To the Wonder is the latest from Terrence Malick and it is his most visually narrative feature yet; that is both a blessing and a curse over the course of the film. [Read more...]
Film Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
12/18/2011 by Leave a Comment
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is a solid sequel, but doesn’t really advance the story or bring much new to the series. [Read more...]
Film Review: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
12/15/2011 by Leave a Comment
Though it is still debatable if Robert Downey Jr. or Wishbone makes a better Sherlock Holmes, the memorable quality of Downey’s performance two years ago as the classic detective will be impossible to forget. He made what I assumed to be a stodgy, pipe-smoking British guy eccentrically cool, something that I couldn’t help get enough of. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Morning Glory
11/16/2010 by Leave a Comment
Ever since I was little and I fell witness to a horrifying story about a raging fire on the news I have had a strong aversion to that form of broadcast. And unless it is riddled with sarcastic references to current events, such as The Colbert Report or Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live, it is still a rare occasion for me to sit through a show. Thank goodness I am a strong individual with the capability of separating movies from reality or else I would not have been able to sit through this entertaining film. And I would also be living in fear of zombie outbreaks, but that’s neither here nor there…
I’m glad you asked tagline on poster, the story goes a little something like this: After being fired from her job at a local New Jersey news station Becky must start over towards reaching her goal of becoming a producer for a top rung news show. [Read more...]
Review: Morning Glory
11/10/2010 by Leave a Comment
Morning Glory is a funny (if a tad uninspired) tale about the rejuvenating of a morning news show that does fairly well till a perplexing third act almost ruins a potentially very fine piece of entertainment.
Now if I was a well versed critic I would probably start by writing this film off as paling in comparison to such classic “news” movies, like Network or Broadcast News, but I haven’t seen those movies so just know that going forward. Morning Glory follows a young and aspiring producer, Becky, who thinks she is about to get her big break at a local New Jersey affiliate when she is fired instead of being promoted. Scrambling for a job, Becky, talks her way into the executive producer job at the number four morning show in the country. The show, DayBreak, is struggling and at risk of folding so Becky recruits an off the air, but under contract, legend at the station, Mike Pomeroy, who is getting paid to do nothing. Grumpy and difficult, Pomeroy, is awkwardly thrown into this morning mix as Becky tries to get him and the ratings to boost.
Rental Review – The Time Traveler’s Wife
04/06/2010 by Leave a Comment
The Time Traveler’s Wife may be about a man who uncontrollably jumps around within a certain span of time, but at its basic level it is a love story. A love story that unfortunately takes a rocky start with its depiction on screen in concern to dialog and pacing, but eventually it finds itself and the tragically beautiful love story is able to unfold.
When Clare Abshire was 6 a man spoke to her from the trees asking if he could borrow her blanket seeing as he seemed to have forgotten his clothes. Before disappearing again he promised to come back to see her. Ah the creepy start to a beautiful relationship. Years later after she has grown into a woman she comes across Henry DeTamble, the same man from the tree-lined meadow, but this time around he knows nothing of her. The problem is that at this stage in his life he has never come to visit her in that meadow because he is a time traveler, and thus Clare has already fallen in love with a man who she has known all her life but who has never met her before. Good thing time can fix that. [Read more...]
Review: Sherlock Holmes
01/08/2010 by Leave a Comment
Guy Ritchie teams up with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law to reboot the classic tale and the end result is an entertaining and well acted effort that fails to ever really be anything but pretty good; not that there is anything wrong with that.
Instead of going straight into traditional origins and reboot territory, I think the film wisely throws us right into the fire and the potential end of an era as Sherlock Holmes trusty companion Watson is about to move on with his life and move out of the two’s flat. Holmes is a bit worked up over this and add the fact that there are no cases worthy of his skills left in London. Luckily a mysterious plot surrounding the dark and possibly sorcerer like Lord Blackwood gives Holmes something to mull over and keeps him and Watson working together for the time being. An old flame, Irene, and a crafty criminal on top of that also re-enters his life and she is working for a mysterious figure as well. All of a sudden Holmes has plenty to do and luckily for us the man stays busy.
The movie never drops a beat, moving along at a whips pace and always holding our attention. The set pieces are elaborate and plentiful with the factory explosion sequence being one of the most impressive cinematic scenes I have seen in some time. All in slow motion and staying right with the actors, this building blows up around them, pieces of rubble and flames flying into people, it was the highlight of the film. [Read more...]
Now Playing Review – Sherlock Holmes
12/29/2009 by Leave a Comment
Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the beloved Sherlock Holmes brings about an exciting perspective on what I assumed was only a droll, meticulous British detective. Then again, all I know of the character is what I can remember from watching PBS’s Wishbone as a child.
Following the capture of the black magic practitioner to blame for a string of murders, Holmes and his trusted companion, Dr. John Watson, find themselves disbanding the team as Watson sets out to move in with his soon to be fiancé. However, this is put on hold when they are informed that the recently hanged murderer, Lord Blackwood, is not as stiff in the grave as a buried man ought to be. Curious to the magic that seems to be afoot, Holmes again takes up the case to stop whatever Blackwood has planned.
Being the sleuth that he is, it’s easy to assume that Sherlock Holmes would be nothing more than a slow paced exploration of the man’s methods to solving a mystery, but there is far more action than one might expect. Instead of just giving a squinty-eyed look around a room until the “Oh look! A clue!” moment, Holmes is quite the man of action in the sense that he can take a punch as well as he can give one, and Ritchie is the perfect director to bring out this side of the character.
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Review: The Time Traveler's Wife
08/13/2009 by Leave a Comment
This adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s novel of the same name is a tad confused narrative full of intriguing sci-fi ideas that slowly comes together by the end.
Henry is a time traveler. Disappearing into time at random, unable to take his clothes or any object with him, running around naked can get him into sticky situations. He can’t explain it, control it, and has a rather loose understanding of it all. Unable to change the events in his past that seemed to be controlled by fate he finds the ability more of a nuisance than anything. Working at a library in Chicago he meets a twenty something girl, Clare, who claims she knows him and that he told her this is how they would meet. The two begin a relationship and Clare being aware that he is a time travel allows Henry to feel safe and normal for the first time in his life but the risks of time traveling at any moment puts him and his relationship at risk.
The film starts off as a rather bad romance with hokey dialogue and eye rolling lines professing love for one another. The film has a hard time deciding what it is for quite a while, not sure if it wants to be an alternate look at sci-fi or an epic romance for the ages. Slowly the film decides that it is a sci-fi film first and the relationship stuff will end up lending itself to the plot and the perils of time travel. [Read more...]
Review: State of Play
04/22/2009 by Leave a Comment
This journalistic thriller keeps the intensity and intrigue from start to finish, and when coupled with some excellent performances across the board you have a pretty good picture when it is all said and done.
Cal McAffrey is a journalist for the Washington Globe, which also happens to be a sinking ship of a medium as the days of newspapers are quickly dying out in today’s internet fueled news world. That doesn’t keep Cal McAffrey from trying to still be a good reporter though, bribing cops and bending the rules for his stories, Cal is of the old school ilk of news reporters; and he gets what he wants. Cal is in the process of investigating a possible drug related murder that we witness in the opening of the film, when news breaks of Congressman Stephen Collins aide dying on the subway system on her way to the hearings she was chief investigator on that was probing a company profiting off the wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan by privatizing the war effort. The death of this aide, Sonia Baker, quickly turns into scandal as rumors/news of an affair with Collins quickly comes to the surface. We discover that Collins and McAffrey were college roommates and that an aspiring blogger at the Washington Globe, Della Frye, might turn out to be a thorn in Cal’s side [Read more...]
