It would be hard to conceive a more painful introduction to Greek mythology. Or reintroduction, even more. Chris Columbus, who directed the first couple of Harry Potter entries, is looking literally for another lightning bolt — Zeus’s stolen one — in the quest of a dyslexic present-day teenager, the unknowing …
Lovers’ tragedy set in New York City in the days leading up to and including 9/11, leaving aside the green-and-white prologue set ten years earlier. Robert Pattinson of “the Twilight saga” and Emilie de Ravin of the TV series Lost do a generally credible and at times mortifying job of …
A spoof, not of religion but of the bloated excesses of religion in a media-driven, mega-church era. Pierce Brosnan is a suave fundamentalist fool, the Rev. Day. He runs afoul of a righteous aetheist (Ed Harris), thrills a suburban fan (Jennifer Connelly), and bewilders her doofy husband (Greg Kinnear). The …
A light doomsday snack, unsatisfying even for the duration. One wonders whether, out of post-9/11 sensitivity, or trepidation, or something, the images of a nuclear blast in Baltimore (at a football stadium where "Chicago" is for some reason lined up against "Florida"), not to mention its immediate aftermath, haven't been …
Veteran director John Boorman's treatment of a "light" spy novel by John le Carré. Neither the director nor the original novelist (as well as co-screenwriter and executive producer) is much noted for humor, and their unabating stabs at it here are not so much martini-dry as they are day-old-champagne flat. …
Needless rehash of a Norman Jewison caper film that was hash already in 1968. Faye Dunaway, the female lead of the original, is thrown a small bone: the nonfunctional role of the hero's therapist. Rene Russo, meanwhile, inherits the demeaning lead role — the intrepid insurance investigator who succumbs to …
Agent 007, for a change, gets a "real" director, Michael Apted, which is to say a director with some creditable credits to his name, Coal Miner's Daughter, Gorky Park, the documentary 28 Up. But what's the use when he's still to be held to a formula requirement like the ever …