[7] This isn’t the romanticized WWII of modern cinema, it’s probably closer to the real thing. The Story of G.I. Joe is based on print journalist Ernie Pyle’s interviews with soldiers in the field. Pyle was in the foxholes with them, and he was in it for the long haul. His newspaper column became the public’s window into life on the battlefield. William Wellman’s (The …
[4] Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons star in dual roles, as Victorian lovers and the actors portraying them in a film production. The parallel storylines are a tedious gimmick. We’re told half way through the movie that in one story, the lovers will get together and in the other, they won’t. Problem is, I don’t give shit about the characters in either storyline. I love …
[8] Contact is a message-driven movie that may be too esoteric for a lot of mainstream moviegoers. It’s a character-driven drama with only a few moments of your typical blockbuster spectacle — but I applaud the movie for daring to tangle in an exploration of science vs theology. Jodie Foster gives an impassioned performance as Ellie Arroway, an astronomer (and atheist) who discovers a message …
[8] Oliver Stone’s Platoon was one of the first major motion pictures to deal with the Vietnam war. Charlie Sheen stars as an infantry volunteer who finds himself in a moral quandry, torn between two sergeants of differing philosophies. Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe give solid, Oscar-nominated performances as the two sergeants, but it’s the director’s voice that comes through most strikingly in Platoon. As …
[7] The Box is weird, anachronistic, and indulgent, but I’d be lying to say I didn’t dig it. This is the third film from writer/director Richard Kelly, who created a cult phenomenon with Donnie Darko, but then flopped big time with the scatter-brained Southland Tales. The Box is intrinsically retro, based on an episode of the original Twilight Zone TV series (“Button, Button”, written by …
[8] At first sight, you might mistake Footloose for just another teen rebellion movie, but Herbert Ross’ (Steel Magnolias) sensitive direction and committed performances from John Lithgow and Dianne Wiest help the film transcend its genre. The story about a town where dancing has been outlawed sounds ridiculous at first, but screenwriter Dean Pitchford and the cast treat the premise with disarming sincerity. It was a …
[6] Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser vie for the affection of a beautiful Vietnamese woman against the backdrop of the French-Indochina War. Philip Noyce (Dead Calm, Patriot Games) is the second director to bring Graham Greene’s novel to the screen (after Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1958 version), and does a good job balancing the intimate character drama against the political intrigue. I like how the movie presents …
[4] A maudlin pseudo-documentary about a socially awkward girl’s quest for true love. Um, gag? Charlyne Yi, adorable in her weird Knocked Up cameo, is tediously boring here. The concept for this movie is confounding — part of it is Yi interviewing people (badly) about love, and part of it is about her real-life relationship with actor Michael Cera. But some of their scenes are …
[6] A bunch of teenagers rally to save their music store from being taken over by a corporate chain. Empire Records takes place almost entirely inside its namesake and features an ensemble of talented young actors, including Liv Tyler, Robin Tunney, and Renee Zellweger. It’s a good cast all around, but my favorite is Ethan Embry, who exhibits a goofy charm in his asides to …
[6] The best thing about Up in the Air, the new film from Juno director Jason Reitman, are the three performances by ever-reliable George Clooney, gorgeous Vera Farmiga, and plucky Anna Kendrick. But don’t see this movie expecting a comedy, because Juno it’s not. In fact, it’s pretty depressing, and not just because it’s about a man who fires people for a living. While it’s …
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