AltWeeklies Wire
'The Children of Huang Shi': Epic Borenew
Spottiswoode is hardly alone in distilling a distant country's pain into the story of one white Westerner, armed with a similarly pale romantic interest and wry native sidekick, making a difference while world history rages around him.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Parenting Off the Grid and Off the Reservation in 'Surfwise'new
Halfway through Surfwise, a mesmerizingly ambivalent documentary about an itinerant family of Jewish surfer-dude health nuts, we meet the 84-year-old patriarch, "Doc" Paskowitz showing director Doug Pray a blown-up photo of a Nazi preparing to shoot a Jewish mother and child at close range.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Indiana Ford ... and the Kingdom of Lucas and Spielbergnew
A proudly analog artifact exhumed and dusted off for our digital age, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no less of a search for lost time on the part of its primary creators, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, but likely for much of the audience too.
L.A. Weekly |
Scott Foundas |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
'Son of Rambow' Celebrates Moviemaking Fever, Middle-school Stylenew
Why is it that kids playing dress-up in blockbuster tropes rarely gets old? Perhaps more to the point, why does the idea of rough-hewn DIY cinema seem so appealing now?
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
05-27-2008 |
Reviews
Indiana Jones Wants You Damn Kids to Get off His Lawn!new
Harrison Ford is, once again, funny and tough and cool, able to crack a bullwhip and punch out a stooge with the best of 'em. But the film doesn't feel the same. There's CG and sci-fi.
The Portland Mercury |
Erik Henriksen |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
'Prince Caspian' is Inappropriate for All Agesnew
Of the 144 minutes that the new fantasy-adventure film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian runs, there isn't a single clever one to be found. There are, perhaps, three or four that sufficiently stimulate the eyes. This leaves at least 140 more to be bored by, to laugh at, to be further bored by and, finally, to plan an escape from.
Santa Fe Reporter |
Emiliano Garcia-Sarnoff |
05-23-2008 |
Reviews
'Flawless' Features One of Michael Caine's Best Performancesnew
Unfortunately, it also features a mediocre and occasionally limp performance by Demi Moore, who gets a lot more screen time than Caine, which seems unfair, because she's married to Ashton Kutcher, and Michael Caine's real name is Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Jr., so, honestly, who's more deserving: someone who's boffing Ashton Kutcher, or poor Maury Micklewhite?
Tucson Weekly |
James DiGiovanna |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Flawless, Michael Radford
Indy is Back and As Exciting as Evernew
While it hits a few snags, the latest in this cherished film series is certainly worth the wait and contains enough big-wow moments to cancel out the negatives.
Tucson Weekly |
Bob Grimm |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
How to Stop Worrying and Love Lucas, Spielberg and 'Raiders'new
When I reviewed Raiders, I wrote not so much about its contents -- which struck me as aggressively inane -- but about the experience of seeing it at the Village Twin. To me, everything that night was of a piece, all of it depressing evidence of a tripartite decline.
'Mister Lonely' Moonwalks between Surreal and Melancholynew
Harmony Korine's latest -- his first feature since Julien Donkey-Boy -- is perhaps his most unusual effort to date, but not for the reasons seasoned Korine watchers might expect.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Cheryl Eddy |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Tags: Mister Lonely, Harmony Korine
Uwe Boll's 'Postal' Fails to Comprehend Its Own Corrupt Naturenew
Based on the mindlessly violent series of first-person shooters, Postal contains the same intensely farcical bloodshed, but it's Boll's knuckleheaded misinterpretation of topical humor that really gets me.
New York Press |
Eric Kohn |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
'The Children of Huang Shi' is Lovely to Look Atnew
But that's about it. The real star of Huang Shi is the cinematographer, Zhao Xiaoding, who was a camera operator on the breathtaking epic Hero and director of photography on House of Flying Daggers.
New York Press |
Raphaela Weissman |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
The New Indiana Jones is More than Commercial Gimcracknew
The pressing challenge of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is for Spielberg to address the generation that grew up with Indiana Jones and may now feel they have outgrown him. But to avoid that fickle self-loathing, Spielberg has to raise their appreciation of action-movie tropes.
New York Press |
Armond White |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
The Fourth Indy Jones Adventure is Arguably OKnew
We could call Crystal Skull the senior citizens' special of the year. Or an amiably expensive timewaster. Or loads of fun for the easily amused -- no, that's probably too dismissive. Or the Boomers' Revenge. Or perhaps it's just a popcorn movie made from, uh, mature corn.
East Bay Express |
Kelly Vance |
05-22-2008 |
Reviews
Wanting More from 'Indiana Jones'new
There are good things and indifferent things throughout this enterprise by the two richest directors who ever lived, but most of the best (and worst) moments work from surprise, which reviews have already splashed across the media consciousness.
Chicago Newcity |
Ray Pride |
05-21-2008 |
Reviews
