AltWeeklies Wire
The Anti-Hitchcock: David Twohy Cheats and Still Loses
David Twohy, the filmmaker responsible for the sci-fi cult favorite "Pitch Black," creates a deconstructionist suspense thriller that plays like a college screenwriting project gone awry.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-03-2009 |
Reviews
Tags: A Perfect Getaway, David Twohy
'Funny People' Proves Judd Apatow is the King of Comedy
Apatow raises the stakes on his already stellar formula for generating laughs with a comedy that is equal parts sincerity and wit.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
07-27-2009 |
Reviews
'Orphan' Relishes Suspense Over Exploitation and Dread Over Abstract Terror
Orphan is a persuasive addition to the subgenre of bad-seed-horror films like The Omen where a creepy little kid wrecks havoc and murder on the lives of ill-equipped adults.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
07-20-2009 |
Reviews
Harry Potter Franchise Hits its Stride in 'Half-Blood Prince'
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the most balanced Harry Potter film to come along, perhaps because the right combination of screenwriter and director has been firmly established, along with an appropriate team of special effects wizards and talented production crew.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
07-13-2009 |
Reviews
Sacha Baron Cohen Makes Funny, But Can't Get His Story Straight in 'Bruno'
Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to the hilarious Borat provokes half as many laughs in a seemingly less improvised comedy that goes twice again as far as Borat in goosing sexual sight gags designed to make even the most numb audience members blanch.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
07-02-2009 |
Reviews
'My Sister's Keeper' Turns on the Waterworks
Nick Cassavetes' three-hankie weepy lurches during moments of music-video sequences, and gratuitous voice-over narration from members of the Fitzgerald family as they struggle with their terminally ill daughter Kate (well played by Sofia Vassilieva).
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-22-2009 |
Reviews
Baked Hope: Clay Animation '$9.99' Hits a Narrative Wall
Adapted from short stories by Etgar Keret, the film's tag line, that it's an animated feature which "offers slightly less than $10 worth about the meaning of life," is unfortunately all too true about a movie whose visuals far outweigh its dramatic reach.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-15-2009 |
Reviews
With 'Whatever Works,' Woody Allen Announces His Demise
Here's a movie that feels thrown together, as if Allen is attempting to purge as many films as he can before he shuffles off his mortal coil. His legacy is going in an emotionally threadbare direction.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-15-2009 |
Reviews
Yolande Moreau Unleashes an Artist's Heart
In writer/director Martin Provost's patiently restrained biopic about the self-trained French painter Seraphine Louis, the audience is brought increasingly closer into the heart and mind of a genius whose turbulent inner life eventually envelops her conscious being.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-08-2009 |
Reviews
'The Hangover' Is Low Art
To its credit, The Hangover transfers to the audience the smelly, still inebriated state that the title promises.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
06-01-2009 |
Reviews
3-D Animation Takes Flight in 'Up'
You can tell that this film was a labor of love, and that the cast and crew were sufficiently inspired by the material to craft a children's movie that is destined to be a classic. Warm and fuzzy? You bet.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
05-22-2009 |
Reviews
Spectacle Trumps Satire in 'Terminator Salvation'
More of a 21st century Mad Max than a continuation of the Terminator franchise that seasoned audiences are familiar with, director McG's post apocalyptic man versus industrial-robot-military-complex lurches through fits and starts of spectacle that almost add up to a story.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
05-18-2009 |
Reviews
'Outrage' Looks at Closeted Pols
Documentarian Kirby Dick brings the same methodical approach he applied to This Film is Not Yet Rated, about Hollywood's shadowy ratings board, to examine the practice of closeted gay, largely Republican, politicians to systematically vote against gay rights issues as a way of deflecting attention from their own sexuality.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
05-13-2009 |
Reviews
'Da Vinci Code' Sequel Goes Through the Roof
For all of the Catholic Church hullabaloo over Dan Brown's novels, Ron Howard's Da Vinci Code sequel is an exuberant cinematic adaptation that combines elements of horror, religious tradition, and high-tech suspense to give audiences a non-stop thrill ride.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
05-11-2009 |
Reviews
'O'Horten' Is a Potent and Unpretentious Movie Full of Simple Joy
Odd Horten is a retiring 67-year-old Oslo train conductor whose consciousness expands over a couple of days in Brent Hamer's fascinating seriocomic character study.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
05-11-2009 |
Reviews
