DVD Talk Movie Reviews

The Box (2009)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:35:29 PST

Highly Recommended

Take a minute and ponder the moral perfection of "Button, Button", the Richard Matheson short story on which the The Box is based. The film uses an Arthur C. Clarke quote a couple of times -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" -- and personally, I find Matheson's story similarly entrancing. It's amazing how many layers there are to it, and how carefully it appears to be designed, at least as presented here by Donnie Darko writer/director Richard Kelly: a stranger first leaves a locked device with a button on top, allowing the recipients to ponder it until 5pm, when the stranger returns to explain that if the recipients press the button, they will a) receive a million dollars, and b) someone they don't know, somewhere will die.

The stranger in Kelly's film is Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), which adds another air of mystery. Steward has a burn woun...Read the entire review

The Box (2009)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:04:41 PST

Rent It

Well, it was fun while it lasted. The wonderfully wacky world of writer/director Richard Kelly drives off cliff with "The Box," the filmmaker's self-proclaimed shot at a "broadly commercial" film. Interestingly enough, there's nothing at all commercial about the enigmatic picture, which meticulously traces over the same lines of surrealism, spirituality, and otherworldly interference that marked Kelly's previous features, the cult smash "Donnie Darko" and the underrated brain-smasher, "Southland Tales." I would never doubt Kelly's conviction and personal belief that he's challenging himself, but "The Box" doesn't lie. It's the same old set of eye-crossing ambiguities, only this time there's something of a budget and a smudged pass at cinematic normalcy.

In Virginia circa 1976,...Read the entire review

Disney's A Christmas Carol 3-D (2009)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:04:30 PST

Rent It

I sat down to Disney's new big-budget adaptation of A Christmas Carol not knowing what to expect. I have read the original Dickens story but never seen any other adaptations that I can think of, other than Muppet Christmas Carol and an episode of "The Real Ghostbusters". I also enjoyed Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of The Polar Express, one of his previous films to use the high-tech motion-capture technology he's so enamored with, but I skipped Beowulf, his follow-up effort. The trailer for A Christmas Carol didn't give me much faith, but I popped on my 3D glasses and prepared myself to be dazzled. What I got was a baffling experience.

I have seen many movies, but I can't remember any that were quite like A Christmas Carol, which, sadly, is not an endorsement. It's the strangest sensation: Zemeckis' version of the story has almost no forward momentum. Obviously...Read the entire review

Collapse

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:40:43 PST

Recommended

There are moments, many of them, in Chris Smith's new documentary Collapse when Michael Ruppert says something that causes an immediate, reflexive reaction in my head: That guy's crazy. I had that response more than once during the film, particularly in the section when he gives his tips for surviving our societal collapse (don't hoard food--hoard seeds). But there are also moments, as when he explains our current economy in plain English and summarizes it as "the whole economy is a pyramid scheme," when I found myself nodding my head and thinking, That guy makes a lot of sense. It's that kind of movie.

Smith could scarcely have selected a more intriguing subject for his film. Ruppert was a shining star on the LAPD, but his claims in the late 1970s that he was recruited by the CIA to run drugs brought that career to an end (he says that his fianc disappeared and "...Read the entire review

Black Dynamite

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:49:16 PST

Highly Recommended

Of course, there will always be "I'm Gonna Git You Sucka," the crown jewel of blaxploitation spoofs. Nothing will ever equal its invention or ability to surprise. However, "Black Dynamite" is a worthy challenger for the throne. Playing straight-up silly with '70's filmmaking aesthetics, "Dynamite" isn't consistent, but it's damn funny at times. A feisty, gleefully harebrained spoof of all things "Shaft" and "Superfly," "Dynamite" is a jubilant ode to the firm cinematic pimp hand, which, in this picture, smacks bad guys around and tickles the audience with the same devotion.

An evil presence in the inner city has committed the ultimate crime: they've killed Black Dynamite's kid brother. Now Dynamite (Michael Jai White) is on a rampage, tearing up the streets to find the perpetr...Read the entire review

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Highly Recommended

Jon Ronson's 2004 book, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," was a nonfiction look at the U.S. Military's effort to harness psychological manipulation as a new form of warfare. Again, nonfiction. The film version of the wily tale has rightfully selected an accelerated route of absurdity to depict the inherent weirdness, permitting the viewer a chance to enjoy the oddity without the crippling burden of a real-world hangover. Blithe and teeming with actors having the time of their lives, "Goats" is a hilarious, freewheeling descent into the abyssal madness of the military machine.

A Midwestern journalist with heavy domestic troubles, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) heads over to Iraq to cover the war, looking to challenge himself and prove his worth to his cheating wife. Needing a specialis...Read the entire review

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Highly Recommended

The Madeafication of African-American storytelling from Tyler Perry and his imitators has been a depressing downward spiral, reducing important social topics to countrified nonsense, often chased with a heavy wallop of misguided religious justification. Though "presented" by Tyler Perry (and Oprah Winfrey), "Precious" restores some much needed horror to abuse of all kinds, lending weight to self-esteem issues instead of playing them off as melodramatic screenwriting requirements. This is a lacerating tale of desperation and evolution, and while director Lee Daniels should do himself a favor and muzzle most of his visual instincts, he permits the material to lead the charge, creating a harrowing environment that makes for a hypnotic sit.

The year is 1987, and Precious (newcomer...Read the entire review

Disney's A Christmas Carol 3-D (2009)

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Highly Recommended

It's a tale told joyfully and told often, gobbling up film, stage, and audio adaptations with incredible regularity. Charles Dickens's 1843 novella, "A Christmas Carol," has been reworked and reheated time and again, and who could blame anyone for trying? Perhaps the perfect tale of rekindled morality set against the backdrop of the most enchanting of holiday seasons, "Carol" is brought back to life for another cinematic go-around, this time through the eyes of writer/director Robert Zemeckis and the efforts of his motion capture (mo-cap) animation tools. While shadowing Dickens's work as much as it can, the latest "Carol" takes a bold technological leap forward, permitting a newly abstract take on a perennial saga of remorse.

A shriveled, angular miser, Ebenezer Scrooge (voic...Read the entire review

An Education

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Highly Recommended

The new movie An Education is like the cinematic equivalent of a bad boyfriend--and I mean that in the best way possible. Based on a memoir by Lynn Barber, it's actually a film about a bad boyfriend, and director Lone Scherfig (Italian for Beginners, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) uses the pick-up technique of just such a scoundrel, seducing us into an exhilarating crush at the start, breaking our hearts by film's end.

More important than An Education being about this rotten boy, this is also a film about Jenny, the girl upon whose behalf our heart breaks. Played by Carey Mulligan (Bleak House) in a career-making performance, Jenny is a smart girl, too smart for England in 1961. Studying hard so she might get into Oxford in a year, t...Read the entire review

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Recommended

The Men Who Stare at Goats, the movie in which a screenwriter stares at a true story without a three-act structure as hard as he can until a three-act structure appears.

Written by Peter Straughan (How to Lose Friends and Alienate People) from a book by Jon Ronson (who gets his name changed to Bob Wilton for the trouble), The Men Who Stare at Goats aims for the territory somewhere on a comedic map where the madcap films its star, George Clooney, has made with the Coen Bros. crosses borders with the actor's own directorial effort, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. It's a playing field the director, Grant Heslov, should be familiar with, having produced Intolerable Cruelty and Clooney's last picture, Leatherheads. Unfortunately, though...Read the entire review

The Fourth Kind

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:57:13 PST

Rent It

"The Fourth Kind" is being sold to the public on the wings of a gimmick. This is not a first for Hollywood, joining the likes of "White Noise" and "The Haunting in Connecticut," which used marketing angles based upon the suggestion of truth to sell an exhaustively fictional multiplex event. However, "Fourth Kind" is far more aggressive, flat-out daring the audience to believe this alien abduction tale. It's the kind of chutzpah that all but promises a scintillating, skin-crawling motion picture, but "The Fourth Kind" is actually quite stunningly ineffective for all the hot air it generates.

Please bear with me here, as the concept is a little convoluted. "Fourth Kind" posits the idea that director Olatunde Osunsami is assembling footage to investigate the strange case of Psych...Read the entire review

An Education

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:16:28 PDT

Highly Recommended

"An Education" is a sharply crafted ode to the loss of innocence, boasting top-shelf performances and evocative cinematography. It's also material about two tantrums and a "Gossip Girl" cast member away from becoming a Lifetime Original event, making the nuanced accomplishments of the feature shine all the more brightly. It's a wildly predictable film of extreme formula, but there's a special effort made to confront that numbing familiarity, showcasing a mature, level-headed take on a frightening coming-of-age journey.

It's 1961, and 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) is feeling the burden of expectation from her parents (Alfred Molina and Cara Seymour), who've placed their daughter on a strict diet of schoolwork and hobbies to groom her for a future at Oxford. Into Jenny's li...Read the entire review

The Horse Boy

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:16:28 PDT

Highly Recommended

In 2004, Rupert Issacson and his wife Kristin found out their little boy, Rowan, was suffering from autism. Traditional medicines and therapies weren't helping the child, who fell further into fits of tantrums and incontinence. Raising Rowan they best they could, Rupert and Kristin faced a bleak future with a boy unable to break free from his mental containment. And then Rowan met Betsy, a neighboring horse, and he opened up in ways his parents never thought possible.

Directed by Michel Orion Scott, "The Horse Boy" is a potent documentary studying Rowan as he finds comfort in the presence of horses, encouraging Rupert to consider a rather bold alternative to the daily grind of pills and meltdowns. Flying the family over to Mongolia, Rupert and Kristen would introduce Rowan to ...Read the entire review

The House of the Devil

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:16:28 PDT

Highly Recommended

"House of the Devil" is a throwback horror film that actually makes an effort to look and sound like a bygone era. Granted, 1980's genre nostalgia is nothing cinematically revolutionary, perhaps even clich d, but writer/director Ti West keeps to the task at hand. Forgoing irony or vile retro winks, "Devil" plays it straight. While that doesn't generate the most riveting suspense piece of the year, it does deliver a hugely satisfying chiller that's effectively minimal and marvelously made.

Hoping for an apartment of her own, college student Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) can't quite come up with the first month's rent, drowning her sorrows in pizza with mouthy best friend Megan (Greta Gerwig). Spotting a help wanted flyer for a babysitter on campus, Samantha makes a call to Mr. Ul...Read the entire review

Antichrist

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:27:13 PDT

Highly Recommended

Lars von Trier, how do you do this to me? And why? I can't think of a single filmmaker whose films I admire this much but that I have to gear myself up to watch. Knowing what a difficult, provocative director you can be, and advance word that your new movie Antichrist was extremely harsh, I prepared myself as best I could. It wasn't enough.

Francois Truffaut had a theory that a viewer was not properly prepared to critique a film until he or she has seen in three or four times. I would agree with that in the case of Antichrist. There is a lot to sort through here. Unfortunately, I'd be lucky to sit through the movie a second time without closing my eyes at crucial moments, much less give it a third or fourth viewing. This is a movie that is profoundly unsettlin...Read the entire review

Michael Jackson's This Is It

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:27:13 PDT

Rent It

The title is not "This Is It," as in the hottest ticket in town. It's more "This Is It," admitting a scarcity of content. Marketed as the final goodbye to the self-proclaimed "King of Pop," this hastily assembled performance film seems less like a eulogy and more like a chance to cover the losses incurred when Jackson died during rehearsals for his pricey comeback tour. The stank of opportunism is all over this baby, and while I wouldn't begrudge the average superfan their chance to publicly mourn, "This Is It" takes Jackson's musical legacy and squeezes it for every last remaining nickel.

From April to June 2009, Michael Jackson held rehearsals for his "This Is It" megaconcert in Los Angeles, renting out an arena to work out the complex choreography and sound cues needed to b...Read the entire review

An Education

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:56:48 PDT

Skip It

An invisible wall stands between myself and An Education. Others are quick to praise young star Carey Mulligan as Jenny, and they're certainly not wrong; she stands head and shoulders above the rest as the best part of the movie. However, the movie's story is overwhelmingly, suffocatingly predictable; it's not that the outcome is merely logical, but that the writing and direction, by Nick Hornby and Lone Scherfig, respectively, never raised my pulse in the slightest or threatened to make my heart skip a single beat. Having never been (and not likely to ever be) a sixteen-year-old girl, I was already at a distance, but none of the filmmakers make the slightest effort -- other than casting Mulligan -- to try and draw me in.

For one thing, we have Peter Sarsgaard as the supposedly dashing David, a wealthy-looking man of taste who appears at Jenny's bus stop and offers to, at the very least, drive...Read the entire review

Saw VI

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:47:00 PDT

Skip It

I walked out of a screening of "Saw" in 2004 absolutely appalled with the movie. Not for the sadomasochistic violence the film would soon popularize, but for the cruddy production value and the laughably abysmal performances -- Cary Elwes should be gifted a national holiday for his whimpering, career-smothering work, effectively neutering the repulsion of the ultraviolence. I loathed the film, yet watched with some degree of surprise as the franchise developed a defensive mainstream following; kindly folk who cheerfully hurdled generous filmmaking clich s and further acting decimation to bathe in the warm pools of blood, sucking up the suffering with a bendy straw as if the nightmare were Cherry Coke.

Round after round, they kept coming back, encouraging the producers to chu...Read the entire review

Good Hair

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Recommended

It all started with a little girl. When five-year-old Lola Rock asked her father, Chris, why she didn't have "good hair," it sent a powerful message to the comedian. Curious about the business of the black hair, Rock and a camera crew traveled around the globe to discover why so many African-American women endure a daily battle with their head, tolerating chemicals and weaves to perfect a look that goes against nature's stubborn intention.

"Good Hair" is Rock's first documentary, and while extraordinarily informative, it's more of a comedy piece than something newsworthy. Looking to peek behind the curtain of the billion-dollar black hair industry, Rock is curious to find out why so many women suffer financial hardship and outright pain to alter their appearance, starting his ...Read the entire review

Coco Before Chanel

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Recommended

Well, the good news is that Audrey Tautou has made a good film again, and she didn't even need Jean-Pierre Jeunet to do it. And, well, there pretty much isn't any bad news. Coco Before Chanel is a good film. Not a great one, so maybe we can consider that the downside.

Coco Before Chanel is an unconventional biopic in which the sprightly star of Amelie gets all serious on us, playing fashion visionary Coco Chanel--though, as the title implies, before she was Coco Chanel the brand. It's all the events leading up to her success as a designer rather than the usual birth-to-death portrait. In that, it reminded me of Bright Star, Jane Campion's recent film about John Keats, which focused on...Read the entire review

Astro Boy (2009)

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Rent It

Adapted from the celebrated, long-standing manga series, "Astro Boy" aims to make a big dent on the big screen with this CG-animated spectacular. Boasting glossy visuals, red-hot action, and a sparkling cast of voices, the film is ready to please, but the end product is perhaps a step too bizarre and cartoony to leave a lasting, awe-inspiring impression. It's a great character and an impetuous movie, but with all the attention placed on keeping the animation energetic and the actors satisfied, someone forgot to straighten out the erratic tone of the picture.

In Metro City, a metropolis hovering high above a polluted Earth, Dr. Tenma (voiced by Nicolas Cage) is preparing to experiment with a pure energy source intended to enhance the city's overflowing robot population. When wi...Read the entire review

Amelia

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Rent It

There's a power of mimicry and lavish flight photography that keeps the bio-pic "Amelia" in the air. This is not a strong motion picture, nor a particularly informative one. Instead, it's a finely polished soap opera from a wonderful director starring fantastic actors, and nobody can quite connect the ambition of the piece with the execution. Moments of midair ecstasy hold it together and without those peaceful pauses of expression, "Amelia" is simply mawkish entertainment, stable and worthwhile for the average moviegoer, but it never finds a comfortable altitude.

Ever since her childhood in Kansas, Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank) wanted to fly. Using the publicity skills of publisher George Putnam (Richard Gere), Amelia found fame as a passenger on a 1928 transatlantic flight, ...Read the entire review

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Rent It

The projectionist could've run this film backwards, and I don't think I would've noticed. "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a Hollywood attempt to massage author Darren Shan's 12-part saga of vampires and teenagers into a viable, cash-cow franchise. Spanning the first three novels, "Assistant" doesn't tell a story as much as it hurls everything that isn't nailed down against the wall to see what sticks. Labored and often tedious, the picture is a friendly stab at Burtonesque macabre antics, but director Paul Weitz is in way over his head trying to juggle huge portions of the grotesque and the epic.

16-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) is an average teen with good grades and a love for spiders. Finding a flyer for the "Cirque du Freak" sideshow, Darren decides to at...Read the entire review

Astro Boy (2009)

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Rent It

In 1952, manga legend Osamu Tezuka began chronicling the adventures of Astro Boy, a child robot in a world where mechanical men were becoming increasingly more like real humans. Now it's 2009 and there is a new animated movie version of Astro Boy in which digital facsimiles of human beings are created in such a way as to make them look mechanical. This, apparently, is progress. The robots look real, the people do not.

Astro Boy is one of those movies that I take no pleasure in slagging off, because I think that the folks behind it had their hearts in the right place. Despite some dopey concessions to the American market, they clearly have a healthy respect for Tezuka's original creation, which has spawned countless comic books and various animated television sho...Read the entire review

Amelia

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:19:36 PDT

Skip It

Amelia is a rickety old antique of a movie. This new biography picture about pioneering female pilot Amelia Earhart takes its lumpen cues from wholesome bios from the time when Earhart herself was going to the movies, looking to Jimmy Stewart in The Spirt of St. Louis and Gary Cooper's The Pride of the Yankees rather than more modern portraits like Walk the Line or even this film's distant cousin, The Aviator. Those newer movies aren't without their flaws, but at least they are dramatic. Amelia is out of step, full of spinning newspapers, hokey newsreels, and so much whitewash and starch, it can't help but stiff.

Hilary Swank stars in Amelia as Earhart. The film opens predictably as the aviatrix and her navigator, Fred Noonan...Read the entire review

Where the Wild Things Are

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 05:04:35 PDT

DVD Talk Collector Series

Despite what it says at the local Blockbuster, "Kids" and "Family" are not genres. I suppose there's nothing inherently wrong with separating movies for kids from movies for grown-ups, but it's important to remember that within those divisions, the same genres still exist. This knowledge is key to understanding Where the Wild Things Are, director Spike Jonze's adaptation of the award-winning children's book by Maurice Sendak: If The Goonies is kids' adventure, Flight of the Navigator is kids' sci-fi and Gremlins is kids' horror, then Where the Wild Things Are is the rarest of all, a genuine kids' drama, and it is a stunning one at that.

Being a kid is generally referred to by adults as "simpler times", but just because you don't have responsibilities doesn't mean everything is easy or handed to kids on a silver platter. The other day, I drove past a grade-school kid...Read the entire review

Into Temptation

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Highly Recommended

Sex, sin, and Catholic guilt. If there's a better recipe for cinematic troublemaking, I don't want to know about it. "Into Temptation" dives into the deep end of collar-tightening, rosary-fingering unrest, creating a riveting momentum as it looks to articulate the push and pull between the obligations of religion and the overwhelming sway of sexuality. Sharply constructed with a heavy spray of noirish aroma, "Into Temptation" is a uniquely accomplished indie film, wielding salacious material sensitively, building an intoxicating sense of intrigue and discomfort.

Slightly bored with his daily business as a priest, Father John Buerlien (Jeremy Sisto) finds the arrival of a prostitute named Linda (Kristin Chenoweth) in his confessional captures his curiosity. Asking for absolutio...Read the entire review

A Serious Man

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Highly Recommended

There's a scale of weirdness to any film made by the Coen Brothers, and "A Serious Man" hits the red zone of idiosyncrasy immediately. An ode to Midwestern Judaism and the havoc of guilt, "Serious Man" is a tapestry of neuroses and personal damage, given a classic black comic strangling by the Coens, who leave no domestic discomfort behind. In fact, all this film contains is unease, making it a perfect itchy sweater film for those who enjoy their cinema on the suffocating side.

In suburban Minnesota during the summer of 1967, physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is trapped in misery: facing the end of his marriage, a frantic Korean student who is looking to bribe his way out of a failing grade, a shiftless brother (Richard Kind) who's lost in depression, the comp...Read the entire review

Coco Before Chanel

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Rent It

There have been several attempts to dramatize the life of fashion icon Coco Chanel, leaving "Coco Before Chanel" no choice but to travel deeper into history, not only to discover how she became a wizard of fabric, but to witness her struggles with abandonment and heartache. It's juicy fodder for a period soap opera, but "Before" doesn't squeeze hard enough. It's a gorgeous picture, but one that rarely demands attention.

Abandoned by her father at a young age, Coco Chanel (Audrey Tautou) was raised in an orphanage, forced into a life of poverty and servitude. Working as a seamstress during the day and a bar performer at night, Coco catches the eye of Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde), a wealthy playboy who takes in the young women in her time of need. Becoming Etienne's mistre...Read the entire review

Law Abiding Citizen

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Rent It

The thriller "Law Abiding Citizen" has the stink of a great exploitation experience all over it. Sections of the film demand audience interaction -- the popcorn-throwing kind that greets cruel turns of fate or broad displays of injustice. When "Citizen" stays in that pocket of unsophisticated manipulation, it puts forth terrific genre energy guaranteed to get the adrenaline racing. However, leave it to the filmmakers to get in the way of a decent film, trying to outwit an audience that just might prefer the simplest ride available.

Having witnessed the murder of his wife and daughter, Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler, destroying an American accent yet again) is ready for justice to be served. Up and coming D.A. Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx) is in charge of the case and eager to make a de...Read the entire review

Where the Wild Things Are

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Rent It

338 words. That's all author Maurice Sendak employed over 33 pages to create a literary classic of childhood imagination. 338 words. An amazing feat and one that doesn't lend itself easily to a feature-length film adaptation. Director Spike Jonze has a wealth of intention and imagination for his 95-minute embellishment of Sendak's work, but fantasyland jubilation is an element oddly pinched out of this sulking haze of monsters and tantrums. A visual knockout, "Where the Wild Things Are" is cold to the touch, trying to surf confidently on rolling waves of childhood nostalgia and teary poignancy, but remains improperly balanced to handle the bizarrely leaden execution.

Young Max (Max Records) is facing the end of his innocence, with an older sister moving on to teen concerns, an...Read the entire review

The Stepfather (2009)

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:04:37 PDT

Skip It

What would the world be like without horror remakes? Probably a happier place.

"The Stepfather" was a 1987 genre classic, constructing a tremendously suspenseful chiller out of a fine collection of untested actors and mere pennies for a budget. Take out a few synth stings and fogged lighting techniques, and it still holds up damn well today, elevated by Terry O'Quinn's masterful take on demented Robert Young envy. The new "Stepfather" is 100 minutes of dopey behavior and filmmaking inanity wrapped up tight in a bland, gutless PG-13 wooby, taking a proven premise and watering it down to a parade of nonsense created only to tickle gullible teen audiences. We've danced this dance a hundred times before, but it never ceases to kill a few brain cells and leave behind deep scratches...Read the entire review

Where the Wild Things Are

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:43:56 PDT

DVD Talk Collector Series

Holy crap, they pulled it off. After years of preparation, after rumors of behind-the-scenes rumblings, after all of the breathless pre-release hand-wringing (Is it too intense for kids? Is it too smart for family audiences?), at long last, Spike Jonze's film version of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book Where the Wild Things Are has finally arrived, and it was worth the wait. It's an enchanting film, warm and winning, a picture that envelops its audience and holds them in its grasp for its entire 94 minutes, which go by in a blink. The preview audience I saw it with laughed at the jokes, but sat in hushed silence otherwise, lest they break the delicate spell the film casts. It is, in a word, wonderful.

It is also, yes, "difficult" and "challenging" and all those other buzzwords that dull Hollywood types attach to any movie that can't be put into a box that spits out Happy Meal t...Read the entire review

Where the Wild Things Are

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:43:56 PDT

Highly Recommended

What a weird, wonderful, magical thing this Where the Wild Things Are movie is. What a strange and beautiful ode to imagination and childhood and the heartbreak that makes growing up so troubling. What a fabulous tribute to the creative powers of Maurice Sendak and a confirmation of the near genius-level skill of Spike Jonze. How I'd kill to be eight years old again and be able to see this movie with those eyes, and yet how every eight-year-old should kill to be me and watch Where the Wild Things Are with the blessing of age and knowledge so they could see just how deep this movie goes.

The original story from the Sendak-penned children's book should be familiar to all. Max, a troublemaking and troubled child prone to wearing wolf's clothing, sails the ocean wid...Read the entire review

An Education

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:43:56 PDT

Highly Recommended

He's a smooth operator, this David. He's 30 years old, and Jenny is 16, but when he can pull it off, because he's charmed her parents as thoroughly as he's charmed their daughter; he doesn't stop at the "you didn't tell me you had a sister" line when he meets her mother, but he brings over good wine and regales them with stories of his worldliness and sophistication, and makes dating a woman half his age seem like its perfectly natural and downright urbane. What's more, he makes his own savoir-faire seem a shared commodity--he takes them in, and makes them part of his world. But then, that's how he gets Jenny, too.

An Education is the story of their romance, and of how Jenny comes out of it stronger and, for better or worse, wiser. It is based on a memoir by British writer Lynn Barber, remembering her teen years in Twickenham, London in the early 1960s; the screenplay adaptation is by ...Read the entire review