[6] Moderately entertaining supernatural drama from director Clint Eastwood. The film follows three separate story lines that come together in the end. Matt Damon plays a reluctant psychic who can commune with the dead; Cecile de France plays a news reporter who has a near-death experience in a tsunami that opens the film; and Frankie and George McLaren play twin brothers separated by death. The …
[6] Walter Huston and Jimmy Stewart star as a father and son at odds with one another in the years preceding The Civil War. Huston’s a preacher and Stewart’s character wants to pursue the earthly profession of medicine. Beulah Bondi earned an Oscar nomination playing the mother torn between the two of them. And I’m somewhat torn about the movie. I love Huston, Stewart, and …
[6] An prep school teacher tries to set his students on a righteous path in The Emperor’s Club. More like Goodbye, Mr Chips than Dead Poets Society, this flick focuses more on the importance of moral character than inspiration or motivation. (Don’t just seize the day; seize it well?) It’s a low-stakes morality tale, but you find yourself caring because Kevin Kline does. His performance is …
[9] When a movie’s main title is preceded by a lonely man riding a farting corpse off a desert island and across the ocean, you either leave the theater immediately, or settle in for a cinematic experience like no other. Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) plays the lonely one, and Harry Potter himself (Daniel Radcliffe) plays the flatulent one. Dano’s about to hang himself …
[6] Ryan Gosling plays a young prosecutor pitted against slicker-than-snot Anthony Hopkins, representing himself in a trial where he’s accused of murdering his wife. Hopkins is about to get away with everything, but Gosling is determined to poke a hole in Hopkins’ seemingly air-tight alibi. The casting is safe and predictable, but the script is fairly tight and twisty, and kept me engaged to the end. With …
[3] James Marsden, Thomas Jane, and Piper Perabo star in this wannabe animal attack movie that’s really just an overwrought drama about estranged brothers burying the hatchet. The squabbling between the two men (all the men in the movie, actually) gets pretty tedious, and you have to be prepared to get some cheese sprayed on you as well — Perabo’s character is deaf, and she …
[8] Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro give terrific, Oscar-caliber performances in this film about a widowed mother who invites her late husband’s friend, a recovering drug addict, to stay with her. I was moved by the struggle of two deeply wounded people trying to help each other. Berry’s character tries to help Del Toro’s come clean, and he tries to help her bring her family …
[7] Director Morten Tyldum makes this true story of Alan Turing and his team of mathematicians fighting the second world war from their college studies as thrilling and interesting as possible. Benedict Cumberbatch headlines as the socially awkward leader of the group, a closeted homosexual who has a ‘beard’ relationship with a fellow smarty-pants played by Keira Knightley. The drama comes mostly from within the group, …
[7] Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland reteam after their initial pairing in Captain Blood. This time, they’re in a love triangle that plays out during an Indian massacre of British women and children, later spurring into action the contents of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s vengeful Charge. For a film from the ’30s, Charge has balls. You see women and children die on screen during some …
[7] Errol Flynn gives a low-key performance as a dedicated flight surgeon who teams with a bitter pilot (Fred MacMurray) to solve the problem of high altitude sickness and blackouts among Navy dive bombers. Despite the pre-WWII setting, this is more of a straight-forward drama built around the turbulent-turned-respectful relationship between Flynn’s and MacMurray’s characters. The only thing that bugged me about the movie is …
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