Articles Posted in 2007
Martian Child
Weird is undervalued nowadays. With the homogenized ubiquity of frappuccinos and flat-front chinos, a good dose of odd is inviting, if not needed. This is what makes the inventive Martian Child so refreshing, fun and seemingly otherworldly. One of the most unique films of 2007, Martian Child envelops you with a warm and wide-eyed curiosity [...]
Michael Clayton
Beneath the innocuous moniker, “Michael Clayton” is actually a very different, interesting breed of thriller that people are either going to love, or just think it OK. (Really, it’s hard to hate any movie with George Clooney as the lead, save for “Solaris.”) The expected ‘this’ or ‘that’ reaction is due in large part to [...]
Heartbreak Kid
Vulgar comedy seems to be a successful ingredient to many a film lately, “Superbad” being the most outrageous example. The Farrelly brothers have included this seasoning by the truckload in their latest project, “Heartbreak Kid,” which is just about their best work yet. You set a pretty clear tone when an opening line from 80-something [...]
Trade
Debuting at the United Nations last week, “Trade” is a small film with a big mission. Kevin Kline anchors the story with his performance as Ray, a Texas policeman caught up in tracking down a network of internationals involved in the trafficking of children into sex slavery. Kline, along with German filmmaker Marco Kreuzpaintner, hope [...]
Resident Evil: Extinction
The third and presumably final chapter in one of the most successful video games-turned-motion pictures makes its bloody swan song, bringing back the exotic Milla Jovovich as the zombie zealot, Alice, on a mission to dead the undead. “Resident Evil: Extinction” is still laughably (thankfully) ridiculous, but much larger in scope and scale than its [...]
December Boys
Like the sketchy take-out joint down the street that strangely serves everything from pizzas to subs to Chinese — behind bulletproof class, no less — “December Boys” is one of those films that is to be approached with caution and only out of a nagging hunger (to see Daniel Radcliffe in something other than “Harry [...]
The Kingdom
Delivering a compelling movie that deals with the middle-east and the often-adjacent topic of terrorism is no easy feat given today’s global environment. Nevertheless, Peter Berg (actor/director) brings us “The Kingdom,” a stark, rapid-fire investigation surrounding the attack on a “green zone”-like community in Saudi Arabia, for which the FBI has arrived to root out [...]
Eastern Promises
Director David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen come together again in “Eastern Promises,” after the successful and dark “A History of Violence.” The combination of the two seems to produce some of the most vivid, methodic and violent dramas. “Eastern Promises” falls right in line with its exceptional brutality, unabashed story telling, and Mortensen’s enveloping persona, [...]
