Posts Tagged ‘movie review’
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “A.C.O.D.”

  Stu Zicherman’s A.C.O.D. (written by Zicherman and Ben Karlin) suffers a bit from a familiar indie comedy malady:  the conflicting desires to tell meaningful and even dark stories, while at the same time getting ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Upstream Color”

  UPSTREAM COLOR:  Worth A Ticket – But Not If You Require Coherent Plotting I’d be lying if I said I really knew what the hell was going on in UPSTREAM COLOR, and yet the experience of watching it was surpris...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones”

  THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES –  Not Even For Free –  An Incoherent Compendium of YA Tropes THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES isn’t so much a movie as it is a mash-up.  They’re all ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Film Review: “Transformers: Age of Extinction”

  TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION:  Not Even For Free – Hollywood’s Blockbuster Mentality To the Max Here are just a few of the epic movies with running times shorter than the 165 minutes of TRANSFORMERS: AGE ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW: Tim Burton’s “Batman Returns”

  After the gigantic success of Batman, Tim Burton went on to direct Edward Scissorhands, which although naturally a smaller level of hit, was enormously important to Burton’s career, because it was a very personal p...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Killing Them Softly”

  KILLING THEM SOFTLY:  Watch It At Home – Low-Rent Gangsters and A Study In American Existentialism Andrew Dominik’s talents as a filmmaker are matched only by his pretentions.  Dominik’s first film wa...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Lifeguard”

  If you go to too many Sundances, or see too many indie films, there are certain templates you come to recognize all too quickly.  THE LIFEGUARD, written and directed by Liz W. Garcia, a TV writer (Memphis Beat, Cold Cas...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “The Internship”

  THE INTERNSHIP:  Watch It At Home – No Search Engine Necessary To Predict the Plot Vince Vaughn has been playing his motormouth-with-a-heart-of-gold character pretty much non-stop since Swingers in 1996.  That...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Film Review: “47 Ronin”

  47 RONIN:  Not Even For Free – Another Big-Budget Hollywood Folly, Gift-Wrapped For Christmas 47 RONIN blows into town on unusually fetid winds of bad buzz.  It began filming something like 2 1/2 years ago under ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ TORONTO: “Great Expectations”

At this point in movie history, it’s beside the point to ask why we even need a new film version of GREAT EXPECTATIONS when David Lean’s 1946 masterpiece still exists.  (And for those who want a different slant on ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Promised Land”

  PROMISED LAND:  Watch It At Home – Promise, But No Fulfillment There’s an original idea located somewhere near (but not at) the heart of PROMISED LAND:  start with what would normally be an obvious storylin...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Safe Haven”

  SAFE HAVEN:  Watch It At Home – Nicholas Sparks Churns Out Another This year’s Nicholas Sparks romantic melodrama SAFE HAVEN is so much like last year’s Sparks romantic melodrama The Lucky One that one...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY FILM REVIEW: “Pacific Rim”

  PACIFIC RIM:  Watch It At Home – Even Michael Bay Might Say “Too Much” Why isn’t PACIFIC RIM a better movie?  It’s a passion project for the tremendously talented co-writer (with Travis Be...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY SUNDANCE REVIEW: “Young Ones”

  The post-apocalyptic sci-fi western, which once must have seemed revolutionary and innovative, is now (it dates back at least to 1975’s A Boy and His Dog) an established subgenre.  Jake Paltrow’s entry into ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

THE SHOWBUZZDAILY REVIEW: “Taken 2”

  TAKEN 2:  Watch It At Home – “Particular Set of Skills” Indeed   As silly sequels to mindless hits go, TAKEN 2 is fairly entertaining, at least for a while.  The first movie, of course, was a sur...
by Mitch Salem