MOVIE REVIEW
Year One (2009)
Suzanne Hanover/Columbia Pictures
“Year One” is precisely the sort of clunky high-concept comedy that’s become the norm for Harold Ramis. It’s a collection of throwaway gags in search of a narrative and some characters, made more in the tradition of “Bedazzled” than “Groundhog Day.” Lots of talented people slum their way through halfhearted comic situations that usually devolve into fart jokes, gay jokes or biblical puns.
MOVIE REVIEW
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)
Rico Torres/Columbia Pictures
“The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” is similar to the cinematic version of a greatest-hits album, perfectly calibrated for the summer movie season. It features big stars and an established director doing exactly what they normally do, and doing it well.
The film pits John Travolta and Denzel Washington against one another as, stop me if you’ve heard this before, a maniacal villain and a suave hero respectively, while director Tony Scott (“Man on Fire,” “Domino”) amps up the action with assorted stylistic flourishes. That it works so well testifies to the skills of the principal figures and the continued potency of the mano-a-mano premise.
Continue reading “With Fare Hikes and Service Cuts Looming, M.T.A. Riders Take Another Hit” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Moon (2009)
Mark Tille/Sony Pictures Classics
Sam Rockwell faces an enormous challenge in “Moon,” an existential science-fiction drama from Duncan Jones (better known as Zowie Bowie), son of Ziggy Stardust himself. The actor plays Sam Bell, a futuristic astronaut completing a three-year stint living alone on a lunar base, working to mine the moon of clean energy for a giant corporation. Remarkably, aside from the occasional flashback, there’s not a single other character in the movie save for a robot named Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey), until another Sam Bell (also played by Mr. Rockwell) shows up.
MOVIE REVIEW
Away We Go (2009)
François Duhamel/Focus Features
“Away We Go,” which Sam Mendes shot while in post-production on “Revolutionary Road,” is the first movie he’s made that openly engages with the vagaries of contemporary life. It’s not a hyper-stylized, heightened museum piece like its predecessor or a whip-smart satire like “American Beauty,” but a film straight from the heart of screenwriters and acclaimed authors Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. The movie palpably evokes the feelings, concerns and challenges confronting parents and homeowners seeking to live out the American dream in the 21st century.
MOVIE REVIEW
The Hangover (2009)
Frank Masi/Warner Bros. Pictures
Lots of comically gruesome things happen in “The Hangover,” a cautionary tale about the dangers of bachelor-party debauchery spun out of control, but the movie presents them with such cheerful eloquence it’s impossible to have anything less than a great time. The casting of Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis as the leads has a lot to do with that.
Continue reading “Amnesia Is What You Get for Waking Up in Vegas” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Pressure Cooker (2009)
Los Angeles Film Festival
Movies often inflate the significance of the high-school experience. Typically, they’ll characterize the four years as the high time of life, a carefree collection of cliques, parties, sports, pretty girls, handsome boys and adult figures both memorable and dull. Sometimes, however, in the right context certain of the formula’s oft-repeated elements ring true. “Pressure Cooker,” a new documentary from Jennifer Grausman and Mark Becker, co-opts the inspirational-teacher-changes-her-students-for-the-better storyline and makes it resonate.
MOVIE REVIEW
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Melissa Moseley/Universal Studios
“Drag Me to Hell” finds Sam Raimi returning to his schlocky horror roots, forgoing the polished world of the “Spider-Man” franchise for an enthusiastically made, tongue-in-cheek dose of low-budget horror. With a healthy comic sensibility and plenty of boo moments, it confidently evokes the B movies that groomed Mr. Raimi and many of his colleagues.
Continue reading “The Road to Hell Is Paved With Cruel Intentions” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Girlfriend Experience (2009)
Magnolia Pictures
Specificity is the name of the game in “The Girlfriend Experience,” the second of Steven Soderbergh’s planned slate of six digitally-made day-and-date releases. An arty work of direct cinema about specific people occupying a specific milieu during a specific time, it never pretends it’s anything grander. That frees its maker and his cast of non-professional actors (the lone exception being adult-film star Sasha Grey, who plays the lead) to experiment with style and improvised form.
MOVIE REVIEW
Dance Flick (2009)
Glen Wilson/Paramount Pictures
“Dance Flick” should, theoretically, set itself apart from “Epic Movie,” “Disaster Movie” and every other sub-subpar genre parody of recent years. It replaces the dubious duo of Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the men responsible for those atrocities, with the Wayans family. The comedy legends behind everything from “In Living Color” to “Scary Movie” surely could not make a film that’s only marginally better than its recent counterparts, right? Right?
MOVIE REVIEW
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009)
Twentieth Century Fox
Given the unfortunate pedigree of a mediocre predecessor and an awful trailer, if you’d told me “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” would actually be worth watching, I’d have trotted out a cruise ship to sell you. Yet, I sit here at my keyboard hours after seeing the film, and I’m in a state of shock. Not only is the movie not a product driven forth from the fieriest depths of family film hell, it’s a fun, spirited adventure story that works where the original failed.