MOVIE REVIEW
The Other Guys (2010)
Macall Polay/Columbia Pictures
In the pre-Judd Apatow era, bromance blossomed only in the buddy-cop genre. The rationale must have been that sexual tension in a homosocial environment would seem a lot less gay if these characters could kick some ass. Come to think of it, you could even get away with bestiality in the buddy-cop genre. As you might recall, the dog in “K-9” got jealous and barged in to cause coitus interruptus between James Belushi and his human romantic interest.
Continue reading “Bum’s Rush Hour” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
Lena Herzog/66th Venice Film Festival
“Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” — which director Werner Herzog only made when screenwriter William Finkelstein gave him “a solemn oath” that it wasn’t a remake of Abel Ferrara’s “Bad Lieutenant” — is as much about a particular idea of post-Katrina New Orleans as it is the bad lieutenant of its title. It’s a depiction of a fevered, lawless world of decay, in which morality and the proper modes of human conduct have fallen by the wayside. The forces of good have left for drier ground, and all that’s left are the looters, exploiters and the drugged.
Continue reading “Drawn and French Quartered” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Spirit (2008)
Lionsgate/Odd Lot Entertainment
In "The Spirit," director Frank Miller takes Will Eisner's 1940s comic strip and drop-kicks it into a Wurlitzer jukebox of noise, melodrama and illogic. He also gives a clear indication of just how much the big-screen version of "Frank Miller's Sin City" came from Robert Rodriguez, since claims that the two films look the same are a long way off the mark. The green-screen method may be similar, but "The Spirit" lacks almost all of "Sin City's" detailed atmospheric backgrounds and visual tics. Instead, Mr. Miller opts for something much more archetypal, laying on his splashes of color with the broadest brush he could lay his hands on. It also lacks "Sin City's" whiff of insanity, a much more damaging loss. "The Spirit" is many things, but it is not out of control; and its biggest flaw is the air of cold calculation that hangs over it. Mr. Miller is being accused of having lost his marbles, but any sign that the director was having an actual brainstorm would have livened things up no end.
Continue reading “The Kiss of Death” »
MOVIE REVIEW
The Women (2008)
Claudette Barius/Picturehouse
Some might call “The Women,” a remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic based on the Clare Booth Luce play, the ultimate “chick flick.” Let’s be clear: It might feature only women and it might be geared toward women, but both sexes will surely unite in contempt for it. The feature film directorial debut of “Murphy Brown” creator Diane English, the movie contains shrill characters, an almost total absence of a narrative and lots of boring conversing as filler.
Continue reading “Sexless in the City” »
