
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.
handcrafted film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
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.
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.
Solid, old-school man-versus-nature adventure melodrama, with a simmering green awareness; rollicking, smart, breathtaking, and sobering.
Hmm. Is there something in the zeitgeist that’s prompting movies about desolation and survival in harsh conditions?
Appears to poke, and not kindly, at how our society enables abusers of drugs and alcohol… until it stops being that interesting.
Fanciful and visually lavish, yet very grounded in human reality.
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?
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…
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…