[5] I thought I’d get a lot more from a dark comedy directed by Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon) and starring Bill Murray, but Scrooged is neither dark nor funny enough to leave much of a lasting impression. Murray plays a cutthroat TV executive named Frank Cross, the film’s equivalent to Ebenezer Scrooge, who makes life a living hell for everyone around him. Until of …
[7] Gizmo the cute Mogwai is back, and he gets wet again — this time in a New York City skyscraper run by a Donald Trump-like billionaire. Billy Peltzer and Kate Beringer (returning stars Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates) both work there and re-team with their furry companion just in time to do battle with another army of nasty gremlins. This sequel to the 1984 …
[6] Katharine Hepburn plays a journalist who bad-mouths sports in her widely-read column. Spencer Tracy plays a sportswriter who publishes a rebuttal. The two continue sparring publicly until they meet in person… and start to fall in love. Now don’t get me wrong — I love it when Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy spar and make up, but this (their first pairing) is not among …
[8] A high school boy named Cameron (Joseph Gordon Levitt) wants the beautiful Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) to be his prom date, but the girl’s tyrannical father (Larry Miller) won’t allow it unless her vitriolic older sister, Katarina (Julia Stiles), tags along. So Cameron and his friends set out to buy Katarina a date. The mysterious bad boy of the school, Patrick (Heath Ledger), agrees to …
[7] I don’t like the vast majority of comedies. So why I fancy this one is beyond me, but there you have it. Granted, I do often find Ashton Kutcher and Sean William Scott adorable. Here they play pot-smokers who wake one morning to discover their car is missing. The car quest is just a plot McGuffin, of course, because this is really a story …
[7] An aimless playboy and a dorky middle-schooler become friends through serendipity in About a Boy, based on the book by Nick Hornby and directed by Chris and Paul Weitz of American Pie fame. Hugh Grant plays the playboy, coasting on royalties from a famous song his father wrote. Nicholas Hoult, who would later grow up to later star in X-Men: First Class and Warm …
[6] Cary Grant stars as Dr. Noah Praetorius, a well-meaning doctor and professor who falls for a troubled young woman (Jeanne Crain) while simultaneously dodging a jealous colleague’s (Hume Cronyn) perpetual witch hunt. People Will Talk is sweet if you stay on the surface of the story. I like the witch hunt storyline which ends with a darkly comic revelation. But the relationship between Grant …
[6] Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy, Pacific Rim) stars as Frankie, a hapless fellow who is constantly humiliated on camera by his older brother, Bruce (Chris O’Dowd). After one of Bruce’s videos became an internet sensation, Frankie went into isolation. But now that Bruce is getting out of rehab, their mother (Nora Dunn) convinces Frankie to give his brother a second chance. Unfortunately, Bruce is …
[6] This may be a guilty pleasure, but I also think it inherited an unfair reputation, too. George Lucas wanted to produce a comic film noir. No matter how well it was done, it would never be a huge hit. His name proved cancerous to the movie, unintentionally promising universal appeal for what is really a niche movie. The critics took their best shots and …
[7] Writer/director Miranda July also stars in this Cannes and Sundance Film Festival winner about people trying to connect with each other in an age when culture and technology make that connection more challenging. The film seems to be saying that we are all experiencing this difficulty, but July’s characters are so quirky and awkward that Me and You and Everyone We Know is as much …
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