Poor Marmaduke. The (beloved?) comic strip has been a fixture in newspapers for almost 56 years, and now it has come to this, a live action movie targeted to an age demographic that ironically has never heard of him before. Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson) finds out along with the rest of his family...
Read more »
In 2008, Russell Brand appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as his alter ego Aldous Snow, a cocky, obnoxious rock star who nabs hottie Kristen Bell from her long time boyfriend. Brand nearly stole the movie out from a cast of gifted comedy heavy-weights. Brand reprises that role in Get Him to the Greek, a...
Read more »
Given the current spate of advances in genetic engineering, Splice seems eerily prescient. After all, we have already seen the rapid evolution of cloning. Supermarkets now carry cloned produce, and mammals are routinely and successfully cloned as well. Is it really unreasonable to assume we will see a human-animal hybrid in our lifetime? Who’s...
Read more »
In Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Prince Dastan, a former orphan who caught the eye of the king with a heroic deed, and was adopted into the royal family. Alongside his adoptive brothers he learns to fight like a warrior, but he is a bit scrappier than the...
Read more »
It is said that art is eternal, but street art is by nature ephemeral, effaced immediately or soon thereafter by law enforcement, building managers, rival taggers and forces of nature. What longevity it is able to attain comes mostly via documentation by photographers and videographers. And that is where Thierry Guetta—a portly, middle-aged Frenchman...
Read more »
The Secret in Their Eyes has all the elements of the art house critical darling it is—high production values, exotic locations, political unrest and oppression, a lurid but elegantly handled storyline, and a dignified, yearning love story between two attractive principals featuring a shamelessly romantic train station parting—complete with hands matching up through glass...
Read more »
(Intro to be read in Carrie Bradshaw’s voice-over) There I was, on my way to meet one of my gal pals for a early screening of Sex in the City 2. I’d pulled out my best pair of shoes from Target and paired it with my favorite perfectly worn blue jeans and a top...
Read more »
A schoolgirl is killed, her body flung over a rooftop parapet for the world to see. Do-Joon, the town simpleton, physically beautiful but not right in the head and incapable—as his mother says—of hurting as much as a water bug, is arrested and forced to confess by the incompetent, bullying detectives, and it is...
Read more »
At this point, what can I really tell you that you don’t know about Shrek? Unless you have been living under a tree stump in a swamp, chances are you are very familiar with the franchise about a lovable green ogre and a colorful cast of characters pulled from popular children’s fairy tales. In...
Read more »
On paper, Robin Hood appears to have it all: an amazing cast, beautiful costumes, spectacular set pieces, meticulously choreographed fight scenes, and a beloved protagonist. Yet somehow, I found the movie stultifying. It’s dull, complicated, and waaaaay too long. Essentially, this serves as an origin story for Robin Hood. Russell Crowe stars as Robin...
Read more »