Mrs. Harris
Ben Kingsley and Annette Bening play the Scarsdale Diet Doctor
Herman Tarnower and his lover Jean Harris, who shot him because
he did her wrong. Both actors are outstanding in this stylish
dramatization of real-life events.
The Da Vinci Code
As a thriller Ron Howard’s movie makes very little impression.
It simply passes before your eyes without registering at all.
It probably helps to have read the book first to clear up
some puzzling and rapid plot developments.
Eight Below
There is too much human action and not enough of the dogs,
in this Disney tale of a team of huskies who have to be left
behind and endure an Antarctic winter. Young children will
become restless when the dogs aren’t onscreen.
Find Me Guilty
Vin Diesel is surprisingly good in Sidney Lumet’s courtroom
comedy-drama about a Mafia soldier who decides to stage his
own defense in a lengthy trial. Based on real-life events
the film is totally absorbing from beginning to end.
Romance & Cigarettes
This is a peculiar movie from John Turturro. It shows the
marital crisis of an Italian-American middle-aged couple,
but, it is all done in song and dance. Kate Winslet steals
the film as a piece of trash who just cannot stop talking.
The Nun
This is also a very peculiar movie from Spanish director Luis
De La Madrid. A sadistic nun returns from the dead to haunt
her former pupils that attended a strict Spanish convent school.
Water is a key symbolic image in the movie.
Murder In The Hamptons
All hell breaks loose when a multi-millionaire and his avaricious
wife come to a parting of the ways, in another stylish movie
based on real-life events. Poppy Montgomery is fantastic as
the schizophrenic and embittered spouse.
Seven Times Lucky
A group of thieves, hustlers and con-artists spend their time
deceiving each other, in this rather classy film-noir, shot
in color, from director Gary Yates. The movie reeks of ambiance
and atmosphere. Just who is conning whom?
Winter Passing
Zooey Deschanel plays the daughter of two famous American
authors, and she reluctantly returns home to get, and sell,
the love-letters that passed between her parents. Adam Rapp’s
‘black-comedy’ doesn’t really take off.
Hollow Man 2
Claudio Fah’s sequel is better than you would expect.
It starts where the first finished and the action comes thick
and fast. Thankfully, you don’t have to watch Christian
Slater, as he is ‘invisible’ much of the way through
the film.
Just Desserts
Lauren Holly and Costas Mandylor make an appealing pair of
New York pastry chefs, who team up to enter a cooking competition.
High-cholesterol confectionary is not the only ‘goo’
whipped up in this romantic comedy.
The Proposition
Because it is written by notorious rock-star Nick Cave, this
movie will get more attention than it really deserves. It
is a ‘Spaghetti Western’, set in the Australian
Outback, that says more about the landscape than anything
else.
Waiting
This is an absolutely crass and absolutely hysterical ‘behind-the-scenes’
look at the day-to-day life, and staff, of a ‘family-style’
restaurant. As somebody in the movie quips: “Don’t
mess with the people who handle your food”.
Poseidon
Anybody who remembers Shelley Winters and the original ‘The
Poseidon Adventure’ is going to be bored to tears by
Wolfgang Petersen’s tedious re-make. Why Wolfgang bothered
is beyond me. The film ‘washes’ over you.
Chicken Tikka Masala
Billed as ‘A big gay comedy about a big fat wedding’,
the film references are recognizable in this tiresome British/Indian
movie. The movie tries to ‘send-up’ England’s
Indian community, but, it fails to be in the least bit amusing.
Flight 93
Eventually a movie like this had to come. The events of 9/11
2001 are seen from the passenger’s viewpoint on Flight
93, the fourth hijacked plane, that failed to reach its target.
The film is well-handled in the ‘Airport’ tradition.
The Wild
With a lot in common to ‘Madagascar’, this Disney
computer-animation cartoon deals with similar zoo animals
escaping to ‘The Wild’. Nonetheless, the humor
and animation are not as sharp and the characters are less
lovable.
Irresistible
Susan Sarandon is unbelievably bad as an increasingly paranoid
wife who suspects that her husband’s mistress is stalking
her family. Sam Neill is also unbelievably bad, as the husband,
in this unbelievably bad Australian movie.
Date Movie
This is another absolutely crass and absolutely hysterical
movie that sets out to ‘send-up’ a choice of successful
recent Hollywood movies. Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez and
Barbra Streisand are just some of the targets lambasted.
Green Street Hooligans
Although this is a well-made and riveting English drama, I
have reservations about the movie as it attempts to glorify
British soccer hooligans. Elijah Wood, as an American student
journalist, studies the gangs from the inside.
The Libertine
King Charles the Second gets Johnny Depp, as the Earl of Rochester,
a well-known libertine, to write a scandalous play to impress
the French. Everyone goes blah-blah-blah a lot. The movie
is not as decadent as you would hope.
An Unfinished Life
A widow and her young daughter, turn up at the ranch of her
hostile father-in-law, and set about winning him and his hired-hand
over. Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez get
bogged down in sentimental trash.
Karla
Laura Prepon and Misha Collins play Karla Homolka and Paul
Bernardo, Canada’s most infamous criminals. As Karla
flirts with a psychiatrist, it is not clear whether Karla
or Paul is to blame for their rape and murder spree.
The Ape
Written, directed and starring James Franco, this movie deals
with a writer, nearing a nervous-breakdown, who shares an
apartment with a foul-mouthed talking gorilla. Is the ape
an hallucination or just a very bad comedic devise?
The Boys From Brazil
Gregory Peck and Laurence Olivier enjoy themselves thoroughly
in this deadly serious but ‘over-the-top’ 1978
thriller, from Franklin J. Schaffner. The improbable plot
could now be highly-plausible, which is quite alarming!
To Kill A Mockingbird
Gregory Peck won an Academy Award in this 1962 B/W drama.
He plays a moral and ethical lawyer who defends a black-man
wrongly accused of rape, in a bigoted southern town. Robert
Mulligan’s movie stands the test of time.
