Tag: comedy
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Saturday, December 21st, 2013 Film Reviews,It has been a whopping nine years since Will Ferrell starred in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). This is an eternity compared to the speed with which Hollywood usually serves up sequels, although the delay may simply be due to the huge volume of film and TV work the hyperactive Ferrell has undertaken […]
American Hustle
Saturday, December 14th, 2013 Film Reviews,There’s something irresistible in a wellmade film about con artists, who are invariably portrayed in a sympathetic light. Perhaps there’s not much difference between them, actors and directors. Filmmakers set out to con the viewer by creating an illusion, setting false trails and expectations. We, in turn, are happy to be conned. There are plenty […]
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Saturday, November 16th, 2013 Film Reviews,“All vulgarity is crime,” wrote Oscar Wilde. “Vulgarity is the conduct of others.” One wonders what Wilde might have made of Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – a film that has confounded everyone by surging to the top of the United States box office. He may have seen it as affirmation of another witticism: “America is […]
I'm So Excited & Salinger
Saturday, September 21st, 2013 Film Reviews,It’s slightly disturbing to be sitting on a airplane writing about I’m So Excited, set almost entirely on an airplane. It could’ve been worse. There are real life docu-dramas such as United 93, where one spends the whole movie waiting for the plane to thump into a field in Pennsylvania. I’m So Excited is a […]
Blue Jasmine & Mood Indigo
Saturday, September 14th, 2013 Film Reviews, Uncategorized,There are directors who enjoy a special rapport with actors, being able to coax memorable performances from the most unpromising talent. On the opposite side of the ledger are those such as Baz Luhrmann, who can assemble an all-star cast and turn everyone into a cardboard cut-out. Woody Allen is the joker in the pack. […]
The World's End & Greetings From Tim Buckley
Saturday, August 3rd, 2013 Film Reviews,There could hardly be a better setting for a movie called The World’s End, than a provincial English town. Regardless of the picturesque, ‘ye olde’ touches, many of those who spent their childhood in these soulless hamlets have fled like refugees from a scene of social disaster. It may not be entirely coincidental that director, […]
Behind the Candelabra & What's in a Name?
Saturday, July 27th, 2013 Film Reviews,It is almost impossible to explain Liberace to anyone under thirty. A walking Christmas tree decked out in rhinestones, sequins, furs and ostrich feathers, with a bouffant wig the size of Uluru, Liberace had millions of fans who never suspected he was gay. When newspapers dared make such slanderous accusations he sued them and won. […]
We Steal Secrets, A Gun in Each Hand, Pacific Rim
Saturday, July 13th, 2013 Film Reviews,If ever you had a sneaking feeling that Julian Assange was not the ultimate hero and martyr of our time, Alex Gibney’s We Steal Secrets will turn suspicion into certainty. The portrait of the WikiLeaks founder that emerges from this documentary reveals a man whose quest for truth has become an exercise in personal propaganda. […]
The Look of Love & In the House
Saturday, June 29th, 2013 Film Reviews,“I started out with a mind-reading act,” says Paul Raymond, ‘the King of Soho’. “I soon realised that people liked to look at attractive girls, and they liked it even more if the girls had no clothes on. So in that sense, and in that sense alone, I could read people’s minds.”The producers of The […]
After Earth & The Internship
Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 Film Reviews,According to British market analyst, Nick Meaney, an incontrovertible algorithm reveals that any film starring Will Smith is guaranteed to make money. No sooner had we imbibed this piece of scientific wisdom than Smith appeared in After Earth, a movie of incontrovertible mediocrity that suggests the algorithm is a dud. No one ever claimed a […]