AltWeeklies Wire
Castrating Alfienew
The original is a classic, and for good reason. Michael Caine’s seduction artist was a heel and a creep -- one who finds no redemption in the end. Conversely, there is no darkness in this version that a few sessions with a decent therapist and the right woman couldn't fix.
Missoula Independent |
Nicole Panter |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Alfie, Charles Shyer
"Horror" Film a Funny Piece of No-Budget Drive-In Schlocknew
If you can get past the gore -- and with glimpses of steaming entrails, that’s a pretty big "if" -- you’ll find Seed of Chucky to be a silly, sloppy, yet surprisingly funny piece of no-budget drive-in schlock.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Don Mancini, Seed of Chucky
National Treasure Desecrates American Iconsnew
The Declaration of Independence gets stolen, shot at, dabbed with lemon juice, buffeted with blow dryers, dropped in busy streets and dangled above bottomless pits. Fortunately, Cage's character doesn't shove it up his ass to smuggle it out of the National Archives.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: National Treasure, Jon Turteltaub
Fractured, Frantic Tarnation Finds Salvation in Pop Culturenew
Tarnation is a chaotic, moving and sometimes histrionic autobiographical memoir of Jonathan Caouette that suggests pop culture -- whether cult movies like Liquid Sky or a Houston new wave gay club -- offered him an escape from his grim home life in a Texas suburb.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Felicia Feaster |
11-18-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Jonathan Caouette, Tarnation
Mindy Cohn's Diarynew
While playing plus-sized Natalie on "The Facts of Life," Cohn was, in short, an insightful, ebullient everywoman who was there for, well, every other woman on the show. A cursory glance at the text of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones books reveals that this is just the sort of woman Bridget is supposed to be.
Riverfront Times |
Mike Seely |
11-17-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Bridget's Betrayed by a Dumb, Dull sequelnew
This inevitable offering has all the charm of a canceled CBS sitcom. With its nutty doings and zany antics, all it lacks are commercial breaks and a laugh track -- the latter being sorely missed, since this is a comedy that doesn't seem interested in being funny.
East Bay Express |
Robert Wilonsky |
11-16-2004 |
Reviews
Smooth Operatorsnew
We’re in the "feast" portion of the feast-or-famine TV cycle. Two of the season’s best new dramas, UPN’s Veronica Mars and Fox’s House, air opposite each other at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays.
Boston Phoenix |
Joyce Millman |
11-16-2004 |
TV
Rhys' Piecenew
Enduring Love builds up enormous good will with its lapel-grabbing opening, its canny set-up scenes, and Rhys Ifans’ unnerving performance as a stalker in love. But in focusing on the psychological aspects of the psychological thriller, director Roger Michell asks a great many questions about love and obsession and then has trouble answering them.
Baltimore City Paper |
Lee Gardner |
11-16-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Roger Michell, Enduring Love
Enduring Creepinessnew
The film wants to come from behind and surprise in a way that feels punishing, as though the audience being taught a bitter lesson. The result is creepy and unpleasant. There is hope, however bleak, at the end, but mostly there's a sense of unnecessary devastation.
Tags: Roger Michell, Enduring Love
Well Trainednew
The runaway-train action stuff is fantastic. Where the movie falters is when it delivers platitudes about how the spirit of Christmas is in every one of us and Santa is the symbol of the spirit of giving, etc., etc.
Tags: Robert Zemeckis, The Polar Express
Redemption Thongnew
The witless inanity of this film is so numbing that the sole reason for any living creature to sit through it is to marvel at actress Salma Hayek's relentless succession of thongs, sarongs, diaphanous cocktail frocks, and all-but-nonexistent bathing suits.
Tags: Brett Ratner, After the Sunset
Behind the Scenes Superstar
Walter Murch has won Academy Awards for both film and sound design. He worked on The Godfather, The Conversation, English Patient, Cold Mountain, Being Julia. And he's famous for being a good talker too.
Pacific Sun |
Mal Karman |
11-12-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Vision and Focusnew
First-time screenwriter Joe Conway merges his narrative voice with filmmaker David Gordon Green's visual poetics – with a little help from Terrence Malick.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
11-12-2004 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: David Gordon Green, Undertow
A Drama Queen Who Earns Her Titlenew
There are so few really great film roles written for middle-aged women that when one comes along and it stars the near-perfect Annette Bening, it’s disappointing that the rest of the movie does not equal her performance.
Austin Chronicle |
Marjorie Baumgarten |
11-12-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: Being Julia, Istvan Szabo
Caught in the Big Muddynew
Cross-pollinate the arthouse film with B-movie backwoods gothic, and you get something like Undertow’s peculiar fusion of high and low culture.
Austin Chronicle |
Kimberley Jones |
11-12-2004 |
Reviews
Tags: David Gordon Green, Undertow
