at the 20th anniversary of ‘Titanic,’ where are all the knockoffs?
We should be absolutely sick to death of all the cash-ins, pseudo-remakes and imitators. Where are they?
film criticism by maryann johanson | handcrafted since 1997
We should be absolutely sick to death of all the cash-ins, pseudo-remakes and imitators. Where are they?
Surely something called the Boston Molasses Disaster is begging for the Coen Brothers’ treatment, no?
Like the most totally awesome artifact ever of the end of the American empire, a preposterously perfect reflection of who we are: loud, obnoxious, sexist, racist, juvenile, unthinking, visceral, and violent… and in love with ourselves for it.
Half bitter and harsh, half propagandistic and hagiographic, this is the love child of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Pearl Harbor,’ too sentimental to be intellectually satisfying but too tart to serve as melodrama.
Of course it’s Michael Bay-ariffic in that adorably ultraviolent, homophobic kinda way, all vehicles exploding for no apparent reason and deeply repressed male emotions, the kind of stuff that can’t help but lead one to the conclusion that Michael Bay is denying that he has some serious issues with, really, just about everything he comes into contact with: women, men, cars, swimming pools, family pets, home electronics.
Another year of really, really crappy movies was saved, in the end, by a Bohemian storm, a magical ring, a robot boy, and a lonely mademoiselle. A feeling of the otherworldly permeates every movie on my best-of list this year, even the one documentary. And the weird thing is that most of these films were … more…