Quickie: Sicko
Sicko (2007)–***1/2 Quickie Review Activist/filmmaker Michael Moore offers up stories from Americans whose interactions with the health insurance industry are..um…less than heartwarming. Poignant, disturbing and generally enlightening Moore’s Sicko is his least volatile film to date and his most affecting since Roger & Me. Citing deadly encounters with HMOs and other health insurance company tactics to maximize profit, Moore effortlessly connects the dots between America’s failing health and a rogue industry. The grand finale gimmick (taking 9/11 rescue workers to Guantanamo Bay to get the same health care as the “evil doers”) seems trivial when one rescue worker breaks down in a Cuban pharmacy after paying 5 cents for a prescription that costs $120 in the States. The demystifying of government-sponsored health care in Canada, Cuba, the United Kingdom and France is essential viewing. Roger &...
Read MoreMovie Review: Ratatouille
Ratatouille (2007)–**** There’s a scene in Ratatouille were a food critic is so overwhelmed by the food he eats that it alters his perception. It burrows deep in to his mind finding a moment so personal and pure that the food itself becomes the embodiment of all life’s joys. Anyone watching Ratatouille, director Brad Bird’s follow-up to his first Pixar animated film The Incredibles, will undoubtedly react the same way the food critic did. I loved Ratatouille. I loved its sharp and superlative animation. I loved its unexpected telling of a rather formulaic story. I loved the moments of slapstick humor and the darker moments of dread. In fact, it’s hard to find a part of this movie I didn’t love. When we are first introduced to Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a country rat with dreams of making...
Read MoreQuickie: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)–**1/2 Quickie Review The fantastic family faces relationship issues, near mutinies and a planet eating being that is heralded by a silver-colored man on a surf board. This superhero sequel is easily the most fun a moviegoer will have in the summer of 2007 thus far, hitting all the right notes without overexerting itself. For every cliché, there’s a moment of humor to act as a counterweight. And it’s actually better than the original. Starring Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd with Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne as the Silver...
Read MoreMovie Review: Brand Upon the Brain!
Brand Upon the Brain! is a searingly original cinematic marvel from visionary director Guy Maddin, one that can only be better when seen the way it was meant to be seen. When I saw the film, the music, Foley sound effects and narration were integrated into the feature, just like they would be in any other film. Maddin’s vision, one that became reality at film festivals and special engagements around the globe, was to have his autobiographical silent film accompanied live by orchestras, narrators and Foley artists. Oh, how I wish I had seen this film the way Maddin intended. As it stands, Brand Upon the Brain! is a brilliantly entertaining masterwork. To see it live must be an experience unequaled by anything in movie theaters today or in years. To some, the live rollout may sound a tad...
Read MoreMovie Review: Spider-Man 3
Spider-Man 3 (2007)–**1/2 What is it about the third movie in great superhero franchises? From Superman III to Batman Forever to X-Men: The Last Stand, entry number three always pales in comparison to its predecessors. Spider-Man 3 is no exception. With Sam Raimi again at the helm, Spider-Man 3 didn’t suffer from being handed over to another director like other threequels. Something else went wrong with this one. After making a fresh, exciting superhero film and the big B-movie he wanted to make, Raimi appears to have made a movie he had to make. It’s not without heart. It’s not without action. But for the first time in the series, it is without real passion. Even Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) is losing her passion in this third movie. As Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) grows in popularity, she watches her...
Read MoreMovie Review: Next
Next (2007)—No Stars There are certain things that I just don’t believe, even in a Hollywood movie. I don’t believe casino security would be dumber, slower and less connected than the FBI. Nor do I believe that an FBI with enough technology to make James Bond look ill-equipped would waste time and man-power finding a Vegas side show performer when a nuke was loose in L.A. Most of all, I don’t believe that Jessica Biel would ever get into a car alone with Nicolas Cage. Not ever. Not even if she was drunk. And especially not when Cage’s hair is worse than Tom Hanks’s do in The Da Vinci Code. Still, all these things are reality in Next, a bastardized, lobotomized version of the Philip K. Dick short story The Golden Man. Dick’s work has been adapted before into...
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