I remember sitting in a movie theater at the tender age of 14, watching a little film called D.A.R.Y.L., about a boy with a computer brain trying to cope with modern society and questions of emotion and identity. D.A.R.Y.L. was not some overblown, 2 1/2-hour ordeal. It was 99 breezy minutes of fun fun fun! […]
Moviegoers who fondly remember Agnieszka Holland’s lovingly crafted 1993 version of the classic children’s story The Secret Garden will be disappointed to learn that Back to the Secret Garden is not the sequel. Rather, it’s the sequel to a 1987 version of the same story, only this one was produced as a “Hallmark Hall of
The best text for a film to toy with the “emotional heartstrings” of an audience is undoubtedly the romantic comedy. Broad in its appeal, the filmmaker doesn’t have to worry about turning away certain audiences with horror, overblown special effects, or too much action. Romantic comedies are so successful because they parody our fascination with
Rodio (who wrote and directed) has built a Big Chill-style ensemble melodrama about a number of Philadelphia twentysomethings whose lives are pretty much all in the toilet. One couple is getting married soon, but each is having his or her doubts and temptations. One friend is cheating incessantly on his wife and even her announcement
No parents appear in Justin Lin’s penetrating debut Better Luck Tomorrow, presumably because their Asian-American kids seemingly responsible and perfectionist students at the top of their class have earned the right to nearly limitless freedom. Their absence, however, is persistently felt, as the very freedom these privileged and gifted kids enjoy is also a detrimental
Betty… Betty’s got issues. Loads of them. So many issues that they made a movie about her that runs over three hours long. As Betty, Béatrice Dalle makes her screen debut, taking on the role of a young and brazen twentysomething that’s clearly painfully stricken with some mental illness and probably more than one. As
Boy, looking back at Berverly Hills Cop, almost 20 years after its original release, it’s easy to see why people fell in love with the movie, earning a then unheard-of of $316 million worldwide (the highest grossing R-rated movie ever) and propelling Eddie Murphy from a funny ensemble player in films like Trading Places and
My friends and I get together once a year to watch cheesy movies and eat cheesy food on a holiday we’ve predictably dubbed “Cheese Day.” Over the course of ten years we’ve ingested some of the tackiest cinema Hollywood has to offer (the inaugural film was SpaceCamp). None of that even remotely prepared me for
Robin Williams wants and needs nothing more than to have his own The Truman Show a Hail Mary to ward off permanent stereotyping. Typecast as a goofy loudmouth in throwaway films ranging from Mrs. Doubtfire to Fathers’ Day to Flubber, you have to look back all the way to The Fisher King in 1991 for
Near the end of The Big Bounce, Owen Wilson’s character tells the woman who has just conned him, “I have to be sober to tell this story.” In my opinion, only a drunk would be able explain (or BS) his way through this mess of a movie, a remake of an equally bad film of
