Reviews
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A- |
***½ |
+0|
Kids & Up
The world of
Monsters, Inc. is a more artificial and contrived affair than the
Toy Story world, and something of the figure of the Monster in myth and fairy tale and imagination has been lost. Yet there’s also a slyly satiric point: Childhood fears aren’t what they used to be.
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A+ |
**** |
+4|
Teens & Up
Monsieur Vincent, director Maurice Cloche’s beautifully crafted, award-winning biopic of St. Vincent de Paul, celebrates the saint’s single-minded devotion to the poor without romanticizing the objects of his devotion and recipients of his charity.
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D+ |
**½ |
-2|
Adults*
This second
Mission: Impossible film has almost as little to do with the 1996 blockbuster original as the latter had with the classic TV series whose name it happened to share.
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A- |
***½ |
+4|
Teens & Up*
From the unforgettable opening sequence, with its stunning depiction of the martyrdom of a silent Jesuit missionary at the hands of equally silent South American natives, the film is shot through with piercing, haunting imagery, pictures of enduring imaginative force.
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A+ |
**** |
+4|
Kids & Up*
In
The Miracle Maker, the film’s makers have a small miracle of their own: a simple, modest retelling of the gospel story of the ministry and passion of Christ that does little more than present the bare events of the gospel narratives, without adornment or invention, without idiosyncratic "explanations" or editorial spin, without elaborations for the sake of amusement or excitement.
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C- |
*** |
-2|
Adults*
There’s some freshness here amid the formula, but mainstream
audiences are liable to find The Mexican too long and
slow, too violent, and too off-putting. A few film aficianados
and critics, numbed by the present dismal spate of lousy
Hollywood efforts, may hail it as a wonderful find. But only the
absence of worthwhile competition — and a highly watchable
performance by "The Sopranos"’s James Gandolfini (who gets far
more screen time with Roberts than Pitt does) — qualifies this
middling effort as a modest success by any standard.
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C- |
***½ |
-2|
Adults*
This device — unfairly dismissed by some critics as a mere
gimmick — creates an experience that in one way resembles that of
the protagonist, Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce). Leonard suffers
from a unique trauma-related condition that prevents him from
retaining new memories. It’s amnesia in reverse: The amnesiac
remembers only his life after his trauma; Leonard remembers only
his life before. He knows his name, his past history, everything — up to a point. The last thing he remembers is failing to
prevent the rape and murder of his wife.
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A |
**** |
+3|
Teens & Up*
Contriving to hide the boy from camp
officials (who soon put the other children to death), Guido tells
Giosue that the concentration camp is actually an elaborate
role-playing game in which the "players" are competing for points in the
hopes of winning a real battle tank. From then on, Guido will
take any risk, court any danger, to maintain his son’s illusion
that none of it is real.
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B- |
*** |
+0|
Teens & Up
A Knight’s Tale is the kind of silly feel-good popcorn
movie, like
Independence Day or the 1999
The Mummy,
that film critics generally enjoy ripping apart, and mainstream
audiences generally just enjoy.
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C |
** |
+1|
Teens & Up
Fortunately, it’s mostly about Kate and Leopold.
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B |
*** |
+3|
Kids & Up
Joseph’s own dreams — the two biblical ones plus an extra one — are the best; I caught my breath at the first glimpse of these
dreams, which look like living, flowing Van Goghs. The dream-sky
swirls like Starry Night, and the grass ripples under the
dream-Joseph’s feet like ripples in a pond. The dreamlike quality
of these sequences is undeniable and memorable.
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B+ |
***½ |
+2-1|
Adults
These two "martyrs" are not saints; nor are they as cautious
and discreet as Thomas More in
A Man for All Seasons, which
leaves them open to unnecessary suffering. A sobering examination
of corruption, courage, cowardice, and the sometimes catastrophic
costs of telling the truth.
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C |
**½ |
+2-1|
Adults
Other critics have already criticized the film on several
fronts: social, aesthetic, cultural. In keeping with the general
principles of this site, I’ll give priority to the spiritual and
religious implications of the story. At the heart of The Green
Mile is a powerful, compelling figure of almost preternatural
innocence and goodness whose origins are obscure — one character
describes him as having "fallen from the sky" — and who possesses
a mysterious power to take the suffering of others upon himself.
He is also able to weigh men’s hearts, and is startlingly capable
of judgment and vengeance as well as mercy and healing.
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C+ |
***½ |
-1|
Adults
It’s this dynamic that Altman is really interested in, not
“whodunit.” Or, if Altman does care whodunit, it’s only insofar as the
answer illuminates the film’s real themes of snobbery and resentment,
exploitation and interdependence, privilege and privation.
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B- |
*** |
+2-2|
Adults*
Director Ridley Scott made his name with the groundbreaking
science-fiction films Blade Runner and Alien, both
of which, like Gladiator, were triumphs of set design and
visual style, memorable more for the haunting worlds they created
than for any engaging character development or moral interest. In
these earlier films, Scott had the advantage of showing us worlds
we had never seen before. Gladiator takes us to familiar
territory, though new computer effects and Scott’s strong
direction make it worth seeing anyway.
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A |
***½ |
+2|
Teens & Up
Ford exudes decency in the role of the
innocent man wrongly
accused, as Kimble throughout the movie consistently goes out
of his way to help other people at his own expense, regularly
risking capture and even death for the sake of others. Best known
for playing confident, capable action heroes in the Indiana Jones and Star Wars
movies, Ford is also remarkably persuasive in the role of the
unlikely action hero — the unassuming, nonphysical,
white-collar professional who isn’t used to swashbuckling (a role
he played also in
Frantic and
Air Force One).
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A |
***½ |
+3|
Teens & Up*
This is a film
about the legacy of fatherhood and the inheritance of sonship,
about the unbreakable connection and the unbridgeable gap between
one generation and the next. It is a celebration of masculinity,
but it contemplates how men relate to women as an index of their
manhood.
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D |
** |
-2|
Teens & Up
I think that a similar dynamic may be at work in The
Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, a prequel to the 1994 film
that purports to tell us how young Fred and Barney first met and
married Wilma and Betty (respectively). Kids may happily gobble
up Viva just because it’s a movie based on a popular
cartoon show; and even parents desperate for watchable family
entertainment may allow themselves to be seduced by its colorful
set pieces and the goofy charm of the cast. But really, it’s not
at all good. Not so much nasty, like coffee ice cream to a child;
but rather bland, inert, and joyless, like some insipid
sugar-free fat-free Frozen Dessert Product.
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C- |
**½ |
-2|
Teens & Up*
Based on a computer game,
Final Fantasy is always
interesting to look at, and is sometimes visually spectacular,
but it hasn’t transcended its gaming origins. The sci-fi
scavanger-hunt premise hasn’t been fleshed out into a coherent or
satisfying story. The heroes, though eye-poppingly rendered,
remain emotionally as one-dimensional as any computer-game
avatar. Even basic rules and motivations never become clear.
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A+ |
**** |
+1|
Kids & Up
If
Fantasia failed to spark a hoped-for entertainment
revolution, its achievement is all the more starkly singular. A
joyous experiment in pure animation, an ambitious work of
imaginative power, a showcase of cutting-edge technique, and a
celebration of great music, it is without precedent and without
rival. I’ve watched it far too many times to count, and I have
yet to begin tiring of it.
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D+ |
** |
+1-2|
Adults
If it were only predictable, syrupy, and overlong,
The Family Man might still be worth watching for the appealing performances from Leoni and Cage. Alas, its problems are more deep-rooted than that.
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A |
**** |
+1-1|
Kids & Up*
“The story of a boy and his dog,” writes one critic. “
Close Encounters for kids,” writes another. Still others focus on the Christological resonances, particularly in connection with another messianic sci‑fi film,
The Day the Earth Stood Still, with its peaceful visitor from the heavens who dies and rises again.
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B |
*** |
+2-2|
Adults
Watching Erin take on corporate ruthlessness and professional
apathy, I often felt that while I couldn’t always condone her
choice of words, I appreciated the spirit behind them — not to
mention the effect they had on her hapless victims. This movie
makes you feel that one person really can make a difference;
especially since it’s based on a true story.
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C |
**½ |
+2-2|
Adults*
The answer, apparently, is that there are many film critics
who can, since Neil Jordan’s film of The End of the
Affair, which he adapted himself from Graham Greene’s novel
of the same name, has been praised not only in general terms but
specifically for its fidelity to the book. And, indeed, the film
may be said to be largely faithful to the book, in the sense that
the great majority of scenes are adapted more or less as they
were written. But this is like saying that the character of Sarah
(Julianne Moore) is largely faithful to her husband Henry
(Stephen Rea) because the great majority of her time she isn’t
sleeping with her lover Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes): the betrayal is
crucial, and gives the lie to the supposed fidelity of the rest.
If it’s not quite like making an otherwise "faithful" film about
the life of Christ that omits the Crucifixion, it’s at any rate
not entirely unlike making a film in which, some time after Good
Friday, it turns out that Jesus hasn’t been crucified after all,
but is actually living in Nazareth doing carpentry, and Pilate
has to send up centurions to apprehend him and bring him forcibly
to Jerusalem, where, after a six-month imprisonment, He is
finally crucified shortly before Christmas. (Okay, it’s not
exactly like that either, but you see what I’m getting at.)
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B+ |
*** |
+1|
Teens & Up
The Dish is closer in spirit to gentle British
and Irish comedies like
Waking Ned Devine and
The
Matchmaker than more characteristically edgy Australian
comedies such as
Strictly
Ballroom,
Muriel’s Wedding, and
Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert. Sam Neill, leading the Australian cast,
sets the tone; his deliberate, relaxed performance as Cliff is at
the center of the film, as he plays Andy Griffith to the
residents of this down-under Mayberry.
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A- |
**** |
+1-2|
Adults
Along with
Star Wars and
Raiders of the Lost Ark, John McTiernan’s
Die Hard defined a generation of action-adventure movies.
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C |
*** |
+2-2|
Kids & Up*
Guinness makes a delightfully enjoyable Father Brown, and the film’s dialogue sparkles with flashes of Chestertonian wit. … Alas, this well-intentioned and otherwise enjoyable film is marred by several serious missteps.
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A |
**** |
+3|
Adults*
Tim Robbins argues his point fearlessly, not taking the easy
way out, not stacking the deck by emotionally manipulating the
audience, but instead taking a worst-case scenario: Rather than
giving us a murderer who isn’t really so bad, merely
misunderstood and mistreated and so forth, Robbins gives us a
thoroughly revolting individual, one who spouts racist propaganda
not because he believes it but simply because it is shocking and
antisocial and hateful; who tries to humiliate the one person
interested in his welfare with leering come-ons aimed at her
consecrated chastity.
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B |
*** |
+2|
Kids & Up
The bishop (Basil Ruysdael) is a decent enough chap,
sympathetic to the sisters’ mission but daunted by the practical
difficulties. As their cause goes forward, however, he begins to
suspect that what’s driving them is an irresistible force before
which there is no known immovable object: "There hasn’t been for
2000 years."
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B+ |
*** |
+0|
Kids & Up
Real chickens, I have it on expert testimony, are homebodies
who do not actually pine for freedom, as do the heroines of
Chicken Run. Whereas these poultry-farm prisoners plot and
scheme endlessly to contrive by any means necessary to get under,
over, or around their chicken-wire prison wall, my wife’s hens
actually perch atop the five-foot fence that surrounds our back
yard. They are quite capable of escaping, but have no interest in
doing so.
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