Angelina Jolie goes Jane Bond in the action thriller “Salt.” When Angelina Jolie reportedly said she’d like to make a female James Bond movie, she probably meant something like the cutting-edge 007 series reboot “Casino Royale.” Instead, “Salt” is closer to “Quantum of Solace,” the most recent Bond thriller riddled with standard-issue action movie conventions […]
Monthly Archives: July 2010
No ‘Ovation’ for shallow kids musical that never should have been made
Twiggy Wiggs (Devon Jordan) demonstrates the subtle acting style of the superficial musical comedy “Standing Ovation.” “Standing Ovation” is a spiritually bankrupt, morally reckless, ethically unhinged and emotionally vacant musical comedy about a group of tweenies who can’t act, sing or convincingly lip-sync. This film deals in gay stereotypes. It traffics in token black characters. […]
“Dann & Raymond’s Movie Club” outing
“Saddle up, partner!” Join Dann Gire (film critic of Chicago’s suburban newspaper THE DAILY HERALD, as well as the founder and president of the Chicago Film Critics Association, and adjunct instructor at Aurora and Harper Colleges in Illinois) and Raymond Benson (novelist, author of 20 books, former official author of James Bond books, film historian, […]
DiCaprio stars as a corporate raider in mind-bending ‘Inception’
Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) fights off an armed enemy “projection” while in a dream-within-a-dream in “Inception.” I love this movie! Christopher Nolan’s insanely imaginative and intelligently trippy “Inception” is “Mission Impossible” led by a corporate Freddy Krueger in a mind-bending adventure that could have been designed by artist M.C. Escher. My brain still hurts from trying […]
‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ can’t conjure the magic
Balthazar (executive producer Nicolas Cage) instructs young Dave (Jay Baruchel) on how to be “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Look, if you’re making a feature film based on a classic Walt Disney animated short, the first obligation you have is to make your movie as good as the short. Right? That doesn’t happen in Jon Turteltaub’s “The […]
‘Predators’ falls prey to weak second half
Royce (buffed-up Oscar winner Adrien Brody) faces off with an alien hunter in “Predators.” Fast-paced, taut with tension, stuffed with suspense and mystery, “Predators” is easily the best entry in 20th Century Fox’s science-fiction alien-hunter action franchise. For the first 55 minutes. Then, as if a key mechanism on a soaring rocket malfunctions, “Predators” sputters […]
Villain finds his softer side in comedic ‘Despicable Me’
Orphans Edith, Agnes and Margo talk the villainous Gru into a roller-coaster ride in the 3-D comic, animated “Despicable Me.” Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me” fills the bill as a mildly diverting, whimsically entertaining 3-D computer-animated feature for kids. But in the wake of Pixar’s multilayered “Toy Story 3,” brimming with sadness, horror, adventure and time-passage […]
Lame dialogue, awkward acting drag down ‘The Last Airbender’
Mystical Aang (Noah Ringer) prepares to stop the Fire Nation in M. Night Shyamalan’s epic fantasy “The Last Airbender.” “The Last Airbender” blows. The main characters in this special-effects stuffed epic don’t just bend air. They bend fire, water, earth, plus logic, humor, acting and storytelling so far they almost reach the breaking point. Two […]