grierson-leitch Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Did The Wrong Thing. Spike Lee's <em>Red Hook Summer</em>, Reviewed.
Spike Lee is such a confident filmmaker that when one of his movies doesn't quite work, you almost wonder if it's your fault for not getting it. Secure in his talent for sweeping emotions and powerful visuals, he sets out to make a masterpiece with each new movie, and the worst thing you can say abo...
Zach Galifianakis And Will Ferrell Race To The Middle. <em>The Campaign</em>, Reviewed.
1. That The Campaign could never come up with a fictional scenario that would rival the absurdity of what actually happens in our daily political discourse is an obvious point, yet one that needs to be made again nevertheless. Is any sort of shtick that Will Ferrell could dream up odder than a reali...
The Conspiracy To Kill A Great Movie Franchise. <em>The Bourne Legacy</em>, Reviewed.
1. The first three Jason Bourne films had an intensity, a vitality to them that made them feel urgent and relevant, grounded in the messy real world of global capitalism and a U.S. government that was alternately confused, corrupt, and terrified. The movies didn't have a specific politics other than...
Hollywood Gets Sex Right, For Once: The Surprisingly Honest <em>Hope Springs</em>
For a subject that's so popular, sex is something most people have a hard time discussing. This is especially true in Hollywood movies, where it's usually treated as exciting (9 1/2 Weeks) or dangerous (Basic Instinct) but rarely realistically. Even when sex is taken seriously, like in last year's a...
Nothing We Haven't Seen Before: <em>Total Recall</em>, Reviewed.
1. As a skeptic of the original Total Recall, I was ready to give its remake more than a fair shake. My primary issue with the original is how little it does with the film's initial, fantastical Philip K. Dick premise, that the difference between reality and fantasy is not only slim but perhaps irre...
A Very Obsessive Guide To <em>Sight & Sound</em>'s Greatest Films Poll
Yesterday was heaven for film lovers and list fanatics as Sight & Sound unveiled its once-a-decade poll of the greatest films of all time. There are actually two separate lists—one for critics, one for directors—and the big news was that, after topping the poll since 1962, Citizen Kane had been repl...
Gore Vidal's <em>Myra Breckinridge</em> Became One Of The Weirdest Movies Ever Made
Gore Vidal died yesterday, and though he appeared as an actor in a few movies—he played a professor in With Honors, an evil futuristic fellow in Gattaca and, most memorably, as Tim Robbins' lefty opponent in Bob Roberts—he'll be remembered, in a movie sense, as the guy responsible for Myra Breckinri...
The 10 Films I'm Most Excited To See At The Toronto Film Festival
We've got about a month left of summer movie season, but the studios are about to start unveiling their Oscar candidates—that is, the films they think are actually good. A lot of these get their launch at the Toronto Film Festival, which will run from September 6 to 16....
<em>Total Recall</em> Is a Lot Dumber Than You Remember
The remake of Total Recall — which features Colin Farrell as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kate Beckinsale as Sharon Stone, Jessica Biel as Rachel Ticotin and Bryan Cranston as "Cohaagen give these people some air!" — opens a week from today. The original Total Recall came out in 1990, right on the edge of...
Famous People Trying To Be Funny. <em>The Watch</em>, Reviewed.
The Watch is The Avengers of comic superstar movies, if the Avengers decided they didn't really want to work together and looked sorta annoyed occupying the same story. The movie stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Jonah Hill, and it's rare to see a film in which so many big names seem to be operat...
Superman, Drunk Girls, And <em>Life of Pi</em>: Let's Look At Some Movie Trailers!
In this installment of Trailer Hitch, our semi-regular rundown of the biggest recent movie trailers, I've got a superhero flick, a broad comedy, a couple Oscar contenders, and a dance movie. Who says Hollywood only caters to one type of audience? Also, I would love to meet the person who is really e...
<em>Killer Joe</em> Is the Most Amoral, Repugnant, Fantastic Movie You'll See All Year
About three-quarters of the way through Killer Joe, the terrific and cheerfully evil film opening this Friday, Matthew McConaughey pointedly, if seemingly absently, picks up a chicken leg from a bucket of KFC. You might not realize it at the time, but this is the Chekov's Gun of chicken legs. This i...
Remembering The Pre-Famous Ben Stiller Of <em>The Ben Stiller Show</em>
You'd think life would be pretty good for Ben Stiller. In the last six years, he's been part of six movies that made more than $100 million. Another one, the indie drama Greenberg, earned him great reviews. He's one of the biggest comic stars in the world. A lot of people would love to be in his pos...
So, What Kind of Batman Movie Should They Make Next?
Whatever your thoughts end up being about The Dark Knight Rises—even if you're like me, say, and think it pales it comparison to the previous two films but still sorta blows you away—Christopher Nolan has wrapped up his trilogy in a fashion that clearly won't damage his legacy: This isn't Spider-Man...
Bruce Wanes. <em>The Dark Knight Rises</em>, Reviewed.
1. The first two Batman films from director Christopher Nolan were so transcendent, so ambitious and challenging and grand, that The Dark Knight Rises feels like more of a disappointment than it should. The first two movies, especially The Dark Knight, were miracles, an impossible combination of uni...
Whoa, We're Halfway There: The Grierson & Leitch Top 12 Movies Of The First Half of 2012
Shockingly, we are more than halfway through 2012. (It's a backloaded year: Olympics, election, total global catastrophe—all stacked up from late July on.) As always, the best, most "prestigious" movies won't be released until November or December, because the people who vote on the Oscars are senil...
Christopher Nolan Is A Summer-Movie Superhero
Loving big summer movies as an adult can be a sad and lonely thing. When you're a kid, any action blockbuster that you watch is epic. You haven't seen enough to compare. But then you get older, and you realize that they follow certain formulas and attract a certain audience, which is a lot younger t...
Outside Man: Why Is Spike Lee So Underrated?
Spike Lee celebrated his 55th birthday in March. I still can't believe it. When he turned 40 in 1997, I remember being astonished that a man so youthful and vital could possibly be that old. (I was 22 and clearly very naive.) In my mind, the filmmaker of Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X would always...
Tom Cruise Vs. Werner Herzog And Adventures In Perilous White People Tourism: It's Time For Trailer Hitch
The summer movie world is in a bit of a lull right now: Spider-Man showed up in time for July 4, Savages sneaked in just under the "Blake Lively Being Double Teamed-Themed Festivus Day" holiday wire and now everyone's slowing their roll for a couple of weeks until The Dark Knight Rises opens. Which ...
Babes, Bullets, And Blood. <em>Savages</em>, Reviewed.
Oliver Stone approaches every film he makes as if it's the biggest, most important movie that will ever be made on the subject. When he's working with material to match his grand vision—JFK, Talk Radio, Nixon—he can produce hallucinatory film experiences....