I’m a sucker for big apocalyptic melodramas — there is no greater drama in my view than the end of our civilization — yet I also enjoy subtler takes on the psychology of cataclysm, and in that regard this movie […]
Continue reading »Month: June 2012
Crooked Arrows (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆
As inspirational sports movies go Crooked Arrows is fairly standard, what with its troubled coach, players who find it difficult to play as a team, unlikely rebound from adversity and ultimate triumph against all odds. What distinguishes this movie as something […]
Continue reading »Chernobyl Diaries (2012) ☆ ☆
The biggest fault I can find with horror films is that their premises all too often fail to sustain themselves. For instance, I felt Poltergeist was super scary until we learn that the haunted house was built on top of an […]
Continue reading »Halloween (2007) ☆ ☆ 1/2
A major entry in the remake cycle of horror films from the mid to late aughts, Halloween represents Rob Zombie’s attempt to flesh out the original American slasher film. Running at two hours, the first half of the film involves […]
Continue reading »Owning Mahowny (2003) ☆ ☆ ☆
Dan Mahowny (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a young bank executive, is moving up in the world. He has a kind girlfriend (Minnie Driver) who wants to be married and was recently promoted. He manages large accounts and is admired by his co-workers. Underneath […]
Continue reading »Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) ☆ 1/2
Jonathan Safran Foer’s second controversial novel receives a full studio treatment here via Scott Rudin’s production company. The story involves a boy (Thomas Horn) who loses his father (Tom Hanks, a holy being) on September 11 and has a difficult […]
Continue reading »Halloween: Resurrection (2002) ☆
After Halloween H20, it appeared that Michael Myers was finally dead, but the producers of the series, buoyed by that film’s success, decided to continue the saga with a seventh sequel. It turns out that Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) […]
Continue reading »The Finest Career Farewells (10:4)
Note: This article was written in the spring of 2009 and published in the final print issue of Filmbobbery (10:4). As I am saying farewell with this issue, I thought it might be interesting to look at how some […]
Continue reading »Men in Black 3 (2012) ☆ ☆ ☆
I’ve enjoyed the two comedic Men in Black adventures, but I don’t love them. I think that the intrinsic “bigger picture” dramatic value of having a semi-secret government agency protecting Earth from crazy aliens is sacrificed in each movie by focusing […]
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