In an age where most movies aimed at children are more focused on the franchising potential, merchandising, special effects and the product placement tie-in, “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” is that rare beast, a children’s movie that puts ideas ahead of everything else. “Transformers” made your kids want to buy stuff: “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” will make your kids dream up stuff, and dream big. Plus, the movie has the best cameo since Clive Owen’s appearance in “The Pink Panther.” Dustin Hoffman is Edward Magorium, the owner of the quite literally magical toy store in the movie’s title. His store is…
Author: David Medsker
The Iraq War drama “Lions for Lambs” wants to think that it is equal-opportunity in its blame throwing, but that simply ain’t the case. Sure, it wags a finger at the (ahem, liberal) media for its complicity in disseminating the White House’s pro-war propaganda, and it admonishes the citizens who consume that propaganda without a second thought. The Republicans’ sins, on the other hand, are their view of war as a promotional tool, and their manipulation of all parties to deliver their message. In other words, the liberals are merely naïve, while the Republicans are bloodless orcs. Even this pinko…
There is no other way to say it: “Bee Movie” is shockingly unfunny. The plot is one part “A Bug’s Life,” and one part… courtroom drama. Because, you know, courtroom dramas are so funny. It’s surprising that Jerry Seinfeld, the movie’s star, had a hand in writing the story, because everything about it is lazy, lazy, lazy. The jokes are bad (the puns are worse), the voice direction is pitiful, and logic is thrown out the window in order for the third act to even exist. Seinfeld is the voice of Barry B. Benson, a bee who’s fraught with indecision…
It’s official: the “Saw” franchise has abandoned its “Hostel”-cribbing ways and is now a full-fledged horror/comedy vehicle along the lines of the “Final Destination” movies. How much you enjoy “Saw IV” will greatly depend on how willing you are to forget the series’ origins as a graphic thriller and embrace its newfound “Ha ha, you’re dead” approach. In fact, there isn’t much else about the movie to enjoy, since the story is the most convoluted, house-of-cards pile of nonsense since, well, “Saw III.” The movie begins with Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), dead on a slab in the morgue. During his autopsy,…
You’d be hard pressed to find a movie as contrived as “Dan in Real Life,” so it’s a good thing that the movie has charm to spare. The movie gets by almost entirely because of the performance in the lead role by Steve Carell, who takes a deeply flawed character and makes him sympathetic and likable. The movie, at times maddeningly, beats Carell senseless, much in the same manner as your typical Ben Stiller “humiliate me, I enjoy it” movie, but “Dan in Real Life,” thankfully, doesn’t hit as hard, preferring subtlety to a kick in the groin. Carell is…
“Sleuth” marks the first time that I’ve thought of someone’s directorial technique as invasive. Kenneth Branagh goes so far out of his way to draw attention to himself – all the more egregious when you consider the source material is a play, and therefore meant to be played with subtlety – that even when the movie works, it’s annoying at the same time. Branagh’s energy would certainly have been better spent reeling in Jude Law; after all, when your movie consists of one set piece and two actors, it only takes one person to ruin it for everybody. “Sleuth” is…
Death to the gimmick movie. “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” has a compelling story at its core, but instead of simply telling the story, director Sidney Lumet decides to get cute by repeatedly rewinding the story to show the action from another character’s perspective. That’s a nifty idea on paper, but the problem is that the new angles reveal nothing the viewer didn’t already know, which renders the exercise both redundant and pointless. Philip Seymour Hoffman stars as Andy, a debt-ridden payroll supervisor who pitches a get-rich-quick scheme to his equally destitute younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke): knock off…
The person responsible for cutting the trailer to “We Own the Night” should get an award of some kind. That trailer is rife with high drama, while the movie from which those 30 seconds of film were culled is rather dull. It’s not that it’s done poorly – though this kind of movie has definitely been done better – but rather that there is nothing here that you haven’t seen before. And when we say nothing, we mean nothing. At all. The movie, set in 1988, stars Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby Green, the fast-living manager of a Brooklyn night club.…
After watching the riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in Cate Blanchett in drag that is “I’m Not There,” there was something refreshing about “Control,” Anton Corbijn’s look at the life and death of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. There is no cryptic symbolism – hell, there isn’t even any color – opting for a straight-forward story of a man at war with his thoughts, his fame and even his own body. The movie begins in the early ‘70s with Ian (Sam Riley), a Bowie-worshiping school boy poet, stealing Deborah (Samantha Morton), his best friend’s girlfriend. Their life is simple…
The press is going gaga over “Michael Clayton,” but to be honest, their excitement could stand to be tempered just a touch. The movie is indeed a well made thriller with smart dialogue and a dynamite performance from George Clooney in the title role. The problem is, as thrillers go, it’s not all that thrilling. You pretty much know how things are going to turn out; the only question is how. Writer/director Tony Gilroy seems to be going for a ‘70s vibe along the lines of “Three Days of the Condor” or “All the President’s Men,” which may be why…