Movies
Movie Review
Thinking Man vs. Wild
Director Joe Carnahan gives an actual human element to this masculine survival tale
February 2nd, 2012
The title 8 Million Ways to Die was already taken, so The Grey had to settle for The Grey, named for the plus-size wolves waging war on the desperate human survivors of an Alaskan wilderness plane crash. Tough situation. Frostbite. Wolf bite. Drowning. Falling from great heights. Harsh outcomes abound for both man and beast. Read more »
Movie Review
Tasteless
A disease ravages the world’s senses in this apocalyptic thriller. It seems to have hit the filmmakers first.
February 2nd, 2012
You sense an instant prognosis of pretentiousness with the opening words of soundtrack narration in a horror called Perfect Sense: “There is darkness. And there is light. There are men, and there are women. There is fruit. There are restaurants. Disease. There is work. Traffic.” And there is Ewan McGregor. Read more »
Movie Review
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
(PG-13) ★★☆☆☆
January 26th, 2012
This melodrama transforms the grief of 9/11 into some kind of interborough healing of the cheapest kind. Oskar (Thomas Horn) lost his father (Tom Hanks) in the 9/11 attacks. Read more »
Movie Review
Pariah
(R) ★★★☆☆
January 26th, 2012
Remember the name Adepero Oduye. The luminous actress, along with adept writer/director Dee Rees, makes this new, coming-of-age drama exceptional. Oduye plays Alike, a young woman slowly coming out as a lesbian. Read more »
Movie Review
Haywire
(R) ★★★☆☆
January 26th, 2012
In this globe-trotting revenge thriller, mixed martial arts star and Las Vegan Gina Carano delivers some serious beatdowns. Special operative Mallory (Carano) is being set up for a double cross and suspects as much. Read more »
Movie Review
Joyful Noise
(PG-13) ★★☆☆☆
January 26th, 2012
This serviceable musical contraption takes place in a hard-hit Georgia town, where the multiracial members of the Divinity Church Choir take their act to the competition stage. Read more »
Movie Review
Historical Schmaltz
Christian Bale stars as an unlikely hero in this poorly written Chinese period piece
January 26th, 2012
The Flowers of War has broken new ground for China’s movie industry: It’s among the first domestically financed films to star a high-profile Hollywood actor (Christian Bale), and its reported budget of close to $100 million makes it the country’s priciest production to date. But when it comes to storytelling, Zhang Yimou’s 19th feature is decidedly backward-looking. Read more »
Movie Review
Clone Wars meets WW II
George Lucas gives a disappointing, cartoony treatment to the heroic Tuskegee Airmen
January 26th, 2012
Red Tails squanders a great subject, reducing the real-life struggles and fierce heroics of the Tuskegee Airmen to rickety cliché. Some of the action is fun. But if something about that statement doesn’t sound right, well, there’s your chief problem with Red Tails. It sets out to ingratiate without provocation or complexity. Read more »
Movie Review
Gender Pretender
Glenn Close skillfully portrays a man, but this period piece lacks the whole package
January 26th, 2012
Albert Nobbs is now expanding to commercial marquees for public scrutiny. Thanks to a quirky performance by Glenn Close featuring enough prosthetics, wrinkles, painfully binding corsets and pinched diction to generate critical acclaim and give Meryl Streep a run for her money, attention must be paid. But not too much. Read more »
Movie Review
In the Land of Blood and Honey
(R) ★★★☆☆
January 19th, 2012
Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut (she produced and wrote the screenplay) bravely looks at what women must face when rape becomes an instrument of war. In ’90s Sarajevo, a Bosnian Muslim painter dances with a Bosnian Serb police officer. Read more »
