THE MASTER

2/13/2013

 
Awful, long. Unless you're obsessed with Joaquin Phoenix, and/or Philip Seymour Hoffman: skip it.

LINCOLN

2/1/2013

 
Daniel Day Lewis is great as Lincoln; and Janusz Kaminski's cinematography is the best thing that ever happened to Steven Spielberg. 250 minutes...

LA PROMESSE (1996)

1/17/2013

 
What a way to debut! The Dardenne brothers direct and Jérémie Renier stars. Violent family tale of petty criminals and illegal immigrants in Antwerp; gritty, awesome.

PITCH PERFECT

1/16/2013

 
20 minutes too long, and not enough Adam DeVine. Good for a few laughs: perfect for Glee fans.

ARGO

1/4/2013

 
Ben Affleck was in danger of being eclipsed by cohort Matt Damon, but Argo helps even out their career trajectories. Mr. Affleck has taken a page out of Robert Mitchem's book and does very little acting, and it really works for him! Love the suspense; the era was beautifully reproduced, my favorite film of 2012, so far...

HYDE PARK ON HUDSON

12/29/2012

 
If you'd told me, years ago, that Bill Murray would one day portray F.D.R. I'd have hit you with my Dr. Scholls sandal, and yes, he's awesome! Laura Linney is so watchable, you're gonna love it.
http://focusfeatures.com/hyde_park_on_hudson

ANNA KARENINA

12/26/2012

 
British Wunderkind and lover of long tracking shots, Joe Wright (Atonement) adapts Tolstoy's novel with a theatrical flair. The cast is fantastic, kudos all around for art, costume, photography, music: loved it!
http://focusfeatures.com/anna_karenina/
 
The explosions and demolitions are great, but this bleak film is unforgivably long, bloated, and boring. The fight scenes are weak and the ADR omnipresent. 160 minutes: the nerve! Could somebody please reign in this excess? 

PROMETHEUS

11/9/2012

 
Michael Fassbender is fabulous, and it looks great: that's enough for me. If you want to see a really good Ridley Scott movie, watch his first film, THE DUELISTS (1977.)http://www.prometheus-movie.com/

CHIMPANZEE

10/27/2012

 
Short, sweet, beautifully filmed Disney documentary narrated by Tim Allen about a family of chimps living in the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. 
http://disney.go.com/disneynature/chimpanzee/