Anyone who has read my reviews with any sense of regularity will know that when confronted with a remake or a reboot (which seems to be the norm and not the exception in Hollywood today), I always return to the source film for guidance. These projects usually fall into two categories, a) an improvement upon…
As the ragged and haggard anti-hero in Jean-François Richet’s rollicking grind-house showcase Blood Father, lead character John Link is a lost wrecking ball in search of raging redemption despite whatever erratic and intrinsic demons that beleaguered his unstable psyche. Well, this description can also be applied to the relentlessly problematic performer playing this graying, leather-skinned…
Hard times often lead us to the conclusion that we would be better off left alone, that absolute freedom is only attainable through radical loneliness — and that we would be better off if only we were able to break free. Isolation is such a great temptation at the face of abiding adversity, of relentless…
“‘I suppose you are right,’ said the Professor reflectively. ‘I suppose we might find it out from him; but I confess that I should feel a bit afraid of asking Sunday who he really is.’ ‘Why,’ asked the Secretary, ‘for fear of bombs?’ ‘No,’ said the Professor, ‘for fear he might tell me.’” — G….
“Is an intelligent being likely to be much more than a large-scale manufacturer of misunderstanding?” — Philip Roth, The Counterlife With Indignation, James Schamus makes his directorial debut from his own adaptation of Philip Roth’s 2008 book of the same name. Schamus is most well known as the screenwriting and producing partner of Ang Lee,…
When I first saw the trailer for The Infiltrator, I had high hopes, considering it concerns a U.S. Customs agent (Robert Mazur, for the record), responsible for nearly bankrupting the Medellín Cartel, which was an organized network of drug suppliers and smugglers originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia. If you were into cocaine in…
With The Legend of Tarzan, Tarzan meets the cast of “Planet of the Apes” and no one comes out looking good. To this reporter’s count, there have been more than 30 screen adaptations of the semi-classic Edgar Rice Burroughs tale of “Tarzan, King of the Apes,” from the first appearance in 1918 (with silent star…
