AltWeeklies Wire
'Hot Tub Time Machine,' Reviewednew
The title of Hot Tub Time Machine tells you pretty much all you need to know about what you’re getting into. As Samuel L. Jackson famously said of Snakes on a Plane: “You either want to see it, or you don’t.”
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
03-26-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Hot Tub Time Machine, Steve Pink
The Latest in the 'Twilight' Saga is Gooey Tedium for Fans Onlynew
New Moon is a terrible movie, worse in some ways than Twilight, better in others, and no doubt baffling to the many who don't spend their time fantasizing about being swept off their feet by Robert Pattinson's controlling vampire Edward Cullen or Taylor Lautner's petulant werewolf Jacob Black.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
11-20-2009 |
Reviews
Listless Comedy 'Post Grad' Squanders Any Potential It May Have Hadnew
A kind of disjointed lurching from one thing to another pervades the movie, and it doesn't help that the characters speak almost entirely in platitudes. The uncertainty of post-college life is a potential gold mine of interesting material, and this movie avoids nearly all of it.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
08-20-2009 |
Reviews
'Bride Wars' is Hellnew
Not only does the movie destroy any sympathy for its two main characters by turning them into evil shrews the minute their weddings are pitted against each other, but it also reduces all women to irrational, wedding-crazy stereotypes, apparently unable to focus on anything beyond superficial, materialistic desires.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
01-08-2009 |
Reviews
'Cadillac Records' is 'Dreamgirls' Litenew
Biopics are by nature formulaic, and music biopics even more so, so it should probably come as no surprise that Cadillac Records, which is essentially several music biopics in one, is all formula, all the time.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
12-04-2008 |
Reviews
Vampire Romance 'Twilight' Makes an Awkward Leap from Page to Screennew
Stephenie Meyer's dunderheaded brick of a book may be poorly written pap, but it affords its audience a level of pure escapism as alluring as it is unrealistic and unhealthy. Twilight the movie brings all of that crashing down to earth, and inspires only nervous laughter.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
11-20-2008 |
Reviews
'Bolt' Never Bores, But Never Gets Beyond Mild Amusement Eithernew
It's the kind of solid, middle-of-the-road entertainment that Disney can reliably churn out while audiences await the next exciting achievement from Pixar.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
11-20-2008 |
Reviews
'Pride and Glory': A Meat-and-Potatoes Thriller with Very Little Meatnew
While Pride benefits from a decent lead performance by the always-dependable Edward Norton, it otherwise plods and lumbers its way through an overly familiar story about corruption and loyalty in law enforcement.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
10-24-2008 |
Reviews
'Ghost Town' Barely Gets By, Thanks to Ricky Gervaisnew
It's likable enough for its first two-thirds or so, before the achingly predictable plot churns into high gear and director/co-writer Koepp pours on the sap at the expense of humor.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
09-19-2008 |
Reviews
The Coen Brothers' Latest is an Entertaining Triflenew
Burn After Reading's madcap tone recalls Coen projects like The Big Lebowski and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, although it doesn’t reach the heights of sublime absurdity that those movies (especially Lebowski) achieved.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
09-11-2008 |
Reviews
'Baghead' is a Sometimes Awkward Marriage of Horror and Talkinessnew
Brothers Mark and Jay Duplass made one of the foundational movies of the so-called "mumblecore" movement with 2005's The Puffy Chair, and their follow-up, Baghead, finds them struggling to break out of what's become a somewhat stifling and limiting label.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
09-05-2008 |
Reviews
It Seems Almost Cruel to Criticize 'The Little Red Truck'new
The Missoula Children's Theatre is undoubtedly a worthwhile organization that provides a valuable service to thousands of children, but that doesn't mean it's fun to sit through what amounts to a 90-minute advertisement for the company.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
09-05-2008 |
Reviews
'Elegy' is Remarkably Dour and Unsexynew
Based on the novel "The Dying Animal" by Philip Roth, Elegy is meditative and glum, but not quite as profound as its tone seems to suggest it is.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
08-28-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Elegy, Isabel Coixet
'Traitor' is a Popcorn Thriller in Political-Drama Clothingnew
Nachmanoff, working from an idea by Steve Martin (yes, that Steve Martin), does try to address some serious questions about the religious motivations behind terrorist acts, but in the end he's more concerned with gotcha moments than with intellectual discourse. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
08-28-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Traitor
'Vicky Cristina Barcelona' is an Invigorating Trip Abroadnew
The fourth (and apparently final) film in what might be called Woody Allen's European period, this is the closest to what fans of his classic relationship comedies keep hoping the writer-director will produce again. It's a light, entertaining and romantic movie without the strained zaniness of 2006's Scoop, filled with mild humor, some wonderfully drawn characters and a lovely Spanish setting.
Las Vegas Weekly |
Josh Bell |
08-15-2008 |
Reviews
