This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Surrogates, an adaptation of the graphic novel (what film these days isn’t?) by author Robert Venditti and illustrator Brett Weldele, is a compelling set-up buttressed by slick effects and impressive production values that ultimately proves to be [...]
Entries from September 2009
Surrogates
September 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
Tags:avatars·Bruce Willis·FBI·Jonathan Mostow·Radha Mitchell·robots·Rosamund Pike·sci-fi·Surrogates·Ving Rhames
Bright Star
September 24th, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
Bright Star is the work of Jane Campion, the director of the Academy Award-nominated The Piano, a beautiful film that nevertheless left me cold and unaffected. There was no such effect this time. Bright Star is a dazzling film and one of the most engrossing love stories in recent memory. In 1993, Campion became only [...]
Tags:Abbie Cornish·Ben Whishaw·Bright Star·Jane Campion·John Keats·Paul Schneider·poetry·Regency England·Romantic·The Piano
The Informant!
September 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Film Reviews
1/2
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
The Informant!, an offbeat comedy from director Steven Soderbergh and based on a true story and book of the same name by Kurt Eichenwald, is some of the most fun I’ve had at the theater all year. [...]
Tags:ADM·corporate·Erin Brockovich·Joel McHale·Marvin Hamlisch·Matt Damon·price fixing·Scott Z. Burns·Steven Soderbergh·The Informant
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
September 17th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Film Reviews
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
I loved, loved, loved this movie! Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is easily the best non-Pixar animated film to come out in our post-Pixar world.
Tags:Andy Samberg·Anna Ferris·Bill Hader·Bruce Campbell·children's book·Chris Miller·Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs·food·invention·James Caan·Mr. T·Phil Lord·Pixar·Ron and Judi Berrett·science·Sony
Jennifer’s Body
September 17th, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
1/2
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Jennifer’s Body was in trouble from the first moment screenwriter Diablo Cody conjured it up. Though one cannot help but admire her desire to immediately switch gears (and genres) so hot on the heels of her Academy [...]
Tags:Amanda Seyfried·Diablo Cody·Jennifer's Body·Johnny Simmons·Juno·Karyn Kusama·Megan Fox·she demon
Love Happens
September 17th, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
1/2
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Despite the ploys of some clever marketing, Love Happens is not a romantic comedy. It is a romantic drama. Which in and of itself is a refreshing change. For 95 percent of its running time, Love Happens [...]
Tags:Aaron Eckhart·Brandon Camp·Jennifer Aniston·Love Happens·romantic drama·Seattle·self help·widower
Whiteout
September 10th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Film Reviews
1/2
You know those singular movies that inspire critics and screenwriters to make sycophantic fools of themselves, gushing about lean, perfectly streamlined scripts that have absolutely no unnecessary or redundant scenes and contain only lines of dialogue that move the script forward at an impeccable clip? Yeah, well, Whiteout is not one of those movies.
Tags:Antarctica·Columbus Short·Dominic Sena·Federal Marshal·Gabriel Macht·Greg Rucka·Kate Beckinsale·murder·South Pole·Tom Skerritt·Whiteout
9
September 9th, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
This is an abridged version of a review I wrote for Christianity Today Movies. To read this review at its original source, click here.
I first saw Shane Acker’s Oscar-nominated short film on which 9 is based at the Telluride Film Festival nearly five years ago. It was an intriguing film: dark yet captivating, dynamic yet [...]
Tags:9·apocalypse·Cat Beast·CG animation·Christopher Plummer·Elijah Wood·Jennifer Connelly·John C. Reily·machines·rag doll·Shane Acker·short film·Somewhere Over the Rainbow·steampunk·The Wizard of Oz·Tim Burton·Timur Bekmambetov·war
Extract
September 3rd, 2009 · No Comments · Film Reviews
This review first appeared in The Colorado Springs Gazette. To read this review at its original source, click here.
Mike Judge, the writer/director of Office Space, returns to familiar but fertile territory with his latest film, Extract, another workplace comedy that shifts the focus from the peons struggling below decks to the topside boss calling all [...]
Tags:Ben Affleck·Clifton Collins·drugs·Extract·Jason Bateman·Kristen Wiig·Mila Kunis·Office Space·workplace·workplace injury
World’s Greatest Dad
September 3rd, 2009 · 1 Comment · Film Reviews
1/2
World’s Greatest Dad is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off … with autoerotic asphyxiation. It is a dark, twisted and perverted comedy, an extreme satire that throws itself off the precipice of good taste with reckless abandon yet still manages to land softly at the bottom, having made us both laugh and feel something profound. That it [...]
Tags:Alexie Gilmore·autoerotic asphyxiation·Bobcat Goldthwait·celebrity·Daryl Sabara·posthumous celebrity·Robin Williams·suicide·teacher·World’s Greatest Dad





