MCN Weekend Reviews Archive for December, 2011
Wilmington on DVDs. Co-Pick of the Week: Classic. Tokyo Drifter
Tokyo Drifter (Three and a Half Stars) Japan: Seijun Suzuki, 1966 (Criterion Collection) Off the wall and over the edge from its first scene to its last, Tokyo Drifter is one of the outrageous crime melodramas and outlandish neo-noirs made in the ‘60s for Nikkatsu Studio by super-cult Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. It’s a classic…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: War Horse
War Horse (Four Stars) U.S.: Steven Spielberg, 2011 Steven Spielberg’s War Horse is the kind of open-hearted, expensively made, somewhat predictable movie that critic-cynics like to make fun of : “a noble steed!“ sneered one of my wittier colleagues as we rode an elevator down after the screening. But I’ve got to confess…
Read the full article » 10 Comments »Wilmington on Movies. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol U.S.: Brad Bird, 2011 If you have even a little fear of heights — and I have a lot myself — there’s a scene in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, that should leave you, maybe literally, breathless. It’s the scene, already famous, where producer-star Tom Cruise, playing the Mission…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Two and a Half Stars)
Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (Two and a Half Stars) U.K.-U.S.: Guy Ritchie, 2011 There’s a level of sheer frantic busy-ness and glibly manufactured chaos in director Guy Ritchie’s and star Robert Downey, Jr. second Sherlock Holmes movie — Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows –that makes…
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Wilmington on Movies: Carnage (Three and a Half Stars)
Carnage (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.-France: Roman Polanski, 2011 1. Last Exit to Brooklyn In Carnage, which was adopted by the French writer Yasmina Reza from her hit play “God of Carnage“ , director Roman Polanski once again demonstrates his mastery of the claustrophobia of anxiety (and vice versa) — even though…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: New. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Three Stars)
The Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Three Stars) U.S.: Rupert Wyatt, 2011 (20th Century Fox) 1. The Rise Rise of the Planet of the Apes, latest chapter in an old franchise, shows us a story we too easily forget, or maybe one that we never really knew… …How it all began, how an imprisoned, persecuted and…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Young Adult (Two and a Half Stars)
Young Adult (Two and a Half Stars) U. S.: Jason Reitman, 2011 High School haunts us. It’s the great mystery we try futilely to solve afterwards, the great romance that often never happened, the paradise we imagine we lost but might regain, the great redemption that we dupe ourselves into believing can be earned…
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Wilmington on Movies: New Year’s Eve (One and a Half Stars)
New Year’s Eve (One and a Half Stars) U.S.: Garry Marshall, 2011 New Year’s Eve may be the punishment audiences get for making director Garry Marshall and writer Katherine Fugate’s Valentine‘s Day such a big movie hit last year. That schmaltzy, heart-up-your-sleeve, all-star show, you’ll remember, strung together a lot of clichéd romantic comedy…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Sitter
The Sitter (One and a Half Stars) U.S.; David Gordon Green, 2011 Well, I’ve had it. After defending David Gordon Green for making Pineapple Express, a controversially violent stoner comedy that I think is well-acted, well-directed and funny, and after sparing some kind words for Green’s and buddy Danny McBride’s medieval four-letter-fest Your Highness,…
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: In Darkness
In Darkness (Four Stars) Poland: Agnieszka Holland, 2011 Sometimes we let the horrors of the past recede into a comforting mist of melancholy and remembrance and well-meaning cliché. We shouldn’t. History is always with us. Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness, one of the best films of the year, is a drama of the Holocaust,…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs. Pick of the Week: Classic. The Lady Vanishes; Crooks’s Tour; Design for Living (Hecht-Lubitsch or Coward); If I Had a Million .
In The Lady Vanishes, his marvelous 1938 classic of mystery and intrigue set aboard a train full of English and international travellers racing though the Balkans, Alfred Hitchcock pushes the form of the romantic-comedy-thriller to near perfection. It’s one of the most purely entertaining movies he ever made, and it can be watched over and over again with no diminution of pleasure.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Hugo
Hugo (Four Stars) U.S.: Martin Scorsese, 2011 Martin Scorsese’s Hugo — a movie masterpiece if there ever was one — is a film for film lovers to dream on. It’s an incredibility entertaining show. But how could it not be? Scorsese has made it at the peak of his craft and art,…
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: Shame
Shame (Three and a Half Stars) U.S.-U.K.: Steve McQueen, 2011 There have always been lots of movies that show or exploit sex, but far fewer that try to explore it seriously, as a rich, meaningful subject, whether psychological or social. And there’s only a handful of that few that try to portray…
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