HollywoodandFine.com In “Lockout,” we have a prison-escape film that features an actor in search of literal escape – from this film. As fun and wisecracky as Guy Pearce gets, as a former CIA agent named Snow, his eyes betray a “get me out of this POS” franticness that’s impossible to …
HollywoodandFine.com If you think you’ve seen “The Cabin in the Woods” before, well, you’re half-right. You’ve definitely seen movies along the same lines. But I’d also wager that you’ve never seen anything like it. Directed by Drew Goddard from a script by Goddard and Joss Whedon, “The Cabin in the …
HollywoodandFine.com A film with both documentary urgency and an overwrought sense of melodrama, “The Assault” is a dramatization of a real-life airline hijacking from 1994. The actual events occurred in Algiers, when hijackers, demanding the release of Algerian prisoners in France, grabbed an airplane in Algiers and demanded that it …
HollywoodandFine.com “American Reunion” is like a movie that’s become a zombie: a franchise that has risen from the grave of straight-to-video sequels to bring back the no-longer-youthful original cast for one more (hopefully lucrative) go-round. The stench of desperation permeates this film, a sequel to the 1999 gross-out hit and …
HollywoodandFine.com Thoughtful but funny in a low-key way, Nanni Moretti’s “We Have a Pope” examines the idea of papal succession through a fictional story that reminds us just how daunting the job itself must be. After the death of the old pope in this story, when the College of Cardinals …
HollywoodandFine.com I am on the record – aggressively so – as being opposed to the mentality that has turned Comic-Con, the annual San Diego geek festival, into the force that seems to guide Hollywood. So I walked into Morgan Spurlock’s “Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope” (in limited release 4/6/12) …
HollywoodandFine.com As I watched the final few minutes of “Wrath of the Titans,” I thought, “What I wouldn’t give to be a 10-year-old boy right now.” That’s absolutely the audience that will enjoy this silly, overblown special-effects extravaganza. At 10, you can still buy into the reality of wild fantasy; …
HollywoodandFine.com The less said about “Intruders,” the better. Despite a cast led by Clive Owen (who seems in serious need of career direction), this is a horror movie without a ghost of a chance – or an authentically scary moment. Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, “Intruders” operates on two tracks …
HollywoodandFine.com Recent events in the Maldives Islands – specifically, a coup that toppled democratically elected president Mohamed Nasheed by military loyal to his tyrannical predecessor, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom – give the documentary “The Island President” both an urgency and a poignancy. The film by Jon Shenk chronicles Nasheed’s attempts at …
HollywoodandFine.com Lee Hirsch’s “Bully” can’t help but move you. It’s an important and powerful film, one that should be required viewing for kids of any age – and their parents. With luck, The Weinstein Company will prevail in its battle against the R-rating conferred upon the film by the myopic …