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The Great Train Robbery (1979): B-
A Victorian-era caper in which Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland attempt to rob a moving train of gold headed for British soldiers fighting in the Crimea, The Great Train Robbery is drenched in convincing period details even as its story remains imbued with the spirit of the ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture. Connery’s Edward Pierce is…
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Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films (2003): C
If watching car crashes is your idea of fun – and as the innumerable traffic jams on I-95 confirm, it’s a favorite hobby of many drivers – then Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films will be right up your carnage-loving alley. A comprehensive history of the highway safety films forced upon high…
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Scarface (1983): B+
Hip-hop’s favorite gangster fantasy, Brian DePalma’s Scarface is a thrillingly opulent, lurid and vulgar – not to mention morally questionable – saga about the criminal corruption of the American dream. Charting brash Cuban émigré Tony Montana’s (Al Pacino) homicidal ascension to white china-fueled power, DePalma’s epic (written by Oliver Stone) revels in its extravagant orgy…
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Tarnation (2004): B+
A twisted pastiche of pain, suffering, and narcissistic indulgence, Tarnation utilizes an MTV-frantic collage of sound and images image (culled from 19 years worth of home movies, amateur short films, phone conversations and confessional first-person interviews) to tell the twisted life story of director Jonathan Caouette. Intensely personal and stylistically striking, this avant-garde documentary functions…
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Being Julia (2004): C
Alternately duplicitous, egotistical, insecure, nasty, weepy, headstrong, selfish and needy, the titular stage star of István Szabó’s Being Julia is portrayed with such stunning versatility and flair by Annette Benning that the actress’ excellence almost outweighs this slapdash period piece’s myriad shortcomings. Julia Lambert – an acclaimed actress in 1939 London who’s married to a…
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Absolute Power (1997): C
Clint Eastwood assembled an astounding cast for 1997’s presidential malfeasance thriller Absolute Power (based on David Baldacci’s novel), and one can only surmise that their participation had more to do with Eastwood’s involvement than with William Goldman’s moronic, plot hole-filled script. Eastwood plays an un-retired thief who, during a burglary, happens to witness (from behind…
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Bride of Chucky (1999): C+
Given the Child’s Play franchise’s ludicrously non-terrifying premise – a cute and cuddly children’s doll with the soul of a killer terrorizes kids and teens – it’s not surprising that by the third go-around, 1999’s Bride of Chucky, the series had devolved into intentional self-parody. Ronny Yu’s sequel follows Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) and…
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Closer (2004): C
If Closer’s examination of adult sexual relations is accurate, then women crave louses and men are gripped by an obsession with whores. Such a simplistically cynical worldview certainly allows director Mike Nichols and his illustrious cast to freely indulge in nasty wordplay and cruel adulterousness, both of which are meant to expose the brutal truths…
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Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
(Originally published in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn) Harry Potter’s more menacing children’s fantasy rival, Daniel Handler’s “A Series of Unfortunate Events” novels (written under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket) weave fantastic spookiness and mortal danger into their stories of adolescent moxie and resourcefulness. Thankfully, Brad Silberling’s savorily sinister Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events – adapted…
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Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera
(Originally published in Rocky Mountain Bullhorn) Those who love Andrew Lloyd Webber and his Broadway version of “The Phantom of the Opera,” may well take to Joel Schumacher’s messy, excessive cinematic adaptation of the stage musical. For those of us less inclined to suffer through Webber’s bombastic tunes or his dramatically mushy retelling of the…
