film criticism by maryann johanson | since 1997
Spanks the 2016 film and sends it off to the corner to think about what it did. This one is the definite article: Gory, grim, bleakly funny. Full of feverish, anarchic energy and exhausting cynicism.
Can’t quite manage to continue the first film’s smart, unsentimental examination of male emotion and men’s relationships. At best achieves a draw with a genre path that is already extremely well worn.
Bad chicken-and-egg puns and indoctrination into animal cruelty as just good fun for everyone involved (including the animals). You know, for kids.
Now updated with all the winners…
Spotlight takes four awards, including Best Film…
Mad Max: Fury Road gets a lot of love…
Feels natural and organic, not forced by the dictates of movie franchises. A smart, engaging, unsentimental portrait of male friendship and male emotion.
In the vast conspiracy of stupidity that has overtaken pop culture, the disparagement of this movie by a film critic becomes an endorsement of a sad sort.
Jason Statham teams up with another badass little girl… which makes him almost warm and charming as he kicks the crap out of villains.
Nothing here is as clever as it is desperately trying to be, but Stallone and Schwarzenegger are game to give us a good time.
