Smart People
August 12, 2008
Smart People (2008) is the latest in a long, checkered lineage of quirky, independent film dramedies (comedy-drama hybrids). Jodie Foster’s Home for the Holidays (1995) established the template with the following ingredients: take a dysfunctional family...
Shutter: Unrated
August 4, 2008
When Hollywood first started remaking Asian horror films, A-list actresses like Naomi Watts and Jennifer Connelly starred in them. Over time, as the public’s fascination with them waned, not so high-profile actresses like Amber Tamblyn and Kristen Bell...
When a Stranger Calls
May 18, 2006
When a Stranger Calls (2006) is an unnecessary contemporary remake of a memorable little B-horror movie based on an urban legend known as “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs.” It starred Carol Kane and came out in 1979. It was a modest hit and the...
Big Fish
May 20, 2003
Tim Burton’s adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s book about a big man, a big story and a big fish. You would be forgiven for worrying that Tim Burton was losing his mojo, what with the less than exceptional remake of Planet of the Apes and an entire...
