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Parental Guidance (2012)
Parker (2013)
Superman (1978)
Superman II (1980)Drama
Tyler Perry’s Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor (2013) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
Tyler Perry adapts his own stage play, this time though the story is darker and far more sex driven than any of his previous work. Confessions of a Marriage Counselor features an attractive cast and thankfully Perry, himself doesn’t make an acting appearance in the picture. While the filmmaking style is still unremarkable and the staging flat, this religious themed morality tale has enough interesting characters to pass for acceptable entertainment.
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Crush (2013) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
Judging from the generic title Crush, its hard to believe that this Fatal Attraction for a younger, more technologically savvy generation, is smart, well-directed and photographed. The opening passage introduces us to an almost Spielberg-ian suburban street. The block hustles with lite traffic, neighbors water their lawns and two children sit on a rooftop in the fading summer light. The little boy and girl, each no more than ten years old are alone three stories above the pavement. When the girl hears that her crush has kissed another girl, she mercilessly pushes him from the rooftop to his death. It’s an unexpectedly riveting opening scene that sets the pace for the tightly wound thriller to proceed from.
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Body of Lies (2008) – Review
2 Stars
Ridley Scott’s continuing fascinating with military operations results in the mediocre spy-thriller Body of Lies. Unlike his brother Tony, who succeed in this genre with the excellent Spy Games, Ridley lets the story start and stop then start again so frequently that the film becomes solely an exercise in visual technique and acting. Lost in this sea of jumbled narrative storytelling are two outstanding performances from the always reliable DiCaprio and the more spotty Crowe. These two have an odd father-son relationship/rivalry although neither is related to the other.
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Harsh Times (2005) – Review
4 Stars
David Ayer rose to acclaim as the screenwriter for Training Day and his work on other similarly themed scripts. He makes his directorial debut with the harrowing Harsh Times, a suitable title which could also be used to describe the viewing experience. Not since Martin Scorsese presented us the war scarred Travis Brickel in 1976s Taxi Driver, have we seen a main character so deplorable yet fascinating as in Jim (Christian Bale). This is a virtuoso performance that ranks higher than Bale’s Oscar work in The Fighter or his startling physical transformation for The Machinist.
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The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
Will Smith is a such a likable actor and audiences have become so accustomed to seeing him portray cocky winners, that experience the continual hardships that await him in The Pursuit of Happyness is emotionally exhausting. Christopher Gardner is a medical supply salesman in San Francisco during the early 1980s. Saddled with outdated equipment and mounting bills, Chris lives sale-to-sale depending on his hard work ethic to make ends meet. His wife decides that she has had enough and packs her meager belongings, though it is never clearly stated, it seems that an addiction or mental instability may have been a deeper issue than finances. However this leaves Chris the sole provider for himself and his six-year-old son, who attends daycare in Chinatown and seems frighteningly adjusted for the trauma he endures.
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Jason’s Lyric (1994) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
Jason and Joshua are brothers that have grown up haunted by a violent night that led to the death of their father. A domestic dispute that spiraled out of control. Trying to make good on his life and get away from the dangerous Houston streets, Jason (Allen Payne) finds a source of inspiration in a beautiful girl named Lyric (Pinkett-Smith), whose dreams of fleeing the neighborhood together give him hope for a better life. But when Joshua turns to a life of crime and drugs, Jason finds himself torn between his love for lyric and his obligation to family.
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Snitch (2013) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
For nearly a decade now I’ve felt that Dwayne Johnson’s onscreen career had peaked with the artfully violent action film The Rundown. As each subsequent film came forth with lesser impact, that 2003 film felt further and further away. Now ten years later Johnson has found a real role that allows him to breathe a bit onscreen and play a recognizable human being (albeit) one with a huge physique. John Matthews is the hardworking owner of a trucking company, and father to an estranged teenage son and perpetually unhappy ex-wife. When Matthew’s son is arrested for receiving a shipment of ecstasy through the mail, the D.A. gives him choice; roll over and snitch or face a decade behind bars. Although the marketing department at the movie studios are advertising Snitch as another Johnson action extravaganza, viewers may be shocked to discover this is a drama with moments of action interspersed.
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Grand Canyon (1991) – Review
4 Stars
Lawrence Kasdan is a filmmaker that achieved mainstream success with 1983′s The Big Chill, yet it is Grand Canyon that serves as the masterpiece in this underrated directors’ film cannon. Influenced by the storytelling of Altman, that would later serve Paul Thomas Anderson and Paul Haggis, Kasdan and his wife Meg have crafted one of the great screenplays of modern cinema. Interweaving the lives of a dozen people living in various parts of Los Angeles over the course of a summer, Grand Canyon is a deft and sometimes mystical look at society and our relationship to one another as a civilization.
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Kingdom of Heaven (2005) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
Ridley Scott films have an amazing attention to detail. Everything from production, set and costume design to the actual cinema techniques of editing, cinematography and script are poured over with feverish devotion. Wether it be an alien vessel, a look at modern warfare or gladiatorial days in the Roman coliseum; Scott and his collaborators are masters of recreating a time period and mounting gargantuan production behind them. Kingdom of Heaven is Scott’s first return to ancient times since the OSCAR winning Gladiator, the two films couldn’t be more different. Those seeking the majestically beautiful violence of that earlier classic will be disappointed to find that Kingdom is a slow-moving, often-times ponderous affair than is more thought-provoking film. In fact other than two or three protracted battle sequences, including a doozy in the final act, there is a virtual lack of violence or action of any kind.
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The Lucky One (2012) – Review
2 Stars
The Lucky Ones is a story saddled with such improbabilities that things go off the rails early on and the film is never able to recover. Zac Efron is solid if unspectacular in his continuing bid for romantic leading man status. This his second outing in the genre after the woefully inept Charlie St. Cloud. Based on the book from celebrated author Nicolas Sparks, The Lucky Ones is melodrama propped up by professional craftsmanship. As the film opens we meet Logan (Efron), a solider in Iraq who survives a deadly blast by insurgents. He would have been a dead man if not for a wallet-sized photo gleaming in the dirt a few yards away from where he was standing. This bit of good fortune is enough for Logan to believe the female in the picture is his guardian angel.
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Solaris (2002) – Review
4 Stars
Often times movies are referred to as haunting and I sit there in a state of bewilderment. This is not the case with Steven Soderbergh’s haunting and streamlined version of the Solaris novel and 1972 Russian film. Clocking in at a scant 98 minutes, the film is rich in quality filmmaking craftsmanship and also in themes and tone. From the opening frames set on a perpetually rainy Earth, we meet Chris Kelvin a psychologist still traumatized over his late wife’s suicide. One night he receives a rather strange message from a colleague working on a space station. The man pleads for Kelvin to come to the ship and experience the phenomenon happening on board. If I’m being coy in my description of the actual events, it’s with reason. The entire first act is all smoke and mirrors, characters speak as if we are already up to speed on plot points we couldn’t possibly have know about. This may turn off viewers early, you know who you are. All others prepare to be wowed mentally and visually.
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Swept Away (2002) – Review
1/2 Star
Swept Away begins with the quite elegance of a Steven Soderbergh picture as if Guy Ritchie wanted to throw his hand in the neo-new wave movement that was popularized at the beginning of last decade. Yet, the slavish devotion to his own frenzied style proves too much of an enticement for the Brit director most famous for his use of split narrative in caper-comedies. So then what is he doing remaking a little seen Italian film from 1974? Swept Away is a remake starring the son of the actor who originated the role and co-starring Madonna, the wife of this film’s director. How’s that for confusing?
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Out of Sight (1998) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
Out of Sight exists in the post Pulp Fiction cinematic wake, that saw many attempt to ape the Tarantino style with little success. After the split narrative structure and off-beat loquacious characters from that earlier film, nearly every crime/drama that followed was suited with similar features. Virtually none of these impostors were able to recreate the sense of discovery that was so vital to the success of Pulp Fiction. So leave it up to director Steven Soderbergh to adapt an Elmore Leonard book (Similar to Tarantino adapting Leonard’s Rum Punch for Jackie Brown) and produce a film that employes vintage Tarnatino-ism to almost near perfection.
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The Vow (2012) – Review
2 1/2 Stars
Movies like The Vow depend on casting and chemistry to draw interest from audiences. Luckily Rachael McAdams and Channing Tatumn make an attractive on-screen couple, and there is something in the way he grabs her and plants one on those lush lips, that suggests plenty of chemistry. It’s too bad then, that the story is so mundane with virtually no interesting characters and a crucial lacking of any humor. The stars are more than up for the challenge but the script disappoints at nearly every turn.
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Safe Haven (2013) – Review
3 1/2 Stars
The annual Nicholas Sparks film adaption has finally produced a product that compares favorably to the 2004 hit The Notebook. This is a small story with just the right amount of plot turns to keep (male) viewers attention. When an enigmatic and beautiful young woman named Katie (Julianne Hough) appears in the small town community of Southport, N.C., her arrival raises questions about her past. A past that is full of dark secrets and foul-play. Determined not to make ties with anyone for fear of being captured by the law, Katie becomes reluctantly involved with two relationships: There is Alex, a widowed father of two young children; and another with her only neighbor a woman named, Jo.
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