Despite the “Avengers” series’ guaranteed billions in box office for years to come, writer/director Joss Whedon won’t be returning after this latest entry. One might ask: What filmmaker and certified geek wouldn’t love the chance to helm the ultimate superhero franchise indefinitely, one that sends moviegoers into a delighted, money-burning frenzy? Well, one who prefers art […]
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The large number of reviews comparing Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” is rather perplexing. Sure, both films tell stories involving intergalactic travel, but “Intersellar” is narratively straightforward where “2001” was enigmatic, and Nolan’s focus is on characters where Kubrick’s was on ideas. I do not say this to be dismissive
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“What do cosmologists worship?” Stephen Hawking’s (Eddie Redmayne’s) future wife Jane (Felicity Jones) asks upon first meeting him at a university-sponsored dance and learning of the science major’s distaste for religion, minutes into “The Theory of Everything.” “One single unifying equation that explains everything in the universe,” Hawking responds, noting that the equation has not yet
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The age-old (and perennially criticized) maxim of local TV news, “If it bleeds, it leads,” finds a fresh facilitator in Lou Bloom, the creepy-eyed, fast-talking protagonist played by an emaciated-looking Jake Gyllenhaal in “Nightcrawler.” Seeking work on the streets of Los Angeles, Lou is drawn to the eponymous profession, a colloquialism used to describe independent contractors
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“John Wick” is the first feature that Chad Stahelski and David Leitch have ever directed, but their two decades working as stunt coordinators in Hollywood clearly taught them an invaluable lesson that prepared them for the job: efficiency is everything when it comes to action filmmaking. Because Staheleski and Leitch make optimal use of the
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It took three tries, but Sylvester Stallone has finally done the unfortunate; he has turned his “Expendables” franchise into the lame, pandering celebrity parade that people thought the original would be. Though far from deep, the first two “Expendables” movies were superior genre flicks that wisely traded on their litany of brawny actors’ iconographies to
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“The Giver” possesses all the right ingredients for a young-adult blockbuster success: a beloved and award-winning source novel, an A-list director in Philip Noyce, and talented veteran actors populating the supporting cast (most notably Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep). It’s also proof that the right ingredients don’t always result in a fulfilling meal. The problems
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No filmmaker’s oeuvre is as conducive to the categorization of ‘major’ and ‘minor’ works as Woody Allen’s. The writer/director/sometimes-actor has churned out a movie a year since 1982, and the question always remains the same: “Will this be Woody’s next masterpiece, or just a pleasant diversion?” Of course, the latter class of Allen film is
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One might naturally expect an R-rated comedy called “Sex Tape” to be boundary-pushing and taboo, but that’s not the case here, unless you find the idea of a long-married couple experimenting with a cornucopia of sexual positions or the mere mention of pornography to be boundary-pushing and taboo. In fact, “Sex Tape” is surprisingly conservative
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First off, allow me to state upfront: I’m a Republican and, while not religious myself, I’m generally sympathetic to the view that the contemporary American Left has unfairly demonized socially conservative Christians. One needn’t look any further than popular progressive reactions to the recent Supreme Court decision on employer-subsidized birth control for evidence of such demonization.
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