The Conspirator is a film that is very sure of its genre placement, and takes great pride in it. Alongside such films as Spielberg's Amistad, and Scorsese's Gangs of New York, Robert Redford's The Conspirator is a film that finds a big name in the director's chair, putting out a movie that is ultimately rather boring, and falls flat on a variety of film-making fronts. Part of the genre's creed is … [Read more...]
As I left the theater after X-Men: First Class, the song Everything Zen by Bush came on, and whether you believe in God, or perhaps just curious brownies who muck with the random feature on iPhones, that was a little weird. The song is only absent from the film's soundtrack, because films aren't allowed to be that self aware. Not only does Charles Xavier wax philosophic about the Zen of mutant … [Read more...]
The trailer has hit, and The X-Men are the talk of the town again. I'm a little mixed on this one, and I'm not sure the trailer helps all that much, but let me know what you think. The first two films weren't bad at all, and the third was decent, I suppose. The new direction has obvious potential, but I wonder how far it will be able to get past the "gimmick." On the other hand, I'm a bit of a … [Read more...]
It's a brave collective of souls that takes on the challenge (or perhaps folly) of putting together a film based on the end of a life of someone who wrote a book no one actually reads, and solidly held a view no one wants to hear. In order to dodge some of the pitfalls of such a crazy undertaking, The Last Station is actually not so much a story about Leo Tolstoy (Christopher Plummer), but is … [Read more...]
