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Starring: Chazz Palminteri, Robert Davi, Peter Bogdanovich, Miriam Margolye… Review: Here’s the little movie that could, a potent directing debut for actor Robert Davi, an immortal Bond villain in License to Kill. Davi plays Danny DePasquale, a star in his 20s when he and his chubby-chaser pal George Zucco (Chazz Palminteri, in top form) lead a doo-wop group called the Dukes. Cut ahead a few decades, and the guys are struggling in California, working in an Italian restaurant run by their Aunt Vee (Miriam Margolyes) and hassling their manager (a terrific Peter Bogdanovich) to repackage them as an oldies group. Danny and George dream of turning Aunt Vee’s trattoria into a doo-wop club. But who has the bucks? So they cook up a heist that defines the term “fool’s gold.” For all the kickass fun, Davi offers a moving portrait of a man caught in the process of trying to… Rating: 3 Stars |
Dukes
November 19th, 2008 · No Comments
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The Dukes
November 19th, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Robert Davi, Chazz Palminteri Review: Here’s the little movie that could, a potent directing debut for actor Robert Davi, an immortal Bond villain in License to Kill. Davi plays Danny DePasquale, a star in his 20s when he and his chubby-chaser pal George Zucco (Chazz Palminteri, in top form) lead a doo-wop group called the Dukes. Cut ahead a few decades, and the guys are struggling in California, working in an Italian restaurant run by their Aunt Vee (Miriam Margolyes) and hassling their manager (a terrific Peter Bogdanovich) to repackage them as an oldies group. Danny and George dream of turning Aunt Vee’s trattoria into a doo-wop club. But who has the bucks? So they cook up a heist that defines the term “fool’s gold.” For all the kickass fun, Davi offers a moving portrait of a man caught in the process of trying to… Rating: 3 Stars |
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Christmas Tale
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Catherine Deneuve Review: Holiday films in the hands of Hollywood make me puke. Mom is usually expiring from something terminal while the family dresses the Christmas tree with brave smiles. This French knockout, tough-minded and all the more affecting for it, turned my head around. It hits hard — even the laughs are killers. I should say that Mom (Catherine Deneuve, still an actress and beauty to die for) is slipping away from liver cancer. So what makes this one magic? Start with director Arnaud Desplechin, who co-wrote the deft script with Emmanuel Bourdieu. Desplechin (Kings and Queen, How I Got Into an Argument) is a world-class filmmaker, not some studio hack. He can maintain a light touch even in the face of tragedy. He can layer a film so that it’s always springing surprises. He can reference… Rating: 3 Stars |
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A Christmas Tale
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Catherine Deneuve Review: Holiday films in the hands of Hollywood make me puke. Mom is usually expiring from something terminal while the family dresses the Christmas tree with brave smiles. This French knockout, tough-minded and all the more affecting for it, turned my head around. It hits hard — even the laughs are killers. I should say that Mom (Catherine Deneuve, still an actress and beauty to die for) is slipping away from liver cancer. So what makes this one magic? Start with director Arnaud Desplechin, who co-wrote the deft script with Emmanuel Bourdieu. Desplechin (Kings and Queen, How I Got Into an Argument) is a world-class filmmaker, not some studio hack. He can maintain a light touch even in the face of tragedy. He can layer a film so that it’s always springing surprises. He can reference… Rating: 3 Stars |
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Quantum of Solace
November 11th, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Daniel Craig Review: So shoot me. I left the action rush of this follow-up to the terrific 2006 Casino Royale feeling bummed out by James Bond. Well, not by the Bond of Daniel Craig — he’s still one nasty-ass dude, with the kind of rough-edged style that the 007 franchise hasn’t seen since the glory days of Sean Connery. But the character fun seems to have gone out the window in Quantum of Solace, a fancy-shmancy title (the only thing borrowed from Ian Fleming’s short story) for a movie that pours crude oil all over the subtle pleasures and sexy beats that came before. The new movie picks up a few minutes after the last one. Big car chase (all together now: eww!) as Bond, barely recovered from the death of his lady love Vesper Lynd (Eva Green), burns rubber all over Italy with the wiggling body of… Rating: 2 Stars |
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Soul Men
October 31st, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes Review: There’s a shining moment in this uneven spin on Grumpy Old Men when Bernie Mac and Samuel L. Jackson, playing feuding backup singers on an R&B comeback tour, stop in the desert to change a flat tire. Instead, they break into an impromptu version of the soul classic “I’m Your Puppet,” riffing off each other with waves of affection that flow right off the screen. Mac died shortly after wrapping the movie, as did Isaac Hayes, who does a cameo as himself. Soul Men is a chance to salute these masters of mirth and music. Take it. Rating: 2 Stars |
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Role Models
October 31st, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Paul Rudd, Seann William Scott, Elizabeth Banks Review: Sometimes a shamelessly stoopid, proudly profane R-rated comedy is all you want out of life. Role Models more than fills the bill. It’s killer funny. Cheers to Paul Rudd — he should be a star by now — who takes just the right wry comic tone as Danny, an L.A. misanthrope flushing his life down the shitter. Danny and his sex-crazed partner, Wheeler (Seann William Scott, the immortal Stifler), earn cash by selling Minotaur energy drinks. Wheeler wears the hairy costume. Danny drives the monster truck, until self-loathing prods him to use the vehicle as a WMD. The result is a jail sentence that Danny’s lawyer love (the underused Elizabeth Banks) gets reduced to 150 hours of community service, but not before dumping him. And so sit meets com, as our boys are enlisted by Sturdy… Rating: 3 Stars |
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
October 31st, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Asa Butterfield Review: You may not buy into actors playing Nazis with high-toned Brit accents, but the power of this Holocaust tale sneaks up and floors you. Writer-director Mark Herman has adapted John Boyne’s novel with admirable restraint. Eight-year-old Bruno (Asa Butterfield) isn’t pleased when he and older sister Gretel (Amber Beattie) are forced to leave their friends in Berlin and settle in a remote area where Bruno’s commandant father (David Thewlis) has been stationed. The kids and their mother (Vera Farmiga) believe the fence they see outside their window encloses a farm, not a concentration camp. Bruno even ventures out of bounds and meets Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), the boy in striped pajamas behind the fence. They develop a dangerous, covert friendship with devastating results. Delicate… Rating: 3 Stars |
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Repo! The Genetic Opera
October 31st, 2008 · No Comments
| Starring: Paris Hilton Review: The idea of the director of Saw II, III and IV going at Paris Hilton seems like just revenge for her punishable assaults on acting. In this atonal, faux-arty rock opera about a futuristic bull market in internal organs, Hilton is suitably clueless as Amber Sweet, the daughter of an aria-singing mob boss (Paul Sorvino). Amber trades in her organs like fashion accessories. But a new pancreas costs money. Don’t pay, and the Repo Man will tear out your guts. It gets worse, much worse. Talented actors are involved, and I will spare them by not citing their names. “Happiness is a warm scalpel,” sings Hilton. Misery is enduring this Rocky Horror Paris Show. Rating: 0 Stars |
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Zack and Miri Make a Porno
October 30th, 2008 · No Comments
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Starring: Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes Review: If there is such a thing as a stroke flick for your funnybone, then Zack and Miri is it. Writer-director Kevin Smith is back on comedy terra firma, after Jersey Girl drowned in goo and Clerks II defined backsliding. For those who wonder what happened to the Smith of the first Clerks and Chasing Amy, here’s your answer. Seth Rogen, on loan from the Judd Apatow hit factory, is Zack, the scruffy chubmeister slacking his life away as a barista at Bean-N-Gone in a corner of Pittsburgh. Zack shares a funky dump of an apartment with his best friend, Miri (Elizabeth Banks trying futilely not to look like a blond goddess). These platonic BFFs don’t have sex, except for money. Let me explain: Zack and Miri can’t pay the rent. At their high school reunion, Miri runs into her football-hero crush,… Rating: 3 Stars |
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