Pierre Morel certainly knows a thing or two about molding celebrated thespians into B-movie action heroes, having previously kicked off Liam Neeson’s twilight transformation into a growly ass-kicker with the first “Taken” flick, but not everyone can make the transition so smoothly. Sean Penn seems an even unlikelier B-pic headliner than Neeson once was, considering…
“Living is easy with eyes closed, Misunderstanding all you see. It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out. It doesn’t matter much to me” – Lennon and McCartney, “Strawberry Fields Forever.” After fifty years, it is still difficult to assess the full effect The Beatles have had on our culture. Even with…
I had the opportunity to meet Adam Green almost exactly three years ago, at a screening of his horror/comedy sitcom “Holliston” at Emerson College in his native Massachusetts. What I appreciated about him the most — and what clearly shines through in all of his work that I have seen — was his unapologetic enthusiasm…
Governed by strict religious rules, there are no civil courts for divorce proceedings for Jews in Israel. Even though women over age eighteen can vote and must, like everyone else, undergo compulsory military training, Israel is still a male-dominated society and wives are considered to be the property of the husband. This means that a…
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is famed film director Isao Takahata’s first movie in 15 years. A labor of love that’s been eight years in the making, it draws inspiration from the 10th century tale “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” one of Japan’s oldest surviving narratives about a girl who magically comes to…
In case you didn’t know it — Kenneth Branagh is a director who really grasps the magic of the screen. Whether it’s through Shakespearean adaptations like “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Hamlet,” or one of the larger tent-poles like “Thor” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit,” viewers can be sure of one thing: They’re in for…
As the case itself boasts in a rather tasteless red banner across its top, Something Wicked was the last movie in which the late Brittany Murphy appeared. If this uncomfortably poor attempt at a cerebral horror film will be remembered for anything, it will be that. Well, that and the fact that Murphy probably deserved…
