Category: The Twenty-First Century

Watching a movie as fresh and unpredictable as “Bellflower” renews my faith in American movies. The basic story seems to follow a familiar path: sensitive boy meets hot girl, goes on a date and falls in love. Girl breaks boy’s heart, and buddy tries to help him pick up the pieces. But then the plot…

How do you even begin to describe a movie like “The Human Centipede 2”? Perhaps by saying that you’ve never seen anything quite like it before? Or by simply saying that it’s by far the worst movie ever made?  No horror film I’ve seen inflicts more terrible things on its victims than “The Human Centipede…

Houston, we have a big problem. I think it’s about time we dropped the whole “found footage” trend. I mean it was fun when J.J Abrams did it with “Cloverfield”. But it isn’t anymore. Instead, “Apollo 18” is a slow, boring space thriller, supposedly a “lost footage” from an undisclosed 1974 mission to the moon.…

Just when you thought it was safe to turn on your TV again, here comes another horror movie featuring deadly sharks. But what can you say about a film that calls itself “Shark Night”, and yet takes place mostly during the day? Some viewers may have guilty pleasure on their minds, but truth be told:…

Here’s John Lennon before he was John Lennon. He might have taught the world that “all you need is love”, but what you probably didn’t know is that he spent most of his childhood looking for it. “Nowhere Boy”, from director Sam Taylor Wood, is not a “Beatle’s” movie. It’s a John Lennon movie. It’s…

Here’s a hit and miss farce that leaves you wishing it was funnier then it is. Why? Because it wastes a killer cast that’s ready to rock it. Because the premise isn’t as original as you’d want it to be. On the plus side, “Tower Heist” makes good use of its mid-Manhattan location, and the…

“Abduction” is a dreadful movie that takes place in a world where everybody’s a douchebag. The main character, played by Taylor Lautner, is a douchebag. His “father” (a wasted Jason Isaacs) is a douchebag. His neighbor’s ex-boyfriend is a douchebag. Even worse, the always likable Alfred Molina is a douchebag. You see where I’m going.…

Here’s a thought: there’s another earth out there. A duplicate earth. Which means there’s another you out there. Now picture this: if you had a chance to meet your other self, what would you say to it? What would you learn from it? Or better yet: has the other “you” made the same mistakes you…

There are guilty pleasures, and “Conan the Barbarian” is one of them. I wouldn’t call it a great movie, far from it actually, but it did manage to keep me entertained, and because of that, I have to cut it some slack. Given that I had basically no expectations whatsoever, I thought that the movie…

I’ve seen great comedies, and this isn’t one of them. As mainstream Hollywood studio movies go, “30 Minutes Or Less” will probably fulfill most audience’s desire for silliness. But despite a solid cast and a couple of laughs, it’s just not as clever as it seems to think it is. It has none of the qualities of Ruben Fleischer’s…

I hated “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas”, which featured Johnny Depp as gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. While I admired his character, I had no patience whatsoever for his drug addiction. “The Rum Diary” is yet another autobiographical Thompson novel, about his younger days; it’s “Fear and Loathing” without heavy drugs, fueled more by…

Welcome to “F**k Town”, a town where armed robbers triumph, cops are dirty, prostitutes are abused, and where Santa is a fat pedophile. Nasty sight. What you get in “Hobo With A Shotgun” is Rutger Hauer (“Blade Runner”), who plays an old bugger who steps off a train in this lawless town.  After saving a…

Remember when Al Pacino used to make great movies? If so, do not bother watching “The Son Of No One”, a dreadful drama that doesn’t engage, or make sense for that matter. I love Al Pacino, which is why it’s so frustrating that the movie drowns itself in a sea of confusion. Because no one wants to tell…

Even if it had nothing else to offer, “Margin Call” would be worth seeing for its cast, which features Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci, Zachary Quinto and Paul Bettany. But first time director J.C Chandor’s feature has a lot going for it aside from an all star cast. The setting is a…

Pretty cast, piss-off execution. And so dies “I Don’t Know How She Does It”, a wannabe chick flick adapted from a 2002 novel by Allie Pearson. Filmmaker Douglas McGrath, who earned praise (at least in my book) for directing “Infamous”,  makes things fairly interesting at first, as we meet  Kate (Sarah Jessica Parker), who must negotiate…

A movie that opens as well as this one does—and draws you in so effectively—ought to have a finale that doesn’t remind you of some cheesy sci-fi movie. On the other hand, the premise is so damn intriguing that I have to cut the movie some slack. “In Time” takes place in a world where you can…