In Cake, it takes about fifteen minutes for director Daniel Barnz to establish the ground rules for this familiar portrait of grief and addiction, followed up by another 90 minutes or so of dramatic clumsiness and eye-rolling clichés. Whether it is drugs, sex, or booze, each brings a routine numbing quality to the table for Claire Bennett (Aniston), a seemingly darkly comedic and scathing woman who we first meet in a support group for chronic physical pain.
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s newest film, ‘Sabotage’, is violent. Violent in a way that they rarely make ’em anymore. Violent in a way that only the star of ‘The Terminator’ and ‘Total Recall’ can get away with.
Such is the current culture in the filmmaking world that the very notion of suggesting ‘remake’ is considered sacrilege, but the problem isn’t in the concept, it’s in the choices. The worst thing you can do in the writing room, and on the set, is mishandle a great story. It is these motion pictures, not the Verhoven classics or yesteryear horror flicks, that require a second attempt.
Watching Drift is akin to feeling like Milhouse van Houten. He howled, in that long-ago Simpsons episode on the school bus, “When are we getting to the fireworks factory?”Drift, a period piece about the surging popularity of surfing in Western Australia, spends far too much time withholding surfing footage, presuming that what audiences would rather watch is discussions about surfing instead. Once the characters stop talking about the business of surfing, or the equipment related to surfing, or the feeling that one gets while riding a particularly radical wave, and they get on their boards and start riding said waves, Drift comes alive.
Wrath of the Titans Directed by Jonathan Liebesman Written by Dan Mazeau and David Leslie Johnson USA, 2012 As befits a sequel to a remake of a film that had absolutely no plot to speak of, Wrath of the Titans is all spectacle, a string of set pieces held together with the loosest connective tissue …
Man on a Ledge Directed by Asger Leth Written by Pablo F. Fenjves U.S.A, 2012 It feels safe to assume that ensemble pieces are rarely an easy proposition. The matter of juggling good writing and proper screen time between a great number of solid characters requires some highly regarded skill, both from the standpoints of …
The Debt Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman, and Peter Straughn, based on the film Ha-Hov Directed by John Madden USA, 2010 The Nazis are by far the most durable, malleable historical villains in cinematic history. Their status as a universally reviled symbol of xenophobic hatred and cruelty gives filmmakers carte blanche to dispatch them …
On August 27th, James Cameron’s 3D blockbuster Avatar will be getting a limited re-release with nine extra minutes of footage attached. Cameron recently did an interview with MarketSaw and in it he went in depth about the footage that he added. Hit the jump for more of my thoughts and the complete photos. These photos …
Terminator Salvation Directed by McG This review contains Terminator series spoilers. With Charlie’s Angels helmer McG becoming the third director to tackle the once-venerable sci-fi-action series concocted by James Cameron, we can at least be thankful that he’s found an original way to screw up a franchise. Where most series end up with an entry …