William Shakespeare’s seldom-produced play “Coriolanus” fits right in with the climate of uncertainty in today’s world. Perhaps that’s why British actor Ralph Fiennes chose the story of the lust for power as his first film directing project.
No matter what Punxsutawney Phil saw when he was removed from his climate-controlled burrow to venture forth in search of his shadow, February is still the dead of winter. It can slam us to the mat with blowing snow and subzero temperatures. When you’re tired of fishing show reruns or watching your favorite celebrity hunter pull down yet another monster buck, there are some “outdoor” feature films that can take the sting out of a chilly, football-less winter afternoon.
Madonna has always struck me as a person who wants most what she can’t have –– namely, a movie career. For her latest movie misadventure, the dippy diptych “W.E.,” she moves behind the camera to co-write and direct a stupefying tale that borrows the “Julie & Julia” formula.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day comes the “The Vow,” a Nicholas Sparks-style romantic drama about getting a second shot at love. It’s by-the-numbers Sparks all the way, with clunker lines like, “I vow to live within your heart and to always call it home.”
There’s no mystery to “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island” beyond the fact that there’s no mystery. The sequel to 2008’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” offers zero surprises by revealing up front that everything will wrap neatly.
Since their release, a few of the diehards out there have panned Episodes 1-3 as the “George Lucas has lost his mind and only wants money now” trilogy. It will be interesting to see what that sector of fandom will think a second time around.
Can’t wait to see the next “Bourne” film? Don’t worry. It opens in theaters Friday. It just happens to be called “Safe House,” a film with so much in common with the “Bourne” films that you’d almost think it was an intentional rip-off.
It’s sad when an actor as great as Denzel Washington continues to waste his talents on generic drive.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gets to do a little bit of everything in his newest starring role, as a tough and stern but caring and good-humored stepfather to troubled teen Josh Hutcherson in “Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,” which opens Friday.
Initially a dancer, then a drummer, then a singer, then an actress, and for the past three decades a true pop star, the ambitious Madonna tried film directing a few years back (does anyone even recall the forgettable “Filth and Wisdom?”). On Friday she goes at it again with “W.E.,” a complicated story that covers two very different time periods.
“Drive” coasts by on a whole lot of style and not much substance, but that’s OK. When a movie is this stylish, I can’t see any reason to complain.
It’s rare that a film so perfectly captures the utter joy and exuberance of being young. But “Chronicle” caps off that achievement by setting its story inside an ultra low-budget, purposely gimmicky science fiction tale of three high school seniors who make a bizarre discovery.
Ti West is no Stanley Kubrick, but he does share the late, great filmmaker’s penchant for slow-burn thrills emanating from central characters whose self-destructive traits just might rear up and bite them in the end.
And like the dozens of ghouls and ghosts he spies from his perch inside a haunted mansion, Daniel Radcliffe is lifeless and transparent.
Cold water and the Cold War serve as backdrops for this fact-based tale about the extraordinary efforts of an animal activist (Drew Barrymore) and a small-town reporter (John Krasinski) to save a family of whales trapped by ice in the Arctic Circle.
Although the Academy Awards ceremony is a time-honored Hollywood tradition, the last few years, it has seemed to be a tradition in trouble. The televised broadcast of the ceremony has been drawing a decreasing number of viewers, despite Hollywood’s efforts to attract a wider audience.
Yes, there will be blood in “The Grey,” as the gray wolf has his day — and night. But some brain matter mixes with the splatter in this film. It’s a good combination. Final note, stay for the end of the credits.
My favorite documentaries are the ones that start by asking a weird question or uncovering an unknown subculture, then keep digging and digging as the story gets stranger and stranger. In that spirit, allow me to recommend “Resurrect Dead.”
Open this to watch the trailers for movies opening this week.
Can Glenn Close pull off the task of playing a man? You bet her baggy britches she can. And in the cross-dressing lollapalooza that is “Albert Nobbs,” the Oscar-nominated actress does it without the elaborate prosthetics that made fellow nominee Meryl Streep look so freakish in “The Iron Lady.”
