1999 brought a full barge of teen movies, most of them corny, shallow duds (“She’s All That” anyone?). But amongst all that were a few gems like “Election”, “Rushmore”, and to a lesser extent, “Cruel…
Date Archives June 2005
LAYER CAKE
When the producer of Guy Ritchie’s movies makes his directorial debut, you have certain expect- ations. Is this gonna be another derivative, fast and furious, flashy but empty post-Tarantino gangster movie? Not quite. Michael Vaughn’s…
THE DIRECTORS SERIES (4)
“The director is always the guy who says, ‘Go with me up that hill, even though there is a machine gun stuck there shooting at us’.” 1974 Dark Star 21 “They are bored, their machines…
Big Fat Liar
Here’s a likable if not particularly memorable little family movie about Jason Shepherd, a 14 year old boy (played by Frankie “Malcolm in the Middle” Muniz) who’s always lying through his teeth. Then one day,…
BATMAN BEGINS
“Don’t be afraid.” Right from the first moments, the main impression that emanates from Christopher Nolan’s reboot of the Batman franchise is confidence. You’d think it’d be terrifying to touch this material after Joel Schumacher’s monumental…
THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS
“It was the pants’ destiny to find us.” This ridiculous early bit of narration made me feel even more embarrassed than I already was. I’m clearly not the target audience for this movie, a fact…