It would be difficult to tell a superhero origin story better than was done in the 1978 “Superman.” “Man of Steel” is a relentless attempt, one handled with an abundance of violence and characters but near complete lack of humanity. Before, Superman was the embodiment of decency, raised by two plainspoken, kind middle-Americans who imbued […]
Review: “Man of Steel” Read More »
There’s a scene in Olivier Assayas’ recent movie “Something in the Air,” about the youth culture movements in France in the years following the sociopolitically tumultuous Summer of 1968, in which a group of filmmakers premiere their latest activist work on Laos. Its conventional essayist presentation prompts an audience member to challenge, “Shouldn’t revolutionary cinema
Review: “The Internship” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. I began an official accuracy slump last week, under-predicting both “The Purge” (who didn’t?) and “The Internship,” making it two weeks in a row that I got both openers off by a considerable margin. So
Box Office Beat: Weekend of June 14 Read More »
It’s a short (relatively speaking) and sweet episode of the Critic Speak Podcast this week, as James and I keep it to reviews of the new horror-thriller “The Purge,” starring Ethan Hawke, and the new comedy “The Internship,” starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. We’re pretty much in agreement on the former, but we split
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 9 Read More »
“The Purge” is a high-concept thriller with a low budget and an even lower amount of thought put into its plot. There’s potential in the premise, which allows for all sorts of bloodletting, suspenseful situations, and a healthy dose of political commentary, if that’s your thing. And it is writer/director James DeMonaco’s thing, though his
Review: “The Purge” Read More »
Filmmaking and magic ask much the same thing of their respective audiences: we know they aren’t “real,” but we willingly pretend as though they are in order to engage our sense of wonder. Certainly, cinema is capable of leveraging such engagement to achieve a far greater impact on people than a simple card trick is,
Review: “Now You See Me” Read More »
Now here’s something you don’t see every (or any) weekend at the movie theater: a film about life under an ultra-conservative religion (Orthodox Judaism), made by an adherent of said religion (first-time writer/director Rama Burshtein). Filmmaking is so heavily dominated by the secular left that even the most seemingly objective portrayals of these socially antiquated
Review: “Fill the Void” Read More »
Hello and welcome back to Box Office Beat, the column in which I predict the upcoming weekend’s box office results. After sustaining a pretty strong accuracy record this summer, I finally screwed the pooch last weekend when I predicted “Now You See Me” would tank (it was an unexpected hit and grossed double my guess)
Box Office Beat: Weekend of June 7 Read More »
I can only assume that “Sadako” (not to be confused with Sudoku) grossed a whopping $16.8 million in Japan—about the same amount as the American blockbusters “Battleship” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”—because of its loose connection with “Ringu,” which you may remember as the J-Horror hit that Hollywood remade into “The Ring.” But
Blu-Ray Review: “Sadako” Read More »
James and I open this week’s edition of the Critic Speak Podcast with a new invention. Inspired by overwhelming listener feedback about James’ multiplex audience horror story from last week, we decided to put an original spin on the classic party game “Who Would You Rather?” using various movie theater patron stereotypes. The game runs
Critic Speak Podcast: Episode 8 Read More »
