Have you ever run into those crazy Internet reviews that talk about that wonderful film experience known as "Porky’s"? How it was the horny teen movie that really had a heart of gold? No? You never read that one? Well, good. I have. I’m still itching from the exposure. That said, I don’t want to seem too enthusiastic about "Fired Up." But I would say it’s not the disaster I expected. The ... more >
Archives for February 2009
ARCHIVES
Fired up
Horndog teen romp gone wild
Nicholas D’Agosto, Eric Christian Olsen and Sarah Roemer
Directed by Will Gluck
THE INTERNATIONAL
Not your garden-variety thriller
Clive Owen and Naomi Watts
Directed by Tom Twyker
(By Ali Naderzad) Tom Twyker's "The International" is a winner of a film, but with a slightly shallow premise. IBBC is the high-profile financial outfit with rather questionable business interests, ie., to supply arms to third-world armed conflicts in order to create, and therefore control, debt. I heard an economist explaining that such a premise does not hold water but who cares, really? The ... more >
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Got a fashion fetish, anyone?
Isla Fisher, Hugh Dancy and Krysten Ritter
Directed by P.J. Hogan
Obsessive fashion flower Rebecca Brownwood makes two quick admissions that let us know "Confessions of a Shopaholic" will be a disaster movie. The first is that she has a fashion fetish. The second is that she’s a journalist. As a longtime journalist, I can safely say these two things are oil and water. Or oil and fire. I’ve known plenty of knockout female reporters. All the better to flirt ... more >
Coraline
When spoiled children become narcissistic
(voice) Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher
Directed by Henry Selick
With an eye to innovation, "Coraline" impressively stitches together the old and the new in a three-dimensional doll house of animation. The film bravely combines modern stereoscopic filming techniques with old -fashioned figurines and stop-gap animation, creating a smooth CG-like veneer. The effect creates dark, brilliant other worlds, and it never once occurs to you that these characters are ... more >