Barbershop 2: Back in Business film review
The first Barbershop was a pleasant surprise, an easygoing comedy that had its ear turned toward the community and its heart in the right place. The sequel doesn’t surprise us – we know what to expect by now – but that doesn’t make the visit any less pleasant. Because movies are filmed months in advance, ….
Beowulf and Grendel
Year: 2005 A 9th Century Anglo-Saxon poem brought to the big screen in 2006. In today’s MTV-dosed world, the subject matter might seem irrelevant. Which is really sad since friendship, loyalty and revenge are struggles we all face everyday. Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf & Grendel is probably more relevant today than ever, and proves itself organically, ….
The Big Animal film review
DVD Release: 2000 The Big Animal is a charming and hilarious feat of Polish filmmaking. Director and co-star Jerzy Stuhr, has created a true gem, working from a script by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski (Three Colors Trilogy). I may be biased as an avid B&W fan, but it’s beautifully shot by cinematographer Pawel Edelman (an ….
Big Daddy film review
Having seen young Anakin Skywalker in all those commercials, I was curious to see how his pairing with Adam Sandler would pan out in this revisionist Star Wars called, strangely enough, Big Daddy. We are first introduced to a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Sandler), who finds his life at a standstill, unable to progress to the ….
Blade 2 film review
The original Blade was a demonstration of frenzied visual effects, a technological vampire bloodbath with no meaning or direction. Although the series is still very physical, emphasizing battle sequences and special effects over story and characters, Blade II knows where the first film went awry and does not repeat those mistakes. Instead of creating a ….
Blade Runner film review
A rare masterpiece in both the sci-fi and film noir genres. Blade Runner makes you think, makes you question reality, and makes you return to watch it again and again. I own both the VHS and the DVD and have seen the movie a dozen times. It gets better with age. The best work of ….
Blood and Oil: The Middle East in World War One
Year: 2006 Blood and Oil, a new documentary from Inecom Entertainment, was utterly impressive. Director Marty Callaghan, whose previous work includes writing and producing a TV mini-series called The 20th Century: A Moving Visual History, clearly has a strong personal interest in his subject, and conveys a sense of immersive passion as he pursues the ….
The Bourne Identity film review
Last year, Christopher Nolan took memory loss to a new level with his masterful thriller Memento, in which the hero tattoos notes on his body to help him cope with his condition. This year, the amnesiac champion of The Bourne Identity uses brains and brawn as a means of sorting out his memory loss. Doug ….
The Bourne Supremacy film review
Attention all adventure-starved, action-crazed moviegoers: kennel the cat, wreck the robot, and step on that spider. This summer’s best action hero is not Catwoman, Spider-Man, or a CGI robot – it’s just a dude named Jason Bourne! Matt Damon is back to reprise his role from the widely popular The Bourne Identity as Bourne – ….
Bride and Prejudice film review
Bride and Prejudice, a new film by the director of the hit Bend It Like Beckham, tries to speak to a global audience by refracting an iconic English novel through the realities of the Indian diaspora. The movie by director Gurinder Chadha takes novelist Jane Austen’s 1813 classic Pride and Prejudice and sets it in ….
The Candidate film review
"Politics is bullshit." Such sentiment, spoken early in the film, sums up The Candidate’s position on politics, not to mention my own. Robert Redford plays the title role, a fresh-faced kid and son of a former governer goaded by a group of campaign strategists (namely Peter Boyle) into running against an "unbeatable" Republican nominee for ….
Casino Royale film review
Though great he may be, there is a limit to the amount of uninterrupted Burt Bacharach music one can endure. And sadly, that limit — of music punctuated by kazoos, harpischords, and accordions — is far less than 137 minutes. There’s also a limit on the length of a spy spoof one can sit through ….
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre film review
Year: 2003 Aren’t remakes intended to improve on the films they’re honoring? First-time director Marcus Nispel may return audiences to the Lone Star State to recreate the horrific and (not really) factual events of August 20, 1973, when five hippies were abducted and tortured by a killer named Leatherface and his inbred family of cannibals. ….
Chasing Liberty film review
If you really want to know what Mandy Moore did last summer, then check out her European travelogue called Chasing Liberty. But be warned, watching her travels in this film makes sitting through the reels of your grandparent’s vacation seem like an easy walk in the park. Moore’s third film about finding true love is ….
Close Encounters of the Third Kind film review
Around a quarter century ago, a nerdy little kid fresh off the success of some shark movie decided he wanted to turn his focus to little green men. And somehow he turned out one of those rare films that imprints itself into the cultural psyche so far as to be able to be referenced by ….