I am annoyed by the condescending attitude most of the good reviews of Night Watch had. The writers were not, I felt, judging the film on its own terms but in light of it being made in backwards Russia. The whole thing had a quality of cheering loudly for the kid coming in second at … Continue reading
BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE!LABEL: Time LifeMSRP: $18.98TRACKS: 20 Who’d have thought that "geek musical" would become a subgenre on Broadway? The unusual success of Spamalot caused, if nothing else, a mayfly Internet meme about unlikely properties being adapted for musical theater. Usually, the related jokes ended with something along the lines of "Whoa, … Continue reading
The trouble with the Shrek movies is that their admirable message of self-acceptance is drowned in a deluge of pointed pop culture references that’s essentially the result of one rich white guy (former Disney CEO Michael Eisner) snubbing another rich white guy (Jeffrey Katzenberg, former heir to Eisner’s throne and now the "K" in Dreamworks … Continue reading
Once is the kind of movie that ruins it for other movies. Once isn’t just a nearly perfect little film, it’s effortlessly so, and you walk out wondering why more movies can’t just be this good. Glen Hansard, who sings for the Irish band The Frames in real life, is The Guy, an Irish busker … Continue reading
The Ex feels like a sitcom. There’s a wacky workplace filled with kookie characters. There’s the heartwarming but stressful home life. There’s a zany neighbor kid who brings the cute but also a little bit of safe edge. And it stars Zach Braff and Jason Bateman, guys who are more familiar to us from their … Continue reading
Disasters bring out the best and the worst in people. You can step up to the moment and be a Hero, the guy who helps the crippled lady down the burning staircase. Or you can be the Villain, the guy who muscles women and children out of the lifeboat. In this decade we’ve been feeling … Continue reading
Earl Dittman wins. He gets his name (even in small print) associated with a massive marketing push and we just get another lousy blockbuster. I’ll spend the next few hundred words explaining eactly why, but for the people who just read the first paragraph and skip to the score, here it is: Spider-Man 3 is … Continue reading
(I’d like to preface this review by imploring you to see Spider-Man 3 on IMAX if the option is available to you. I’m now of the opinion that these big studio event films are made for the biggest screen imaginable; they are sensory assaults first and stories second. Watching Spider-Man 3 on The Bridge’s IMAX … Continue reading
The small moral choices are the ones that fascinate me the most, because they’re the ones we all make. We don’t spend our time worrying about robbing a bank or murdering a spouse, but we do think about picking up that ten you saw fall from someone’s wallet or cheating on your wife just this … Continue reading