Part good. Part bad. All modern. RoboCop, everyone’s favorite cinematic cyborg do-gooder, returns to the big screen after a 21-year absence, now in a shiny, sanitized package that smartly brings the character into our post-9/11 reality only to malfunction halfway through by blandly defanging the franchise’s satirical bite. The opening chunk of José Padilha’s 2014…
It always seems like there is always another species trying to take over the world. It’s usually some alien race from some distant galaxy but in Twentieth Century Fox’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes it is home-grown apes. The genetically modified ones we saw get created in “Rise of the Planet of the…
I’m beginning to think that by adding Samuel L. Jackson to their fantasy/science-fictiony superhero-ish flicks, movie producers think an automatic hit will be generated. It is the only way I can explain why Mr. Jackson is in every one of these movie types these days. It also explains why he is front and center in…
The ultimate police officer is finally on showcase in the long awaited trailer for RoboCop. This remake basically follows the same story as the 1987 original which saw Detroit police office Alex J. Murphy (then played by Peter Weller; now played by Joel Kinnaman) brought back into service to fight crime and corruption as a…
When one titles a film using a human emotion or condition (i.e., “Frantic” or “Frenzy” or “Psycho” or “Vertigo“), the bar needs to be set fairly high. In the case of Paranoia, however, that bar could not possibly get any lower. And despite starring several Academy Award-caliber performers (previous nominees Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman,…
For a movie about moonshine makers, you’d think Lawless might have a bit of a kick. And maybe some flavor. But no, this poorly calculated picture is devoid of such pleasures, instead settling for a generic blandness. At best, it’s like eating a sock. You’ll be craving some of that bottled moonshine being passed around…
“You’ll hunt me. You’ll condemn me. Set the dogs on me. Because that’s what needs to happen. Because sometimes the truth isn’t good enough. Sometimes people deserve more. Sometimes people deserve to have their faith rewarded,” Batman proclaims ominously at the end of Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” — the critically-acclaimed second installment in the…
