We’ve all seen at least a few coming-of-age summer films, and as a directorial debut for Nat Faxon and Jim Rash it certainly isn’t the most adventurous or original topic, but The Way Way Back is executed so wonderfully that it’s hard to find cause for complaint. It’s nostalgic without making you cringe (at least,…
While watching The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, I tried to keep track in my head the number of other — better — movies this one “borrows” from. It wasn’t easy to try and follow the ridiculous plotline AND count, but a few of the obvious ones were: “Alien,” “Carrie,” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Brave,”…
While I am not crazy about a director including his own name in the title of a film (after all, we never saw a movie called “Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane” or “David Lean’s Great Expectations” or “Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver”), I can sort of forgive Lee Daniels (who directed the equally obscurely titled “Precious: Based…
While watching Jobs one cannot help but think back on the 1999 TNT made-for-TV movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley,” starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates. Well, at least I could not help thinking about that film. It certainly told a much crisper, tighter story of the beginning of…
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,…
I’m told Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters is not the new “Twilight,” although I’m very skeptical of that — the trailer released today by The Weinstein Company to the roar of teenaged girls everywhere tells me I am right. Based on the Richelle Mead novel series, it features young, attractive high school girls (who happen to…
If we’re to infer anything from the latest trailer for Thor: The Dark World it’s that brawn alone cannot save the universe from its latest threat. Aside from some very impressive action shots and wonderful views of Asgard, the trailer applies more spotlight to the fact Thor (Chris Hemsworth) needs his power-hungry brother Loki (Tom…
