WATCH NOW In a darkened room an elderly man sits at a piano. He’s barely outlined by light from a window, his face obscured in shadow. Then, a light fades up, spotlighting him, followed by light everywhere. Thus starts De-Lovely and its style of self-aware artificiality. It purports to be the life of composer Cole […]
WATCH NOW EXECUTIVE DECISION Your stereotypical Arab terrorists take over a 747 with 400 passengers and defy even their own cooler, wiser leaders to try a nerve-gas bombing on Washington, D.C. A team of high-tech commandos, accompanied by tuxedoed C.I.A. guy Kurt Russell (fresh from a cocktail party), drop on board in midair, and try
WATCH NOW THE EXORCIST William Friedkin’s 1973 film of the William Peter Blatty best-seller may not be the best demon movie ever made, but it’s the one everybody remembers. It defined the satanic in movies and spawned decades of klutzy imitations. No surprise that it should be re-released (with 11 original minutes restored, plus remixed
WATCH NOW Steve Martin’s homage to the 1940s and 50s is a one joke movie that wears thin after 45 minutes (in which Martin inserts himself into classic film noirs, often in drag, where he turns the melodrama into comedy). Fortunately, the laughs are plentiful enough throughout to make Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid worthwhile
Here’s the tagline for the first installment of Miike’s highly regarded (and deeply disturbing) Dead or Alive trilogy: “WARNING: This motion picture contains explicit portrayals of violence; sex; violent sex; sexual violence; clowns and violent scenes of violent excess, which are definitely not suitable for all audiences.” Never mind the clowns. This warning doesn’t even
WATCH NOW THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA “You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choos,” says Emily (Emily Blunt) to Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), the newest assistant to Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep), an icy magazine editor. In order to obtain a good referral at the end of
Katy McLaughlin is a dreamer in the classroom. She fails history in the exclusive Wyoming academy she attends. After two hours of exam time she hasn’t put a word down on paper, although, she tells her father, “I wrote it in my head.” What she’s dreaming about are horses their strength and power, their ability
WATCH NOW FLY AWAY HOME FLY AWAY HOME (A-2, PG): This is director Carroll Ballard’s girl-and-her-geese film, to form a superb triptych with his boy-and-his-horse epic The Black Stallion and man-bonds-with-wolf adventure Never Cry Wolf. Sheer beauty makes up for any lack of credibility. After her mother is killed in a car crash, 13-year-old Amy
EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, it was immediately controversial because it challenged the then-accepted explanations for the origin of life. Today, according to this compelling documentary, co-written and narrated by former presidential speechwriter, TV host and actor Ben Stein (Win
WATCH NOW EXTREME MEASURES is a cut above the average thriller. Its “mad scientist” plot a reputable researcher (Gene Hackman) collects homeless derelicts in Manhattan for spinal cord experiments is only a cover for exploring very relevant issues in medical ethics. Hugh Grant plays the idealistic E.R. doc who stumbles onto the conspiracy and pursues
