Hi-yo, Silver, stay away! Johnny Depp stars as Tonto, the vengeful Native clown without a tribe, in a film that is inexplicably named after his sidekick (Armie Hammer). Well, perhaps not inexplicably: the white man often gets top billing in these buddy pics. Still, it's Tonto who gets the backstory, …
Johnny-on-the-spot documentarists Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe trace the crash-and-burn trajectory of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. (They had performed the same service for the completed flight of his Twelve Monkeys.) A testament to his runaway ambition, this behind-the-scenes peek at the Creative Process offers much of …
Her job on the line, a hard living rock journalist/professional groupie (does Toni Colette ever tire of accolades?) is assigned a cover story on her ex: a legendary, famously AWOL Seattle musician. Co-screenwriter Emily Wachtel’s semi-autobiographical debut regularly teeters hard in the direction of chick flick: a BFF to console …
Essay in "real time": a common man selected from the crowd at Union Station to assassinate the Governor of California is given an hour and a quarter to carry out the assignment (while his daughter is held hostage), and that's how long the movie has yet to run. The real-time …
It must have sounded like a promotional piece of cake: the director of Rosemary's Baby returning to the diocese of devil worship. But no one could accuse Roman Polanski of crass capitalization, much less crass capitalism. This is not an End of Days. It is an anti-End of Days, almost …
It is one of the mysteries of cinema: the production can be slick as a hockey rink, the camera movements agile and athletic, the angles exalting, the action unrelenting, the overall direction giddy with the joy of creation, and still the movie can be stupefyingly dull. This second sequel to …
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!”), …
The third sequel has more story focus, although the silly, stretched plot is about finding the Fountain of Youth. Johnny Depp, as rigged-up as any sailing vessel, does his wry, sporty, mincing schtick as Jack Sparrow. With grungy villain support from Ian McShane and Geoffrey Rush, sexy but decorative work …
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 …
John Dillinger revamped for a new century, more particularly Michael Mann-handled: high-def video, flattened perspective, eye-crossing closeups, jittery hand-held camera, frenetic cutting, amped-up sound, and the legendary Lady in Red is now (truth be told, among much romanticizing) the lady in orange skirt and white blouse. Pretty Boy Johnny Depp, …
The first computer-animated feature from Industrial Light & Magic, centered around a chameleon who finds his identity as a “spaghetti Western” sheriff. Said to be hip about the genre roots. With the voices of Johnny Depp, Alfred Molina, Abigail Breslin, Bill Nighy, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty.