timgrierson Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Been There, Bombed That. <em>White House Down</em>, Reviewed.
Die Hard was a brilliant concept for an action movie that's been much duplicated since: Die Hard on a bus (Speed); Die Hard in a hockey rink (Sudden Death); Die Hard on a battleship (Under Siege). But what a lot of the copycats forget is that it's not the claustrophobic location that made the origi...
Pixar Inches Back On Track: <em>Monsters University</em>, Reviewed.
Monsters University isn't amazing. Yet it is bright, shiny, amusing, and charming, and after the disappointing Cars 2 and Brave, it's a relief to leave a Pixar movie feeling properly entertained. It wasn't always that way; the animation studio once delivered gems on a consistent basis. But Pixar spo...
Rogen's Heroes: <em>This Is the End</em>, Reviewed.
When they're not performing, actors are basically worthless human beings. Or so goes the central joke in This Is the End, and it turns out that you can make a really funny movie based almost entirely on that joke. Written and directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and based on their short Jay and...
The Little Superhero Movie That Couldn't: Defending <i>Superman Returns</i>
Next Friday, Man of Steel opens. It's the second stab by Warner Bros. to reboot the Superman franchise since its Christopher Reeve movies of the late 1970s and '80s. (And that's not even including all the failed attempts to get a new Superman movie off the ground, including a Batman Vs. Superman pro...
Google Dearth: <i>The Internship</i>, Reviewed
Most movies sell some sort of fantasy: True love is real; good always triumphs over evil; all dogs go to heaven. But few peddle so many as The Internship, which reunites Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson for the first time since their 2005 hit Wedding Crashers. Like Larry Crowne, The Internship is a com...
Does Jaden Smith, <i>After Earth's</i> Uncompelling Star, Really Want This?
When film critics talk about a star's performance, they usually resort to clichés. The actor always "lights up the screen" or "disappears into a role," and watch out, because "you can't take your eyes off him." The reason why writers (and audiences) recycle those old saws is because they're standar...
No Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Greta Gerwig's Breakout Role In <em>Frances Ha</em>
Greta Gerwig is not Zooey Deschanel, and we should be thankful for that. In mumblecore movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Baghead, and in mainstream comedies such as No Strings Attached and Arthur, Gerwig plays quirky and adorable, awkward and charming. But those traits haven't solidified into ...
The 10 Films I'm Most Excited To See At The Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on Wednesday, is the year's premier film festival, the launching pad in recent years for celebrated movies like The Tree of Life, No Country for Old Men, The Artist, Amour, Holy Motors and Inglourious Basterds. It's funny that Cannes takes place just as summ...
How The Terrific Documentary <em>Stories We Tell</em> Avoids The Cutesy
Near the beginning of Stories We Tell, director Sarah Polley's documentary about her family, her sister Joanna is asked how she feels about being part of the movie. Perfectly candid, she responds, "I guess I have this sorta instinctive reaction of, like, 'Who fucking cares about our family?'"...
Michael Bay's Ode To Meatheads: <em>Pain & Gain</em>, Reviewed.
There are many movies that could have been made from the raw materials of Pain & Gain, which is based on a series of outrageous Miami New Times articles about three dimwit Florida bodybuilders who in 1994 kidnapped a rich local businessman and stripped him of all his assets. Some filmmakers, for exa...
If Only History Went Down This Smoothly. <i>42</i>, Reviewed.
People go to inspirational sports movies not in spite of their predictability but because of it. Other than romantic comedies, there's no other genre so dependent on the fact that you know exactly how they're going to play out. It doesn't help that they're usually based on true stories. These movies...
You'll Remember This Psychopath: Brady Corbet's Star-Making Turn In <em>Simon Killer </em>
When we first meet Simon, he's not unlike a lot of twentysomething guys you knew after college. Recently graduated, cash-strapped, withdrawn and sorta lost, the lead of Simon Killer finds himself crashing in Paris at a family friend's place, wanting to escape New York and the girlfriend, Michelle, w...
Danny Boyle Mesmerizes Himself. <em>Trance</em>, Reviewed.
For director Danny Boyle, anything worth doing is worth overdoing. With each genre of movie he makes, you get the sense that he wants to be sure it's the most demonstrative of its kind ever. Trainspotting was the druggiest movie ever. 28 Days Later was the zombie-iest movie ever. Slumdog Millionaire...
An Epic That Stumbles. <em>The Place Beyond The Pines</em>, Reviewed.
Director Derek Cianfrance's last film, Blue Valentine, was a crushing study of a couple (played by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams) falling apart. It was beautifully made and well acted—I loved it—but the rawness of the emotions and the ambition of the structure (cycling between the present and t...
<em>Room 237</em> Will Make You Love <em>The Shining</em> All Over Again
One of the saddest things about the death of a favorite filmmaker is realizing that you'll probably never see any new movie from him ever again. When popular musicians die, they always leave material lying around that their estates can spruce up and put out for the fans. (Jimi Hendrix died in 1970, ...
Dour <em>Die Hard</em>: <em>Olympus Has Fallen</em>, Reviewed.
If you're going to make a movie where the White House is destroyed and the fate of the American government hangs in the balance, it at least ought to be fun to watch. That may sound sacrilegious—I'm pretty sure even the Tea Party doesn't want Washington overrun by Korean terrorists—but after sitting...
A Big-Hearted Mess. <em>Admission</em>, Reviewed.
Admission is such a mess, its good ideas knotted up with its unfocused and bad ones, that even if you end up liking the damn thing, you may find yourself apologizing for its faults. Tina Fey's first movie to be released since 30 Rock ended reminds us that she can do more than Liz Lemon, and it's gre...
Colin Farrell, <em>Dead Man Down</em>, And Why It's Pointless For Bloggers To Give Actors Career Advice
It's common for film sites to do some kind of "career advice" column where they analyze a Hollywood star's trajectory and try to figure out what kinds of roles the actor should or shouldn't be doing. Will and I used to do this for The Projector, so I understand the impulse: You see a career that may...
Seth MacFarlane Wasn't The Worst Oscar Host Ever: In Defense Of A Boob
For Seth MacFarlane's critics, Sunday night was supposed to be the moment we finally got to see the guy get his comeuppance. A "billion" viewers around the world, one of the most prestigious gigs in all of entertainment: As Oscar host, this was his chance to justify his swiftly, perhaps inexplicably...
The Rock Saves The Day. <em>Snitch</em>, Reviewed.
Snitch isn't great, but if you're like me and have enjoyed Dwayne Johnson more than his movies, his latest helps justify our faith in the guy. This is a B-movie thriller built around a real incident that's meant to show us the lunacy of our government's drug policy—and yet the movie's not preachy or...