[3] Michael Mann, the great director of movies like Heat and Last of the Mohicans, here gives us his take on the legendary ’30s gangster John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp. Depp can be brilliant in the right role, but this is not that role. He’s uncharacteristically devoid of charisma in Public Enemies, sleep-walking through most of his performance. Making matters worse, the film spends …
[5] Chris Pine, Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker), Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), and Emily VanCamp (Everwood) roam the empty western United States after a plague has killed most of the population. They do their best to avoid desperate stragglers, but have a harder time not turning on each other when the disease finally catches up with them. Carriers is well acted and captures a compelling post-apocalyptic …
[5] After his little brother discovers a dead dog and a scary old man on a wooded shortcut, a new-teen-in-town (Drew Seeley) invites his friends to investigate the trail and the legend behind the mysterious old man who patrols it. The opening act of The Shortcut fails to generate any excitement for the story that lies ahead, one that’s a little less obvious than big …
[7] Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) serves up this meditative drama about a mute, one-eyed, pagan strong man (Hannibal‘s Mads Mikkelsen) who fights for the entertainment of his Norse captors way back around the year 1000 AD. He finally escapes and brings a young boy along with him. The two soon take up company with a small band of Crusaders looking for their …
[3] Maybe Alice Sebold’s novel is a different and more worthwhile experience. But not having read it, I’m pondering what the hell I’m supposed to take away from Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lovely Bones. The movie is about a dead 14-year-old (Saoirse Ronan) who is stuck in some sort of purgatory where she can look in on her grieving family, as well as …
[5] Milla Jovovich (The Fifth Element) stars as a psychologist in Nome, Alaska, where patients begin telling her about terrifying experiences in the middle of the night — all of which start by seeing an owl in their bedroom window. Jovovich learns the patients are being abducted and controlled by aliens. The police don’t want to hear about it until Jovovich’s own daughter is abducted… …
[8] Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as a man and woman who retreat to their cabin in the woods to grieve the death of their young son. Dafoe’s character is a therapist and tries to offer techniques to help Gainsbourg’s character cope with the tragedy. But Gainsbourg spirals beyond grief and into insanity… and violence. Writer/director Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, The …
[6] Carey Mulligan gives an outstanding performance in this adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir. Mulligan plays a sixteen-year-old in 1960s London, pushed by her father to study hard so she can get into Oxford. When she falls in love with a charming man nearly twice her age, she decides to let her education slide. But Prince Charming isn’t all he’s cracked up to be and …
[7] A zombie apocalypse road trip movie with amusement park overtones? Oh, hell yeah. With its strong character humor and plenty of sight gags, Zombieland is a joyously exploitative horror comedy that deflects any serious criticism. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are the keys to this movie’s success. Eisenberg is a disarming combination of sweet and ridiculous, while Woody Harrelson gets the juicy opportunity to …
[6] This screwy comedy about top secret military psychics is based (to questionable extent) on truth. While the ramifications of the subject matter is provocative, the film wisely overlooks them to revel in the absurdity of it all. By its end, The Men Who Stare at Goats becomes downright whimsical. There’s a scant plot with a hazy focus, but that’s okay. The reason to watch …
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