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Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
Earlier this year a documentary called “Project Nim” detailed the life and sad times of Nim Chimpsky, who was taken from his mother and taught sign language before being abandoned once he outlived his usefulness as a laboratory experiment. It would make a good double bill with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” a big budget prequel to the famous sci fi films. Man does ape wrong in “Project Nim,” and in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” the chimps get even.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
Project Nim,” a new documentary from Academy Award winning director James Marsh, is a portrait of an adopted child who goes on to have a troubled life. The twist here is that the child is a chimpanzee, removed from his mother’s care as an infant to be raised by humans as part of linguistics experiment.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent back in time to save the human race from a deadly virus that has forced mankind into dank underground communities in the future. Along his travels, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) and a mental patient, brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt, who may hold the key to the mysterious rogue group, the Army of the 12 Monkeys, thought to be responsible for unleashing the killer disease. Believing he can obtain a pure virus sample in order to find a cure in the future, he is met with one riddle after another that puts him in a race with time. This sci-fi masterpiece from the genius mind of Terry Gilliam is a modern-day classic.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
Earlier this year a documentary called “Project Nim” detailed the life and sad times of Nim Chimpsky, who was taken from his mother and taught sign language before being abandoned once he outlived his usefulness as a laboratory experiment. It would make a good double bill with “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” a big budget prequel to the famous sci fi films. Man does ape wrong in “Project Nim,” and in “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” the chimps get even.
Read full review!
Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
The plot of “30 Minutes of Less” is simple. That’s a good thing because this movie burns along at such a clip there isn’t much room left for subplots, story arcs or narrative aesthetics. It’s a bottle rocket, a small but entertaining burst of bad taste and action adventure.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #01
The action in “The Hangover Part 2” starts as so many bad benders do, with the simple words, “Come and have a drink with me and the guys” and ends after as debauched ride through the streets of Bangkok as has ever been committed to film. The first time around, in 2009, the day after the night before adventures of the Wolfpack—Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Ed Helms—was fresh, even charming in an alcoholic haze kind of way. This time out the guys have all the charm of stale beer breath.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #02
“Rocky,” the classic Sly Stalone movie set the template for many underdog sports movies that followed. How can you improve on the story? Add another Rocky! In the new MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) inspired film “Warrior” there’s two! two Rocky’s in one!
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #02
“Rocky,” the classic Sly Stalone movie set the template for many underdog sports movies that followed. How can you improve on the story? Add another Rocky! In the new MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) inspired film “Warrior” there’s two! two Rocky’s in one!
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #02
The title is a bit of a misnomer because the brother in question isn’t exactly an idiot. He’s more a trusting soul who naïve ways get him, and those around him, in trouble.
Paul Rudd plays Ned, a Mr. Nice Guy unsuited for life outside of his organic farm. Imagine R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural and you’ll get the picture. When he innocently sells marijuana to a uniformed policeman he is arrested and thrown in jail. His good nature stands him well in jail, where he earns an early release—he won Most Cooperative four months running. Unfortunately in his absence his hippie girlfriend found a new boyfriend and has decided that Willie Nelson, Ned’s beloved dog, is better off with her than with him. His three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Dechanel and Emily Mortimer) take turns putting a roof over his head, but in each case his willingness to believe the best in people causes chaos.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #02
The subtitle for “One Day,” a new romance starring Jim Sturgess and Anne Hathaway, should be “Carpe Diem!” Seize the day, it seems to be telling us, particularly if you’re in love.
Sturgess and Hathaway each affect English accents for their roles—his is real, her’s clearly isn’t—of people who meet on July 15, 1988 and play romantic cat and mouse for almost twenty years. In the beginning Hathaway is an earnest poet who thinks she can change the world. How earnest is she? She plays Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” as seduction music. That’s pretty earnest. He’s a rich kid with a yin yang symbol, representing the perfect union of opposites, tattooed on his ankle and, as it turns out on his heart. This pair of opposites spend most of their lives trying not to fall in love until one day, July 15th, no less, they take the leap.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #02
And the award for the most unnecessary movie of the week goes to…
In a summer jam packed with remakes, reboots and retro 80s nostalgia, along comes “Glee: The 3D Concert Movie,” and exercise in instant nostalgia. “Remember when we could sit around and watch “Glee” on TV every Tuesday night… Wait! We can do that now!”
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
Terrence Malick is probably the biggest name director whose movies you’ve never seen. His is the kind of name filmy types like to toss into conversations as a test to see how deep your knowledge of movies runs. Having made just five movies since 1973 he is less productive than a four toed sloth, but as a chef I know used to say, “do you want it fast, or do you want it good?”
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
Uncle Boonmee,” the Palme d'Or winning Thai film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is better seen than explained.
The surreal story of a man (Thanapat Saisaymar) dying of acute kidney failure is a marvelous and purposeful study of the meaning of life. As Uncle Boonmee explaores his past lives, searching for the reasons for his illness he is visited by spirit guides--his dead wife’s ghost (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) and his son who returns is manifested as a Monkey Ghost (Geerasak Kulhong) with glowing fiery eyes. Add in a horny catfish, the birthplace of his first life and some slapstick comedy and you have an entrancing look at life after death.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
The big mistake people will make about “Bridesmaids,” a new comedy starring an ensemble of female comedians headed by Kristen Wiig, is that it is a chick flick or a female version of “The Hangover.” It has elements of both, but is closer in spirit to “Knocked Up” or “The Forty Year Old Virgin;” heartfelt comedies that place the characters first and the laughs second.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
There is no shortage of John Lennon on celluloid. There are five official Beatles movies, documentaries like “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,” a 2006 movie that focuses on Lennon’s transformation from musician into antiwar activist, and even experimental short films like the John and Yoko shorts like “Two Virgins” and “Apotheosis.” He’s been portrayed by everyone from Paul Rudd (in “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story”) to Monty Python’s Eric Idle but rarely has any actor captured both Lennon’s rebelliousness and vulnerability as Aaron Johnson does in “Nowhere Boy.”
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
The world can be divided into two groups. People who would go see a movie titled “Hobo with a Shotgun” and people who wouldn’t. If you are in the former group you’ll likely love the movie. If not, well, perhaps go see “Jane Eyre” instead.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
Uncle Boonmee,” the Palme d'Or winning Thai film directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is better seen than explained.
The surreal story of a man (Thanapat Saisaymar) dying of acute kidney failure is a marvelous and purposeful study of the meaning of life. As Uncle Boonmee explaores his past lives, searching for the reasons for his illness he is visited by spirit guides--his dead wife’s ghost (Natthakarn Aphaiwonk) and his son who returns is manifested as a Monkey Ghost (Geerasak Kulhong) with glowing fiery eyes. Add in a horny catfish, the birthplace of his first life and some slapstick comedy and you have an entrancing look at life after death.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #03
Wikipedia defines survival as “the struggle to remain alive and living.” Next to that definition should be a picture of Aron Ralston, the poster boy for survival at any cost. His name may not ring a bell but his remarkable story of how he literally found himself between a rock and a hard place will make you wonder how far you would go to stay alive. You see, Ralston is the American mountain climber who was trapped by a boulder for five days in May 2003 and was only able to free himself by amputating his own arm. His story is told in unflinching detail in 127 Hours, starring James Franco, a film is so intense some audience members have suffered panic attacks and lightheadedness.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
I'm not going to suggest “What's Your Number?” is a great, or even good movie. It has a typical rom com plot gussied up with some Judd Apatow style barbs and some gratuitous shots of its almost naked stars, but it also has Anna Faris, and for me that's enough. She has crack comic timing and an unpredictable way with a line that takes a Kathryn Heigl level script and turns it into something watchable.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
In this unusual romantic comedy real life San Francisco singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura plays a heightened version of himself. When he is hired by actor Danny Turner (Chadd Stoops) to teach him how to convincingly play a musician for an upcoming movie role. The pair hit the road and when Goh’s high school girlfriend shows up at a gig, romantic complications ensue.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
Imagine if “American Pie” and “Risky Business” had a secret love child. That’s what “The Girl Next Door” feels like. It’s a raunchy teen comedy rescued by really charming performances from its leads, Emile Hirsch, who plays a straight A student who lives next door to a porn star, played by Elisha Cuthbert.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
Think about it; Las Vegas is the perfect place for a vampire to hang out. There are no castles or creepy forests but there are lots of potential victims who don't go out until the sun goes down. It's a town that lives at night which makes it the perfect place for Jerry (Colin Farrell) the new vampire in town.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
“Moneyball,” the new sports drama starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill, begins with the Mickey Mantle quote, “It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about a game you’ve played all your life.” The legendary New York Yankees outfielder and first baseman played eighteen seasons in the big leagues but likely wouldn’t recognize the game as played in this behind-the-scenes drama.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
The new documentary from “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim looks at the Irish rock band U2 at a turning point in their career. After the massive success of “The Joshua Tree” and the self importance of “Rattle and Hum” the band decided to regroup and refocus, leaving behind the "earnest po-faced men" of the 1980s. It was time to cut down the Joshua Tree, Bono says and embrace a new, fun direction. The result was “Achtung Baby,” an exploration of dance rock hat cemented their position as one of the world's most popular bands. The documentary, however, for all its talk leaving the joylessness of their middle period behind, is a rather joyless experience in itself.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
This gender bending version of one of Shakespeare’s classics from director Julie Taymor sees Helen Mirren as Prospera, a woman accused of witchcraft and banished. Beautiful looking, this movie suffers from too many special effects and not enough heart.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #04
This French movie features Donald Sutherland’s son Rossif as Jesus Christ and two women in love with a Dominican priest. God acting can’t save this dull but heartfelt film.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
In "Abduction," "Twilight" werewolf Taylor Lautner is Nathan, a typical teen who discovers his life isn't what he thought it was when he finds a photo of himself on a missing person's website. His investigation into the origin of the picture makes him a pawn in an international game of intrigue involving the CIA, an encrypted text message and the pretty girl from next door.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
In “The Ides of March,” George Clooney (who also directs) plays a Democratic Party candidate. He’s the kind of guy who would make the top of Bill O’Reilly’s head pop off. He’s pro-ecology, anti-oil. He wants to tax the rich and legalize gay marriage. If he leans any further left he'll topple over. Although Clooney has spoken out about many of these topics in real life, hasn't made a left wing fm. Instead he's made a warts and all political movie.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
Scorpion King 3: Was there a Scorpion King 2. Either way the newest addition to the Mummy franchise is further proof of the law of diminishing returns. The further away you get from the source, the worse the movie.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
Robotropolis: is a low-budget robots go nuts movie. With no stars, a familiar story and a few gruesome moments it will likely only appeal to robofans.
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Bucky Larson: Born to be a Star: is a Happy Madison production with all the good and bad that implies. Adam Sandler’s production company pumps out good natured but low rent comedies like this faster than Kim Kardashian can file for divorce, but like Kim’s marriage, this one is a bit of a train wreck.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
The story of a rock singer’s friend who didn’t make the leap to the big time, Killing Bono, is an enjoyable but slight look at the downside of obscurity. Most notable for Pete Postlethwaite’s final appearance as a lovable but campy character with a heart of gold.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #05
“Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” is likely the film that brought to life the image of the poor tormented former child star, living their years out of the spotlight as troubled, demented messes.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
Part Rock'em Sock'em Robots, part “Rocky” with a dollop of “Transformers,” “Real Steel” is a family drama about redemption, romance and robots.
Hugh Jackman is Charlie Kenton, a former boxer left behind when the game changed. To keep up with audience demand for more action promoters axed human fighters, replacing them with behemoth thousand pound battling bots. Kenton and his broken down robots barely eke out a living on the circuit, but he sees a chance at making some quick cash when his estranged son reenters his life.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
This documentary about O’Brien’s 32 city pity tour after being turfed as host of The Tonight Show could more rightly be called Multi Millionaires Just Wanna Have Fun. The flame haired host repeatedly says he took his act on the road to have fun, but why doesn’t look like he’s having any? Wedged between rehearsal, onstage and candid backstage footage is a portrait of a wounded man struggling with a grave personal and professional disappointment. It’s like watching someone go through a bad breakup for 90 minutes, with musical numbers and the odd joke. For all showbiz aficionados but primarily for Coco completeists.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
Director Brian De Palma is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s biggest fans, and in “Obsession,” his, well, obsession with the master of suspense’s film—“Vertigo” in particular—reaches its apex.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
I'm a bit of a sucker for things that go bump in the night. The "Paranormal Activity" movies have made a series (and a fortune) playing up on the fear of noises in the dark. The sound in the kitchen. The rustle of a curtain when the window is shut. No other movies have made the switching on and off of a light so sinister. Now, even though the series should be a little long in the tooth by now, the inventively named "Paranormal Activity 3," still made me jump.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
I'm a bit of a sucker for things that go bump in the night. The "Paranormal Activity" movies have made a series (and a fortune) playing up on the fear of noises in the dark. The sound in the kitchen. The rustle of a curtain when the window is shut. No other movies have made the switching on and off of a light so sinister. Now, even though the series should be a little long in the tooth by now, the inventively named "Paranormal Activity 3," still made me jump.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
Not since The Beverly Hillbillies' Miss Jane has there been such a bird crazy character. "The Big Year," a new comedy starring the tryptic of comics Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, is based on a true story of birders trying to break a world record.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
Best described as The Rum Diaries without Hunter S. Thompson, drugs or Johnny Depp, Beware the Gonzo is a battle of egos set at a high school newspaper. Starring Ezra Miller and Jesse McCartney, it’s better than your typical teen drama.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #06
The documentary follows two friends, Mitch and Eddie, who created a pre-internet worldwide phenomenon when they recorded their neighbours having loud hilarious arguments. The tapes spread far and wide and despite the story’s age—all this happened in 1987—this entertaining doc raises timely questions about our right to privacy…
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
Any new movie titled “The Thing” comes with baggage. The story of a creature that takes over the bodies of its victims—it literally is what it eats—has been filmed several times, first in 1951, then, most famously by John Carpenter, and now as a prequel, inventively titled “The Thing.” What to expect? Well, more and less of the same.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
“Spiderhole” is a down-and-dirty Irish horror film about four good looking students who take a page from the Occupy movement and squat in an abandoned building in lieu of paying rent.
“It’s unlawful, but not illegal,” says one of the great unwashed.
Unlawful, illegal… whatever. In a movie with a title like “Spiderhole” it’s entirely possible that something unpleasant is going to happen, and sure enough after some getting-to-know-you-scenes—ie: sex—they soon find themselves trapped, locked in.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
The Descent is scary. Run home to your Momma scary. Scream like a little girl scary. Close your eyes and think of something else scary. “Hold me, I’m scared” scary.
It’s the story of a group of thrill seeking female friends who meet a couple of times a year to climb mountains, base jump and leap out of planes. When we first meet them they are all happy, smiling broadly while white water rafting. This being a horror movie you just know that soon those smiles will be wiped off their faces.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
The key piece of dialogue in “Drive,” a new thriller starring Ryan Gostling, happens early on before any of the hard core action begins. Bernie Rose, a shady character played by Albert Brooks extends his hand to Gostling. The younger actor stares at the gesture of friendship for a moment before declining to shake. “My hands are a little dirty,” he says. “So are mine,” replies Rose.
That quick conversation tells us that nobody in this movie is above boards and they don’t care who knows it.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
"In Time," a new sci fi film starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, is as timely a movie as will be released this year. It's an allegory for the haves and the have nots. In this case 1% of the population controls 99% of the world's most precious commodity--time. Instead of occupying parks, however, our hero JT sets out get time back on his side.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #07
"In Time," a new sci fi film starring Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried, is as timely a movie as will be released this year. It's an allegory for the haves and the have nots. In this case 1% of the population controls 99% of the world's most precious commodity--time. Instead of occupying parks, however, our hero JT sets out get time back on his side.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
Coming from director Roland Emmerich, you might expect “Anonymous” to be a large scale action movie about the end of the world, a prehistoric beast or giant Japanese monster. Instead the German director has left the disaster motifs of his previous work behind and created a large scale period piece about the importance of literature set against a backdrop of intrigue and sexual peccadilloes in seventeenth century England.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
Imagine a cross between “Fight Club,” “Snatch” and the Hatfields and McCoys and you get the idea of what “Knuckle,” a new documentary about Irish bare knuckle brawlers, is all about.
Twelve years in the making it’s a document of a decades old feud between two families, he Quinn McDonaghs and the Joyce clan. They’ve been fighting for so long that neither side remembers what exactly started the fight, and neither do they care. They taunt one another in person or via video and brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles… everyone gets in on the action.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
The premise of “Caché,” a psychological thriller from German director Michael Haneke is unsettling. It explores how completely a couple’s lives can unravel when they are terrorized by an unknown voyeur who videotapes their comings-and- goings, revealing secrets about their lives.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
If you liked the oher Harold and Kumar movies you may et a kick out of this one, although the fun that made the first movie a stoner classic is stretched thin here.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
Light on story but big on attitude, Loveless is a midlife crisis romantic comedy that could have used a rewrite, but packs in enough enjoyment to be worth a download
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #08
The two Ellens, Barkin and Burstyn, headline a strong cast that includes Thomas Hayden Church and Demi Moore in a look at modern relationships. We’ve seen most of this before, but not always with such good performances.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #09
Hunter S. Thompson wrote “The Rum Diary” in 1961 before he became the revered gonzo journalist who penned “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” It’s very loosely based on a period of time he spent in San Juan, Puerto Rico in the early days of his writing career, before, as his alter ego Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) says in the film, he knew “who to write like me.”
So don’t expect the surreal poetry of “Fear and Loathing” or the disjointed charm of “Where the Buffalo Roam.” This is an origin story, the roots of gonzo, but the gonzo spirit of its creator is sadly missing.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #09
Punk rockers are people too. They may have authority issues, Mohawk haircuts and more ink than a printing press but many of them, including the stars of a new documentary called “The Other F-Word,” also have kids.
The movie focuses on Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Mark Hoppus from Blink-182, Ron Reyes from Black Flag, Tim McIlrath from Rise Against, and Lars Frederiksen from Rancid who mix and match a rock and roll lifestyle with the responsibilities of father hood.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #09
“The Atomic Café” isn’t exactly a documentary it is more an assemblage, a collection of clips culled from newsreels, 1950s television and government sponsored propaganda films.
Cleverly edited together with music and graphics, the film slyly promotes its anti-authoritarian agenda by illustrating how politicians in the upper echelons of government and corporations misled an entire population on the dangers of the nuclear age. It uses the politically provocative images of yesterday to remind the viewer that blind trust of authority leads to abuse of power.
So why is “The Atomic Café” is essential viewing? So a generation led to believe they could “duck and cover” to survive an atomic blast won’t et fooled again!
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #10
“The Way” is a way better movie than you would imagine from a director who was once a Brat Packer whose most famous character admitted to taping “Larry Lester's buns together” in “The Breakfast Club.” It’s also a family affair with Emilio Estevez directing his father Martin Sheen in the lead role.
Sheen plays Tom, a complacent optometrist whose adult son (Estevez) is killed in a freak accident while walking El camino de Santiago from France to Spain. After collecting his son’s ashes in France Tom decides to continue his son’s journey and walk the 800 plus km pilgrimage.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #10
No, “Martha Marcy May Marlene” isn’t about four alliteratively named sisters, it’s a psychological thriller about a young woman suffering from delusions and paranoia after escaping from an abusive cult in the Catskill Mountains and returning to her family and normal life. Her real name is Martha, Marcy May is her cult name and Marlene is a cult code name.
This chilling drama is a showcase for the talents of its star Elizabeth Olsen. She has older, more famous twin sisters, but the kid stuff that made her sibling’s billionaires has been left behind. Instead she plays a damaged woman in a serious film. Her spiritual journey has come to an end and now she must begin a dangerous physical journey to get away from her captors.
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Enter the category for this item: Episode #10
Everybody loves “The Wizard of Oz,” the classic 1939 film about Dorothy’s (Judy Garland) spiritual journey down the yellow brick road. That’s right, I said spiritual journey. Read into the movie what you will, but her pilgrimage seems to have elements borrowed from Buddhism, New Age and Christian belief systems.
Could Glenda the Good Witch of the North, who sends Dorothy on her journey be a Zen Master? Possibly. Do her ruby slipper represent the Buddhist inner spark?
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TWOM: Episode #10 - SPIRITUAL PATH
An irreverent weekly video podcast hosted by Canadian film critic Richard Crouse, highlighting and reviewing the latest movie releases available on the iTunes store. THIS WEEK ON MOVIES offers a lively mix of reviews, facts and clips. Crouse shares his perspective on a wide variety of film content, from 'must-see' classics to current blockbusters.
In addition to Crouse's reviews, Brooklyn, NY based filmmaker Kendra Elliot will offer an offbeat installment of "Celebrity Picks".
