Author: Norm Schrager
Two Lovers
Joaquin Phoenix has a reputation for diving heartily into roles, and his starring turn in James Gray's Two Lovers is no exception. In the film's first scene, Phoenix's dive is literal: A Brooklyn kid plunging...
Movie Review posted on 13th February 2009
Grindhouse
Longtime buddies Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez have worked together before (Four Rooms, Sin City), but this takes it to the next level. Grindhouse is their shared B-movie fantasy: a three-hour, bare-knuckled double feature epic,...
Movie Review posted on 6th April 2007
Freedom Writers
It's always satisfying when a movie defies an obvious formula and delivers something better. Freedom Writers is the first such surprise of 2007, a genuinely touching entry in a genre that often wallows in cliché:...
Movie Review posted on 12th January 2007
Chalk
It's often considered the most underappreciated of all professional endeavors: teaching. Long hours, ambivalent students, lunatic teachers... it's all part of the job in writer/director Mike Akel's surprisingly solid debut comedy about public school pitfalls...
Movie Review posted on 18th May 2006
Finding Home
Ridiculously awkward direction and poor pacing are only two of the black marks on Finding Home, an overdone family drama that plays like a Hallmark special -- circa 1970s. Directed and co-written by Lawrence D....
Movie Review posted on 26th February 2006
Cheaper By The Dozen 2
You've seen this before. Steve Martin as the nervous parent awaiting a baby delivery. Steve Martin reluctantly acknowledging his daughter's independence. Steve Martin falling victim to kids' pranks. From Parenthood to the Father of the...
Movie Review posted on 25th December 2005
Scary Movie 3
There are lots of ways to churn out sequels, particularly comedies. You can speed along like a runaway train to capitalize on a surprise hit -- Miramax rushed Scary Movie 2 into theaters one year...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Rock Star
In his short career, Mark Wahlberg has been most effective when playing characters full of naïve sincerity. In Boogie Nights, The Yards, and even Three Kings, his talent is in making the audience believe...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
The Emperor's Club
There's an old cheap saying that goes "those who can, do; those who can't, teach". Professor William Hundert (Kevin Kline) would disagree. A true scholar of the Classics, this intellectual believes that there is...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Osmosis Jones
Have you ever wondered what goes on in the back of your nose when you sneeze? The Farrelly Brothers have. And in their traditional gross-out fashion, they'd like to show you.There you have...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Mile Zero
In the mournful independent drama Mile Zero, Allison (Sabrina Grdevich) explains to her estranged husband Derek that he expresses love so deeply -- but always takes it too far. That's the crux of this fragile...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Paycheck
Sci-fi fans will see clear similarities between John Woo's action/thriller Paycheck and Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1991). Both deal with memory and identity, as adapted from stories by author Philip K. Dick. Both star thousand-watt...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Storytelling
Writer-director Todd Solondz has a knack for making us feel downright uncomfortable. He did it in his twisted debut, Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), with a young Brendan Sexton III announcing his intentions to...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
A Walk To Remember
A Walk to Remember can and will be known best as "The Mandy Moore Project," the first feature where the popular teen singer stars on the big screen. She is the focal point of...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
White Oleander
White Oleander is one girl's dramatic coming-of-age story -- emphasis on the word "dramatic." A bright teen bounces around some dreadful foster homes, gets street-tough while in a facility for abandoned kids, and witnesses more...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Swept Away (2002)
After beginning his career with two frenetic crime films (Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels; Snatch), filmmaker Guy Ritchie has changed his tone in order to make a vanity project. But it's not his...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Slackers
While Orange County's tale of college woe is delivering a fine time to comedy audiences, its bland, unfunny, useless stepbrother is unspooling right down the hall in the multiplex. Slackers, by first-time director and...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
The Powerpuff Girls Movie
The Motion Picture Association of America, in their policy to specify why a movie receives its rating, gave a PG to the animated feature The Powerpuff Girls Movie for this reason: "non-stop frenetic animated action."...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Kate & Leopold
At first glance, Kate & Leopold appears to be a fairly run-of-the-mill romantic fantasy. A successful, 21st century woman meets the Duke of Albany circa 1876, via a hiccup in the time-space continuum....
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Life as a House
The good news for George, a middle-aged, washed up architect, is that an enormous life change has motivated him to connect with his horrible teenage son and build a house by the ocean. The...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Cinderella
She talks to birds, lives in a secluded room, and makes little outfits for mice. What a wacko.Nah, just kidding. We're talking about Cinderella, one of history's most beloved fairy tale characters, and an early...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Just Visiting
In 1993, director Jean-Marie Poiré created a small comedy sensation about two 12th century Frenchmen (played by Jean Reno and popular French comic actor Christian Clavier) who are mistakenly transported to the modern world....
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Domestic Disturbance
You would think it'd be a sure bet that a drama with the title Domestic Disturbance would at least be better than its laughable name. But frankly, Domestic Disturbance may as well be called...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
The New Guy (2002)
When the screenwriter responsible for one of the worst movies of one year directs an equally miserable film the following year, you'd have a hard time believing it was just coincidence. But Ed Decter,...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Beijing Bicycle
In 1948, director Vittorio De Sica made The Bicycle Thief, the quintessential blueprint of neorealism, a drama widely considered one of the greatest films ever produced. It was shot in the streets of Italy...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Cabin Fever
There once was a time in movie history when party-hardy kids would head into the woods and get their heads bashed in by some masked psycho. Ah, the good old days. Writer/director Eli Roth remembers...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Masked & Anonymous
Masked & Anonymous, as a title, comes across as a vague, artsy moniker as inaccessible as the film it represents. But look closer at the name of this movie about revolution and despair, and you'll...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Simone
It might sound contrived to say that a film about a computer-generated movie star is a little flat but... well, there it is. It's the unfortunate truth about writer/director Andrew Niccol's Simone, an Al...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Wall Street
Since the initial release of Wall Street, Oliver Stone's giant-sized 1987 fable, it's been said a million times: Greed Is Good. With those three words, Michael Douglas, as uber-corporate raider Gordon Gekko, defined the tone...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
Boys And Girls
Boys and Girls plays like a college version of When Harry Met Sally..., with just as much fun and fewer contrivances. Here, the key couple is Ryan and Jennifer, who meet by chance on...
Movie Review posted on 1st November 2005
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