While we thoroughly resent Fox’s tendency of late to prevent online press and radio from seeing their movies until the last possible minute – a trick the studios usually reserve for movies they know are duds – you have to give them credit for keeping virtually everything about “The Simpsons Movie” under the tightest lock and key. They knew that had they let the slightest tidbit out, the Comic Book Guys of the world wide interwebs would have spread the news faster than you can say, to quote Duff Man, “Oh yeah!” Their trailers showed you everything in the movie,…
Author: David Medsker
As I’m coming home from the screening of “Hairspray” and forming this review in my head, my mind was saying this was a three-and-a-half-star movie. Then I got home, checked my notes, and discovered that I gave last year’s ‘60s R&B-flavored musical “Dreamgirls” four stars. I wish I could retroactively knock that rating down half a star, because “Hairspray,” warts and all – and it has growths of Marc Anthony proportions – is waaaaay more entertaining than “Dreamgirls.” For starters, it has a sense of humor, but more importantly, it has an energy that “Dreamgirls” sorely lacks, not to mention…
In the Michael Bay universe, we hold the following truths to be self-evident: you can never have too many crane shots, even the most lightweight subject matter deserves to be treated with utmost seriousness, and it ain’t a movie unless a whole bunch of shit gets blow’d up. No movie in Bay’s filmography reinforces these truths as much as “Transformers,” and while that would normally be cause for concern, the deft touch of executive producer Steven Spielberg saves Bay from himself, but just barely. The movie is still much too long, and overreaches for laughs by about a mile, but…
Parents that have taken their kids to see the other “children’s fare” released this year may be surprised by the subtlety of “Ratatouille.” This is not a kid’s movie so much as it’s a family movie, meaning people of all ages will enjoy it. Indeed, the adults laughed much harder and more often at the screening I attended than the kiddos, but don’t let that dissuade you. This is easily the funniest, smartest and most entertaining movie you could ever hope to show your kids in this or any other year. “Ratatouille” is about a rat named Remy (voiced by…
The phrase “based on a story by Stephen King,” as a general rule, is far scarier than any movie that’s actually based on a story by Stephen King. Fortunately, “1408” is the first movie in years (decades?) to rise above its dubious distinction. It may not be run-to-church-and-repent terrifying, but it is relentless and unsettling, and as a bonus, it turns a Carpenters wedding staple into a murder ballad. That, my friends, takes skill. John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, an author that makes his living cynically debunking the myths of haunted locales. He receives a mysterious postcard from the Dolphin…
It’s difficult coming up with things to say about James Cameron’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” that haven’t already been said. It’s one of the few sequels that “Scream 2” does not skewer (along with “Aliens,” also directed by Cameron). “The Simpsons” have done numerous tributes to it. The movie is, quite simply, one of those landmark achievements in moviemaking. Action movies, and what the public expected from them, would be forever changed. The story takes place seven years after “The Terminator,” and Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is, well, nuts. She’s locked up in a mental institution while her son John…
Pointing out the flaws in a movie like “Nancy Drew” is akin to scolding your four-year-old daughter for coloring outside the lines. No matter how right you may be about the movie’s flaws – and it is flawed – you feel guilty for bringing them up, as if your wife will step in any minute and say, That’s the best she can do, you soulless bastard. The problem is that a four-year-old girl didn’t make this movie. A group of professional filmmakers did, and they should know better, even if their target audience doesn’t. Emma Roberts is the title character,…
It’s tempting to say that story takes a back seat to action in “Ocean’s Thirteen,” but story would actually have to be in the same car as action in order for that to be possible. In truth, story is dragging behind the car like the dog in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” and believe it or not, that is actually a good thing. After the self-indulgent “Ocean’s 12” – Julia Roberts playing someone that looks like Julia Roberts, lord help us – Clooney, Soderbergh & Co. definitely right the ship the third time around. The story begins with patriarch Reuben (Elliott Gould)…
A spy for Lionsgate clearly walks the halls of DreamWorks Animation, because the plot for “Shrek the Third” is uncannily similar to “Happily N’Ever After,” the animated monstrosity Lionsgate released earlier this year. One scene in particular had me staring at two film critic colleagues in disbelief, as if to say, “Is this really happening?” DreamWorks’ take on the subject isn’t much better than Lionsgate’s, but it will survive the cribbing by “Happily” for a couple of reasons. For starters, no one saw “Happily N’Ever After” (if they were lucky), and two, hey, it’s a “Shrek” movie. The expectations of…
Let’s get one common misconception out of the way right up front: “Once” is not a musical. It is a movie about music. Some of the scenes have the kind of unconventional staging that would draw the ‘musical’ comparison, but here is the difference: the songs in a musical tell a story, whereas the songs in “Once,” as brilliant as they are, do not. If you need further proof, look at the track listing of the soundtrack. It’s out of order with the sequencing of the songs in the movie. Name a single musical that would ever do such a…