Maintaining a single conversation for the entirety of a feature movie’s running time is certainly a bold aim, but for all the good will that ambition engenders, it’s tough to be anything but exhausted and irritated by the rambling ridiculousness on display in producer/director Jonathan Soler’s Phantom. After a quiet, patient opening scene of a…
To celebrate his 65th birthday, Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo) throws one hell of a party. The view is spectacular, the alcohol is flowing freely, and everyone — and I mean EVERYONE — is having an amazing time. At first, you mistake the scene for a hip, happening night club, and as it turns out, you…
It’s been 12 years since Jack Ryan has been on the big screen. Since then, Jason Bourne was introduced and conquered and James Bond was rebooted to follow suit. Now, with the Russians plotting to cripple the American economic markets, and Shakespearean director Kenneth Branagh (“Thor”) directing Chris Pine (“Star Trek Into Darkness”) as Tom…
You don’t need to have a master’s in communications to be aware that technology fundamentally changes the way human beings interact with one another, and by extension, changes the way we conduct our relationships. From vehicles allowing distances that would previously take weeks to traverse to be cleared in a matter of hours, to the…
When the beautiful, young Saoirse (pronounced “Seersha”) Ronan stunned us all with a fantastic performance as the title character in “Hanna,” it was easy to believe she’d soon be taking Hollywood by storm; little did we know that what she has in talent, she unfortunately seems to lack in wise decisions. First came the latest…
After a disastrous last outing with “Battleship,” Peter Berg, has struck gold with his latest project based on the Navy, Lone Survivor. One part “Black Hawk Down” for patriotism and one part “Saving Private Ryan,” for viscerality, it is an extremely visual, potent film that follows four Navy SEALs who are dropped into Afghanistan to…
In December of 2009, I was fortunate to have a friend who liked me enough to invite me to the Paramount premiere Blu-ray party at her house for a small horror film I’d turned her onto (she had entered a contest and lo and behold, she won). That movie was “Paranormal Activity,” and it had…
