Law Abiding Citizen (review)
It had me at *kaboom,* this thorny moral conundrum of a film, and then it lost me when it threw out all the tricksy pointedness in favor of thoughtless, counterproductive badassery.
Philadelphia
The Happening movie review: nonevent
This appears to be a movie about an incident that occurs to a certain number of people across a particular region consisting of a few states.
Rocky Balboa movie review: flying high now
Forget everything you know about the joke that Rocky Balboa has become in the three decades since he made his screen debut, and just think back to that first film, to its raw power and surprising sensitivity and hard beauty.
Invincible (review)
Is it just me, or is there something really sweet about Mark Wahlberg? Not to suggest he’s not all manly and muscly and footbally or anything…
Unbreakable (review)
I don’t think it’s venturing too far into hyperbole to call this, the followup to The Sixth Sense from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, a work of transcendent filmic genius, one that acknowledges the audience’s expectations, confounds them, rebuilds them, and ends up using them to brilliant, astonishing advantage.
Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman movies review: guest star
Christopher Guest’s Best in Show is another hilarious and poignant mockumentary that, in the vein of his Waiting for Guffman, pokes gentle fun at its fictional subjects as well its audience.
The Sixth Sense (review)
So while I am both a bit dismayed and smugly satisfied to report that yes, I was correct in guessing what The Sixth Sense’s big twist is (I won’t reveal it here!), I am overjoyed to report that not only is there much more to this film that just its twist, watching the film with full knowledge of its big secret adds new layers to enjoy.
Rocky movie review: boxer ascending a staircase
It comes as a bit of a shock to be reminded that, after so many years of movies the likes of Daylight and Oscar, that our man Sly got his start not only as the star of this superb movie but also as its screenwriter. This tender movie, on the surface about the most violent of sports, is really a Marty-esque romance about two lonely people reaching out to each other.
