Movie Reviews


Plucked clean: Four Feathers mostly fluff Published on Sep 19th, 2002 0 comments As a product of the U.S. educational system, I'm as ignorant about history as President Bush, but with less severe repercussions in my case. Reported historical inaccuracies in the 2002 version of...
Hoppin' Published on Sep 19th, 2002 0 comments Looking for a change of pace, I headed to Starr Hill to catch the band Carbon Leaf, which have received considerable press in recent months since they won the Coca-Cola New Music Award at the...
One Hour Photo Published on Sep 5th, 2002 0 comments We don't always notice how creepy Robin Williams is when he's amusing us, but it's always lurking just beneath the surface. Writer-director Mark Romanek maximizes Williams' creep potential in One...
Simply Good: Aniston breathes life into new role Published on Aug 29th, 2002 0 comments Independent films show that movies needn't be lavish, effects-filled overproductions. The Good Girl does that, but it also shows the same thing about hell: it doesn't have to be full of fire and...
Digital diva: S1m0ne is an unnatural woman Published on Aug 22nd, 2002 0 comments It's pretty obvious that the brilliant mind behind S1m0ne is the same one that was responsible for The Truman Show. Directing this time as well as producing and writing, Andrew Niccol has given us...
XXXtreme spying: Diesel's new film not quite so Furious Published on Aug 8th, 2002 0 comments Where are the drive-ins when we need them? Between XXX this week and Blue Crush next week, it's like we're back in the '60s, but with bigger budgets and more extreme, sometimes computer-enhanced,...
Crop failure: Signs comes up short Published on Aug 1st, 2002 0 comments We are all Pavlov's dogs. We hear M. Night Shyamalan's name, and we begin to get scared. By the time we get to the theater where his new film is playing, we're terrified. When we see the ticket...
Mousey movie: Stuart Little 2 packs laughs for little ones Published on Jul 18th, 2002 0 comments As Sony summer sequels go, Stuart Little 2 is better than Men in Black II. At least it seems better because we had such big hopes for MIBII while expectations for SL2 were more... little. Or maybe it...
Perdition Published on Jul 11th, 2002 0 comments If Steven Spielberg had made The Godfather it might have turned out like Road to Perdition, which instantly becomes the front-runner for year-end honors as of July 12. As praiseworthy as that...
Men In Black II (Three Stars) Published on Jul 4th, 2002 0 comments By Cole Smithey Will Smith (Ali) and Tommy Lee Jones (U.S. Marshals) team up with director Barry Sonnenfeld (Get Shorty) once again to invigorate the infectious camp sci-fi buddy comedy they...
Chick flick Juwanna Mann's not all that Published on Jun 27th, 2002 0 comments By Cole Smithey Tootsie meets women's basketball in this feeble attempt at milking comedy from a story about a guy who cross dresses to salvage his sports career. Jamal Jeffries (Miguel A. Nunez, Jr...
Knocking Minority Published on Jun 20th, 2002 0 comments If anyone - well, almost anyone - but Steven Spielberg had directed Minority Report there wouldn't be enough words to praise it; but Spielberg's track record– his films rarely fail to make my...
Doo it Published on Jun 13th, 2002 0 comments Here's a no-brainer: Scooby-Doo, why are you've got your GenXers with happy memories of the 1969-72 TV series and its spinoffs, and some of them have children of their own they want to expose to...
Never Enough: J.Lo's got the goods Published on May 30th, 2002 0 comments Versatile director Michael Apted (Coal Miner's Daughter, The World Is Not Enough, 7-42 Up) offers a standard woman-in-jeopardy thriller, Enough, trying again with a genre that eluded him in Blink....
Wake-up call Published on May 23rd, 2002 0 comments Insomnia shows the result of when good scripts happen to great actors. Al Pacino has been coasting since winning his undeserved Oscar for Scent of a Woman a decade ago, and Robin Williams has made...
Falling Star Published on May 16th, 2002 0 comments The Summer of Love continues as Peter Parker’s pursuit of Mary Jane Watson is followed by Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) wooing of Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman). Is this a plot to sell...
Something for everyone Published on May 9th, 2002 0 comments I’m like you in some ways. I get excited by the first blockbuster of the summer movie season too, if it’s halfway decent. Not The Scorpion King, which was almost as cheesy as Jason X; but Spider-Man...
A movie... or something like it Published on May 2nd, 2002 0 comments Life or Something Like It is the movie that asks the question, if you had only a week to live, would you sleep with Edward Burns?It also asks whether, given the film's premise, you really think they'...
Rush to Crush? Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments If they ever make a feature film of Sex and the City it will be too little, too late. The subject of sexually active women who travel in packs will have been done to death by then, although as with...
Deadly direction Published on Apr 18th, 2002 0 comments By Racheal Deahl Alfred Hitchcock must have assumed that experimental theories work best in experimental films; how else can you explain Rope. The inimitable director’s 1948 flop about a pair of...
Panic Perfection Published on Apr 11th, 2002 0 comments By Cole Smithey Director David Fincher's Panic Room opens with a sumptuous credit sequence so captivating that you're drawn into the movie before a single word is spoken. Fincher, like Hitchcock and...
He's back Published on Mar 28th, 2002 0 comments By Rachel Deahl Some films remain forever in our collective conscious not simply as films, but as milestones of the past. These are films that we see at a particular moment in time and are forever...
Icy humor Published on Mar 21st, 2002 0 comments Alongside its immaculate blending of captivating vocal characterizations by a group of superbly talented actors, Ice Age triumphs by eschewing the inside adult humor that infiltrates so many other...
Time goes slowly Published on Mar 14th, 2002 0 comments The remake of The Time Machine has two "based-on credits," one at the beginning and one at the end so you don't connect them. The first is the original novel by H.G. Wells, the second the screenplay...
We were... bored Published on Mar 7th, 2002 0 comments What's that smell? Could it be...words? A lot of critics are going to be eating their words and some may want to cook them first. I'm talking about those of us who found fault with Black Hawk Down...
Quick, get the Raid! Published on Feb 28th, 2002 0 comments When Kevin Costner loves, no one has ever loved so much. When he loses his love, no one has ever lost so much. And when he wants something, no one had better stand in his way because no one...
Ball's a belle Published on Feb 21st, 2002 0 comments Halle Berry has received a fair amount of critical acclaim and awards consideration for her lead performance in Monster's Ball, and it's definitely an attention-grabbing turn. As Georgia cocktail...
MOVIE REVIEW- OFFBeat: Film Society and OFFScreen offer reel gems Published on Feb 7th, 2002 0 comments Charlottesville may not be New York, but this town does better than many in snagging the most talked about independent and cutting-edge films... even if they sometimes arrive a few months after they'...
MOVIE REVIEW- <i>Serious</i>ly funny: Coen brothers do it again Published on Jan 1st, 2015 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO G-d forbid I should tell you how to spend your money, but A Serious Man? You could do worse. The Coen Brothers return to their cultural and geographical roots with one of the year's...
MOVIE REVIEW- Magical <i>Inception: </i>Nolan's latest a true original Published on Jan 1st, 2015 0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTO It's said that Christopher Nolan spent 10 years writing his screenplay for Inception. That must have involved prodigious concentration, like playing blindfold chess while walking a...