***WARNING:Trailer is VERY disturbing!*** OK. I said I wanted to see it. It was the best picture winner at Screamfest 2009. It promised a "one of a kind experience...guaranteed to shock and divide" audiences, a "twisted biological horror film" by Dutch filmmaker Tom Six, involving a gruesome operation--and it is called THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE after [...]
It's a trashy page turner that lingers too long on the sexual torture of women, a Miss Marple-like list of suspects, and an ending that's on the visible horizon from page one. I was among the few who disliked the late Stieg Larsson's international bestselling thriller. Then I saw the movie. In Swedish. The film [...]
He won't win the OSCAR, but he must be seen: Colin Firth in A SINGLE MAN. Great flick starring the chicly buttoned up English actor as gay lit professor George Falconer; with his Yeatsian last name he stands on the brink of a cultural riptide, L.A. circa 1962. The film is adapted from the Christopher [...]
It opens tomorrow, but we saw it tonight: SHUTTER ISLAND will make you shudder. And think. And keep you guessing. And maybe bore you a little bit too--somewhere 2/3rd of the way through I found my attention going slack, but mostly it's pretty engaging, and this was agreed upon by me, Marji, my daughter and [...]
The late night wars are getting bloodier--and Letterman (thrilled not to be in the middle of it for once) has jumped into the act just as Conan has threatened to jump ship. I'd like to see NBC go down in flames. HOW could they promise Conan five years ago that he could take over the [...]
After seeing the trailer, I thought the latest take on SHERLOCK HOLMES looked like a blown up bunch of baloney, and after seeing it, I know it's a blown up bunch up baloney, but this is how I like my baloney; bursting at the seams and busting its case-ing wide open! Guy Ritchie (Madonna's ex) [...]
I've been hearing that folks don't like NINE, and that they are pulling it from theatres because of tepid reviews, and weak box office. I am probably among the few who actually liked this film despite its flaws. The cast is an extraordinary one, and has been used in ways that appeal to me. Who [...]
Am having a movie orgy on vacation and just saw one that blows AVATAR out of the water-- CORALINE. If CORALINE was only half as brilliant as it is, it would still be 100 times more brilliant than AVATAR. I saw AVATAR a few weeks ago at a critics screening, and while I was initially [...]
Just a word about THE HURT LOCKER. The film is picking up momentum across the country as the film of the year. It was a rather strange year for films, almost a flatline of routine studio fare, with few exceptions. But this film is gently emerging as something of a phenomenon, despite being released earlier [...]
The OSCAR race is heating up, or rather the various critics groups around the country are heating up as they name their picks, and try to influence the final horse race in the Spring. The Boston Society of Film Critics votes its year-end awards this Sunday. We're talking a room full of critics (me among [...]
