Whenever a great South Korean art-house hit like “Oldboy,” “The Chaser,” or “Mother” reaches the United States, American critics invariably offer a glowing assessment of that country’s “screen quota,” which legally requires theaters to play native productions for at least 73 days out of the year. This regulation has undoubtedly grown the Korean film industry […]
While I have long detested the employment of the phrase “wait for HBO” among critics–as a staunch defender of the theatrical experience, I believe most films are either good enough to warrant a night out or aren’t worth seeing, period–“The Five-Year Engagement” so perfectly fits the cliché that I may have to break with tradition
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More and more these days, major movie stars are compelled to appear in low-budget independent projects because they want to flex their acting muscles — something that higher paying Hollywood productions often don’t allow them to do. As a viewer, I await these occasions because they show you what an actor is really capable of,
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“The Avengers” should please just about everyone looking to see a group of Marvel characters battling it out with aliens and each other. As for everyone else, it should at least amuse them, too. And it’s the film’s accessibility that becomes a hindrance, as pleasing just about everyone inevitably means thrilling no one. The characters
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I have a question I’d like to pose to Jim Levinstein, the hero of the “American Pie” series: did you think that was a good idea? I’d be asking about the scene midway through “American Reunion” where Jim, suffering through a sexless marriage to his wife, decides to spice things up a bit by donning
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With an American remake for The Raid: Redemption already slated, I have the perfect man in mind for the lead role: Jason Statham. Really, it can only be him, because this hyper-violent Indonesian actioneer, hailed as the second coming of Hard Boiled by its supporters, in fact plays much more like anything from Statham’s oeuvre than it does an actual classic blood-pumper like the best works of Asian filmmakers such as John Woo or Jackie Chan.
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