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“While it wasn’t the quintessential zom-com like some of its predecessors, Dead Snow delivered the goods when it came to blood-splattered zombie goodness.” Zombie Nazis. You’re either excited by the idea or you’re not, which acts as a good indicator as to whether or not you’ll like Dead Snow, a zombie comedy (or zom-com) from [...]
‘Public Enemies’ – Universal Pictures “Effectively explores our culture’s fascination with outlaws …” Public Enemies has a certain grace to it, a pacing that’s all at once a bit slow (for the times we live in) and a nice throwback to how the movie magic trick used to transpire. In the hands of Michael …
‘Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs’ – 20th Century Fox Studios “The film serves its target audience well enough and offers a series of pleasant smiles if not a lot of gut-busting laughs.” To answer the obvious question, the makers of Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs are well aware that the dinosaurs came …
Larry David in ‘Whatever Works’ – Sony Pictures Classics “The screenplay may be old, but it’s been suitably freshened up with modern zingers.” Of all the actors Woody Allen has recruited to play “the Woody Allen role” in his films, has there ever been a more inspired choice than Larry David? As a writer …
‘My Sister’s Keeper’ – New Line Cinema “Once the bizarre premise is established, all the movie can do is spin its wheels and wait for the story to play out.” The premise of the two-hankie dying-daughter melodrama My Sister’s Keeper is so preposterous that taking it seriously proves a difficult task. The gist: 11-year-old …
Larry David in ‘Whatever Works’ – Sony Pictures Classics “The screenplay may be old, but it’s been suitably freshened up with modern zingers.” Of all the actors Woody Allen has recruited to play “the Woody Allen role” in his films, has there ever been a more inspired choice than Larry David? As a writer …
‘Year One’ – Columbia Pictures “If you can’t take this premise and these actors and come up with anything funnier than Jack Black eating poop, then you have no business making comedies.” How does this happen? How does Year One, a movie with so much raw talent behind it, turn out so lousy? Look …
‘The Proposal’ – Touchstone Pictures “Borrowing heavily from mediocrity is no way to handle business, but that’s clearly what transpired here.” Sloppy, rushed, and typical. These are the words that come to mind after watching The Proposal, the latest fish-out-of-water romantic comedy to come floating on down the river. The setup is typical, the …
‘Away We Go’ – Focus Features “A pleasurable, gentle, touchingly sincere journey.” How to scare yourself when you’re expecting: Take a plane-train-and-automobile tour of your friends’ dysfunctional child-rearing skills. That’s exactly what longtime, thirty-something couple Burt (The Office’s John Krasinski) and Verona (SNL ex, Maya Rudolph) decide to do in the new Sam Mendes-driven joy [...]
“A pretty ordinary action movie …” People who have seen both the 1974 version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, a workmanlike thriller with Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, and the numeralized remake, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, a generic thriller with Denzel Washington and John Travolta, will probably wonder why [...]