Tyson (3/5)
Tyson is a very conflicted person as one would suspect. His bi-polar nature is impossible to miss--he hates women, himself, boxing, money, and then two moments later he swears he can't live without them. I think I pity him more than anything. This film is 90% interview with the aging boxer, and makes great use of clever editing and camera work to keep it visually interesting. It is refreshing--as I seem to often point out--when a star such as ...
Chaplin (4/5)
It is quite difficult to fairly rate a bio-pic as you must differentiate between the quality of the story-telling and the quality of the historical figure. Chaplin was a womanizer, married often and married young, was neurotically committed to his craft and was tragically haunted by Hoover's FBI to the point of being exiled from the States when he shipped off to holiday in England. Being a great artist is not enough. I often forget this as I ...
Roger & Me (2/5)
This breakthrough documentary by leftist, low-hanging-fruit, charlatan, Michael Moore was simply ridiculous. The narrative arc that drives the film is Moore attempting to get an interview with Roger Smith, CEO of GM, who at the time were laying off a lot of Flintons. Moore schemes his way into the GM corporate office with a film crew, or Roger's elitist, private club, all without any sort of appointment or reasonable communication, and then ...
Die Hard 4: Live Free Or Die Hard (4/5)
Despite having one very sad title, and dipping into the very tarnished Die Hard franchise once again, this film was quick, cocky, and enjoyable to the final scene. I was rather distracted by the Apple commercial guy playing co-lead, and a villain (Timothy Olyphant) who had diminishing returns. Sequel franchising is a tricky business that rarely goes well, actors get desperate, studios make good money dragging things out as long as the brand has ...
Observe And Report (1/5)
A delusional, inept, bi-polar, goober mall cop drinks free coffee, beats up skaters, date-rapes the cosmetic girl, tries out for the police force, and screams "fuck" at every person on screen. If there was supposed to be a subversive, counter-cultural critique, I totally missed it. Don't let anyone tell you this is on par with Taxi Driver, much closer to The Cable Guy meets Waterboy. Seth Rogen is not a fascinating sociopath, just a brutal ass ...
Point Break (3/5)
I wanted to love Katheryn Bigelow's classic camp film from 1991, but the action is very average and romantic subplot is deathly flat. But, on full display are the perfectly wooden performances by the inimitable Gary Busey and Keanu Reeves.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1/5)
No action, no drama, not much sci-fi, a lot of humanist hubris about how we can learn to love and to care when we're "at the precipice" and that there is always hope for us to treat Mother Earth well should aliens threaten to exterminate us. Recommended beverage: sight-impairing moonshine.
The Pirates Of Silicon Valley (1/5)
A made-for-TV, low-budget movie that follows the early Apple/Microsoft rivalry and the madness/deception of Mr. Jobs and Mr. Gates. Other than Anthony Michael Hall as Bill, the acting is atrocious. The photography and production is very sad, but if you wade through it all, there is some interesting insight into how these behemoths came to make and conquer the personal computer industry. Jobs-mania has always made me ill, and of course, the ...
I.O.U.S.A. (2/5)
Very well produced documentary that had all the pie charts and graphics that would serve as good supplemental material, had they any material to supplement. You could fit the interesting insights on a single note card, while the musical interludes could fill the National Archive. The national debt does scare me, spending money that you do not have is immoral, right? Never mind my mortgage or school loan.
Man interviews horseradish.
When it comes to foreign policy with Axis of Evils, I used to believe in the bi-lateral approach that respects the sovereignty and dignity of the other, refuses to name call or objectify--that is until I heard NPR's brilliant Steve Inskeep totally waste his time interviewing Ahmadinejad this morning. What a windbag of micturation. Blech.