Keira Knightley makes the men around her seem like disposable utensils. Sam Worthington is stuck playing her dull husband, whose interest crazily drifts to sultry, big-lipped Eva Mendes. Their drab one-nighter alternates with sexy Keira’s New York dangling of a former love, played by Guillaume Canet like a buff baguette. …
Colin Farrell, all grown up and polished smooth, plays a roughneck ex-con trying to escape the unsavory associations of his past (greasy Ben Chaplin) and embrace the associations of his decidedly brighter future (reclusive actress-in-need-of-protection Keira Knightley). The story? Hoary. But the cast is masterful, especially Ray Winstone as a …
A five-week countdown to Christmas Eve, plenty of time and the proper occasion to show how love makes the world go round, or anyhow makes Jolly Old England go round. The writing and directing debut of Richard Curtis, writer only on Four Weddings and a Funeral (he herein reminds us …
A five-week countdown to Christmas Eve, plenty of time and the proper occasion to show how love makes the world go round, or anyhow makes Jolly Old England go round. The writing and directing debut of Richard Curtis, writer only on Four Weddings and a Funeral (he herein reminds us …
Low-profile science fiction, so light on the hardware, the décor, the couture of the genre, so mundane in all its trappings, as to skirt classification, operating in a borderland, a no-man’s-land, occupied by the likes of On the Beach, Lord of the Flies, maybe Daniel Petrie’s Resurrection, maybe Todd Haynes’s …
The most famous female whistleblower this side of Erin Brockovich finally gets her day in the multiplex. Guilty or not guilty? Before Katherine Gun (Keira Knightley) can cop a plea, we flashback to the year-long terrorization of the young translator whose biggest sin was blowing the whistle on the Bush/Blair …
And wit's end. Part III is an endurance test for sure, a turbid, turgid, two-and-three-quarter-hour kiddie movie (an added quarter-hour per sequel), which depends upon your memorization of the earlier episodes to help you figure out what the hell is going on. It's enough to drive a man, possibly even …
Sequel to PC: The Curse of the Black Pearl. And more than just a sequel: Part II of an afterthought trilogy. (It was not a matter of thought, exactly, as much as a matter of calculation.) Johnny Depp's heavily eyeshadowed, thick-tongued pirate got to be something of a tired act …
Johnny Depp stumbles, staggers, lurches, leers, preens, pratfalls, and melancholily mugs his way back into the role that made him rich: Captain Jack Sparrow, the poncy pirate. But he’s no longer particularly clever nor particularly funny (“Think Captain Jack is washed up, eh? I’ve not had a wash in years!”), …
Now that the "ride" -- as in "wild ride," "thrill ride," "rollercoaster ride" -- seems to be an accepted film category, if not quite a genre, it makes sense that a film would be modelled after, or at least named after, an actual amusement-park ride. But Pirates -- not the …
Now that the "ride" -- as in "wild ride," "thrill ride," "rollercoaster ride" -- seems to be an accepted film category, if not quite a genre, it makes sense that a film would be modelled after, or at least named after, an actual amusement-park ride. But Pirates -- not the …
By this time the Jane Austen novel qualifies as a repertory piece, a mettle-test for would-be Darcys and Elizabeth Bennets, little different from Romeo and Juliet. The team behind the present production of it, apart from their attempt to replace the titular conjunction with a dashing ampersand, earn no points …
The cuteness doesn’t stop at the title. An asteroid set to collide with earth brings together a freshly-dumped insurance salesman (Steve Carell), a man whose television beams nothing but exposition and clumsy non-sequiturs, and a free-spirited neighbor (Keira Knightley). Lorene Scafaria, a screenwriter (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) making her …
While the rest of the world faces impending doom, a group of old friends reunite to celebrate Christmas in the comfort of an idyllic country home. Burdened with the inconvenience of mankind’s imminent destruction, they adopt a stiff upper lip, crack open another bottle of prosecco and continue with their …
A welcome development: big-screen luminaries (Judi Dench, Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh, Keira Knightley, Tom Hiddleston, et. al.) lending their luster to the short-film form. At their best, short films function like short stories, trimming away every excess to deliver aesthetic completion in a fraction of the time. It's a difficult …