Let me start off by saying that I’m a huge fan of both Tina Fey and Steve Carell. These are two very funny people, but unfortunately Date Night just doesn’t work. The film was generic and typical, so when the script occasionally called for Fey and Carell to show their comedic skill, the jokes fell flat and confused the premise of the film.
(WARNING: There will be profanity in this review. As there is lots of it in the film, I thought it only fair to use the same language.)
I’m not a comic-book guy, though I’m pretty sure the enormous mouth-breathing fellow who sat next to me during Kick-Ass had to have been Matt Groening’s inspiration for “Comic Book Guy” in the Simpsons.
So I can’t say anything about how well the movie version delivers on the comic version. But who cares? Kick-Ass is a seriously brutal, hilariously clever kick in the sack to the superhero genre.
You know, when you go to see the latest animated film from Pixar, you can also expect to see a well-crafted short film before the feature starts.
Generally one does not expect to be treated to something like that before watching a twist-filled neo-noir thriller. But that’s exactly what I got when I went to see the film The Square.
Australia has made a number of contributions to modern popular culture. Kylie Minogue. Australian Rules Football. The Crocodile Hunter. Film noir.
Wait, what? Film noir? Well, I may not be able to get Vegemite in Austin, but I did get a nice big serving of film noir today, in the form of the new film The Square.
I have to apologize in advance for how long it took me to get this review posted. I wanted to go back and watch the film again with fresh eyes before putting down any thoughts.
And I’m glad I did.
This is a film I would likely not have seen for some time, had I not been asked to do a guest review for FED. This is because typically when I see “Genre: Crime/Mystery/Thriller,” I anticipate something entertaining but not necessarily enjoyable (also because while glimpsing at the theatrical poster, I was reminded of Underworld: Evolution). With that said, the film surprised me and was wholly enjoyable to watch.
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It’s no great secret that the free-market economy has a dark side.
But thanks to a group of merry pranksters known as the Yes Men, at least we can laugh (and often wince) at the evils that men would do in the interest of greed.
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Right now someone, somewhere is watching their life flash before their eyes.
If they’re lucky, their life was filmed by cinematographer Shane Hurlbut (ASC, of course). Because if so, their life will look a lot more interesting than yours.
I won’t go into detail about the story here, as it really feels secondary to the beautifully-crafted visuals. Those of us who follow the fast-moving world of DSLR cinematography know of Hurlbut’s work, but most everyone else certainly hasn’t.
The point-of-view approach used here is particularly effective in telling the story of a janitor, a man whose life might be thought of as ordinary, washed over by scenes from his life. But they add up to much more than anyone might imagine, and seen through Hurlbut’s lens, the vignettes have surprising impact.
What do you call a film that’s more comedy than drama? It’s not a “dramedy,” but then calling it a “comma” doesn’t quite work either.
Whatever you call it, the new film City Island, with Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies, is a fun, engaging breath of salty sea air, even if it is a bit on the contrived side.
Thanks to my parents’ investment in the blockbuster Betamax technology back in the early 80s, our initial home video collection never grew much beyond fifteen or twenty movies.
The good news is that most of them were sci-fi and horror classics like Alien, The Fog, Halloween and Jaws. In 1983, I think it was, they added one of my personal favorites to the collection: John Carpenter’s The Thing.
