AltWeeklies Wire
Cheeky Monkey
How did Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace's relatively simple story get stretched to such epic proportions? Well, the movie is first a smaller-scale Titanic, then a ballsier Jurassic Park -- and that's before the monkey business even gets going.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-19-2005 |
Reviews
If I'm Lion, I'm Dyin'
If you and your kids aren't already admirers of the book, Narnia just may bore the crap out of the whole family.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-09-2005 |
Reviews
Imperial Witnesses
To those who don't remember the Vietnam War, Winter Soldier may seem antique. Yet anyone who's been paying attention to the occupation of Iraq will recognize certain mind-sets, tactics, and weapons.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
12-09-2005 |
Reviews
Pseudo Arabia
Written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who scripted Steven Soderbergh's structurally kindred Traffic, the intriguing but finally unsatisfying Syriana is the latest product of the Clooney-Soderbergh salutary-cinema factory.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
12-09-2005 |
Reviews
Spirits of Place
An art-house hit upon its original release 30 years ago, the film is the third of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni's Anglo-American features. All three place a sociopolitical frame around the director's worldview.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Psychic Territory
One subculture of America's rec-room repertory theaters supports Asian horror and revenge flicks that Hollywood sees mostly as grist for remakes, including the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa, perhaps the most ambitious of J-horror directors.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Rimin' & Stealin'
Anyone who requires proof that Ryan Reynolds can be funny, need only give the guy four minutes. That's the time it takes for Reynolds, swaddled in his Just Friends fat suit, to mouth the words to All-4-One's luv ballad "I Swear."
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Weather Alert
The Ice Harvest certainly knows what kind of movie it is. In this Mob-world heist comedy, everyone's in on the scam.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Perched on the Edge
Though Americans aren't directly indicted in Austrian filmmaker Hubert Sauper's latest documentary, its portrayal of an unbalanced global economy arguably puts all First World nations in the hot seat.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Gushing Over the Ush
Don't bother with the nonsensical Romeo and Juliet-ish plot. All you need to know about this movie can be gleaned from the tag line "Everyone wants a piece of his action," which floats above an image of Usher Raymond dressed in a fly suit.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
12-02-2005 |
Reviews
Children of the Revelation
Machuca attempts to muffle any potential backlash by taking a boy's-eye view of American-backed state terrorism.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
11-18-2005 |
Reviews
Standard Spelling
In these post-Thatcher times, the closest thing the British theater has to a welfare program is the Harry Potter movies.
Washington City Paper |
Louis Bayard |
11-18-2005 |
Reviews
Metaphysical Obsessions
Bee Season mucks around in stuff that no mainstream American entertainment--save, perhaps, the last few Madonna albums--has ever explored.
Washington City Paper |
Mark Jenkins |
11-18-2005 |
Reviews
The Shock Wears Off
The 72-minute film is about an hour's worth of Sarah Silverman's stand-up, padded with a weak story line that enables it to pass as a movie.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
11-18-2005 |
Reviews
Cash on Delivery
Yes, kids, we have another Ray. Nearly to the letter, actually. But Joaquin Phoenix does Jaime Foxx one better by singing Johnny Cash's songs himself, a ridiculously risky move in portraying an icon whose voice was the thing. But damn if the boy doesn't pull it off.
Washington City Paper |
Tricia Olszewski |
11-18-2005 |
Reviews
