Daily Archives: January 15, 2013

Perhaps “The Green Hornet” is director Michel Gondry’s mocking wink at masked heroes-obsessed Hollywood and the fanboys who made it that way.

There are these guys, see? And they’re dressed in slightly out-of-date suits, gray mostly. And they wear hats –each and every one of them, all the time. They dress like “Mad Men” and they’re led by a “Mad Men” star … Continue reading →

You might have noticed in recent decades how the movies seem to be bending over backwards to not offend Chinese sensibilities. Chinese villains are a thing of the past. “Red Dawn” had the North Koreans taking over a corner of … Continue reading →

The adorably hand-animated “My Dog Tulip” is based on a fictionalized memoir by the English writer J. R. Ackerley. The film features Christopher Plummer plummily narrating the story of how Ackerley, seeking that one perfect “friend,” sort of settled on … Continue reading →

What, exactly, was “Made in Dagenham,” the gigantic Ford factory in the UK, back in 1968? Nothing less than equal rights for women, Nigel Cole’s “Norma Rae from the UK” suggests. It’s a cheeky and uplifting “inspired-by-a-true-story” tale that overcomes … Continue reading →

The sometimes exuberant James Franco makes for an oddly muted Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in “Howl,” an all-star cast bio-pic about Ginsberg’s most famous poem and the 1957 obscenity trial it provoked. Documentary filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman attracted … Continue reading →

His posture, ramrod straight. His manners, impeccable. His breeding and entitlement obvious even if you don’t know his real name is Prince Albert Frederick Arthur George. But the client who has been signed up for speech therapy by his gently … Continue reading →

You’d better watch out. You’d better not swear. Have a gun handy, loaded for bear. Santa Claus is coming…to Finland.

Whose idea was it to turn those latter day Caribbean pirates Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy and (director) Gore Verbinski loose on a cartoon, ostensibly for kids? Because “Rango” requires some explanation. It is funny, inventive and downright daft. At times. … Continue reading →

Those “Hot Fuzz” Brits Simon Pegg and Nick Frost make their Hollywood debut with “Paul,” a sometimes amusing meet-the-alien farce that aims to be every fanboy’s wet dream. But it’s sort of their shot at a foul-mouthed pot-sex-bodily-functions- Judd Apatow-style … Continue reading →