By Drew Grant 8/14/12 5:17pm

movie reviews

'The Campaign' (Warner Bros.)

Red State, Blue State: The Campaign Finds Comfortable Seat As a Cut-and-Dried Will Ferrell Vehicle

Game Change director Jay Roach’s new political comedy, The Campaign, is a good film, though it might disappoint viewers who came to see a scathing satire of our current political climate. The Will Ferrell vehicle has less to do with the upcoming election cycle—or even politics in general—than it does with paying homage to the Aesop’s Fables films of the ’80s, in which the hapless tortoise was plucked from relative obscurity by the nefarious powers that be to replace the cocky, no-longer-cooperative hare.

Primary Colors, this is not. Read More

By Andrew Sarris 7/29/02 12:00am

Austin Powers Is Back With A Frenzy of Cesspool Humor

Jay Roach’s Austin Powers in Goldmember , from a screenplay by Mr. Myers and Michael McCullers, comes with an admonition from the producers to critics not to reveal the names of the surprise star-cameo participants in the proceedings. Since these provide just about the only laughs in the movie, it would be churlish of me Read More

By Andrew Sarris 10/04/99 12:00am

A Once-Upon-a-Time Fable With the Wrong Cast

Jay Roach’s Mystery, Alaska , from a screenplay by David E. Kelley and Sean O’Byrne, was not actually shot in Alaska but in an artificial, set-simulated town nestled in the real town of Canmore in Alberta, Canada. According to the production notes, production designer Rusty Smith chose this location for all the lavish make-believe construction Read More