film criticism by maryann johanson | celebrating 25 years: 1997–2022
It’s sort of adorable and sort of terrifying to look at Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and see the ultimate 80s icon of sharky, sociopathic greed — Gordon Gekko — reduced to an object of quaint amusement, for both the characters onscreen and for us in the viewing audience.
While he’s still a striking man today, Frank Langella was a major hottie when he was younger…
I’m off to see Sherlock Holmes again today with my geek gang, so this seems like a good day to ask this question, which comes from reader DangerMom: Who’s your favorite Sherlock Holmes? TV or film, whichever. The IMDB has a loooong list of all the many actors who’ve played the world’s first consulting detective … more…
It’s a box. A cardboard box. Frank Langella brings it to your door, and inside is the Pop-o-matic of Death, and you either push the big red button under the plastic dome, in which case someone you don’t know dies and you get a cool million in a briefcase, or you don’t, in which you don’t get a movie made about you. Resisting the Moral Dilemma? No movie for you!
We know how it is: You’d like to go to the movies this weekend, but you’re gonna be busy staring at a big button, arguing with yourself about whether or not to push it. But you can have a multiplex-like experience at home with a collection of the right DVDs. And when someone asks you … more…
This was the sort of hopeless dread the news that Ron Howard was directing this left me with. I felt like Robert Stack in *Airplane!*: ‘It’s a goddamn waste of time — there’s no way he can land this plane!’
All this weekend! 5 movies I’m psyched for in December and 5 reasons why. No. 1: The Tale of Despereaux [opens in the U.S. and the U.K. on December 19]. 1. He’s a cute little mouse with big ears, and he’s wielding a sewing needle as a sword. How adorable is that? (Actually, the first … more…
Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer… Frost/Nixon started out as a stage play, which I saw on Broadway last year, just as news of its move to film was being announced. I was there mostly to see Michael Sheen, as British TV interviewer David Frost, and partly to see what playwright Peter … more…
