eric brochu

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January, 2009
The Wrestler (2008) 4/5
2009-01-21 13:36

The story is disappointingly unimaginative, but the acting and direction more than compensate. Mickey Rourke is the titular over-the-hill professional wrestler, but within the first two minutes you forget you're watching Rourke -- it's just Randy "The Ram" up there on screen, living the life it must have taken decades to get to. An absolutely incredible performance.
2009-01-21
0.3
Revenge of the Nerds (1984) 3.5/5
2009-01-21 13:36

Okay, it's really not a great film, but it's goofy, entertaining and easy for me to relate to. Plus, it has a kick-ass theme song by The Rubinoos. So go ahead, put us down -- one of these days we'll turn it around.
2009-01-21
0.3
Frost/Nixon (2008) 3.5/5
2009-01-11 04:33

It's not a great piece of filmmaking, but I've been reading a lot about Nixon lately, and I think this movie really nailed his character: he's like an evil Spock.
2009-01-11
0.3
Australia (2008) 2/5
2009-01-11 04:24

My girlfriend is Australian, which kind of obligates me to see this. It actually starts out not too bad, with a campy, over-the-top half hour of outback heroes and moustache-twirling villains. But then the earnestness sets in, and it becomes an endless slog which leaves you waiting for the Japanese to show up so that Darwin can get blowed up and the damn thing can finally end. (And for the record, Janelle liked it only slightly more than me, and only because she likes Nicole Kidman slightly more than me.)
2009-01-11
0.3
December, 2008
Con Air (1997) 4/5
2008-12-21 17:49

I hadn't seen this movie since it was in theatres, and I forgot just what a glorious masterpiece of stupidity it is! There is not a single line that isn't grandiose or a performance that isn't over-the-top, and there's not a hint of subtlety in sight. With a cast including Nick Cage, Steve Buscemi, John Cusack and John Malkovich, who all competing in some kind of secret scenery-chewing contest, the whole thing is excessive and gratuitous, and so cheerfully idiotic, it can't help but be entertaining.
2008-12-21
0.3
The Big Heat (1953) 3/5
2008-12-21 17:29

Fritz Lang-directed gangster movie with a very young Lee Marvin as a cold-blooded thug. Glenn Ford plays an honest but vengeance-minded cop who is determined to take down the mob after they kill his beloved wife. The film is slick, violent, and so fast-moving that entire gunfights are glossed over with a single line of dialogue -- the better to propel the main story along. However, it's pretty standard for the genre: solid, but never groundbreaking.
2008-12-21
0.3
I'm Not There (2007) 3.5/5
2008-12-21 17:23

It's pretty rare for a preposterous high-concept gimmick to pay off, but here it just barely manages to. Six people, including Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchette, inhabit various aspects of the Bob Dylan persona. It's pretty audacious, but Bon Dylan has always been such a self-mythologizer that a conventional biopic could never capture all the aspects this one does.
2008-12-21
0.3
Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 3.5/5
2008-12-01 23:40

2008-12-01
0.3
November, 2008
Highway 61 (1991) 4/5
2008-11-26 22:34

One of my favourite Canadian movies. Writer Don McKellar is a small-town Ontario barber who ends up on a road trip across the US with roadie Valerie Buhrgear and a corpse in a coffin, pursued by a creepy bingo-playing American who thinks he's Satan. The directing and story-telling are maybe a little sloppy and low-rent in places, but the movie has a charmingly offbeat DIY attitude a lot of 16mm heart. Director Bruce McDonald would team up with McKellar again to make the brilliant gen-X TV series Twitch City.
2008-11-26
0.3
Synecdoche, New York (2008) 4.5/5
2008-11-18 10:44

My glib analysis is that it's a meditation on mortality, narcissism and the inability of art to capture life -- three things that I think Kaufman sees as nearly identical. That's kind of a disservice to the movie, though. It's a lot deeper and more obscure than that. I think I'll need to read and think more about it, but right now, I'm definitely in the camp that says it's a kind of masterpiece of unlubricated mindf*ckery. (Though I saw it with Tyson and Gillian, with whom I usually agree, and they were much less impressed.)
2008-11-18
0.3
Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) 4/5
2008-11-14 20:22

2008-11-14
0.3
Role Models (2008) 3/5
2008-11-14 20:21

2008-11-14
0.3
Clash of the Titans (1981) 2.5/5
2008-11-08 16:50

I love, love stop motion, especially Ray Harryahausen, and the effect here are probably some of his best. However, there is a point at which the film around the effects becomes slick and/or dull enough that stop-motion, no matter how good, can't keep up. Clash is just on the wrong side of that boundary -- it's simply impossible for me to believe in the creatures here in the way I could in the less-slick but more-compelling Jason and the Argonauts, say.
2008-11-08
0.3
Ms. 45 (1981) 4/5
2008-11-08 16:35

A really odd Abel Ferrara-directed revenge flick set in NYC at its scuzziest. Raped twice in one night, a pretty, mute seamstress kills her attacker. Terrified at first, she keeps the body in her bathtub while disposing of it bit by bit. Pretty soon, though, she takes the rapist's gun and starts hunting other "bad" men, but her evolving moral code makes more and more men targets. We follow her descent in increasingly creepy and unnerving set-pieces, until we find our anti-heroine dressed in a nun's habit kissing her .45 while planning a massacre. The movie's not all that graphic, but it is unnerving, and like most of Ferrara's other films, has a ratio of two parts exploitation flick to one part art film. Which means it's pretty much right up my alley.
2008-11-08
0.3
October, 2008
Body of Lies (2008) 3.5/5
2008-10-29 21:12

Terrible title notwithstanding, this is Ridley Scott's best films in years. Set in the middle of the war on terror, I was somewhat afraid it would be didactic, but it's really more of a straight-up political thriller with slight pretensions of contemporary relevance. Which is just how I like my political thrillers, actually. Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe turn in strong performances, but are blown away by Mark Strong as the charismatic and frightening head of Jordanian intelligence. Not a masterpiece, but definitely worth seeing.
2008-10-29
0.3
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) 5/5
2008-10-23 23:11

2008-10-23
0.3
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) 4/5
2008-10-15 23:09

2008-10-15
0.3
Paranoid Park (2008) 3/5
2008-10-12 17:15

2008-10-12
0.3
Burn After Reading (2008) 3.5/5
2008-10-05 11:41

The Coen brothers have such an amazingly strong track record that it's hard not to feel a little disappointed when a new film is less than a masterpiece. Burn After Reading is less than a masterpiece, but it's more than just an average comedy, and totally entertaining.
2008-10-05
0.3
September, 2008
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) 4/5
2008-09-25 21:58

2008-09-25
0.3
Gremlins (1984) 3/5
2008-09-25 21:57

2008-09-25
0.3
Tropic Thunder (2008) 3/5
2008-09-02 18:28

Not a great movie, but the steady hand of director Ben Stiller manages to compensate for the grating, unfunny un-performance of star Ben Stiller.
2008-09-02
0.3
Rambo (2008) 2.5/5
2008-09-01 21:30

Here's Rambo's greatest strength and greatest weakness: from the title alone, you know exactly what you're gonna get. And you get it. Sly Stallone single-handedly kills dozens of deserving foreign baddies. It delivers. Unfortunately, it's also all you're gonna get. (Unless you're really, really into bad CGI blood and gore, in which case, boy howdy, you are in for a treat.) None of this is bad or unsurprising. It's just a little... empty-leaving.
2008-09-01
0.3
August, 2008
Triad Election (2006) 3/5
2008-08-24 20:15

2008-08-24
0.3
Pickpocket (1959) 3.5/5
2008-08-24 20:14

2008-08-24
0.3
Rocket Science (2007) 2.5/5
2008-08-24 20:13

2008-08-24
0.3
My Winnipeg (2007) 4.5/5
2008-08-06 23:55

2008-08-06
0.3
My Kid Could Paint That (2007) 3/5
2008-08-04 20:16

2008-08-04
0.3
A Colt is my Passport (1967) 3/5
2008-08-04 19:21

2008-08-04
0.3
July, 2008
The Dark Knight (2008) 4.5/5
2008-07-25 09:36

2008-07-25
0.3
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) 3.5/5
2008-07-25 09:30

2008-07-25
0.3
Encounters at the End of the World (2007) 4/5
2008-07-12 19:54

2008-07-12
0.3
Slasher (2004) 3.5/5
2008-07-12 19:53

2008-07-12
0.3
Top Secret! (1984) 4/5
2008-07-12 16:53

2008-07-12
0.3
The Jerk (1979) 3/5
2008-07-11 17:32

2008-07-11
0.3
WALL-E (2008) 4.5/5
2008-07-02 23:12

2008-07-02
0.3
June, 2008
Where the Green Ants Dream (1984) 3/5
2008-06-15 22:02

2008-06-15
0.3
May, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) 2/5
2008-05-25 22:21

2008-05-25
0.3
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) 4/5
2008-05-25 22:19

2008-05-25
0.3
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) 2/5
2008-05-25 22:18

2008-05-25
0.3
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) 5/5
2008-05-25 22:17

2008-05-25
0.3
American Gangster (2007) 3/5
2008-05-07 19:10

2008-05-07
0.3
Iron Man (2008) 4/5
2008-05-07 19:10

2008-05-07
0.3
The Crazies (1973) 2/5
2008-05-07 19:10

2008-05-07
0.3
April, 2008
Heima (2007) 3.5/5
2008-04-22 21:57

2008-04-22
0.3
The King of Kong (2007) 4/5
2008-04-22 21:57

2008-04-22
0.3
The Times of Harvey Milk (1984) 3.5/5
2008-04-22 21:57

2008-04-22
0.3
Devdas (2002) 3/5
2008-04-22 21:56

2008-04-22
0.3
Bamboozled (2000) 1/5
2008-04-13 13:45

2008-04-13
0.3
Shoot the Piano Player (1960) 4.5/5
2008-04-13 11:02

2008-04-13
0.3
Bangkok Dangerous (1999) 2.5/5
2008-04-05 11:35

2008-04-05
0.3
March, 2008
Transformers (2007) 1.5/5
2008-03-29 13:39

2008-03-29
0.3
Spider-Man 3 (2007) 2/5
2008-03-23 11:18

2008-03-23
0.3
In Bruges (2008) 3.5/5
2008-03-23 11:17

2008-03-23
0.3
Deliverance (1972) 3.5/5
2008-03-16 11:30

2008-03-16
0.3
The Thing (1982) 4/5
2008-03-16 11:30

2008-03-16
0.3
Predator (1987) 3/5
2008-03-16 11:29

2008-03-16
0.3
Atonement (2007) 3.5/5
2008-03-07 19:44

2008-03-07
0.3
Be Kind Rewind (2008) 3/5
2008-03-02 11:39

2008-03-02
0.3
February, 2008
Gamera vs Guiron (1969) 2.5/5
2008-02-25 00:24

2008-02-25
0.3
Bombay (1995) 4/5
2008-02-24 16:37

2008-02-24
0.3
Poltergeist (1982) 2.5/5
2008-02-17 02:16

I remember when I was a kid, this movie was a huge deal. Maybe if I saw it at the time, there would be more of a nostalgia factor. But seeing it for the first time now -- it's not a bad film, but it's not a particularly ambitious or challenging one, either. There are some jolts and jumps, but never anything too upsetting, and the film is careful not to ever do anything that would drive anyone away.
2008-02-17
0.3
Michael Clayton (2007) 4/5
2008-02-16 21:23

It was interesting to see this and The Lookout in the same week. Both have the structure of conventional thrillers, but are both more interested in their main characters than the plot. Both those characters have managed to get to places they are not happy with, and are trying, not always perfectly or directly, to rehabilitate themselves. Both even have memorably stark, totally appropriate, winter landscapes. I wish I had something insightful to say here after drawing all those parallels, but I don't -- I just enjoyed both films a lot.
2008-02-16
0.3
Gamera vs Gyaos (1967) 1/5
2008-02-16 21:04

Godzilla, at least in his first couple of films, is iconic and even poetic -- capital-N Nature in all its awesome fury, reminding the folks of badly-dubbed Japan that they and all their tiny, easily-crushable buildings are as insects by comparison. His fellow giant monster Gamera, however, is a bizarre, jet-powered flying turtle who likes to let creepy kids ride on his back. Here he battles a giant bird that can shoot lasers from its mouth. Gamera, you suck.
2008-02-16
0.3
The Lookout (2007) 4/5
2008-02-16 20:50

A brilliant character study, disguised as a gimmicky heist film. The hook is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's memory-impaired bank janitor becomes entangled in the planning of a bank robbery. But the film is much more interested in seeing this former star athlete, whose mind, body and self-worth have been ripped apart by a car accident, pull himself back together, and realizing that simply living day-to-day is not enough. And that part is fantastic.
2008-02-16
0.3
All About Eve (1950) 4/5
2008-02-16 20:25

This film came out the same year as Sunset Blvd -- one of my very favourite films -- and deals with similar themes: the dark side of the Hollywood dream. And while both films have stellar writing, this one hasn't aged nearly as well -- in fact, it sometimes seems quaint by comparison. (A Hollywood where middle-aged actresses take all the plum roles from dewy ingenues? Not even in 1950.) But it does have a young, funny, and very lickable Marilyn Monroe in a supporting role. So there's that.
2008-02-16
0.3
Manhattan (1979) 3/5
2008-02-16 20:04

I've seen this movie before. More than once, even. And loved it. In fact, it was on the short-list of my Top 100 Films list. So imagine how disturbed I was to find that some reason, this time around, I'm not sure I even liked it. I wonder if the perpetually overrated Allen's films are becoming as irrelevant as the man himself. It's certainly an increasingly uphill struggle for me to care about his rich, self-absorbed, pseudointellectual bobo baby boomers, even in his best films.
2008-02-16
0.3
January, 2008
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) 3.5/5
2008-01-27 23:10

Kind of an unusual kung fu flick in that the big good vs evil conflict is given a back seat to a fairly earnest (if a bit cartoonish) look at the arduous training and intense commitment of the serious martial arts student. Also, the DVD has a commentary by RZA, which is novel, though I found it was best appreciated in small doses.
2008-01-27
0.3
Enter the Dragon (1973) 4/5
2008-01-27 23:01

A classic, but that doesn't mean it's great. I mean, Bruce Lee is great, but whenever he's not on the the screen -- or when he's on the screen but not kicking ass -- it's really a bit of a bore. Fortunately, a pretty fair chunk of the movie is, indeed, Bruce Lee kicking ass.
2008-01-27
0.3
Apocalypto (2006) 3/5
2008-01-20 19:39

An odd film, in an odd key. Clearly conceived as a straight-up action-adventure yarn, and it delivers on that front with spectacular chase and fight scenes. But it is also clearly fascinated by its own setting -- the declining Mayan empire -- with long scenes of family life, the Mayan economy and the details of life in the jungle. Unfortunately, fascination doesn't equal insight, and in the end, we get an interesting, but off-balance actioner that can't quite hold up under the weight of its ambitions.
2008-01-20
0.3
Murder, My Sweet (1944) 3.5/5
2008-01-13 17:01

Classic Raymond Chandler adaptation, with singer Dick Powell as Marlow. A year later, Humphrey Bogart would play a much slicker Marlow in The Big Sleep, and you'd think this portrayal would suffer by comparison, but Marlow is a complex enough character to support both interpretations. Here, Marlow is dirtier, grubbier and more clearly out of his depth. He's a mercenary who gets by on his good looks, confidence, and dry wit, rather than by being smarter or tougher than anybody else.
2008-01-13
0.3
There Will Be Blood (2007) 3.5/5
2008-01-13 16:41

The first 20 minutes are as good as any ever put to film, and the last 20 are jaw-droppingly bad. In-between, we get the actual movie, a complex character study layered with beautiful cinematography and music. I seem to be in a minority, but I was ultimately a bit disappointed. It's fascinating seeing all the pieces falling into place, but they're all there half-way through, and then all that's left is to watch and wait for the inevitable.
2008-01-13
0.3
La Jetée (1962) 4.5/5
2008-01-09 12:20

Yes, it's a 28-minute sequence of black-and-white still photos. And yes, it's French. French science fiction, no less. Don't let any of that put you off -- this is a fascinating, engaging, entertaining film that will stay with you for a very long time. And, it's the film that Twelve Monkeys is a remake of, so it's got that, too.
2008-01-09
0.3
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990) 1.5/5
2008-01-08 19:58

I don't think there's a single performance or scene that rings true, but by God, they sure want to impress you with how much it all cost. I recently read the terrific book The Devil's Candy, about the making of this film, so I kind of had to see it, but it really is a slog.
2008-01-08
0.3
Hellboy (2004) 3/5
2008-01-08 19:52

Entertaining movie with some brilliantly-directed scenes, and Ron Perlman is brilliant as Hellboy, but the story and editing are so choppy that by the end you pretty much have to give up on making any sense of what's going on or how anybody got anywhere. Still, del Toro is unquestionably a brilliant filmmaker, and I'm really looking forward to Hellboy 2.
2008-01-08
0.3
December, 2007
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-25 23:59

Just when I had given up on Tim Burton ever making another good film after Ed Wood, he has to go and show me up with this one -- beautifully dark, bloody, misanthropic, and, of course, it's a musical. It's not a great movie, mind you -- Burton is still clearly more interested in art direction than characterization -- but I enjoyed it hugely, even if it left me a bit unsatisfied by the end.
2007-12-25
0.3
Revolver (2005/I) 1/5
2007-12-25 23:48

Luc Besson, Guy Ritchie and Ray Liotta have all seemed a little crazy for the last, say, decade or so. Apparently, putting them all together was like a perfect storm of batshit-insane. Nothing I say can possibly prepare you for the schizoid, pretentious, Kabbalah-fueled mess of a gangster film that is Revolver. You must see it. If for nothing else than the endless scenes of Ray Liotta in his underwear under black lights, weeping and telling the voices in his head to fear him -- voices which, incidentally, are there for no fucking reason whatsoever!
2007-12-25
0.3
Juno (2007) 4/5
2007-12-25 23:34

Solidly in the Wes-Anderson-inspired quirky indie comedy genre, complete with hyper-articulate herione and twee pop soundtrack. I was worried at first that the characters would be compilations of writerly quirk, a la Little Miss Sunshine or the unspeakable Garden State, but after about the first 15 minutes it became clear that Juno is aiming a lot higher, and it mostly succeeds. And when it doesn't, it's because it falls a little too in love with its dialogue and nonconformity, and dear God, there are worse flaws than that.
2007-12-25
0.3
Manufacturing Dissent (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-25 23:21

It's no great secret that Michael Moore plays extremely fast and loose with the facts in his "documentaries", but this doc, from filmmakers who are sympathetic to his ends but clearly disgusted by his means pains a pretty damning portrait of both Moore and his followers. The former as a hypocrite who wants nothing more than to feed his ego, and the latter as a group happy to do so in exchange for a pre-digested worldview of heroes and villains.
2007-12-25
0.3
The Mist (2007) 3.5/5
2007-12-07 14:26

2007-12-07
0.3
November, 2007
Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956) 1/5
2007-11-25 23:45

2007-11-25
0.3
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) 4/5
2007-11-25 23:43

2007-11-25
0.3
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 4/5
2007-11-25 23:42

2007-11-25
0.3
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) 4.5/5
2007-11-25 23:42

2007-11-25
0.3
No Country for Old Men (2007) 5/5
2007-11-15 20:20

I saw this on my birthday last weekend and couldn't have received a better present. This is a great, great film -- stark and subtle and filled with memorable scenes. I'll need to watch it again (and again) to decide just how great it is, but this I know: No Country for Old Men has taken up permanent space in my head alongside Fargo and Miller's Crossing. And hopefully this will finally shut up the pompous idiots who claim the Coen brothers are lacking in depth because they are "funny". Not that there aren't funny moments, but they are so dark and frightening that laughing at them starts to feel perverse.
2007-11-15
0.3
The Boondock Saints (1999) 2.5/5
2007-11-09 22:43

A movie that feels like somebody gave an ambitious -- but not terribly original -- film student a few million dollars. There is exactly one good thing about this movie -- Willem Dafoe's charismatic turn as a brilliant but utterly eccentric FBI agent. The rest... at best, it's a second-rate Tarantino rip-off. At worst, a second-rate Punisher rip-off. Never unwatchable, but rarely compelling.
2007-11-09
0.3
The Queen (2006) 3.5/5
2007-11-04 22:20

I find the royal family fascinating in the same way I find the Catholic Church fascinating -- I may not believe in or even personally approve of them, but they've been around a whole lot longer than me and I have to give them props. This movie hones in on Elizabeth II with pinpoint accuracy, laying bare her strengths and weaknesses mostly in a single, one week period during and after the death of Princess Diana. And it is a really engaging portrayal. The movie's weakness, though is that the rest of the players (including Princes Philip and Charles, and especially Tony Blair) really only exist as lenses for us to see the Queen through, which makes the word of the film seem a bit less like the one she lives in. And Helen Mirren's portrayal is good enough to make you totally forget Scott Thompson's. While the movie's playing, at least.
2007-11-04
0.3
Into the Wild (2007) 4.5/5
2007-11-04 20:47

A terrific movie, and the rare adaptation that enriches the original book, instead of trying to reproduce or supplant it (I've read the Krakauer book twice). The interviews and essays of the book become the backbone of a road movie that preserves the book's ambivalence towards its subject -- Christopher McCandless is irritatingly self-absorbed, naive and intransigent, but his self-assigned mission to cast off material concerns and follow a road of hardship, self-discipline and joy probably registers with anyone who has ever thought about how easy and how hard it would be to simply walk away from their life for one on the road. And the America shown in the movie is so vast and beautiful, it can't help but feel like you're missing out if you don't spend your life exploring it.
2007-11-04
0.3
October, 2007
The Darjeeling Limited (2007) 3.5/5
2007-10-16 10:55

I really wanted to like this movie more, and maybe I will, on second viewing. It's a sad, funny, impeccably-crafted and beautifully shot story of three brothers travelling across India, and certainly very Wes Andersony. But walking out of the theater, I felt vaguely dissatisfied. In each Wes Anderson movie, the characters are richer, colder and less likeable, and here, there just wasn't enough left for me to hold on to. It's really not a bad movie, but it didn't make me walk out with the feeling of gratitude I had when I saw Anderson's previous films.
2007-10-16
0.3
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) 4.5/5
2007-10-07 21:00

I don't know what I can say about this film that hasn't been said a hundred times. It's brilliant. It's painful. It's exhilarating. And it has the best, most stylized dialogue any film has ever had. "We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. "
2007-10-07
0.3
Eastern Promises (2007) 3.5/5
2007-10-07 20:55

Studded with greatness, but ultimately unsatisfying. It feels less like a complete story and more like a showcase for David Cronenberg's clinical direction (I kind of felt the same way about Spider). There are several terrific scenes, but I didn't feel that Cronenberg was really connecting with the material as much as the actors were. And the abrupt ending just emphasized that feeling -- as if to say, "well, I did everything we came here to do, let's go home".
2007-10-07
0.3
September, 2007
A Better Tomorrow II (1987) 3/5
2007-09-30 20:50

Ramps up the action, the melodrama and the sheer preposterousness of the first movie, frequently to an overbearing degree. The action scenes are spectacular, but the rest of the film takes frequent trips into insane soap-opera WTF?-land. Still entertaining, but John Woo and Chow Yun Fat would go on to do a couple of films that were a whole lot better. "If you have any dignity, apologize to the rice RIGHT NOW!"
2007-09-30
0.3
A Better Tomorrow (1986) 4.5/5
2007-09-30 18:29

The movie that launched the Hong Kong New Wave, and the international careers of John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. The stylish action scenes were so influential that they now seem a bit dated, and the melodrama is beyond over-the-top, as only John Woo can pull off. But it's impressive just how much skill and confidence there is on display in this film. As low-budget as it obviously is, it's obvious everybody knew they were onto something groundbreaking -- the cinema of the past twenty years would look very different without this film.
2007-09-30
0.3
Sunset Blvd. (1950) 5/5
2007-09-28 14:33

The cynicism of the film -- it's eagerness to look at the ugliness underneath Hollywood -- has gone, since 1950, from shocking to trite. But I think it's an incredible testament to the quality of the film and its performances that this barely registers. It's still a powerful and utterly modern film -- a black masterpiece of failure and disenchantment.
2007-09-28
0.3
The Intruder (1962) 3.5/5
2007-09-23 23:09

How fucking cool is William Shatner? Even before Star Trek, in his Roger Corman days, he was the coolest kid in school. In this obvious labour of love for Shatner and Corman, the Man plays a charismatic and manipulative, but oddly naive, "social worker" villain, who incites a Southern town against school integration. Not only is this one of the best Corman movies I've seen, it's one of Shatner's best. You can see here how his career would have progressed if it hadn't been for Trek: a comfortable place as a brooding, good-looking character actor, combined with the occasional leading-man role in small-but-respectable fare. Instead, he got cast as Kirk, and his career became something altogether different.
2007-09-23
0.3
The Long Riders (1980) 4/5
2007-09-22 21:11

This Walter Hill-directed retelling of the James-Younger gang is not quite a masterpiece, but it is a really, really enjoyable piece of late-1970s violent naturalism. By 1980 the somewhat naive romaticism of Bonny and Clyde and The Wild Bunch was long gone, but the deconstruction of Unforgiven was still far away. Instead, we get an odd mixture of the lyricism of the 1970s and the precise workmanship,of the 1980s, punctuated by brilliant Walter Hill action scenes.
2007-09-22
0.3
Drunken Master (1978) 3.5/5
2007-09-21 19:33

Early, awesome Jackie Chan movie directed by Yuen Woo-Ping. The entire movie is alternating fights and comedy set pieces with barely a moment to break them up. While not nearly as brilliant as Drunken Master II, this is still the rare old-school kung fu flick that really delivers.
2007-09-21
0.3
3:10 to Yuma (2007) 4/5
2007-09-21 19:29

I'm not sure why, but I went into this expecting a revisionist art-house Western in the vein of Unforgiven or The Proposition. Instead, it's a genuine old-fashioned Serious Western -- a psychological morality tale about the price of virtue, with a mixture of stark violence and bleak heroism. With excellent performances from Christian Bale in the subtle role, and Russell Crowe in the flashy one.
2007-09-21
0.3
Mystic River (2003) 3/5
2007-09-10 10:58

The first two-thirds -- where you don't know where it's going and can enjoy the performances and direction -- are excellent. But then we get to a completely and utterly implausible third act, followed by a series of tacked-on epilogues that rob the movie of any remaining poignancy or ambiguity. (And am I the only person that thinks Sean Penn isn't much of an actor? I never once thought I was seeing a character rather than "superstar actor Sean Penn". And not just here...)
2007-09-10
0.3
About Schmidt (2002) 2/5
2007-09-09 10:53

I have to say, I can enjoy slow, ponderous films quite a bit when they have something interesting to say. This one is mostly just boring, cliched, and, frankly pretty elitist -- this is a middle America populated entirely by one-dimensional characters we're supposed to chuckle knowingly at (look, he has a mullet! she talks in feel-good platitudes! heh). I guess it's good to see that Jack Nicholson can still not overact when he wants to, though here it just means he acts boring -- pretty much any decent actor his age could have done what he did with the role.
2007-09-09
0.3