“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home” — John Howard Payne The Smothers Brothers they are not. Brothers Eli (John C. Reilly, “Kong: Skull Island”) and Charlie (Joaquin Phoenix, “You Were Never Really Here”) Sisters, known to all as the Sisters Brothers, are deadly…
The specter of 90s cinematic cool looms over every frame of Killing Gunther, a darkly comic mockumentary action movie about goofball criminals that kill for laughs. It’s like a lost relic from a time when everyone wanted to rip off Tarantino and when the fake documentary approach still felt fresh. It also semi-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger…
The craps-shooting, comedy caper, The House, is a bad gamble for former “Saturday Night Live” alums Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler. The betting windows tell a tepid tale of strained, transparent chuckles in this limp-minded, suburban satire that rolls the so-called humor dice to no avail. The mixture of collegiate financial desperation, spoof-inspired small-time mobsters,…
Every Christmas season, two categories of people emerge from their Thanksgiving comas: Those who identify with Buddy the elf and those who identify with the Grinch or Ebenezer Scrooge. Some start listening to Christmas music before Halloween; some “Bah, humbug!” their way through shopping malls and tree lots. Yet, there’s also the forgotten few who…
Jason Bateman seems a pretty likable guy, despite his penchant for sharp, sarcastic characters. Gone are the days of the sweet, nurturing, unassuming hero; we as a society are deeply entrenched in the era of the sarcastic everyman — the guy who doesn’t simply turn the other cheek. This is the guy who reminds you…
