Imagine the young people in Logan’s Run dropping dead when they hit thirty instead of being executed and you have the basic idea for In Time, writer/director Andrew Niccol‘s sleek sci-fi effort starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried that manages to overcome lackluster acting and poor plot development thanks to its intriguing premise and striking [...]
Read MoreThough it shares its title with a 1975 Sam Peckinpah flick, Killer Elite is actually a surprisingly better-than-average Jason Statham thriller, one that nicely complements the perpetually scowling star’s standard shtick of talking tough, kicking butt and driving cars really fast with a somewhat weightier plot and the comparatively superior acting chops of Clive Owen [...]
Read MoreDirector Steven Soderbergh is back in big-budget Hollywood mode with Contagion, a slick and proficient, if largely impassive, thriller about a global pandemic featuring an all-star cast saying their lines and going through very professional motions.
Read MoreJust so we’re clear, Guillermo del Toro didn’t direct this big screen version of a 1973 TV movie. He co-wrote and, as with 2007′s The Orphanage, produced it. I mention this so you don’t think him responsible for what turns out to be an unscary little horror flick.
Read MoreJust as this enjoyable horror franchise seemed set to go out with a whimper with a lazy and lackluster fourth installment (titled, rather inaccurately, The Final Destination), along comes a fantastic fifth entry to rouse it back from the dead.
Read MoreOnce upon a time I was sitting across a desk from an old high school friend who had recently begun a career in the finance sector. Inspired by the large map of the world behind me, she playfully pulled out her calculator and mathematically proved–to her satisfaction, at least–that Russia was 2,500 miles across at [...]
Read MoreFew movies define the phrase “man up” more than director Sam Peckinpah‘s divisive 1971 thriller Straw Dogs, in which Dustin Hoffman‘s timid mathematician makes a ferociously violent stand against some British yokels who’ve been harassing him. To some critics it was an exploration of anti-violence, to others a misogynistic thing that glamorized rape.
Read MoreHaving recently turned The Fog and The Hitcher into uninspired rehashes, Hollywood finally gets an ’80s horror remake (mostly) right with its sleek makeover of 1985′s memorable vampire flick Fright Night, an excellent example of how good casting, a sharp script and just the right kinds of tweaks to the original story can result in [...]
Read MoreA film as much about its pedigree (Oscar winning actors, respected up-and-comers, A-list director and screenwriter) as its story, The Debt for curious reasons sat on the shelf for over a year before it was released last August. Usually, that indicates a fair amount of trouble for the production, but I can’t figure out what [...]
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