Monthly Archives: July 2014

Brendan Gleeson had just finished another movie and showed up, “exhausted,” to don a cassock to play an Irish Catholic priest in “Calvary.” He’d done his homework, as always. And he’d be working with his pal, playwright turned writer-director John … Continue reading →

Be a real tragedy if this documentary about the Nic Cage/Tim Burton “Superman Lives!” movie that never was never finished. A tragedy.

A plus-sized stand-up gets by on very thin material in “The Fluffy Movie,” a concert film built on the comic stylings of Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias. His set-ups take forever, his transitions between stories are natural, but drag on forever. And … Continue reading →

So for starters, no WAY Brett Ratner’s generic, dull and listless “Hercules” (alas, the same can be said for “The Artist Formerly Known as The Rock”) is better than the other popcorn picture opening this last weekend of July — … Continue reading →

It was a bra-less age, when men wore skirts of leather, planted their feet and commenced to speechifying. About heroic deeds, which they made up, or at least exaggerated — in Greek. This is the world of “Hercules,” a B-movie … Continue reading →

Two old pros show the kids how chemistry works in a romantic comedy in “And So It Goes,” a love-the-last-time-around romp that’ll give its target audience the warm fuzzies. Diane Keaton dons one stylishly kicky outfit after another — hats … Continue reading →

Those of us waiting for Woody Allen’s return to nostalgia after “Midnight in Paris,” fans who figure his love of 1920s “Hot Jazz” and theatrical, dated dialogue make him most at home with period pieces, are in for something of … Continue reading →

After a decade when the only person to take her seriously was Woody Allen, Scarlett Johansson seems to have found her groove of late, with the new actioner “Lucy” as further confirmation of her niche. She’s been a poker-faced Russian … Continue reading →

You can sense a John le Carre spy novel adaptation, often before his name turns up in the credits. The hero’s cynicism at war with his skepticism, the professionalism at war with personal demons — in the spy master’s gloomy, … Continue reading →