Published May 13, 2008
My one man quest to rid the world of all this Sex And The City madness continues. (’In’ the city? ‘And’ the city? Who knows. I can’t be arsed to look it up.) This from the first review of the new movie which debuted in London, puzzlingly:
There may be a problem with a film when a narrator constantly tells you the meaning of what you have just seen, gift-wrapping each scene with a moral. There may be a problem with characters who shop with such conviction while the audience looks up from the trough of a credit crunch. There may be a problem with stretching Sex and the City into a two hour and twenty minute film - it can feel like a never ending dinner party: however pleasant the courses, after a while you can hardly eat another one. None of these problems seemed apparent to the women who sat around me in the cinema in Leicester Square, laughing and weeping in quick succession. After a while I began to reason like one of the characters: maybe the problem was me.
To seeing a movie that gets reviewed like that, I’d say no. Honestly, I’m just happy to read a review of any movie that isn’t just a padded-out press release. We don’t really seem able to say anything nuanced about film in the U.S. anymore; it’s either “best movie evar!!!1″ or “sucked!”. There’s no in-between.
But this pile of dick jokes wrapped in a thin veil of sisterhood deserves whatever horrors befall it.
Published May 8, 2008
Iron Man is owed a much longer review than this, but suffice it to say that it’s easily the best Marvel superhero movie ever made, and high on the list of super hero movies period. The X-Men movies were garbage, and this more than makes up for all of their whininess. Give me this and the ‘89 and ‘05 Batman films and I’m happy.
Tonight as the credits rolled, my wife turned to me and asked two questions: 1) “Have you turned into an eight year old?” and 2) “Does this mean you’ll see Sex In The City with me?”
Published October 31, 2005
When you’re an old man like me Halloween takes on a much different role in your life–especially when it falls on a Monday. So along with the obligatory office party, here are some movies to sit up with tonight.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) - Vincent Price in the title role assures your total satisfaction in this camp classic. Even after the storyline itself leaves you bits and pieces of the production will linger. A bizarre mixture of Aligheri and Hitchcock.
The Exorcist (1973) - I’ll probably never get “old” enough to not be scared by this film.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968) - Zombie films are all the rage right now. George Romero started it all with this black and white classic. I’m always finding something new in this movie. A classic whose straight-forward subject matter can’t hide the political and social struggles lurking underneath, almost scarier than the brain hungry corpses just beyond the porch.
The Shining (1980) - Ignore what most people think is scary about this film, because many of them are missing the point. Yes, overwrought Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is scary; but what always terrified me about this movie was what creeped me out about all of Kubrick’s films and that’s the fact that we only see what he wants us to see. The feeling that something utterly unspeakable is lurking just outside the frame is overwhelming sometimes, almost to the point that it undermines a few scenes. John Alcott’s cinematography–all slow focus pulls and gentle tracking shots–is wonderful. Terrifying stuff.
