Vishniac (video review)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nsusdz2zi8
[...]
Tag: two and a half
Godzilla (2014)
The most tickling moment in Godzilla comes when we first see the creature. He’s revealed slowly; first a shot of his foot, then his hip, then his hands, and then his world-famous dino-mug. What’s tickling is that he almost seems to be smiling – or possibly sneering. The fact that, at that moment, he is […]
Heaven Is for Real (2014)
The greatest relief of the new Christian-based drama Heaven is for Real is that it tells a story with a Christian message without embarrassing God. Unlike the awful God’s Not Dead, which pasted its message to your forehead with thumbtacks, here is a film with good acting, and a true mystery about the existence of […]
Blue Jasmine (2013)
If Woody Allen had written “A Streetcar Named Desire,” it might look something like “Blue Jasmine.” His heroine Jasmine Francis, like Blanche DuBois, is a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Once, her life sparkled with money and luxury. Now, it’s all gone, and what is left is an empty woman trying to […]
Pacific Rim (2013)
With his new science fiction thriller “Pacific Rim,” director Guillermo del Toro effectively takes Michael Bay to school on how to make a movie about giant robots. Unlike Bay’s torpid transforming nonsense, del Toro’s film is thoughtful and smart. It may not be perfect, but it’s got way more style, way more substance and way […]
The Heat (2013)
“The Heat” is a comedy that operates on a bit of casting that, let’s face it, no one could refuse. Take two of our most gifted comic talents, Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy – whose individual anatomical landscapes remind us of no-less than Abbott and Costello – and put them together in a raucous comic […]
Man of Steel (2013)
The biggest question going into “Man of Steel,” is whether or not Christopher Nolan can bring the same down-to-Earth psychology to Superman that he did to Batman. The quick answer: no. Yes, he and director Zack Snyder have created a well-mounted action picture – they get the fight scenes just right – but in trying […]
Epic (2013)
The late great critic Roger Ebert coined a term that accurately describes a movie like “Epic.” He would call it a “four-glasses-movie,” which he described as any movie whose plot can be summed up on four souvenir glasses from McDonald’s. “The glasses are of great value,” he said, “because they hold more water than the […]
The Great Gatsby (2013)
Okay, so here’s the good news: Baz Luhrmann’s adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” is not an embarrassment to F. Scott Fitzgerald. This is a great looking, well-acted visualization of a story that generations have been forced to read in high school, yet it is never boring nor does it ever feel like homework. The bad […]
