Posted October 29, 2014in Film Review
“John Wick” Rated R 96 minutes Starring Keanu Reeves and Alfie Allen Cinemark 20 showtimes: 3:45, 5:05, 6:25, 7:45, 9:05 and 10:15 p.m. “People keep asking me if I’m back,” says Keanu Reeves’ titular character in the third act of “John Wick.” “Yeah, I’m thinkin’ I’m back.” It’s as much
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Posted October 22, 2014in Film Review
“Citizenfour” 4 stars Not Rated 114 minutes Documentary Starring: Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Jacob Appelbaum Laura Poitras’s fascinating documentary, about the process and aftermath of whistleblower Edward Snowden’s earth-shattering revelations, is an essential historical filmic document. “Citizenfour” provides a stark cinema vérité perspective on America’s biggest political scandal in the
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Posted October 15, 2014in Film Review
“Kill the Messenger” 2 stars Rated R 112 minutes Biography Starring: Jeremy Renner, Robert Patrick, Jena Sims Investigative journalism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It never was. “Big scandal” stories like the one broken by real-life San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Stephen Webb, about the CIA’s funding
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Posted October 08, 2014in Film Review
“Inherent Vice” 1 star Rated R 149 minutes Comedy Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Joaquin Phoenix There’s no way to sugarcoat it; Paul Thomas Anderson has made two duds in a row. If his lackluster half-film “The Master” didn’t you put you off the director responsible for such instant classics
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Posted October 01, 2014in Film Review
“Pride” 2 stars Rated R 120 minutes Comedy Starring: Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Dominic West All attempts fail at forcing a by-the-numbers narrative template on a fact-based story about unlikely bedfellows uniting against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s mid 1980s reign of anti-union and anti-gay rhetoric and public policies. Newbie screenwriter
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Posted September 24, 2014in Film Review
“The Boxtrolls” 1 star Rated PG 97 minutes Animation Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost This animated 3D children’s picture is as clumsy, tone-deaf and useless as they come. Laika, the Oregon animation production company behind “Coraline” (2009) and “ParaNorman” (2012) takes more than a few a steps backward.
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Posted September 17, 2014in Film Review
“The Zero Theorem” 1 star Rated R 107 minutes Drama Starring: Christoph Waltz, Lucas Hedges, Mélanie Thierry Terry Gilliam’s further slide down the stairs of filmic entropy is best summed up in an oft-repeated phrase by his latest film’s hypochondriac protagonist Qohen Leth, “Q” for short. “We are dying.” The
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Posted September 10, 2014in Film Review
“The Identical” 0 stars Rated PG 107 minutes Drama Starring: Blake Rayne, Ray Liotta, Ashley Judd A shoe-in for a spot on the worst movies of 2014 list, this poorly constructed slice of filmic propaganda is so unintentionally campy you can’t help but laugh. Atrocious costume designs, anachronistic dialogue, wretched
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Posted September 03, 2014in Film Review
“Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For” 4 stars Rated R 102 minutes Thriller Starring: Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Josh Brolin Oozing with more hard-boiled wit than two Dashiell Hammett novels put together, and more visually compelling than every comic-book movie Hollywood has put out in the past
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Posted August 27, 2014in Film Review
“Love is Strange” 3 stars Rated R 94 minutes Comedy Starring: John Lithgow, Alfred Molina, Tatyana Zbirovskaya Although it suffers from a glaring third-act jump that makes you wonder where four or five ostensibly missing scenes went, “Love Is Strange” resonates as a heartfelt allegory about committed gay relationships in
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