How to cope with a rogue shark, who’s choosing his meals among the summertime beachgoers on a New England vacation isle, is a possibly plausible crisis, puffed up however to the proportions of a whopping fish story. The plot appears to be fooling with some fairly advanced chemistry (the hunting …
An academic hoax -- faked footage of a "lost" New Guinea tribe in the Anthropology professor's backyard -- and a happy ending for the hoaxers. (Useful documentary evidence of moral decay in America.) A few old pros and one new -- Richard Dreyfuss, Lily Tomlin, Elaine Stritch, and Jenna Elfman …
Unpretentious feature debut of the much-decorated TV-ad director, Joe Pytka: a comedy about a day at the races, a once-in-a-lifetime day for a nickel-and-dime compulsive gambler. Richard Dreyfuss acts as if he could carry the movie all by himself, but in reality he gets a lot of help from a …
It commences in the summer of '42 and continues for a period of ten months, the length of stay of two early-teen brothers with their tyrannical grandmother in the wake of their mother's death and while their father is away on business. Uncle Louie, a shady underworld character, drops in …
A reworking of the undying dead-ringer-for-royalty theme (The Prince and the Pauper, The Prisoner of Zenda, State Secret, and closest of all, The Magnificent Fraud), in this case a New York actor shoehorned onto the four-inch lifts of a Caribbean dictator. The initial setting of the scene shows some nice …
Most of the important members of the American Graffiti gang, excluding Richard Dreyfuss, are reassembled and then separated into independent and alternating storylines, each set on New Year's Eve in consecutive years from 1964 to 1967, and each equipped with a custom-sized image, Paul Le Mat drag-racing in wide, wide …
Unabashedly cornball tribute to the inspirational educator, from the director of the unabashedly bonehead Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Stephen Herek. It's from the Disney folks as well, who have made the subject into something of a staple: Dead Poets Society, Renaissance Man, Dangerous Minds, not to mention the attached …
Not a sequel to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but a spawn nevertheless, with a slimmed-down Nia Vardalos (smacked with an insult of “skinny”) wooed by another hirsute hunk, Alexis Georgoulis, a Greek bus driver who plays Zorba to the repressed heroine, a fun-loathing tour guide to a motley group …
Sidney Lumet in his accustomed role as message carrier and conscience nag. He is always at his least subtle when, as here, he trusts himself to author his own screenplay (Prince of the City, Q&A;), to say nothing of the supplementary, seven-paragraph Director's Statement in the press notes: "Why am …
The adjectival title can serve even better as an interjectional critique of the whole show. There is an interesting premise to do with an accused murderess who must fight against the best-meant advice of lawyers and parents in order to prove her mental competency to stand trial. But all initial …
Family life (including three weddings and one baptism), with a high degree of wackiness. Into the fold, via the recently jilted elder daughter, comes a glad-handing, dirty-mouthing salesman, with no levelling-off of wackiness. There are some acute moments of awkwardness around tossing a loose screw into a tight family, and …
A little cheese on the corporate ladder (Liam Hemsworth), desperate to raise money to pay for his dad’s life-saving operation, accepts the boss’s offer to spy on the competition in this moldy melodrama given a techno facelift. What good is a thriller if the audience is always two-steps ahead of …
Underwater earthquake releases computer-generated prehistoric caribe by the thousands into Lake Victoria, AZ, during Spring Break. In 3-D, to add a certain je ne sais quoi to the projectile vomit, the surgically enhanced hooters, the severed penis, etc. Well, it’s a living. If this is living. (Alexandre Aja, director. Elisabeth …
Inside Hollywood, from the P.O.V. of a recuperating pill-popper with a stellar mother out of the old Factory System. It helps to know that these are pseudonymous versions of Carrie Fisher (who adapted the screenplay from her own novel) and Debbie Reynolds. This helps, that is, to keep your interest. …