Cornball comedy from China in the vein of Kung Fu Hustle, involving a bandit who (by means of falsified identity) takes the position of governor in a rural province (circa 1919). He takes on the struggle of the people against the wealthy gangster who runs the town. Writer/director/actor Wen Jiang …
This is a movie with focus on story and credible characters, on universal truths and human struggle. Such is the power of Life, Above All, a tale of courage and conviction that bonds with the viewer like an intimate friendship. The story takes place in modern South Africa and involves …
Filmed in a static, pedestrian style, the story never surfaces above its clichéd roots. Jason Statham takes on the role of assassin mentor to a lost cause with temper issues. Ben Foster, in the latter role, is reduced to the loose cannon, the sidekick. Statham attempts to preserve his rugged, …
Selena Gomez’s girlish features are a tough sell in this coming-of-age role. The story centers on Grace, who is off to Paris as a graduation present with her stepsister and best friend in tow. Through a case of mistaken identity (Gomez playing double duty), the trio is swept off to …
Director Charlie Minn points his camera at the recent surge in violence and death in Juarez, Mexico, a border city and battleground between warring drug cartels. Unfortunately, Minn captures little more than talking-head interviews, most of which rehash the same information for 90 minutes. Of the “experts” Minn consults (including …
A 30-something couple tries for romantic revival by squatting in the apartment they occupied when they were first dating. The movie’s most immediate problems are of a technical nature: inconsistent volume, poor focus, and bad editing, to name a few. The depiction of the couple’s conflict is superficial and repetitive. …
While not a straightforward comedy, the film does entertain a kind of absurdist wit: what to do with a body that, having passed away at the start of Passover, must remain with the bereaved for five days? Fernando Luján as the ex-husband is amiably frumpy, nudging his way into the …
Quirky documentarian Morgan Spurlock sets out to research the effects of advertising on modern society. The gimmick is that Spurlock is seeking corporate sponsorship for the project, a decision that means he will have to use advertisements in the film. Unfortunately, too much screen time is devoted to securing sponsors …
Johnny Depp delivers his second film-incarnation of a Hunter S. Thompson character: Paul Kemp, a freelance journalist who takes a job at a financially crippled newspaper in Puerto Rico. Paul is quickly tangled in a web of illegal real estate deals, dangerous romantic prospects, and all manner of alcohol-related hijinks. …
A hackneyed Poseidon Adventure under the James Cameron banner — in other words, under the showy gauze of 3-D. Characters bounce on the image rather than within it, creating a bug-on-the-screen effect — more irritating than exciting. The story involves a group of underwater spelunkers who find themselves trapped. The …
Ho-hum period piece from China about a warlord who, after witnessing the death of his daughter, seeks redemption by embracing the life of a Buddhist monk. His transformation is mostly recycled from other films such as Dances with Wolves, The Last Samurai, and Jet Li’s Fearless: the combative man who …
Director Zachary Levy documents the daily clean-and-jerk of Stanley Pleskun, the self-proclaimed “strongest man in the world (at bending steel).” He is part mystic, part self-help bumpkin — a man hopelessly lost to delusion. Though people seem generously impressed by his fledgling acts, what Pleskun mostly evokes is a sense …
Cherub-faced Emily Browning finds herself in a world of digital overkill — the live characters stick out like squashed flies in a coloring book. The story involves a group of unwilling prostitutes bent on escape from their prison-like brothel. We are then transported through the protagonist’s imagination to a fantasy …
An exercise in recycling — the Cabbage Patch plasticity of the faces, the unchanging costumes, the glowworm “magic” of the heroine’s hair. Everything looks like a toy. The Rapunzel legend itself is lost amidst the Disney checklist: the awkward sidekick, the trademark characters, and the sentimental, expository songs. For all …