My neighbor is a borderline Christian extremist. When she’s not bashing homosexuality or quoting the Bible, she particularly enjoys listening to gospel music and watching Tyler Perry movies. Once, being the self-appointed film snob I am, I asked about her obsession with the Madea series. She applauded the franchise’s family-friendly and pro-God morals — completely…
Puppy love. It can make kids do stupid things. In Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom, for which the first trailer was just released today, it causes Suzy and Sam to run away from their “normalish” lives to live on a small island together relying on Sam’s boy scout abilities to survive. This, predictably, doesn’t go well…
It’s doubtful that any Christmas stories are as omnipresent as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Since cinema’s very inception, there have been tons of motion picture adaptations of this 1843 novella, as well as spoofs and updated variations (the Muppets, Mickey Mouse and even Mr. Magoo have all tackled this Yuletide morality tale). In addition,…
Director Cameron Crowe has finally emerged from his cocoon — seven years after the abysmal “Elizabethtown.” Yes, he has had a couple of projects in that time, notably the Pearl Jam documentary, but he has avoided anything related to his dramatic film roots of which produced “Say Anything,” “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous.” With We…
One of the funniest clips I’ve ever seen and the one that cemented my love of Paul Rudd was from a skit on “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” (check it out: Celery Man). Apparently, someone liked their brand of humor too, thought these guys deserved a movie and so Tim & Eric’s Billion…
Like many movie snobs and deadbeat critics, I too studied film. As a consequence, I’ve met a number of hacks — among them was a young man who tried to emulate classic cinema. Everything from the scores he used, to his cinematography and narratives were brined in dust and had an air of pretentiousness. Usually,…
Leave it to the mind of the man who brought Brüno and Borat to the big screen to dream up and make fun of what isn’t necessarily a funny scenario. Sacha Baron Cohen is a dictator in Paramount Pictures’ The Dictator. Hailing from the fictional Middle Eastern country of Wadiya and having untold wealth at…
