12 Strong movie review: America enters the “graveyard of empires”
Tense but never sensationalized action adventure about the first post–9/11 US foray into Afghanistan, an extraordinary culture clash and mashup of medieval and modern technologies.
Jerry Bruckheimer
Black movie review: tragically bad
A facile riff on Romeo & Juliet amongst Brussels gangs. Banal, clichéd, and treats its teenage-girl protagonist in a spectacularly disgusting way.
things you need to know: Tyler Perry is the best-paid man in Hollywood in 2011
His secret: Perry just doesn’t make the same old shit again and again. He makes new, different shit.
question of the day: How much is too much to spend on producing a movie?
Disney shuts down production on The Lone Ranger over budget concerns even though it seems like a sure thing. Have we finally hit a ceiling on production costs?
quick list: five terrible spy movies
As a followup to yesterday’s five great spy movies, herewith five really terrible ones… and I find it interesting that the spy movie seems to go so wrong when comedy is attempted. Given the ubiquitousness of terrible movies, this list is far from comprehensive, so please do chime with more really awful spy movies. The … more…
what he said: Patrick Goldstein at The Big Picture…
…on Jerry Bruckheimer’s bad summer, what with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice flopping, and right on the heels of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time sorta flopping by Bruckheimerian standards: What makes things bad for Bruckheimer is that he’s been wrapped up in his self-contained world for so long that outside of his close friends, the … more…
trailer break: ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… As is typical with Disney films, embedding of this trailer is disabled for the domestic version by the U.S. arm of Disney… but Disney U.K. is, for some bizarre reason, happy to have site owners like me give the film free advertising. So: Jerry Bruckheimer and videogame … more…
trailer break: ‘G-Force’
Take a break from work: watch a trailer… Jerry Bruckheimer is making rodent movies now, eh? It’s like The A-Team with rats. And the guy named “Blaster” got that name for his propensity to fart loudly on a regular basis, I’m guessing… I’m onboard for Bill Nighy as the bad guy, however. And anyone who … more…
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (review)
Forget that this is based on a ride at Disney World, and a pretty sorry one, at that — know that it’s a wonderfully exhausting, refreshingly unironic, delightfully old-fashioned swashbuckler.
Gladiator (review)
Is Gladiator an action movie? Is it an historical drama? Is it a sweeping epic? Yes. Like The 13th Warrior, this is a thinking person’s action movie. Like Braveheart, this is a story of a brutal era told with stunning realism. Like Terminator 2, this is a violent movie that indicts our appetite for violence. Like The Matrix, this thrills on both a visceral and cerebral level.
