AltWeeklies Wire
'Live Free or Die Hard': Exercise in Super Action
For an action spectacle movie held together by five or six over-the-top sequences, Live Free or Die Hard pays off handsomely albeit with a surplus of downtime in between.
Tags: Len Wiseman, Live Free or Die Hard
'Evil Dead'-Style Horror Works Like a Charm
The lush hills of New Zealand provide an ironic backdrop for this witty little horror show about a farm where genetically altered sheep have been turned into devilish zombies.
Tags: Black Sheep, Jonathan King
Putting In The Fix: Michael Moore Talks About 'Sicko'
Moore's knack for framing political and social issues in a surprisingly entertaining documentary format is a journalistic phenomenon that picks up where 60s-era activist filmmakers like Barbara Kopple left off.
Maui Time |
Cole Smithey |
06-22-2007 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko
'Sicko': Get Well Soon
U.S. health care pales to Canada, England, France and yes ... even Cuba.
Tags: Michael Moore, Sicko
Report from Tajikistan: After Turkmenbashi, Tajikmanbashi
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov died in December, but Tajikistan's president is continuing the tradition of bizarre despotism in post-Soviet Central Asia.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
06-21-2007 |
International
Report from Turkey: Another Reason for U.S. to Worry
This longtime ally is steaming mad because the Iraq War is spilling over its borders.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
06-19-2007 |
International
John Cusack Brings Stephen King Story to a Boil
The Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (Derailed) skillfully helms this twisting one-man showcase in terror.
Tags: 1408, Mikael Hafstrom
Besmirching Nancy Drew: The Mystery of the Missing Plot
Hopes get dashed for creating a fresh Nancy Drew movie franchise (there were four such films made in the late ‘30s) with this less-than-perfunctory filmic updatE of the spitfire sleuth from the revered children’s book series.
Tags: Andrew Fleming, Nancy Drew
'Paprika': An Animated Scattershot Clusterfuck
If tweaking under the influence of a determinedly Japanese mindset sounds like a good way to substitute a cinematic drug experience for the real thing, then go right ahead to Satoshi Kon's overflowing excess.
Tags: Paprika, Satoshi Kon
'Brand Upon The Brain!': A Fitting Evolutionary Step for Maddin
Guy Maddin is a kind of lo-fi David Lynch.
Tags: Brand upon the Brain!, Guy Maddin
'Fido': Zombie Fever
This black comedy subscribes to the adage that any genre can be improved with the addition of zombies, with a capital Z.
Tags: Andrew Currie, Fido
'Once': Predictable Story, Whiny Songs
Music video masquerades as a heart-on-sleeve narrative featuring a charismatic, if musically limited and redundant, Glen Hansard of the Irish rock band the Frames.
Tags: John Carney, Once
'Jindabyne': Interesting Acting, Limited Material
Overwrought thriller-as-social-drama, loosely based on Raymond Carver’s short story, "So Much Water So Close to Home," slides around a morally slippery narrative area of four fishermen discovering a corpse.
Tags: Jindabyne, Ray Lawrence
'Crazy Love': A Fascinating Documentary
If you don't know the tale of Burt and Linda Pugach, then you're out of the loop on one of the biggest running tabloid stories in New York history.
Tags: Crazy Love, Dan Klores
'The Boss of it All': Light-hearted for von Trier
Lars von Trier takes a break from his trademark approach to polemics to induce snide laughs with an office satire about an actor hired by an IT company CEO to pose as its president in order to sell off the company.
Tags: Lars von Trier, The Boss of it All
