It takes 45 wobbly minutes for director Peyton Reed’s film to find its rhythm, but it closes with some ingenious action set pieces that leave you feeling satisfied. ‘Ant-Man’ is a quirky little orphan that will probably need some time and distance from its cinematic brethren to be fully appreciated.
This Is Where I Leave You Written by Jonathan Tropper Directed by Shawn Levy USA, 2014 This Is Where I Leave You is an odd duck. Its haphazard combination of broad sit-com humor and quirky indie earnestness leaves you feeling a bit punch-drunk. On the other hand, a superb ensemble cast wrings just enough …
Last week, I said that The Strain would live or die based on how it balances the silliness with the seriousness. This week, it gave us no indication which direction it will be going in, instead giving us an incredibly boring episode of clichés, which is very disappointing.
We live in a burgeoning era of horror television. American Horror Story will begin its fourth season in the fall, and The Walking Dead will start its fifth. Penny Dreadful just finished an excellent debut season, and Netflix’s Hemlock Grove just put up its second season. True Blood, Supernatural, Bates Motel, Sleepy Hollow, Grimm. And of course, the most horrifying show currently on television, Hannibal. Horror is all over our TV screens, but if there’s one person who deserves their shot at it (presuming David Lynch isn’t interested), it’s Guillermo del Toro.
Decoding Annie Parker Written by Adam Bernstein, Steven Bernstein, and Michael Moss Directed by Steven Bernstein USA, 2013 The new film Decoding Annie Parker was made with the most honorable intentions, and unfortunately, very little else. In many respects, the story could just as well have been a movie-of-the-week from the early 1990s on either one …
Non-Stop Written by John W. Richardson, Chris Roach, and Ryan Engle Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra USA, 2014 Liam Neeson’s face has become a world-weary, pock-marked road map over the years, detailing a wholesome leading man’s travails into cinematic battle. In the last 6 years, he’s revitalized himself as a no-nonsense action hero, an unstoppably tough …
A passionate starving artist is at the center of The Time Being, an overly portentous new drama that doesn’t see such a central figure as being too stereotypical. No, this is a movie about how Art is Serious, so serious, in fact, that focusing entirely on one’s work trumps trivial matters like work, family, friends, and more. Though the movie is packed with pretty images, thanks entirely to the skill and craft of its fairly overqualified cinematographer, The Time Being is a mostly limp portrait of the artist as inwardly selfish and ambitious.
House of Cards, Season 1 Premiered Friday, Feb. 1st on Netflix Only a few years removed from an acclaimed collaboration with Aaron Sorkin on The Social Network, David Fincher has dipped his toe into the realm of serial storytelling with the first Netflix original series, House of Cards. A cynic’s alternative to Sorkin’s monumental series The …
House of Cards, Season 1, Episodes 7-8: “Chapter 7”, “Chapter 8” Written by Kate Barnow (1.07) and Beau Willimon (1.07, 1.08) Directed by Charles McDougall Season 1, Episode 9: “Chapter 9” Written by Beau Willimon and Rick Cleveland Directed by James Foley Season 1, Episodes 10-11: “Chapter 10”, “Chapter 11” Written by Sarah Treem (1.10) …
House of Cards, Season 1, Episodes 1-2: “Chapter 1”, “Chapter 2” Written by Beau Willimon Directed by David Fincher Season 1, Episodes 3-4: “Chapter 3”, “Chapter 4” Written by Keith Huff (“Chapter 3”), Rick Cleveland (“Chapter 4”), and Beau Willimon (both) Directed by James Foley Season 1, Episode 5: “Chapter 5”, “Chapter 6” Written by …