Man on a Ledge might be the most literal-titled, cliche-riddled movie anyone will see this year, but amid the sea of tropes and trash, there are clever moments, which makes it difficult to cheer for Nick Cassidy’s demise, but not impossible. During his visit to the Roosevelt Hotel, Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) checks in under a pseudonym, […]
As of this past weekend, Liam Neeson’s string of box office successes is still in tact as The Grey comes in on top with about twenty million dollars in ticket sales. This pales a bit in comparison to his recent early-year windfalls with Taken and Unknown, but it’s still a testamnent to how much people dig Liam Neeson, […]
The biggest question this week will be whether or not Liam Neeson can continue his string of success with early-year movies. For some reason, Unknown and Taken both drew massive audiences. While neither was critically successful, people just love them some Liam Neeson. How could you not? He was Oskar Schindler; he and Gandhi single-handedly defeated the Nazis […]
Of the nine Academy Award nominees for Best Picture this year, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a shocking addition. At the same time, if there were ever an award for The Most Appropriately Titled Movie, this would certainly be it, for Oskar Schell (Thomas Horn) is extremely loud and ever-so-close for far too much of the […]
In We Need to Talk About Kevin, Eva Khatchadourian is a veritable Lady Macbeth from the opening scene that finds a youthful Eva in an orgiastic frenzy of bodies writhing in eviscerated tomatoes to the painstaking, hand-held-razorblade scraping of red paint that has vandalized her home and refuses to leave her car, despite the squeaky effort of […]
From the cuts between time differentiated by the presence of bruises and broken bones, to the seamless transitions from black and white shootouts to crimson-tinted, slow-motion shots of the prelude and aftermath of carnage, Haywire is vintage Soderbergh – perhaps most in its minimalistic qualities. There are plenty of aesthetic touches and attention paid to detail, whether it […]
Well, it’s that time of year again. This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards. In what seems to be a recurring trend, this year, the number of nominees is still more than five — but less than ten. I guess this logic allows them to nominate […]
The third week in January appears to be all about kicking a little ass. I suppose Contraband started the trend last week as the lone exception to the horror movie flood of early January, but this week seems to be all about violence and redemption. Haywire: First of all, you’ve got to love the preview: classical music plays […]
So, in yet another film that has been “inspired by a true story” (OED definition: adj. vaguely related to something that happened to someone at some time, somewhere, while pondering something else), Universal Studios is releasing Big Miracle on February 7th. Starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski, Big Miracle relays the tale of three whales trapped by […]
Like the John Le Carre on which Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is based we are introduced to the story media res as Control (John Hurt) advises “Trust no one Jim, especially not in the mainstream … They’re after my head Jim boy.” Unaware of Control’s intent – or even his name; at this point we only know […]