Days of Thunder Review
RATING: (3 STARS) The rap against Days of Thunder (or case for it, depending on your speed) over the last 30 years has been that it’s nothing more than a remake of Top Gun with race cars. In Roger Ebert’s review of the film, he outlined all the ways this film fits squarely into then […]
Mission: Impossible—Fallout Review
RATING: (3.5 STARS) For the longest time, the Mission: Impossible franchise felt disjointed. Different directors—Brian De Palma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird—brought different styles to essentially the same story, and the supporting cast, while consistently enjoyable, was always changing to the point that it was difficult to connect with anyone outside of Tom Cruise’s […]
Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Five films into the Mission: Impossible series, and you sort of think you know everything you’re going to get—death-defying action, lots of Tom Cruise faces, masks, exotic locations, etc. It’s a variation on the James Bond theme, just like the Fast & Furious franchise has become a variation on the Mission: Impossible […]
Edge of Tomorrow Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) With the exception, maybe, of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, no film has ever so closely replicated what it’s like to actually play a video game than Doug Liman’s All You Need Is Kill Live/Die/Repeat Edge of Tomorrow. And with the exception of Scott Pilgrim, no film that’s either explicity based on […]
Rock of Ages Review
RATING: (2.5 STARS) “I wanna rock!” exclaimed Twisted Sister in its famous 1984 song. It’s safe to assume most men and women attending Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages would feel the same way. Well, hopefully they don’t mind Glee-style bastardizations of their beloved rock anthems because that’s Rock of Ages‘ modus operandi. Its numbers are […]
Eyes Wide Shut Review
RATING: (4 STARS) If The Shining was Stanley Kubrick‘s experimentation with the horror conventions, his final film, 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut, is his perfection of them. Not since, The Silence of the Lambs (maybe even The Thing or Alien) has pure dread been so eloquently captured on film. And it’s arguably not even a horror […]
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol Review
RATING: (3 STARS) Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol is hopefully the beginning of a beautiful friendship. It’s hard to say whether Brad Bird needed Ethan Hunt more, or if it was the other way around, but regardless, their first collaboration is one hell of an action movie. Bird is the director of such animated hits as […]
Knight and Day Review
RATING: (2 STARS) Well, summer blockbusters this year are improving, albeit at a snail’s pace. The best thing I can say about “Knight and Day†is that it’s a step above most of what I’ve seen this summer. Coming fresh off the heels of The A-Team, it was good. But judged objectively, this is just […]
Magnolia Review
RATING: (4 STARS) After the critical and financial success he had with “Boogie Nights,†New Line essentially gave P.T. Anderson the freedom to do anything he wanted. The result is “Magnolia,†a picture that wouldn’t have been made, couldn’t have been made, without such freedom. This is a bold motion picture, a 3-hour tale about […]
