In one of the most highly-anticipated action films (or movies of ANY genre, to be honest) in years, Marvel Sudios, in conjunction with Paramount Pictures, has produced another superhero winner, and making the total worth more than the sum of its parts. Simply put, The Avengers (Marvel’s answer to DC’s Justice League), comprised of heavyweights…
In the opening shot of Richard Linklater’s Bernie, our eponymous protagonist (played by the infectious Jack Black), who is an assistant funeral director and mortician, warns that, “You can’t have grief tragically becoming a comedy.” Ironically, this dramedy based on a 1996 murder that shook the small town of Carthage, Texas does just that. Written…
Viewing The Lucky One was a very frustrating experience. On one hand, the story (by Will Fetters, based upon the novel by Nicholas “The Notebook” Sparks) is an often compelling tale of love, war and broken and healing hearts. On the other, however, there are so many instances where direction (by Scott Hicks, “Snow Falling…
Damsels in Distress is perhaps the most pretentious screenplay ever filmed. I imagine there was a more comprehensible first draft and then writer/director Whit Stillman (“The Last Days of Disco”) pulled the thesaurus off the shelf and went to work. These damsels come across more as ridiculous caricatures than actual flesh and blood characters; nobody…
Witty retorts have always been part of the Hollywood macho man’s arsenal (see every Schwarzenegger or Stallone flick). Unfortunately, the punch line spewing protagonist in James Mather and St. Leger’s Lockout stands as an obvious — and desperate — attempt to recreate the ‘80s action hero and nothing more. Co-written by Luc Besson (who, in…
With its budget said to have exceeded a whopping $200 million, James Cameron’s Titanic was the most expensive motion picture in history upon its 1997 release. During production, the cards were heavily stacked against the movie; it starred commercially unproven actors, the story was derided as a Romeo and Juliet rip-off, and the film ran…
Forget the Gods — a cool concept soured by poor writing is enough to make this movie critic angry! Such was the case with 2010’s “Clash of the Titans,” a remake of the 1981 film of the same name. Yet, while critically-panned (deservedly so), the fantasy based on Greek mythology still managed to gross $493…
