AltWeeklies Wire
Invisible Ink: Polanski's Political Thriller Evaporates
It's a big deal when Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski both release mystery thrillers in the same week. Coincidentally, Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer are mutually set on islands and both begin with the arrival of a boat coming directly into the frame.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-15-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski
Scorsese's Gathering Storm: Lehane Novel Sets Table for Scorsese to Soar
For his forty-fifth film Martin Scorsese crafts a gorgeously stylized psychological thriller full of darkly lush horror that torments its obsessed protagonist.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-15-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Shutter Island, Martin Scorsese
Trading Down: Mythology Inflected Romp Has Nothing on Harryhausen
Aside from some non-PG-rated emphasis on an abusive home life and a lot of underwhelming CGI, The Lightening Thief is a well-paced kids' action picture that flirts with Greek mythology to create its otherworldly spectacle.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-08-2010 |
Reviews
Half-Eaten Chocolates: A Sampler You Don't Want to Give
Valentine's Day is yet another date movie that's less than the sum of its parts. The sheer number of A-list actors involved spells trouble. Jessica Biel, Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, and Anne Hathaway provide cast padding for the likes of B-listers Taylor Swift, George Lopez, and Emma Roberts.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-08-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Garry Marshall, Valentine's Day
Videogame Mentality: Action Post Card from Paris Self-Destructs
As with Spaghetti Westerns and sit-coms, you know they've jumped the shark when the tone turns to self-mockery. So it is that in one fell swoop John Travolta and suicide bombers have bid audiences their valediction.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
02-01-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: From Paris With Love, Pierre Morel
Looking Back: Mel Gibson Atones, Defeated
Acting in his first film since 2003, Mel Gibson is a bit rusty as retiring Boston homicide detective Thomas Craven in a part corporate-thriller and part old-school revenge fantasy that feels dated from the start.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
01-25-2010 |
Reviews
Tags: Edge of Darkness, Martin Campbell
A Fire Within: Charles Darwin Biopic Stays Cold
As reworked by screenwriter John Collee, Jon Amiel's adaptation of Randal Keynes's novel "Annie's Box" is too driven by melodrama to work as a biopic. The story moves to the relationship between Darwin and his brilliant daughter Annie (wonderfully played by newcomer Martha West).
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
01-18-2010 |
Reviews
With a Bible, Denzel Washington Walks Through the Valley of Death
Falling on the heels of The Road, The Book of Eli is a similarly themed vision of a post-apocalyptic dystopia where cannibals and criminals make up what's left of the human species.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
01-11-2010 |
Reviews
Vampire Majority : Blood is the Commodity
Sibling Australian filmmakers Michael and Peter Spierig (Undead, 2003) flip Hollywood's teen-friendly vampire trend on its head with a gory sci-fi world run by a majority population of bloodsuckers.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
01-04-2010 |
Reviews
Dragging 'Titanic': James Cameron's Opus is all Wet
The most expensive film ever made leaves much to be desired. Paralyzed from the waist down, former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington - Terminator Salvation) voices several movies worth of tell-don't-show narration for the benefit of audiences who like being read to when they watch a movie.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
12-15-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: Avatar, James Cameron
Mandela's Lessons Come Across Loud and Clear in 'Invictus'
Morgan Freeman's brilliant performance as Nelson Mandela is the kind of transformation that Academy Award members aggressively reward come Oscar season. Whether or not they'll be as impressed with Anthony Peckham's airy adaptation of John Carlin's book Playing the Enemy is questionable.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
12-07-2009 |
Reviews
Unemployment Gets a Lift in 'Up in the Air'
George Clooney's intentionally ambiguous character Ryan Bingham is a poster boy for America's lack of ethical direction in this thought-provoking satire about America's unemployment epidemic.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-30-2009 |
Reviews
Despite Rich Source Material, 'The Road' is Lacking One Thing: Ideas
The Road is a one-note road version of Waiting for Godot, minus Samuel Beckett's brilliant sense of existentialist humor.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-23-2009 |
Reviews
John Woo's 'Red Cliff' is a Must-See Chinese War Epic
Compared to typical big spectacle Hollywood blockbusters like 2012, Red Cliff contrasts its visually stunning epic-scale compositions with a far greater sense of historic purpose.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-16-2009 |
Reviews
With 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' Wes Anderson Finds His Genre: Animation
In Wes Anderson's hands, Roald Dahl's imaginative child's story takes on a meta significance as a human-development-coming-of-age story that applies across age groups, generations, social strata, and even species.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
11-09-2009 |
Reviews
