film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
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…
Every week my browser gets cluttered up with tabs for stuff that I stumble across and figure I might be able to use as a Question of the Day or a WTF Thought for the Day or grist for some other post. And inevitably, I end the week with most of that material unused. But … more…
Take a break from work: watch a movie trailer… I pretty much hated this the first time around, when it was called Liar Liar. Of course, Liar Liar made $180 million in 1998. I also hated the last time Carrey was so outrageously, unthinkingly extreme on screen, in 2003’s Bruce Almighty, and that one made … more…
License to Shill Explosions. Babes. Gadgets. Exotic locales. Nasty bad guys with German accents. A lovely, tuxedo-clad good guy with an English accent. Tomorrow Never Dies (starring Pierce Brosnan, Jonathan Pryce, Michelle Yeoh, and Teri Hatcher) is a Bond movie. Nuff said. What it does, it does well. But it’s cinematic junk food that you … more…
Amusing, but it never approaches the deliriousness of A Fish Called Wanda.
