MOVIE REVIEW
Draft Day (2014)
Dale Robinette/Summit Entertainment
The N.F.L.-sanctioned “Draft Day” doesn’t just prominently feature two teams — Cleveland Browns and Seattle Seahawks — at the core of its drama, it also boasts such a glut of cameos — including one by the league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell — that if you blink you might miss one. (Head count will follow once the studio issues the press notes.)
Ivan Reitman’s film isn’t so much a celebration of athletic prowess or even good sportsmanship, though. While it does mirror those follow-your-heart narratives employed by many sports flicks such as “Moneyball” and “Field of Dreams,” “Draft Day” demonstrates that shrewd business savvy trumps conviction and passion for the game.
Continue reading “Money Bull” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Get Him to the Greek (2010)
Glen Wilson/Universal Studios
“Get Him to the Greek,” the latest from the Judd Apatow bromance factory, is a spin-off from the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” orbit. Brit comedian Russell Brand reprises the role of Aldous Snow, the pompous and wasted English rock cliché who could have been the bastard lovechild of Liam Gallagher and Amy Winehouse. Then you have Seth Rogen Jr., a k a Jonah Hill of “Superbad,” playing lowly record company operative Aaron, who has the unenviable task of escorting Aldous from London to Los Angeles for a comeback concert and dodging – albeit unsuccessfully – all the groupies, booze and drugs along the way.
Continue reading “From Here to Fraternity” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Notorious (2009)
Phil Caruso/Fox Searchlight Pictures
It is fair to question whether the life of Christopher Wallace, also known as Biggie Smalls or the Notorious B.I.G., would even be worthy of a motion picture were it not for the East Coast-West Coast blood feud that ended in his death. That’s a blasphemous sentiment to many, and it is certainly not meant to detract from the fact that he achieved success from nowhere or that he was a terrific rapper. It is, rather, an observation inspired by George Tillman Jr.’s intermittently entertaining but thoroughly conventional Biggie biopic, “Notorious.”
Continue reading “B.I.G. in Life, Bigger in Death” »