Monthly Archives: June 2011

My relationship with the musical genre is an odd one. I have always considered myself a musical fan, but the more and more I watch, I realize that I’m more a fervent fan of a handful of melodic masterpieces (My … Continue reading →

An intriguingly stylized war drama even more intriguingly released during its wartime era, The Seventh Cross cultivates an atmosphere of almost ethereal dread and populates it with surprisingly humanized German characters from screenwriter and songwriter Helen Deutsch (National Velvet, Lili). In 1936 … Continue reading →

Seemingly lumped in as a bit of a cheapo Cloverfield or District 9 also-ran, Monsters reveals itself to be quite a bit more. The film begins several years after the devastating effects of an alien invasion along the US-Mexico border, as jaded photographer Andrew (Scoot McNairy) … Continue reading →

A decent, expectedly schmaltzy thing about a hotshot pilot (Spender Tracy) who dies, and is then dispatched by some heavenly body (chaired by Lionel Barrymore) to help guide a younger flier (Van Johnson), even as the young pilot is moving … Continue reading →

A charmingly stupid screwball comedy, It’s Love I’m After thrives thanks to its wonderful cast, even as the screenplay is built on a series of idiotic contrivances (the old Idiot Plot, as Roger Ebert called it). The film concerns two stage actors: … Continue reading →

There is perhaps no discipline of the arts more grueling than ballet, coupling the emotional toll of competition and performance with a physical burden unlike any other, maintaining grace on the tops of your toes becoming a nonstop highwire act. … Continue reading →

My Bloody Valentine 3D was one of 2009’s worst films. I attempted to see the film it was based upon, the 1981 Canadian slasher flick of the same name (in a paltry two dimensions), theatrically in a midnight movie revue, but … Continue reading →

Hey, remember when George Romero made good movies? Yeah, I know, I wasn’t born either, but he did used to make them, that’s why we keep giving him so many chances. Survival of the Dead is another entry in his stubbornly endless … Continue reading →

Speaking of overfamiliar, talented British dramatic helmer Mike Newell (Four Weddings & a Funeral, Donnie Brasco) pays the bills with Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, an endlessly generic action adaptation of the acclaimed video game series. Jake Gyllenhaal tries … Continue reading →

Solid dramatic work from perpetually underseen master Mikio Naruse, Mother has a family falling on hard times and the titular matriarch trying to hold things together when their father is struck down with illness. There’s some effective dramatic material, and a handful … Continue reading →