Robert Evans wrote his autobiography in 1994 as much out of desperation as hubris. It cried out, “Damn it, look at me… please?” He’d produced one film during the past ten years, The Cotton Club, which was such a colossal failure that it rendered Evans a moot point in Hollywood,…
Andrew Niccol keeps making the same movie over and over again and dressing it in slightly different clothes: the sleek charcoal Hugo Boss grays of Gattaca, the crisp Crayola hues of The Truman Show and now, the silk-and-satin Hollywood resplendence of Simone. Niccol, writer and director, is obsessed with a…
Zhang Yimou, the most internationally famous filmmaker from the People’s Republic of China, is primarily identified with lush period dramas (Red Sorghum, Raise the Red Lantern, and Shanghai Triad) and secondarily with simpler, more realistic tales (Not One Less and The Road Home). What he definitely is not identified with…
Let’s all agree on one thing from the outset: The poster for Blue Crush is fantastic. It has a great color scheme; actresses Michelle Rodriguez (Resident Evil), Kate Bosworth (Remember the Titans), and Sanoe Lake (a professional model and surfer making her film debut) look as good as they’ve ever…
If nothing else, give French actor Yvan Attal credit for his faith in domestic bliss. At a time when matrimony has a shorter lifespan than mayonnaise, Attal has sought to mingle the joys and traumas of his own marriage (to actress Charlotte Gainsbourg) with his piquant views on the ambiguities…
Blood Work, Clint Eastwood’s 23rd film as director, is another crime thriller in the mode of, but better than, True Crime (1998) and Absolute Power (1996), two of his last three films. More than these, however, it resembles In the Line of Fire (1993), the Eastwood vehicle directed by Wolfgang…
In case you didn’t happen to read the tagline on the ubiquitous poster, Xander Cage, also known as XXX because he’s tattooed his first initial three times on the back of his neck, is “a new breed of secret agent.” The old breed, we learn pretty quickly, is Bond, James…
This time around, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan puts the surprise at the beginning of his film, and it’s a subtle, shimmering clue — one easily missed and, frankly, one that might not even be there at all. Such are the temptations offered by the maker of The Sixth Sense and…
Like George Clooney says in Ocean’s Eleven, do the math: four Canon XL1 digital cameras, one dual 800 MHz Power Mac G4, a copy of editing software Final Cut Pro 3, 18 shooting days, a 2-million-buck budget, one Oscar-winning Best Director, and nine high-profile actors (among them Julia Roberts, Brad…
It’s daunting to hear that John Sayles’s new film, Sunshine State, is almost two and a half hours long and consists mostly of calm conversations. But don’t be deterred or you’ll miss out on a study of character, class, and changing times that puts Robert Altman’s stodgy Gosford Park to…
Not much has changed in the 11 years since Mike Myers used the first Wayne’s World movies as a personal launch pad, tipping his James Bond-spoofing Austin Powers hand only when he was strong enough box office to reap the rewards of his licensed characters. Now, those spy-movie send-ups –…
Of all the A-list men playing dedicated authority figures, Star Wars alums Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson remain among the most amusing and pleasing, which is why K-19: The Widowmaker glides along engagingly rather than sinking. In many ways it’s just another cramped, dank submarine movie — bells, whistles, leaks,…
On the first day (of opening weekend), the Lord said, “Let there be, like, this year’s Evolution or sumpin’, only with more hope for significant box-office returns,” and there is, and it is called Eight Legged Freaks, and it is good. The silly title needs a hyphen in the compound…
Think of it as Todd Solondz lite: loads of dysfunction but, thankfully, none of the perversion. In fact, despite deep-seated neuroses, occasionally inappropriate behavior, and a propensity for unhealthy relationships, the four females who are the Marks family are a fairly benevolent lot. As observed by writer-director Nicole Holofcener, the…
Joe Versus the Volcano ran on cable last week. Contained within that misguided, unmemorable film was a small scene that only now resonates. Tom Hanks, who believes he has not long to live, emerges from a doctor’s office wearing a fedora too small for his head and a trench coat…
Like a Jawbreaker that changes color every few seconds that you suck it, MIIB: Men in Black II delivers a quick buzz, lots of stuff to look at, and a totally non-nutritious joy that can be attained only with the aid of artificial flavorings and yellow #5. In a nutshell,…
In her recent book Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, journalist Rachel Simmons hits a topical nail squarely on its sore head. Coining the term “relational aggression,” she employs several case studies to buttress the obvious but significant theory that modern girls are extremely angry but…
Talk about trading down: Adam Sandler now stands in for Gary Cooper, Winona Ryder for Jean Arthur, screenwriter Tim Herlihy (The Waterboy, Billy Madison) for Robert Riskin (It Happened One Night, Meet John Doe), and director Steven Brill (Little Nicky) for the immortal Frank Capra. The mind reels at the…
If it’s possible for a film to be simultaneously ambitious and banal, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is both. There’s little here we haven’t seen repeatedly in some form or another — growing up Catholic is popular fodder for filmmakers, as is growing up in the American South, usually…
Steven Spielberg just might turn into a great director if only he’d stop sabotaging his movies. For the second time in as many films, he demolishes his product with a third act that renders void all that’s come before it. It’s as though Minority Report, set in a near future…
Somewhere in the world outside the Magic Kingdom are bored people. Blissfully unaware of the suits who select the multiplex fodder they’ll be mentally munching, these people decide that Lilo & Stitch is worth a small chunk of their hard-earned. They buy tickets, relax their respective keisters — and discover…
The plot of The Bourne Identity is astonishingly straightforward. It is bereft of twists (instead, we’re offered tangible explanations), free of the gaping plot holes that swallow confused viewers, and absent the cynical machinations of filmmakers who believe that to entertain, it’s necessary also to bamboozle. This adaptation of Robert…
