‘The Words’ are best left unsaid, and the movie unseen
Agonizingly slow and swimming in its own self-importance, I could have sworn The Words was a poor adaptation from some short story or novel, but its not. An original story by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, the movie debuted at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and represents the two writers’ first efforts as directors. Their lack of directing experience [...]
‘The Expendables 2′ blows up everything, makes fun of itself
When Hollywood gets tired of remaking, rebooting, and creating sequels of individual movies, it tends to remake pieces of lots of them. That’s what you had with 2010′s The Expendables, and now with The Expendables 2 you have a sequel of a homage to not one movie in particular, but an entire genre of movies–the 80′s action film. I’m cool with [...]
Despite Carrell’s presence, “Hope Springs” is no comedy
The tag line of this movie is light: “Sometimes to keep the magic, you need to learn a few tricks.” And the premise of the movie is simple: a 60-something couple attends intensive couples therapy in an attempt to reignite the spark in their relationship. It is touted as a comedy, and given the element of [...]
‘ParaNorman’ powered but also handicapped by adult themes
I was torn in a number of ways after seeing ParaNorman, the new stop-motion PG movie from Laika, Inc., the same people who made Coraline. It’s a solid movie in a lot of ways that offers good lessons to kids while providing enough horror-satire and one-liners for teenagers and adults to like it. On the [...]
‘The Bourne Legacy’ might be the best ‘Bourne’ yet
I was never a huge “Bourne” films fan. I liked them, and respected them for their ability to turn the baby-faced Matt Damon into a killing machine, but I grew tired of the premise somewhere between the second and third film. For that reason I wasn’t excited to see The Bourne Legacy. But after seeing it, I [...]
Ferrell runs a spirited ‘Campaign’
I’ve always been a Will Ferrell fan, but I’m also the first to admit he’s probably long past his comedic prime. His routine just isn’t low-key, and at 45 years old you just have to wonder if his standard fare has or soon will kind of just become sad, although hopefully not in an Adam [...]
Plot holes and faulty logic sink technologically fascinating ‘Total Recall’
This weekend Total Recall debuted as the only major launch at the box office. Most likely many Hollywood insiders were expecting this remake of the beloved 1990 film of the same name originally starting Arnold Schwarzenegger to perform just as well as the first version. Unfortunately this remake fails to meet expectations, at least in its [...]