By Rex Reed 9/18/12 5:18pm

movies

Adams and Eastwood in Trouble with the Curve.

A Swing, and a Miss: Eastwood’s Late-Inning Rally Stifled by Lazy Gameplan as He Has Trouble with the Curve

In the often illustrious career oeuvre of Clint Eastwood, Trouble with the Curve is a minor entry, a cinematic footnote. Worse yet, the screenplay and first-time direction, by Mr. Eastwood’s friend and long-time producing partner Robert Lorenz, seems like a loyalty benefit, a lazy afterthought. After such post-Dirty Harry triumphs as Unforgiven, Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby, color it disappointing.  Read More

By Rex Reed 11/22/11 10:59am

movies

THE_ARTIST_Photo_Caption_Sheet(3)

The Artist. Black and White. French. Silent. What Isn’t There to Like?

Already the darling of film festivals  everywhere, The Artist arrives on a crest of raves to kick off the holiday season in time to be justly heralded as one of the best films of 2011. A silent film from France about Hollywood? In black and white? I can see the eyebrows curl before the ink is dry. But get ready for a smash hit. Gimmicky but delicious, this is a valentine to the movies I promise you will cherish. The standing ovations it’s been getting are well deserved.

It’s Singin’ in the Rain without the songs or the hilarious voice of Jean Hagen. Read More

By Andrew Wood 8/17/11 2:11pm

Cult Classics

From left, T-Bone Burnett, John Turturro, Julianne Moore, Jeff Bridges, John Goodman and Steve Buscemi. (Diane Bondareff/AP Images for Universal Studios Home Entertainment).

Lebowski Fest, Dude

White Russians were flowing by the pre-made bottle at last night’s Lebowski Fest at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th Street.

“I’m not sure why we are even offering a full bar,” the bartender told The Observer. As we took our creamy libations from her, an unshaven man donning a bathrobe, jellies and sunglasses pushed by Read More

By Rex Reed 5/06/08 3:59pm

Cough! Ptooey! Frantic Speed Racer Spews Toxic Fumes

SPEED RACER
Running Time 129 minutes
Written and directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski
Starring Emile Hirsch, Susan Sarandon, Christina Ricci, John Goodman

Even for summer trash, this abomination by the creatively challenged Wachowski brothers is a train wreck so bad that words literally fail me, but I will say it Read More

By Irina Aleksander 5/05/08 3:59pm

Tribeca Film Festival Ends With Speed Racer

The Tribeca Film Festival went as it had come: with another glitzy premiere.

Merely two weeks after the festival encroached on our city with the much-hyped premiere of Baby Mama, the Wachowski brothers’ Speed Racer closed the festivities to an equally if not more star-treaded red carpet and winding line of Read More