Category: Movie Reviews

One doesn’t go into a movie entitled Piranha 3-D with expectations of high art, cinematic subtlety, or intellectual stimulation – but I did go expecting a good time.  My reasons are as follows: 1) Joe Dante’s original 1978 Piranha was a low-budget, Roger Corman-produced, John Sayles-penned, affectionately silly, Jaws spoof that worked on a guttural level while providing a treasure trove of film-buff in-references. 2) 1981’s Piranha 2: The Spawning is, oddly enough,...

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I discovered something not long into viewing the new thriller Edge of Darkness: I've missed Mel Gibson.Gone from starring-role films since 2002's Signs, Mel didn't have a great time during the aughties. They started out pretty good, but then something went wrong. While his 2004 directorial effort The Passion of the Christ went on to gross over $600 million worldwide, the controversial film left Mel extremely rich and emotionally ... conflicted? I can only theorize as to why his life, drinking...

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It takes some mighty big balls to stand before tens of millions of television viewers, raise your Oscar-filled hands, and exclaim “I'm the King of the World!” James Cameron was quoting Titanic -- the film for which he had just won a record-tying 11 Academy Awards -- but still, no one has ever accused this man of overt humility. Yet after Titanic went on to earn $1.8 billion in global box office, perhaps the visionary filmmaker had earned the right to such a claim. His previous film...

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No, I do not fit the demographic for this series, but that hasn't stopped me from doing some investigative reading to see what all the hubbub is about. My thoughts on Twilight, the book and the film, can be found here, and on New Moon, the novel, here. Now that the second film in the series has opened to record-breaking box office figures, I would be remiss not to post my review.Since Summit Entertainment's synopsis is about as short as I could make it, let's start there:Bella Swan is devastat...

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Call me an enigma ... I'm a dude who enjoys a good romantic comedy. Yet I will be the first to admit that the genre has grown stale. Yes, a few weeks ago I gave The Proposal a good review, but my affection for it had more to do with the charisma of its leads than any earth-shattering new take on old plot lines. Which is why I can most heartily recommend what many are referring to as the anti-rom-com: (500) Days of Summer.Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom, a copywriter for a greeting card c...

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I have a confession to make -- a dirty little secret, if you will: I like Michael Bay movies. Notice I did not say “films” ... I said movies. Don't get me wrong, I love me some films of the art house variety, too, but I (unlike other stuffy critics) know when to leave my brain at the door, release my inner adolescent and enjoy a cinematic thrill ride. And Bay has been honing his thrill ride formula for a good little while now. Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon (love that one), Pearl...

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Sandra Bullock returns to the rom-com genre that made her famous in The Proposal -- her first since 2002's underrated Two Weeks Notice. While no one will ever accuse this film of overt originality, what's lost in predictability is made up for in the sheer charisma and likability of its stars.Sandra plays Margaret Tate, a shrewish New York book editor who, because of an expired Visa, is about to be deported back to her native Canada. Her assistant, Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds - nicely sharpenin...

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Sam Raimi -- that delectably disturbed filmmaker who began his career in the 80s with the Evil Dead trilogy, and most recently finished up a trio of Spider-Man films -- returns to the genre that made him famous with Drag Me To Hell. Despite its dark and trashy title (an apt homage to similar B-fare from the 60s and 70s), this film is such a funhouse roller coaster ride, there should be a sign at the ticket counter that says You Must Be This Tall To Ride This Ride. Only Sam Raimi could make a fil...

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The wait is over.After months of obsessive anticipation, weeks of poring over internet minutiae, days of reading early reviews, and hours of clock watching, I just got back from seeing the new Star Trek movie at a brand spanking new IMAX theater. Did it live up to my waaaaaay over-the-top expectations? It did.But let's back up for a second here.As a child of the 1970s, one who grew up watching Star Trek in syndication, and who (like many others) considered Captain James T. Kirk my boyhood hero...

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When one has built up totally unrealistic expectations for a movie event, one is generally left disappointed. Especially after years of thinking it would never happen, months of nail-biting anticipation, weeks of saying “Dear God, let this be good,” and days of online hype overload. Especially when that film is the cult-fave WATCHMEN.As a longtime fan of the original comic book (yes it was a comic long before the term graphic novel was ever coined), my expectations for the film ver...

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Clint Eastwood. Are there two words in the Hollywood lexicon that inspire more awe and respect? The only other two I can think of are living and legend -- both of which are apt for this cinematic icon. Fifty plus years as an actor, nearly forty years as a director, five Oscars (two for directing, two for producing, Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, and The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award), he scores his own films, and, as he proves with his most recent effort, Gran Torino, can still, at a...

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I just got back from seeing The Wrestler ... and my heart is still broken. I mean this, of course, as the highest of compliments.No longer able to ignore the tremendous BUZZ this film, and more importantly, Mickey Rourke's performance, were generating, I drove downtown to check it out. Because the film is still in limited release, I went to one of Denver's Landmark Theatres, The Mayan, which oddly made my experience all the more intoxicating. (Built in 1930, and restored in Art Deco Mayan Rev...

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While there are still a few noteworthy 2008 films I have not yet seen, I cannot imagine any of them moving me as profoundly as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -- quite simply (IMHO), the Best Picture of the Year.Based loosely (very loosely) on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the tale spun regards a baby born in 1918, who although infant-sized, is otherwise in appearance an 85-year-old man. When his father arrives late to the delivery, his wife having died in childbirth, he is so horri...

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As an aspiring novelist with grand aspirations, I've found it impossible to ignore the fervor of Twilight-mania that has been sweeping the nation -- anyone who frequents bookstores, the internet or has a teenage daughter couldn't possibly miss that buzz. Based on Stephenie Meyer's 2005 debut novel and being released as a film today, I wanted to write an informed review of both, so ...I read the book. A week ago. And thought it was pretty darn good.The story (for those of you unlearned) is abo...

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Let me preface this review by stating that, as a red-blooded American male who grew up in the 70s and 80s, I love James Bond. While Roger Moore was the custodian of the role during this time, I was still smart enough to realize that Sean Connery was the true 007. Pretenders came and went over the years -- along with the passage of The Cold War, which many believed would be the death of our favorite globe-trotting, bed-hopping, martini-swilling, quip-dropping British secret agent.But then, two ...

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Walking out of Denver's IMAX theater yesterday, literally on cinematic overload after watching The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's followup to 2005's groundbreaking Batman Begins, I was ... conflicted. Truth told, I still am. I think I'm going to be processing this movie for awhile. A long while. I will keep this review as spoiler-free as possible.Picking up about a year after the end of Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and his manservant Alfred (the unflaggingly reliable Michael...

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When I first saw Ang Lee's HULK in 2003, I must admit ... I liked it. I didn't understand the copious dissing the film received from critics, moviegoers, and fanboys. It wasn't until later, watching the film again on DVD, that problems made themselves evident. It was too ... cerebral. Too artsy fartsy. Too worried about things like ... texture (not tone, but real, organic, reptillian texture). And what was that ending all about? Nick Nolte tries to kill his son by becoming one with the cl...

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WORDSLINGER'S NOTE: This is a two-part review. Part 1 is my thoughts after my initial screening of the movie. Part 2 is after my second viewing. What a difference a day makes.PART ONE - 5/22/08Well, after months of writing about the new Indiana Jones movie, I have finally seen the film and am posting my review. Truth told ... I'm still processing it. It's been 19 years since 1989's last installment, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Given nearly two decades of anticipation, expectations a...

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Despite the date, despite the weather, summer has officially arrived in the form of an iron clad, alcoholic, womanizing, weapons manufacturer. Marvel Studios' Iron Man (the first comic book film to be produced strictly by its parent, Paramount only did marketing on this one) is a knock out. Before seeing it, I heard some critics compare it to Spider-Man 2. Is it as good as that amazing sequel? Not quite. But it is far better than Spidey 3.Robert Downey Jr. amazes as Tony Stark, the aforement...

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I saw a film today, oh boy ...Across The Universe, Julie Taymor's musical mystery tour through the 1960s, based on The Beatles catalog, is a visual head trip that is already giving me flashbacks ... in a good way.Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a Liverpudlian ship builder who travels to America to meet the father he never knew. Tracking him down at Princeton, Jude also meets Max (Joe Anderson), a wild child who befriends Jude and convinces him to move to New York. Once there, they quickly adopt a bohem...

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You gotta hand it to Sly Stallone, the big lug knows how to please an audience. This has not always been true -- in the 1990s the guy dropped more bombs than the Air Force -- but now, in his 60s, he has somehow discovered a way to knead our collective nostalgia into audience-pleasing, profit-turning entertainments.After reviving the long-dead Rocky franchise back in 2006 with his laudable Rocky Balboa (the best entry in the series since the 1976 original), he returns now with an update of his o...

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To call Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tim Burton's gothic masterpiece, is to sound both obvious and uninformed. After all, how many of his films have received that very description? It could be argued that most of his films are gothic masterpieces (Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, to name only a few). But in adapting Broadway's ode to a murderous barber exacting revenge on those who destroyed his family, Burton has found a perfect marriage for his beautifully dark...

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Richard Matheson's seminal 1954 short novel I Am Legend has been inspiring storytellers for over half a century. Its tale of Earth's last human survivor fighting hordes of vampire/zombies has influenced everything from Night of the Living Dead to Cast Away to Stephen King's The Stand.Filmed twice before (1964's The Last Man on Earth starring Vincent Price, 1971's The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston), Hollywood has never gotten it completely right. (Although, I must say the opening scene of ...

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