The Family Stone
December 7, 2005
The Family Stone (2005) belongs to the eccentric family comedy sub-genre where a straight-laced protagonist that the audience can identify with meets a clan of lovable oddballs usually in the context of a holiday setting (see Home for the Holidays, Pieces...
C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation: Season 4
December 6, 2005
There’s a scene in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle where the girls arrive at a murder scene and promptly discover the whereabouts of the killer by the taste of his sex-wax residue. It’s a direct nod (or homage if you want to get French)...
Purple Butterfly
December 6, 2005
Purple Butterfly (2003) is Lou Ye’s follow-up to his dreamy Suzhou River (2000), a Wong Kar-Wai-esque tragic love affair. This movie is also a tale of doomed romance set in 1930s Shanghai. In some respects, this is Ye’s In the Mood for Love (2000)...
Unfaithfully Yours
December 6, 2005
Unfaithfully Yours (1948) is based on a short story called “Symphony Story” that writer/producer/director Preston Sturges wrote in 1933. At the time, he hoped it would be his directorial debut but the studios turned him down. In 1948, after many box...
Hostage
December 5, 2005
Quentin Tarantino has said that he cast Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction (1994) because he reminded him of Ralph Meeker, an actor who had a classic film noir quality to him that the filmmaker was looking for. Willis exudes the same kind of presence in two...
Prime Cut
December 5, 2005
Prime Cut (1972) is a neglected crime thriller directed by Michael Ritchie, known more for helming the Fletch movies than making a gritty action movie with Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman. Nick (Marvin) is an enforcer hired for $50,000 to collect $500,000...
Dead Like Me: Season 2
December 5, 2005
Dead Like Me (2004) is yet another example of a TV show cut down in its prime. MGM and the show’s creator, Bryan Fuller, butted heads over creative differences and this led to his departure during the first season. The show survived with very little...
Are We There Yet?
December 4, 2005
There seems to be a disease going around big action heroes at the moment. First it was Vin Diesel, who felt the need to soil himself in the kiddie comedy, The Pacifier (not literally, although that might have improved things somewhat), and now Ice Cube,...
Million Dollar Baby
December 4, 2005
Untalented filmmakers make the mistake of keeping their movies simple with obvious, pedestrian direction. Clint Eastwood is an experienced director who doesn’t need overt, stylistic flourishes to make his point. His movies are the epitome of understatement....
Hide and Seek
December 4, 2005
Remember when Robert De Niro used to make good movies? Now, he seems content to star in formulaic comedies and cliched thrillers like this “gem.” Hide and Seek (2005) marks a new low for the veteran thespian. You know your career is in trouble when...
