Conviction was a very “serviceable” drama based on a true story. Hilary Swank stars as Betty Anne Waters, a working mom who decides to put herself through law school so she can defend her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell), whom she believes to be wrongfully convicted of a grisly murder.
Read More biography, Conviction, drama, Hilary Swank, joyce, Juliette Lewis, Melissa Leo, Minnie Driver, Peter Gallagher, R, Sam Rockwell, thrillerIt may have cost less than a million dollars to make, but the ingenious Monsters, like most sci-fi flicks nowadays, is still all about the visual effects. Only in a good way. Instead of the CGI being the show, a la 2012, it rather refreshingly serves to enhance a simple, albeit familiar, story combining elements [...]
Read More David, drama, Gareth Edwards, Monsters, R, Sci-Fi, Scoot McNairy, thriller, Whitney AbleThe cinematic escapades of Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s pint-sized Goth hacker end with a whimper in The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, a redundant, talky and overly long affair that will probably prove a must-see for fans of the books but had me constantly checking my watch and shaking my head in exasperation. After [...]
Read More Annika Hallin, blu-ray, crime, Daniel Alfredson, David, drama, DVD, Michael Nyqvist, Micke Spreitz, Noomi Rapace, R, Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, thrillerFilm maudit. “Cursed film.” A film whose subject matter pushes it to the fringes of culture and nowhere near the marketplace. Provocative and nuanced at best, slyboots childish attention getter at worst. Visceral beauty and intensity underscoring–to the point of being unwatchable–the physical or emotional carnage visited upon the characters portrayed. So why watch them?
Read More comedy, Cyril Roy, Dogtooth, drama, DVD, Enter the Void, Gaspar Noe, Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, thriller, Yorgos LanthimosTakers is the epitome of slick Hollywood entertainment, a fabulously flashy piece of action filmmaking featuring a plethora of pretty boys and virtuoso set pieces that mostly make up for the fact that the thing doesn’t have an original thought in its handsome little head.
Read More action, crime, DVD, Hayden Christensen, Jay Hernandez, Matt Dillon, Michael Ealy, Paul Walker, PG-13, Takers, thrillerBoobs and blood go hand-in-hand in Piranha 3D, director Alexandre Aja’s perfectly stupid but surprisingly fun rehash of the 1978 Joe Dante classic about those nasty little man-eating fish that, while hardly the scariest of horror flicks, may make you think twice about going skinny dipping.
Read More Adam Scott, Alexandre Aja, comedy, David, DVD, Elisabeth Shue, horror, Jerry O'Connell, Piranha 3D, R, Richard Dreyfuss, thriller, Ving RhamesThere’s not that much to say about The Town, except it was good. Really good. The Town is Ben Affleck’s baby—he adapted the screenplay, he directed it, and he starred in it. It’s hard to believe that the goofy, half drunk kid I saw on Inside the Actor’s Studio nearly ten years ago, could have [...]
Read More Ben Affleck, Blake Lively, blu-ray, crime, drama, DVD, Jeremy Renner, Jon Hamm, joyce, R, Rebecca Hall, The Town, thrillerWritten by M. Night Shyamalan, Devil is a film about a mixed crowd of angry everyday people who get stuck in an elevator. Catch is, one of them is the devil. The film had an interesting premise but the amateur script immediately struck me as something that Shyamalan wrote in the course of a few [...]
Read More Devil, DVD, Geoffrey Arend, horror, Jeremy, M Night Shyamalan, Mystery, PG-13, thrillerI was all set to hate this big-screen version of The A-Team the moment I learned Liam Neeson had been cast as Colonel ‘Hannibal’ Smith, the role made so memorable by a cigar-chomping George Peppard in the same-named 80′s TV show. Turns out that, for its first two acts, at least, this is a not [...]
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, Bradley Cooper, David, DVD, Gerald McRaney, Jessica Biel, Joe Carnahan, Liam Neeson, Patrick Wilson, PG-13, Sharlto Copley, The A-Team, thrillerLike a phoenix rising from the proverbial ashes of his stalled career, Sylvester Stallone managed to make himself relevant again a few years back with the fourth Rambo flick. With The Expendables, his massively entertaining, testosterone-fueled extravaganza of fistfights, firepower and fireballs, he rockets right past mere relevance and back to the top of the [...]
Read More action, adventure, blu-ray, David, Dolph Lundgren, DVD, Eric Roberts, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Mickey Rourke, R, Sylvester Stallone, The Expendables, thriller