The old imperialist warhorse, regroomed and re-shod for a new generation: the expurgation of "Fuzzy-Wuzzies" from the vocabulary; the elevation of a native African (Djimon Hounsou, of Spielberg's Amistad) above our civilized Englishmen in nobility and bravery; the post-Vietnam doubts as to the wisdom of military intervention in a distant …
Ambitious little chiller, related largely in flashback, concerning a working-class Texas widower (Bill Paxton, who also directed) who announces one night to his two young sons that an angel has visited him in his sleep and anointed him a slayer of demons. A hit-list of same will be forthcoming. "So …
Belated contribution to Fridamania. The same-named 1984 film by Paul Leduc, while timelier, was too low-profile to discourage additional spotlight-seekers and altar-worshippers. So now we have a new chiselled Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), an almost Manneristically elongated one, to grace the cover of the paperback reprint of Hayden Herrera's definitive …
Belated contribution to Fridamania. The same-named 1984 film by Paul Leduc, while timelier, was too low-profile to discourage additional spotlight-seekers and altar-worshippers. So now we have a new chiselled Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek), an almost Manneristically elongated one, to grace the cover of the paperback reprint of Hayden Herrera's definitive …
Steven Soderbergh offers no reassurance, after Ocean's Eleven (and Traffic and Erin Brockovich), that he has not been ruined beyond redemption. Outwardly, this day-in-the-lives-of-motley-Hollywoodites would appear to be an attempt to recapture that old Independent Spirit, even if the filmmaker hedges his bet by enlisting Julia (Roberts) and Brad (Pitt) …
Martin Scorsese's long-delayed, and just plain long, survey of Irish gangs in lower Manhattan during the time of the Civil War, Boss Tweed, and all that, beginning and ending in major blood baths, with minor blood rinses and sloshes in between. (It's not hard to see why the internecine discord …
The classic story of the upwardly mobile mobster, retold in fish-and-chips British accents, fish-eye lenses, slow-motion, split screens, coarse and corroded color, flashbacks and flashforwards, not to mention Dahmer-esque or Ed Gein-ian peaks of gore. At the hard heart of the film is the scene (with thanks to Tarantino) in …
Supernaturalism at sea, from the director of Thirteen Ghosts, Steve Beck. The opening scene depicts a snapped guy wire slicing across a crowded dance floor on an Italian ocean liner, slicing through bodies like a Weed Wacker through blades of grass, graphically illustrated with "realistic" computer effects of a torso …
Mathilde Seigner trades the city for the farm, where she must share space with the crusty former owner, Michel Serrault. (It is hard to locate the drag queen of La Cage aux Folles in this grizzled, broken-nosed old goat.) Slight, sentimental, pleasant enough, except for several unfaked animal deaths. Directed …
Schmaltzy Sunday, even more. In an image the consistency of overcooked goulash, a Budapest waitress juggles three suitors and inspires a lethally melancholy melody (lethally, literally) by the house pianist, reprised ad nauseam. The much-recorded title tune (Billie Holiday, most famously) indeed dates from pre-WWII Hungary: that much is true. …
A new Godzilla causes the JSDF to construct a cyborg countermeasure from the original monster's remains. The beast's restless soul is discovered to inhabit the machine as the pilot must learn to find value in her own life. This limited time screening will feature content previously unseen on the big …
Austin Powers, a decent idea for a skit, was overextended in his first feature film, and every subsequent sequel can only extend the overkill. There is already, in just the second sequel, a "Twelve Days of Christmas" feeling of picking up baggage as we go. (Did we really need to …
Condescending gaze at low-rent Texans, principally the employees of a discount department store named Retail Rodeo. (A Southern accent continues to be condescension's favorite weapon.) A useful proving ground, nonetheless, for the unspoiled talent of Jennifer Aniston, underplaying the discontented wife of a pothead housepainter and the secret lover of …
Tim Blake Nelson's filmization of his own stage play invites viewers once again to be ground under the Nazi boot heel. It poses the timeless question of how low the human animal will sink for survival -- and not even for survival, necessarily, but just "for vodka and bed linens," …
Criminal commandos break into New Alcatraz to disrupt an execution. They hadn't counted on the undercover agent in convict togs: Steven Seagal. A lot of tough talking and tough posturing (quite fetchingly on the part of Nia Peeples), though the Hong Kong-style action is strictly twinkle-toes. With Morris Chestnut, Ja …