-
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
A behind-the-scenes record of Metallica’s tumultuous three-year quest to make St. Anger while trying not to kill themselves (and each other) in the process, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster is one hell of a documentary. My filmcritic.com review thrashs out the good news…
-
Some Booze and Some Soul
Two new Slant magazine reviews for this beautiful (at least here in NYC) Memorial Day weekend. The first is for a well-done documentary on the life and work of underground poet Charles Bukowski entitled Bukowski: Born Into This, and the second is for the dreadfully stupid Soul Plane. Have a happy holiday!
-
Apocalyptic Accu-Weather
Environmental paranoia reaches new heights with Roland Emmerich’s The Day After Tomorrow, a silly disaster flick in which our greenhouse gas-ignoring recklessness leads to a new Ice Age. My cooler head prevails at Slant magazine…
-
Are You Not Mildly Entertained?
Diane Kruger may not be hot enough to launch a thousand ships, but in Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy, she’s not really important anyway. Most people going to see this sometimes thrilling, mostly mediocre wannabe epic are probably only interested in seeing the bodacious Mr. Jennifer Aniston and his hunky buddies Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana engage…
-
Monster Mash
The summer movie season has arrived, and it’s off to a monstrous start. Van Helsing is sure to rake in the big bucks this weekend, but I fear the aftermath will be millions of Americans with severe loss of hearing. My Slant magazine review slays this strident cinematic beast….
-
Whoa is Envy
It’s hard to believe that a film with Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, Rachel Weisz, and Christoper Walken could stink as bad as Envy, but Barry Levinson has nonetheless pulled of this seemingly impossible feat. Check out my Slant magazine review for the bad news…
-
Fiyah!
Is Dakota Fanning’s popularity a sign of the apocalypse? The jury is still out, but there’s no doubt that she’s the most annoying child actor since Eight is Enough‘s Adam Rich. Ms. Fanning has a new film out – Tony Scott’s revenge drama Man on Fire, starring Denzel Washington – and at least she’s mostly…
-
School Faze
With one month to go before graduation from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I’m absolutely swamped with final papers/articles. Thus, I’ve had almost no time to watch any films (save for The Rundown, which I’ll eventually get to reviewing) for fun. Nonetheless, I’ve been doing quite a bit of writing for Northern Colorado’s premiere…
-
Prepare for Punishment
I enjoyed Spider-Man, and I know Iām the only person in the country who really liked The Hulk, but man, what is Marvel doing? Daredevil was a joke, and the new version of The Punisher is so disastrous, it makes the 1989 Dolph Lundgren version look good. My review at Slant magazine details the wreckage.
-
A Drink and a Smoke
Jim Jarmusch finally returns, and this is all he’s brought with him? Some coffee and cigarettes? As a wise rapper once said, “That don’t sound too good, Bill Murray!” Don’t get that last line? Check out my disappointed filmcritic.com review of Coffee and Cigarettes for an explanation…
