Category: Ratings
-
Magic Mike: Typical story made special by Soderbergh and Horn
Magic Mike – 2012 Director Steven Soderbergh Starring Channing Tatum, Cody Horn, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Olivia Munn, Kevin Nash Screenplay Reid Carolin Almost 1/3 of the way through Magic Mike, there is a point where Brooke (Horn) has just discovered where her brother Alex (Pettyfer) has been working. She does her best to…
-
Hotel Transylvania is Finding Nemo for Monsters
Hotel Transylvania – 2012 Director Genndy Tartakovsky Starring (voices) Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samburg, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Jon Lovitz, Cee Lo Green, Molly Shannon Screenplay by Peter Baynam, Robert Smigel,Tartakovsky So after all of this time, I finally decided to figure out whether Transylvania really exists. It does. It’s somewhere in…
-
Rock Of Ages: Hair Spray on a Wig
Rock of Ages – 2012 Directed by Adam Shankman Starring Julianne Hough, Diego Bonita, Russell Brand, Paul Giamatti, Alec Baldwin, Tom Cruise, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bryan Cranston, Malin Akerman, Mary J. Blige Screenplay by Justin Thoroux, Chris D’Arienzo, Allan Loeb “What’s it like to be THE Stacie Jaxx?” And do we care? Time for nonsense of a different sort. Rock…
-
Coriolanus: Shakespeare works best in its original Klingon
Coriolanus – 2012 Director Ralph Fiennes Starring Fiennes, Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox, Jessica Chastain, Paul Jesson, John Kani Screenplay John Logan based on the play by William Shakespeare Before I say anything else, I must say this: Coriolanus is nonsense. Out of context and out of its time, it is the square peg trying stubbornly to fit within…
-
People Like Us is not quite like us, but it is getting there.
People Like Us – 2012 Director Alex Kurtzman Starring Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Olivia Wilde, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jon Favreau, Philip Baker Hall, Michael Hall D’Addario, Mark Duplass Screenplay Roberto Orci, Bobby Cohen, Clayton Townshend There is a scene near the beginning of People Like Us when we find out about the father of Sam (Pine) for the first time.…
-
Cool Papa E Reviews James Bond Films of Daniel Craig
Bond is 50, and he gets younger all the time. After a solid start with Sean Connery in the ’60’s and a flirtation with model George Lazenby, and then back to Connery. It’s easy to pick on Roger Moore. Most of his Bond films were crap, but they weren’t necessarily wrong in picking him, they…
-
Safe for nobody, except one
Safe – 2012 Written and Directed by Boaz Yakin Starring Jason Statham, Catherine Chan, Chris Sarandon, Robert John Burke, James Hong, Anson Mount Mob war with bad cops in the midst. An ex-cop, ex-boxer and rumored garbage collector. A little Asian girl who is a math prodigy. If it were any more improbable, it would be the…
-
Halloween Gems: Cool Papa E Reviews The Firefly Films Of Rob Zombie
It’s a nearly classic duo of films waiting for a third. Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects have a place in the sickened hearts of cult followers. He had something big on the horizon when he was derailed by the quick but unfulfilled success of the Halloween remake and its dud of a…
-
Forgotten Gem: Déjà Vu is pure, delightful hogwash
Déjà Vu – 2006 Director Tony Scott Starring Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel, Paula Patton, Bruce Greenwood, Adam Goldberg Screenplay Bill Marsilii, Terry Rosso When I discovered that Tony Scott had taken his own life, I felt conflicted. He had directed some of the most overrated pulp (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Man on Fire) I had…
Ebert Did It Better: Gasbag Reviews 