Zombie movies are so many light-years away from everything I care about that I faced World War Z with the kind of dread usually reserved for colonoscopies and root canals. But I am pleased to tell you that as zombie flicks go, this one goes down with fewer laughs and more artistry than most. The Read More
In the feel-good-with-a-tear-in-your-eye tradition of such polished, sentimental British films for grownups as Calendar Girls, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Quartet, along comes the polished, predictable but endearing Unfinished Song, a touching and joyous movie with the rare benefit of featuring Vanessa Redgrave and Terence Stamp at the top of their game. It’s about facing the inevitable consequences of age with dignity and grace, but the atmosphere is so relentlessly pleasant and life-affirming, even in life’s cruel third act, that the film is never depressing or maudlin, and sometimes it even makes you laugh. Read More
As trashy, pointless slice-and-dicers go, a grotesque chamber of horrors called Maniac has arty production values and features a creepy but sincere central performance by Elijah Wood (best known as Frodo in the Lord of the Rings cycle). But eventually it collapses in a gore fest of nauseating brutality that makes you wonder why they bothered at all. Read More
When Rex Reed published his now infamous review of Identity Thief, which referred to actress Melissa McCarthy as “tractor-sized” and “a hippo,” it provoked an intense reaction from readers. In fact, it was the most intense in Observer history, with more than 10,000 Facebook shares and countless hate-filled comments directed at Mr. Reed in defense of Ms. McCarthy. Read More
From South Africa, a better-than-average action thriller called Vehicle 19 pits blue-eyed, charismatic Paul Walker, star of the noisy, ridiculous Fast and Furious programmers (he’s currently leapfrogging this movie with Fast and Furious 6) against another car. The car loses, but only by a fender.
It opens with a police chase going the wrong way Read More
As a nauseating variation on the home-invasion theme, The Purge is as sickening as it is dreary. The year is too close for comfort (2022, to be exact) but the events are not as far-out as they seem. America has reached the saturation point of immortality, violence and destruction, and the government has passed a Read More
Just what we need now. Another movie about Superman. Man of Steel qualifies as one of those bloated, Byzantine summer blockbusters that is here today, gone by Labor Day. Now that I’ve seen it, clocking in at just under two and a half hours, I can file it under movies I never have to see Read More
The 31st Annual Fred and Adele Astaire Awards, which honored today’s beacons of Broadway dance, kicked off on Monday as any tribute to theater should: champagne flowed freely, cocktail rings gleamed and camera bulbs flashed as Marge Champion graced the staircase
Only a few minutes into the show at NYU’s Skirball Center, Rodgers & Hammerstein Read More
Robert Redford is back, as producer, director and star of The Company You Keep, and he must keep his talent preserved in a drawer with his old socks, because in the noxious ozone of today’s films, he adds some genuine class and intelligence to the amateurishness around us. A firm believer that big-screen entertainment can Read More
Set in the violent multiethnic working-class housing projects of East London, My Brother the Devil is about two British-born sons of an immigrant Egyptian bus driver struggling to keep their priorities straight and stay one foot ahead of the law—and death. It bears the familiar fingerprints of well-traveled London underworld pictures by directors like Guy Ritchie Read More
