For the most part, hard luck familial dramas have the potential for being notoriously manipulative on an emotional scale. However, when done remarkably well — with the right precision of pathos and truth — such melodramas can resonate and overcome their soapy constraints. Director/co-writer Jake Scott (“Welcome to the Rileys”) oversees such a one with…
Terror demands attention. Terror, as a matter of fact, directly depends on it. Terror counts on your attention — and it is counting on you. The logic of terror follows Freddie Krueger’s logic (Craven’s original Nightmare): If the victim stops paying attention, the monster dissipates in thin air — or so we may be inclined…
Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings may be light on characterization and depth, but it is abundant in atmosphere and scene-to-scene, gripping drama. It’s biblical by nature, and although it does not delve as far as some would like into the lives of Moses or Ramses II, it is well-intentioned, thought-provoking and flashy. The CGI,…
The stories in the Bible are some of the best to bring to life on screen and Ridley Scott knows a thing or two about breathing life into pictures of epic proportions. The two meet in 20th Century Fox’s upcoming drama, Exodus: Gods and Kings. It starts as a personal tale involving the division of…
Suicide is no laughing matter. Neither is A Long Way Down, a movie that uses it as a jumping off point to bring together four people whose individual plights are supposed to draw sympathy and whose differences when combined are supposed to create laughable conflict. Of course, it’s not a comedy in the strictest sense,…
“The Fast and the Furious” is a great movie. When compared to the latest fast car drama, Need for Speed, that is. It has more fully developed characters played by more interesting actors, a less implausible plot, better choreographed racing and cuter cheerleaders. That last one is a bit of stretch, however; there really are…
Well, I suppose another “Fast and Furious” franchise only with hotter cars and no Vin Diesel can’t be all that bad. Or can it? I’m on the fence after watching the first trailer for DreamWorks’ upcoming Need for Speed. Based on the wildly popular Electronic Arts video game, it stars Aaron Paul (of “Breaking Bad”…
