Saturday, December 29, 2012
Director Quentin Tarantino pays tribute to the Spaghetti Western, and it's shoot 'em up, rootin' tootin' fun!
It's funny, offbeat, and brutal. Based in the American South during the times of slavery, Jamie Foxx straps on a six-shooter or two, some cowboys boots and hat in "Django Unchained." "Django Unchained" can be found at Regal Atlantic Station Stadium 16. Daily Show times are at 10:50 a.m., 12:20 p.m., 2:45 p.m., 6:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., 9:35 p.m., 11:50 p.m. and 1:10 a.m. It is also playing at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema at 12:15 p.m., 1:00 p.m., 3:45 p.m., 4:30 p.m., 7:15 p.m., 9:45 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 11:15 p.m. Foxx's Django character is taken by a bounty hunter, portrayed by Christoph Waltz. First they set out to get a few outlaws. Then they set their sites on getting Django's wife, Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington. But wrangling…
Sunday, March 18, 2012
A crime drama spinoff is surprisingly funny, with fresh new faces and hilarious gags. It should be a hit with moviegoers because it's the funniest film to come out this year.
Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum play bumbling cops Schmidt and Jenko who go undercover and back to high school in "21 Jump Street." The film is a spinoff of the Fox TV show of the late '80s and early '90s, helping to launch the career of a young Johnny Depp. This fresh rewrite is a pleasant surprise. Our duo, under the supervision of their police captain (played by Ice Cube), investigates a new illegal drug at the local high school. They are obviously too old to be in high school, and, it doesn't matter, it's all a part of the gag. The premise of the movie is preposterous and that is the charm of the film. There are plenty of car-chase scenes, explosions and laughs to occupy your time. The chemistry between the leads is evident, and the …
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Gina Carano is easy on the eyes, but she'll knock you out.
Gina Carano makes her Hollywood debut as a kick-butt, no-nonsense special-ops contractor caught in a web of betrayal in Haywire. Carano, who has a mixed-martial-arts background, plays Mallory Kane, a killing machine on the run trying to piece together a puzzle. Michael Douglas plays the intelligence chief. Ewan McGregor plays her boss and her ex. Channing Tatum plays a fellow operator. Antonio Banderas plays Puss in Boots—oops, her Spanish connection. Michael Fassbender rounds out the cast as a British MI-6 agent posing as Mallory's lover. The film is all about the globetrotting visuals with flashbacks and extended fight scenes, and it's hard at times to get a hold of the plot. Director Steven Soderbergh, however, puts together a great …
Friday, December 16, 2011
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law continue the "bromance" from the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film with a new installment involving a game of shadows.
Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law, or Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in this case, face a new super-villain set on destroying the world in "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows." Set in 1891, Holmes and Watson square off against Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), who has cooked up a scheme to pit various European nations against each other in hopes of benefiting from the demand for weapons. A gypsy fortune teller, played by Noomi Rapace, tags along. Rachel McAdams, Holmes' love interest in the first film, also makes a brief appearance. Guy Ritchie once again directs this film, turning Arthur Conan Doyle's classic literary character into the star of a likely Hollywood blockbuster. The film is loud, there are plenty of explosions, and there is …
Monday, December 5, 2011
A bright young actress conjures up a movie icon. She may get an Oscar, but she also deserves a medal for bravery.
Michelle Williams gives an Oscar-worthy performance as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn." Based on true events, the movie focuses on the summer of 1956, in which Monroe went to London to shoot "The Prince and the Showgirl" with British actor, Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). From the start, nothing goes well. Monroe is hopped up on pills, she messes up her lines, she's always late on the set, and she lacks self confidence. No one likes her, except for Dame Sybil Thorndike (played by Dame Judi Dench) and messenger boy Colin Clark (played by Eddie Redmayne). It is through his eyes that the movie is told. For all "Potter" fans out there, Emma Watson (Hermione) has a small role in this film as Colin's on-again, off-again …
Friday, October 28, 2011
That swashbuckling cat from the "Shrek" movies brings his suave swagger to a 3-D animated film the entire family should enjoy.
This Shrek spin-off is actually a prequel that tells the story of Puss in Boots, an adventurous kitty voiced with great charisma by Antonio Banderas. Our favorite cat teams up with the lively Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) on a dangerous search for Jack and Jill's "magic beans". They get help in their quest from Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) as they climb the beanstalk to a castle in the clouds to nab the golden goose in order to repay their debts back home. There are more cat jokes and fairy-tale references in this story than I have time to mention. The Puss in Boots character was one of the best parts of the Shrek movies, but a little of him goes a long way. The feline has some trouble maintaining his shtick for 90 minutes, so the …
Friday, September 16, 2011
One of the hottest young actors in Hollywood will put you in the driver's seat for this crime thriller and dark comedy combined with a love story.
"Driver," played by Ryan Gosling, is a solitary stunt driver who works on movie sets by day and drives getaway cars at night in the movie Drive. Driver falls for his apartment neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a mom with a small son whose father is an ex-con. The ex-con drags Driver into a robbery that goes wrong and threatens both Irene and her child. Albert Brooks plays a crime lord with a thing for forks, Ron Perlman is the Jewish gangster who does business in a pizza parlor and Bryan Cranston plays Driver's best buddy, giving this film plenty of acting horsepower. Drive is a gritty, yet glamourous film bursting with action. European director Nicolas Refn does a wonderful job with this ultra-violent, ultra-stylish flick in which the hero…
Friday, September 2, 2011
It's time to go Nazi hunting in an espionage thriller filled with action and surprising revelations.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Brett Martin
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Friday, September 2, 2011
It's time to go Nazi hunting in an espionage thriller filled with action and surprising revelations. Six actors play three roles over a 30-year time period in this thriller about Nazis, Israeli spies and all sorts of lies in "The Debt." Helen Mirren plays a retired Israeli Mossad agent named Rachel who is honored for her role in the assassination of a Nazi War criminal in 1965. Thirty years have passed, but questions still remain. Did she and associate Stephan (Tom Wilkinson) and others really kill their target? After an apparent suicide of a certain spy, Mirren rewinds the entire mission 30 years prior. Jessica Chastain plays a young Mirren, who along with Sam Worthington's character, build suspense across two different time periods in a …
Friday, August 19, 2011
Hasta la vista Arnold. The 1982 movie that made Schwarzenegger a star has been remade. This new 3D version introduces us to a new young movie star who more than fits the part.
Hasta la vista Arnold. The 1982 movie that made Schwarzenegger a star has been remade. This new 3D version introduces us to a new young movie star who more than fits the part. Conan the Barbarian is back. Bare chested, bloody, and brutal, it is everything you would expect from a franchise that helped launch Arnold Schwarzenegger's career 30 years ago. Move over "ah-nold" -- there is a new barbarian breaking new ground. Hawaiian actor Jason Mamoa breathes new life into the role as Conan. Mamoa is best known for his role in the wildly popular HBO show "Game of Thrones" as Khal Drago. Now the long-haired actor, who looks as if he belongs on the cover of a Harlequin romance, brings his muscular physique to a whole new legion of fans. The …
Matthew Hornick
2:01 pm on Friday, August 19, 2011
If you read the books you would know that Conan was not a huge bodybuilding oaf. In the books he was definitely muscular but more lean and ripped. He was intelligent, quick witted and he could read and write several languages and he was very charismatic. He was not some dumb oaf that pounded his way through every situation like the arnold movie. Howards iconic barbarian was always meant to be … more ›