One person shows are difficult to pull off in cinema. On stage, at least the person is usually telling stories directly to an audience and a connection is made. On film, the audience is invisible and the person is on […]
Continue reading »Month: November 2013
Last Vegas (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
The key to enjoying the new comedy Last Vegas is to enjoy watching its acclaimed and talented cast cut loose. Four older men (Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman, Robert De Niro and Kevin Kline) head to Las Vegas to celebrate perpetual bachelor […]
Continue reading »Ender’s Game (2013) ☆ ☆
I was unaware of how popular this series of Orson Scott Card books has been over the years — enough to spawn a total of thirteen titles — but the premise seems like a natural for the movies. At least […]
Continue reading »Gravity (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
I’ve been mourning the dearth of quality science-fiction for a long time. Somewhere along the line fantasy became more popular than science, special effects began to overwhelm narrative and personal melodrama became standard storytelling currency. I yearn for the days […]
Continue reading »Don Jon (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
I have to admit that I was surprised by the content of this new movie written and directed by lead actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Ostensibly it is a romantic comedy with strong sexual content; in reality (in my opinion, of course) […]
Continue reading »Captain Phillips (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2
Director Paul Greengrass specializes in suspense with real-world ramifications and meaning. Sometimes his subjects are more action-oriented and symbolic in nature (the Jason Bourne films or Green Zone) while others are more historical and fact-based (Bloody Sunday, United 93 and this […]
Continue reading »Prisoners (2013) ☆ ☆ 1/2
I didn’t write a single review in October, and that was due to Prisoners, a movie which I am still internally debating. On the one hand, it is a suspenseful thriller, dealing with the mysterious disappearances of two children, and […]
Continue reading »The Family (2013) ☆ ☆
We might as well get accustomed to the notion that Robert De Niro’s career has entered a nostalgic phase. The Family casts De Niro as a former gangster clearly modeled on his Goodfellas persona; in fact, the film literally references that earlier […]
Continue reading »Enough Said (2013) ☆ ☆ ☆
This quirky romantic comedy is James Gandolfini’s next-to-last film (he had also completed Animal Rescue, which is in post-production), and it presents him in a very flattering light. He is a lonely divorcee who begins a romance with lonely masseuse […]
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