Movie Review
Wilmington on Movies: Like Father, Like Son
Here is a beautiful film, whichever way you look at it.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Monuments Men
George Clooney’s The Monuments Men, which is pretty good, but not as good as it should have been, is based on a fascinating historical episode, unknown to me (and to many others, I’m sure), that makes for one of the most inspiring stories of World War II.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Labor Day
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Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: The Wolf of Wall Street
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Four Stars) U.S.: Martin Scorsese, 2013 “An idea came to me. The thing to do was to skip the heroes and heroines, to write a movie containing only villains and bawds. I would not have to tell any lies then.” —Ben Hecht, describing the genesis of his…
Read the full article » 3 Comments »Wilmington on Movies: Ride Along
RIDE ALONG (Two Stars) U.S.: Tim Story (2014) Ride Along, which grossed over 40 million dollars in its opening week, is a big, glossy, ultra-predictable buddy cop movie in which costars Ice Cube (Boyz n the Hood) and Kevin Hart (Think Like a Man) and director Tim Story (Barbershop) pull a comedy variation,…
Read the full article »Wilmington on DVDs: A Christmas Carol (1951); It’s a Wonderful Life
It’s one of those movies that almost all moviegoers know, many love and a few (the unhappy few) pooh-pooh. But Capra‘s populist gem deserves its primal place in our Christmas memories. It‘s a stirring, exhilarating mix of Norman Rockwell and film noir.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Will Ferrell and Adam McKay created what became a classic movie character: the cheerfully narcissistic Ron Burgundy. a mirthfully-mustachioed would-be super-stud San Diego TV news anchor, whose ego and self-delusions were as immense as his (temporarily) high San Diego ratings (or, in Ron‘s slightly demented translation “Sawn Dee-ah-go“) and the erections he could never quite disguise.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
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Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wimington on Movies — The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Books were my first love, movies my second. Yet, someday, I may get around to reading Suzanne Collins’ mega-selling young adult novel “Catching Fire,” for the moment the big-money blockbuster movie adapted from it—The Hunger Games: Catching Fire—will have to suffice.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: AFI FEST 2013: Nebraska; August: Osage County; Pickpocket; The Selfish Giant
For any properly enthusiastic movie critic or movie lover, a great film festival is the Perk of Perks. It’s the grand cinematic banquet or smorgasbord on their schedule, and hopefully more of a Babette’s Feast than a Grand Bouffe. At its best, a first-rate filmfest makes the rest of the year, and most of the rest of the year’s movies, worth the trouble.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: The Counselor
Is The Counselor as bad as they say?
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: The World’s End
I’ve let The World’s End go unremarked—so far—even though this cheerfully outrageous new comedy by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (all of Shaun of the Dead) is one of my favorite movies so far this year—and judging by the reviews, the favorite of lots of other critics (and audiences) too.
Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on DVDs: RIP Elmore Leonard; 3:10 TO YUMA
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Read the full article » 1 Comment »Wilmington on Movies: Lee Daniels’ The Butler
The Butler is a stretch, and a sentimental exaggeration of course.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Kick-Ass 2; Kick-Ass (DVD)
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Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Elysium
We are shown a future world where things have gone to hell and are about to get worse (maybe), due to the devastating consequences of greed, violence, brutality, authoritarian government, social and racial prejudice, and the insane selfishness of that era‘s one-percenters. It’s our world, of course, taken to extremes, Philip K. Dick or Robert Heinlein style.
Read the full article » 2 Comments »Wilmington on Movies: We’re the Millers
The disrobing of the legendary Rachel isn’t the epic sex fantasy scene one might imagine, but just another misjudged scene in a somewhat daring but basically lousy movie comedy—a forced, crude, often senseless show about a group of misfits or outsiders (played by Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Emma Roberts and Will Poulter), pretending to be a typical American suburban bourgeois family (called the Millers), while smuggling dope across the border from Mexico,
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Planes
In movies, especially movies intended for kids, originality isn’t everything. Adults are sometimes another story.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Heaven’s Gate (Director’s Cut)
The restored director’s cut of Heaven’s Gate has been released theatrically in the U.K.
Read the full article »Wilmington on Movies: Blue Jasmine
Perhaps that’s because the performance is a kind of culmination of Allen’s attitudes toward the moneyed white culture Jasmine represents. Jasmine lives what seems a charmed life as a member of the Manhattan financial social elite whose vagaries Allen loves to have fun with — but then finds herself hurled into the chaos of the 2008 financial collapse, and turning into Woody’s version of Blanche DuBois, Tennessee Williams’ lady on the edge, wandering, desperate, talking to herself, at the end of the line.
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