One of these days I’ll actually get caught up again. Maybe. RocknRolla [3/5] [Amazon] I didn’t think this was as good as the two other Guy Ritchie films I’d seen, Snatch and Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, but if you liked those two films you’ll probably like at least parts of this one. Repo! [...]
The Fall [3.5/5] [Amazon] This story within a story had absolutely astonishing cinematography, but I wasn’t at all fond of the actress chosen to play the little girl, and I thought the whole thing fell apart during the last quarter of the film. It’s still worth seeing though, just for the images that director Tarsem [...]
Here it is only April, and I’m finally catching up on talking about the movies I saw during the last months of 2008! War, Inc. [2/5] [Amazon] This was a mess. John Cusack plays a character who is remarkably similar to Martin Blank from the movie Gross Pointe Blank, which might have been a good [...]
The Bank Job [4/5] [Amazon] I wasn’t as impressed with this as I’d expected to be, but it’s still worth seeing if you’re a fan of the heist sub-genre. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou [4/5] [Amazon] This was my first Wes Anderson film, and it was weird and wonderful much of the time, but [...]
On Sunday, Jenn and I went to see the incredible Bruce Campbell, who was doing a Q&A session after showings of his new movie, My Name is Bruce, at a theater in Hartford. The basic premise of My Name is Bruce is that a desperate small town called Gold Lick kidnaps B-movie actor Bruce Campbell [...]
In an attempt at starting to catch up on reviewing the movies I saw over the summer, here are the ones from June and July. Mostly Martha [4/5] [Amazon] Bella Martha (the original German title) may not be a perfect film, but a very strong performance by Martina Gedeck makes this story of a chef [...]
Better late than never…. Gone Baby Gone [4/5] [Amazon] This was a really impressive piece of work by first-time director Ben Affleck, with an excellent performance by his brother Casey in the lead role and strong supporting efforts from Ed Harris, John Ashton and Morgan Freeman. It’s a movie that asks some tough questions about [...]
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford [5/5] [Amazon] This is a slow movie, but if you know that going in then you can take the time to appreciate what a fine piece of filmmaking it is. From the atmospheric cinematography, to the excellent performances by both Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt, [...]
Becoming Jane [2/5] [Amazon] I found the film adaptations of both Sense and Sensibility and Emma to be charming enough, but this account of the life of Jane Austen herself was just tedious. His Girl Friday [4/5] [Amazon] Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell trading great dialogue make this classic screwball comedy a must-see, even if [...]
The Philadelphia Story [4/5] [Amazon] At times things didn’t flow along as smoothly as they might have, but there was lots of good banter, and a cast that featured Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart, so it’s a classic that’s worth seeing. Paris, Je T’aime [4/5] [Amazon] A collection of 18 short films (you [...]