![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() The NY Times’ take on the banking crisis endgame gets reenacted in this made-for-HBO docudrama. Notwithstanding the Big Lie told in the middle, the movie otherwise seems to competently essay the mechanics of the fall of Lehman Brothers, AIG and the imposition of TARP. The Big Lie comes when t…
WikChip Image
Tim Geithner: Mr. Too-Big-To-Fail him...
|
||||||
![]() Me and Orson Welles is a disappointing, amateurish effort from the heretofore redoubtable Richard Linklater. Sadly the writing and acting weigh down whatever directing talents Linklater brought to the production. Ironically, for a movie that celebrates acting, the acting is just OK.
WikChip Image
Welles as Brutus in the Mercury's 'Ca...
|
||||||
![]() The Intouchables clearly plays better in its native France than to we Americans. There it is a cultural sensation that bridges the divide between an immigrant underclass and wealthy patricians, the former living in bleak suburban projects, the latter in central Paris. Featuring big French sta…
WikChip Image
"You're going to buy that?!"
|
||||||
![]() I can’t say much more than simply see this documentary if you are either a Doors fan or a fan of 60’s and 70’s music lore. The iconic Jim Morrison had a mind that few could fully understand; The poetry in his music and the unpredictability of his life is something that many will talk about… |
||||||
![]() The Band was a throwback during their Sixties heyday. Half a century later, they seem doubly backdated. Thus this documentary about their best album is worth seeking out only for true fans. For a onetime casual fan like me, it was mildly interesting and minimally affecting. Still, _The Nigh…
WikChip Video
The Band do The Weight at Woodstock
|
||||||
Visually scintillating, musically avant-garde, dramatically turgid: This biopic of two cultural giants goes down like Brussels sprouts instead of foie gras. IOW, it takes effort to work through the two hour running time, when it should feel like savoring a rich delicacy. Pity, since Coco & Igor…
WikChip Image
Great design barely trumps turgid drama.
|
||||||
![]() Starts out with a big splash (pun intended) of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Big waves, lots of confusion, and a tremendous amount of human suffering. If this weren’t billed as a true story, I would have dismissed what happened next as too circumstantial and fabricated. The movie quickly evol…
|
||||||
![]() Stately to a fault, reverential to an extreme, The Grandmaster is kung fu cinema elevated to formal art. Stodginess aside, it no doubt lingers in the mind’s eye of hard core kung fu fans, let alone for the legendary Ip Man’s disciples. For the rest of us – focused on the Bruce Lee connection …
WikChip Image
Hey, isn't that little Bruce Lee?
|
||||||
![]() Ip Man 2 was supposed to focus on the legendary Grandmaster’s relationship with Bruce Lee, his most famous disciple. But Lee’s descendants didn’t go along with the plan, so the movie ends up being about Ip Man’s post-war struggles to establish Wing Chun kung fu in colonial Hong Kong. The resul…
WikChip Image
Ip Man teaches Wing Chun kung fu
|
||||||
![]() Instead of a serious “Saving Private Ryan†we get a semi-humorous “Saving Claude Monetâ€. The story is decent, send in a platoon of art experts to save the world’s gems from Nazi tyranny. However the execution is “meh.†With a cast like the one presented, I expected more in the com…
|