Sunday, December 28, 2014
Finally, refusing to ever watch E.T. again pays off!
EARTH TO ECHO
An effervescently sweet little piece of boilerplate, and only mildly undermined—surprisingly—by its found-footage conceit.
2014
Directed by Dave Green
Written by Henry Gayden and Andrew Panay
With Teo Halm (Alex), Reese Hartwig (Munch), Ella Wahlestedt (Emma), and Astro (Tuck) (and are you kidding me)
Spoiler alert: mild
Saturday, December 27, 2014
What Schrodinger's cat usually does in his box
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Thursday, December 25, 2014
The perfect system
TRON: LEGACY
And for Boxing Day, a present to myself.
2010
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Written by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Brian Klugman, Lee Sternthal, and probably your mom, given the story fragments evident in the final motion picture, but let's say "a lot of people who deserve varying degrees of praise and scorn"
With Jeff Bridges (Kevin Flynn), Garrett Hedlund (Sam Flynn), Olivia Wilde (Quorra), Michael Sheen (Castor), Bruce Boxleitner (Alan Bradley), Anis Cheurfa (Rinzler), and Jeff Bridges/John Reardon (Clu)
Spoiler alert: high
Having myself a patriotic little Christmas
THE INTERVIEW
I liked the part with the imperial overreach. Meanwhile, James Franco reinforces his reputation as (perhaps) the best performer of comic ejaculation pantomime to have ever lived.
2014
Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen
Written by Dan Sterling, Seth Rogen, and Evan Goldberg
With James Franco (Dave Skylark), Seth Rogen (Aaron Rapoport), Randall Park (Kim Jong-un), Diana Bang (Sook), and Lizzy Caplan (Lacey)
Spoiler alert: moderate
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Signal to noise
THE SIGNAL
It's so much easier to enjoy a bad movie when watching it is not also watching a great movie die in its place.
2014
Directed by William Eubanks
Written by William Frigerio, Carlyle Eubanks, and William Eubanks
With Brenton Thwaites (Nic), Beau Knapp (Jonah), Olivia Cooke (Haley), and Laurence Fishburne (Damon)
Spoiler alert: moderate
The nerds of Albion, part I: A brief history of how two people had sex, at least three times
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
For a movie with a title like that, you'd think it'd be willing to explain itself, at least occasionally.
2014
Directed by James Marsh
Written by Anthony McKarten (based on the book by Jane Wilde Hawking)
With Eddie Redmayne (Stephen Hawking) and Felicity Jones (Jane Wilde Hawking)
Spoiler: moderate, I guess, but if ever a spoiler warning was inapplicable...
Monday, December 22, 2014
It's one of the more dangerous games, anyway
13 SINS
Sometimes a premise is all you need: given a week, the title, and a suitably gnarly sense of humor, you might write nearly the exact same film that David Birke and Daniel Stamm did—and it would probably still be pretty darned good.
2014
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Written by David Birke and Daniel Stamm (based on the movie 13: Game of Death by Chookiat Sakveerakul and Eakasit Thairatana)
Spoiler alert: mild
Monday, December 15, 2014
18 Years a Slave
THE BABADOOK
And, representing the case for infanticide, The Babadook.
2014
Written and directed by Jennifer Kent
With Essie Davis (Amelia), Noah Wiseman (Samuel), Daniel Henshall (Robbie), Hayley McElhinney (Claire), and Tim Purcell (The Babadook, dook, dook)
Spoiler alert: moderate
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Love is a stupid hat
NINOTCHKA
The corruption of purity by capitalism's false promises has never seemed so sweet as in Lubitsch's fantastic dialectical romcom.
1939
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Written by Billy Wilder, Walter Reisch, Charles Brackett, and Ernst Lubitsch (based on the story by Melchior Lengyel)
With Greta Garbo (Nina "Ninotchka" Ivanovna Yakushova), Melvyn Douglas (Leon, Comte d'Algout), Ina Claire (Duchess Swana), Sig Ruman (Iranoff), Felix Bressart (Buljanoff), Alexander Granach (Kopalski), and Bela Lugosi (Rakonin)
Spoiler alert: moderate
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Catching up with the (super) classics of horror, part III: We're having an adventure, just like the Goonies!
THE DESCENT
2005 (The United Tyranny)/2006 (Freedomland)
Written and directed by Neil Marshall
With Shauna Macdonald (Sarah), Natalie Mendoza (Juno), Alex Reid (Beth), Saskia Mulder (Rebecca), Myanna Buring (Sam), and Nora-Jane Noone (Holly)
We've all missed movies that we should've seen. Here are three of mine, that might surprise you.
Spoiler alert: high
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Catching up with the (super) classics of horror, part II: Video nasty
THE RING
2002
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Written by Ehren Kruger (based on the novel by Koji Suzuki and the screenplay by Hiroshi Takahashi)
With Naomi Watts (Rachel), David Dorfman (Aidan), Martin Henderson (Noah), and Daveigh Chase (Samara)
We've all missed movies that we should've seen. Here are three of mine, that might surprise you.
Spoiler alert: high
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