Hotels provide the perfect backdrop for filmmaking: they're anonymous and decorative at the same time, providing plenty of opportunities for characters to try out new ambitions and luxuriate in temporary poshness. Infidel couples can indulge themselves in their queen-sized sandbox, writers can have a moment's peace to grope around for a resolution of their memoir' passionless third act, and ... more >
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VIDEO MASHUP: Watching movies in hotels
Vid says it all, hotels are fun
Arte is France's indie cinema channel
Includes "King of New York" and "The Shining"
Stand Up Guys
Not a winner. But a few small pleasures to be had
Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin
Directed by Fisher Stevens
You never want the word “cute” to be associated with Al Pacino or Christopher Walken to begin with, let alone an action-comedy starring both of them. You certainly don’t want the term “sappy” to apply. Unfortunately, Fisher Stevens’s "Stand Up Guys" is just that: cute and sappy, with too few smart-alecky laughs to spice up its bland soul. Pacino is a faded hitman just sprung from a twenty ... more >
Seven Psychopaths
Wacky and wonderful criminal world
Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell
Directed by Martin McDonagh
For his follow-up to “In Bruges” director Martin McDonagh has assembled a cast touched upon by the eccentric-comedy gods. Everything about “Seven Psychopaths” defies convention and logic, an asset that adds to the outright lunacy on display. I loved how over-the-top it is, both in its bloody violence (people set afire, heads sawed off, a sequence so dementedly funny I wouldn’t want to ruin it) and ... more >