?” and then, not getting an honest answer, led a chipmunk uprising?
Robert Downey Jr.: biggest movie star on the planet — who’da thunk it?
If anyone had asked you, a decade ago, to predict who would be the biggest star of 2010, you might have said Jim Carrey. Or Tom Hanks. Or Tom Cruise. They headlined the biggest movies of 2000, after all (respectively, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas — yes, that was the biggest movie of … more…
question of the day: Is product placement in movies and TV necessarily a bad thing?
This past weekend in my Leftover Links roundup, I included a link to a story in The New York Times called “Branding Comes Early in Filmmaking Process,” about how product placement in studio films is now often being arranged “before the movie is cast or the script is fully shaped.” My reaction to the Times … more…
February 5: DVD alternatives to this weekend’s multiplex offerings
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, except you’re busy writing long, flowery letters to the love of your life, who’s on the other side of the planet somewhere where there’s no Internet access. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the … more…
