|
Scientist Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) opens up a pod of creepy spiders in the fantastically juvenile comedy “Land of the Lost.” |
I’d say “Land of the Lost” is a sketchy, embarrassingly disjointed, monster-packed movie that sniggling junior high students would make, but that would be insulting to sniggling junior high students.
This movie assumes that if a guy cupping Anna Friel’s breast is funny once, it’ll be a riot if repeated three more times. (Read more…)
|
Greek tour guide Georgia (Nia Vardalos) befriends a widower (Richard Dreyfuss) in the romantic comedy “My Life in Ruins.” |
“My Life in Ruins” tries oh-so-hard to replicate the magic that made Nia Vardalos’ sleeper “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” such a popular smash.
That 2002 box office bolt of lightning fails to strike twice. (Read more…)
|
Alan (Zack Galifianakis) gains a baby, Stu (Ed Helms), right, loses a tooth, and Phil (Bradley Cooper) misplaces a groom in the subversively naughty comedy “The Hangover.” |
Before we get to “The Hangover,” we should ask the first and most important question of comedy: Did you laugh?
Yes, I did.
And my derriere is still running around the River East 21 theaters in Chicago someplace after I laughed it off a few times. (Read more…)
|
A dissatisfied bank customer (Lorna Raver) finally gets the ear of a loan officer (Alison Lohman) in Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell.” |
The aptly titled “Drag Me to Hell” celebrates Sam Raimi’s triumphant return to frightful and cheesy horror films that elicit as many nervous laughs as cringing shudders.
We get all sorts of fun stuff for a first date at the movies: projectile eyeballs, spewing mucus, physically invasive insects, sacrificial goats, upchucked maggots, wild seances, regurgitated kitties, even bad dentures. (Read more…)
If there is such a thing as cheap sentiment, Tojiro Takita’s “Departures” must be the expensive kind. This pensive, eloquent drama centers around Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), a laid-off cellist. (Read more…)
Now playing at the Century Centre in Chicago.
Award winning filmmakers will discuss their craft during “An Evening with the Filmmakers”. The event on May 18th, 2009 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Wildwood Restaurant, 477 S. Third St., Geneva is a fund-raiser for the Geneva Film Festival.
The evening will showcase writers, directors, producers and actors connected with the upcoming Film Festival slated for April 15-17, 2010. Among the featured guests scheduled to appear are Chicagoans Mike Houlihan and Greg Hollimon.
The $25 ticket price includes hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. Call (630) 377-8325 for reservations. Go to genevafilmfestival.org for more details.
|
Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) decides to stay at home and travel at the same time in Disney/Pixar’s animated “Up.” |
The first 10 minutes of Pixar’s fantastical 3-D animated adventure “Up” are a sublime testimonial to the purity and magic of the cinema. I know because I was a sobbing basket case by Minute 11.
We are introduced to Carl and Ellie, who meet as little kids and fervid fans of controversial world explorer Charles Munz. They grow up and marry each other in the blink of a few scenes. Ellie becomes pregnant, then, as the film’s rosy hues cool and Michael Giacchino’s music turns melancholy, Ellie’s dreams of motherhood vanish, leaving nothing but the empty baby stroller that a sad Carl had purchased. (Read more…)
|
Charity (Essence Atkins), left, stores her baby before going off to class with Megan (Shoshana Bush) in the comic spoof “Dance Flick.” |
Hardly a filmgoer on the planet will go into see the latest Wayans brothers spoof, “Dance Flick,” and not know what to expect: A threadbare plot stuffed with pop movie references, tasteless gross-outs, exaggerated stereotypes and lampooned genre clichés.
The most audacious of the Wayans brothers canon remains 2000’s “Scary Movie,” a parody of the tongue-in-cheek horror film “Scream” and a bold flirtation with X-rated visual gags that stretched the R rating to its snapping point. (Read more…)
Kirby Dick (“This Movie is Not Yet Rated”) goes on a rampage against hypocrisy in this blistering expose’ of closeted politicians who hide their homosexuality behind voting records that target gays for second-class citizenship. (Read more…)
Now playing at the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
Atom Egoyan serves up a heavy-handed dose of intellectually stimulating ideas in a drama that succumbs to theatrically stilted scenes and soap operatic excess. (Read more…)
Now playing at Pipers Alley in Chicago.