A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven) (4K restoration) movie review: paradise on Earth
One of the most beloved British films ever is now even more lush, more gorgeous, more humanist in a glorious new restored edition.
Sixth Sense
The Visit movie review: grandma’s house (of horrors?)
Over the river and through the woods to yet another banal, anticlimactic attempt at storytelling from M. Night Shyamalan. And this time, it’s found-footage.
when did movies start sucking?
I’ve given green lights to plenty of films in recent years, but I can’t shake the sense that, in the aggregate, movies suck, and have been sucking since 2000.
After Earth (trailer)
Listen for that faux solemn Charlton Heston-esque voice in your head saying, “And the planet was known as Earth.”
ParaNorman (review)
Dismal, yet profound and pungent, ParaNorman makes its points in ways more sharp and brutal than other “children’s” films. This is a story about ostracism and bigotry taken to extremes, and about our own unspoken prejudices and assumptions.
cinematic roots of: ‘Hereafter’
In Hereafter, Matt Damon sees dead people, but doesn’t want to, and is on a collusion course with a French woman (Cecile De France) and a British boy who have also had a taste of the afterlife. This flick sprang from (among other films):
North American box office: James Cameron about to overtake James Cameron…
…for biggest movie ever: 1. Avatar: $54.4 million 2. The Book of Eli: $38.4 million (NEW) 3. The Lovely Bones: $19.9 million (NEW in wide release) 4. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel: $15.3 million (3rd week; drops 8%) 5. The Spy Next Door: $12.9 million (NEW) actual numbers, not estimates, for the 4-day weekend … more…
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.
top 11 movies of 1999
Like Nigel Tufnel’s amp, this one goes to 11. I agonized over this, trying to whittle down a list of about 25 great movies of 1999 to a mere 10, and I just couldn’t go that far. It pained me to eliminate some wonderful — and wonderfully adult — dramas from the list. The Cider … more…
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.
