AltWeeklies Wire
Remaking Theo van Gogh: Stanley Tucci Goes Dutch With 'Blind Date'
As a theatrical filmic exercise, Blind Date is a fair experiment. Just don't go expecting to see a traditional movie.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
09-21-2009 |
Reviews
Steven Soderbergh's Satire 'The Informant!' Pales
Soderbergh has loads of fun with a perky musical score and jaunty '70s-era visual hat-tips toward a certain Get Smart aura of goofy charm. But the filmmaker is unable to tease out substance from what is essentially an off-key one-note samba.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
09-14-2009 |
Reviews
Post-Apocalyptic 'Stitchpunk' Goes Limp in '9'
At barely 80 minutes, 9 still feels too long for what it is; an expanded visual experimentation that might allow Shane Acker to finally put an old UCLA student project behind him.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
09-07-2009 |
Reviews
'Extract' Makes it Clear That Mike Judge Needs to Make More Features
Extract can't help but pale to Judd Apatow's work that has set the bar high for this kind of comedy. Nonetheless, you get the sense that if Mike Judge made more pictures, he'd hit his stride alongside the likes of Apatow pretty quick.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-31-2009 |
Reviews
Jim Sturges and Ben Kingsley Share Ireland's 'Troubles' in 'Fifty Dead Men Walking'
There's a lot to understand -- politically and emotionally -- about Martin McGartland. Kari Skogland's film makes it happen with muscle, brains, and loins.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-24-2009 |
Reviews
'Inglourious Basterds' is Tarantino's Best Work Yet
Quentin Tarantino has matured as an auteur even if he's as prone as ever to creating funny-ha-ha sequences of joyous cinematic revelry just for the sport of it.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-17-2009 |
Reviews
'The Time Traveler's Wife' Burns Up in Space
Amy McAdams and Eric Bana are easy enough on the eyes to distract from the script's Grand Canyon-sized plot holes, but not enough to keep your mind off the insipid storytelling. Even from its gooey sentimental standpoint, The Time Traveler's Wife is two pints short of a gallon.
City Pulse |
Cole Smithey |
08-10-2009 |
Reviews
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
