I have always loved this musical onstage, but was never so miserable as when I sat through all 157 minutes onscreen. LES MISERABLES--despite some exceptional musical performances--dies a torturous death by close-up at the hands of tone-deaf director Tom Hooper. "LES MIS" as we familiarly call it, is the theatrical extravaganza put to music by [...]
We saw. We met. We voted. The BOSTON SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS (BSFC) has just announced its awards for the best films, performances, and technical achievements in 15 major categories for 2012! Topping the list with three awards is director Kathryn Bigelow's ZERO DARK THIRTY about the ten-year hunt for Osama bin Laden which won BEST [...]
If you're in touch with your inner adolescent girl--and I am-- you'll love THE TWILIGHT SAGA:BREAKING DAWN- PART 2. I know it's been savaged in The Globe by Wesley Morris-- and many other critics. But honestly, having Wes review this film is like sending Andre the Giant to a pajama party--it's just not his milieu. [...]
The opening sequence of SKYFALL is a mind-boggling, ass-kicking, death-defying Rube Goldberg variation involving a speeding car, chasing a speeding train, carrying a giant front loader, with 007 and his nemesis-of-the-moment locked in combat and dangling by their fingertips, heading for an overpass, with a sniper looking to take one of them out! I nearly [...]
The silly season is over. Now it’s time for some serious fun—and that means FALL MOVIES with Oscar in mind. Here's what I can't wait to see! (Check out the link to my article on Page 68 of EXHALE Magazine!) ARGO is directed by and stars Boston's own Ben Affleck! (I recently chatted [...]
If you missed Matthew McConaughey in MAGIC MIKE one of the best films this summer, look for him at Oscar time. Now, a few words about a few flicks still out there as the season slips away: THE BOURNE LEGACY-- Jeremy Renner is no Matt Damon, and can only go through the motions --which are [...]
Though I saw TOTAL RECALL a mere 48 hours ago, my recollection of it is less than total. I do remember Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel walloping the daylights out of each other. And, as is usually the case in these sorts of action thrillers, neither of them so much as dislodges her lip gloss-- [...]
It's the movie we've been waiting for all summer: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES is the stunning culmination of writer/director Christopher Nolan's BATMAN trilogy. Once again, Christian Bale is perfect as the magnetic and mysterious Bruce Wayne, millionaire orphan hero who finds his identity behind a mask, avenging the random torments humanity is heir to. His [...]
I sat down to write my review of the most anticipated movie of the summer, when news of people gunned down at a midnight screening of THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in Aurora, Colorado --15 miles from Columbine-- hit me like a shot. My daughter was at just such a screening last night, and the thought [...]
Within the first minute of director Oliver Stone's SAVAGES, we hear Blake Lively's character say in voice over about the man we see sexually grinding her to a pulp, that she has "orgasms," but "he has war-gasms." And we know we're off on a testosterone-fueled rampage where men are at war and women-- even when [...]
