MOVIE REVIEW
South of the Border (2010)
Jose Ibanez/Cinema Libre Studio
When the media and regular folks complain about the Hollywood elite and its ardently left-wing political yammering, Oliver Stone is always one of the first names mentioned. With “South of the Border,” he’s handed his critics a heaping dose of ammo for the rest of his life, as the picture follows the filmmaker on a U.S.-government’s-nightmare journey across South America, meeting with and fawning over Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Bolivian President Evo Morales and other anti-Washington luminaries.
Continue reading “Toward a Third America” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Knight and Day (2010)
David James/20th Century Fox
Despite his couch-jumping, anti-psychiatry-ranting theatrics, Tom Cruise remains one of our top movie stars. He shows why in “Knight and Day,” a romantic caper that thrives thanks to his larger-than life-charisma.
The actor, nearly 48, gives off the devilish charm, the wily playful spirit of Cary Grant in his prime. Imbuing straightforward dialogue and outlandish plot developments with a self-aware, winking sense of their absurdity, Mr. Cruise transforms director James Mangold’s thinly plotted lark into one of those rarest of phenomena: a genuinely entertaining summer movie for adults.
Continue reading “Vanilla Spy” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The A-Team (2010)
Doug Curran/20th Century Fox
Bolts of testosterone surge through “The A-Team” with blinding force. The mystifying remake of the '80s TV show is so supercharged with machismo, you’d be forgiven if you mistook it for the weight room at your local gym.
Continue reading “Pity the ’80s Fools” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)
Seth Keal/IFC Films
If there’s one conclusion to be derived from Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s documentary about Joan Rivers, it’s this: The 77-year-old comedienne really is “a piece of work.” She’s also — “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” makes clear — much more than the sum of her polarizing public image. Beyond the plastic surgeries and the abrasive demeanor is a driven, passionate woman who’s achieved the miracle of retaining her show business relevance for more than four decades.
Continue reading “Look Who’s Talking” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Sex and the City 2 (2010)
Craig Blankenhorn/Warner Bros. Pictures
Twelve years after its launch helped herald a landmark in the dual histories of HBO and pop-culture portrayals of strong women, the “Sex and the City” franchise has officially landed in the toilet. It arrives there courtesy of “Sex and the City 2,” this pathetically moribund sequel to the 2008 movie which robs the material of every aspect of merit and interest while playing up its most vapid qualities to an uncomfortable extent.
Continue reading “Prissiest Queens of the Desert” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Perrier's Bounty (2010)
IFC Films
There’s a set formula to the witty-Irish-gangster narrative, with its blend of sudden bloody violence and offbeat characterizations. Ian Fitzgibbon’s “Perrier’s Bounty” adheres to that standard firmly, down to the griminess that informs its portrait of the Dublin underworld, the dapperly attired men with guns who spout unexpectedly hip viewpoints and the addled nature of overwhelmed protagonist Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy).
Still, it’s an effective genre entry, propelled by the strong performances of Mr. Murphy, Jodie Whittaker and especially Jim Broadbent, a cohesive cinematic vision and a narrative that features enough moments of spontaneity to avoid coming across as just a tired rehash.
Continue reading “Grimly Reaping a Bounty” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Robin Hood (2010)
David Appleby/Universal Studios
You don’t need to see Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood” to know exactly what you’d be in for if you did. For that, one need only look to the director’s “Gladiator” and “Kingdom of Heaven,” or, failing those, any swords-and-sandals Hollywood epic set in medieval England.
The charm and underdog attitude of the bandit of Sherwood Forest and his merry men have been scrubbed out, replaced by Russell Crowe’s intensely serious visage, a glum story about unjust taxation and expertly choreographed large-scale action scenes that are anathematic to the personality-driven legend.
Continue reading “Thickheaded as Thieves” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Merrick Morton/Marvel Entertainment
The gang’s all here in “Iron Man 2,” the obligatory sequel to the extraordinarily successful 2008 comic adaptation. The first film helped redefine big-budget superhero cool, with the presence of the perennially bemused Robert Downey Jr. in the lead and the benefit of director Jon Favreau’s caustically hip perspective.
The second time around, the material suffers from standard sequelitis. Gone is the menace of the original’s virtuoso prison sequence, the serious regard for the details of the grounded real-world setting and with them the thrill of bad-boy weapons magnate Tony Stark (Mr. Downey) being transformed into an anonymous superhero in a giant tin suit.
Continue reading “One Too Many Irons in the Fire” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Harry Brown (2009)
Harry Brown Productions Ltd./
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Michael Caine is “Harry Brown,” the ads for this revenge thriller tell us, and is he ever. Giving a performance that exudes distinguished, barely disguised ferocity, the legend creates another of his memorable characters. He’s the only reason to bother with Daniel Barber’s middling, grim genre effort, a movie so wedded to a realistically subdued take on its age-old premise that it forgets to be any fun.
Continue reading “Raising Caine” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)
2010 Sundance Film Festival
“Exit Through the Gift Shop” arrives in theaters propelled by an avalanche of critical plaudits. British street artist/filmmaker Banksy has been hailed as a cinematic revolutionary, the creator of a self-reflexive masterpiece that gets at the essence of the precarious divide between the artist and the hack, the observer and the observed.
Continue reading “The Writing Is on the Walls” »