Another in the long line of increasingly substandard ‘twist’ thrillers designed solely for that one moment of ‘a-ha!’ at the 11th hour. Like most others, this one doesn’t have much else going for it, except a rock solid performance by John Cusack.
Seems like cold times as 20th Century Fox goes for a piece of the animation pie currently being eaten by Pixar and Dreamworks. While this oddball-herd-returns-a-human-child story reeks of “Shrek” and “Monsters Inc.”, it still provides a few good-natured laughs thanks to the voices of Ray Romano and John Leguizamo, and the requisite agile animation.
One-sided but decidedly detailed indictment of what was apparently a McCarthy-esque conspiracy to undermine the Clinton presidency moves fast enough to avoid any pesky journalistic plot holes.
Ang Lee’s stunning direction nearly overcomes the bloated and ill-paced script which makes this latest Marvel adaptation as bulky as its chartreuse hero. Visually, however, there are moments of pure comic book nirvana.
Staggeringly beautiful action scenes are undermined by a melodramatic love triangle between three warriors with twisting loyalties. See director Yimou Zhang’s “Hero” instead.
Stunning performances by Streep, Kidman and Moore are enough to make this gutwrenching story of three women linked by Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ through a century of time one of the best films of the year. Outstanding writing and direction just seal the deal.
The power in this true story of one hotel manager’s attempt to shelter targets of the 1994 Rwandan genocide comes more from its topic and the performance of Don Cheadle than from Terry George’s staid direction.
Co-writer/director Ron Shelton has replaced character with quirks and humor with skits in this sitcom-level pairing of a goofy Harrison Ford and a stilted Josh Hartnett which has promise until it finally unravels in its last half-hour.
John Cusack teams up again with Director Stephen Frears in the story of a record store owner and his relationship troubles which hits the nail on the head more often than not.
It turns out “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” minus the emotion, multiplied by “Rashomon” adds up to a visually stunning martial arts epic in the wuxia tradition. Of course, caring about the characters would be nice and Jet Li still can’t act, but the eye candy is undeniable.
