"Unfinished Song"
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
Starring Terrence Stamp, Vanessa Redgrave, Gemma Arteton, Christopher Eccleston, Orla Hill
Comedy, Drama, Music
93 Mins
PG-13
Piggybacking on the recent success of films skewing towards retirees, Unfinished Song is an unabashed play towards the tissue box. The tear-jerking gimmicks are all there; a bout of cancer, strained familial relationships, death in the family and heartfelt serenades; but Terence Stamp doesn't allow weepy schmaltz to drag his character down the maudlin road and drown in a glittery polish. Rather, Stamp gives it everything he's got and puts in one of the finer performances of his career. The pity is that his standout performance is surrounded by a film that just isn't very good.
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Film and the Arts
Film Review: "Pacific Rim"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Wednesday, 10 July 2013 21:58
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Pacific Rim"
Directed by Guillermo del Toro
Starring Charlie Hunnan, Idris Elba, Charlie Day, Rinko Kikuchi, Diego Klattenhoff, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman
Action, Adventure, Fantasty
131 Minutes
PG-13
Going in to this Guillermo del Toro-stampedcreature feature, there are clearly two routes we could be embarking down. Accepting the staunch inevitability that this sky-scraping blockbuster will most likely be dumb is key but, at the same time, we can't help but hope that it will be more than a mere spectacle-driven showdown between robots and monsters. It is with a heavy head that I tell you, Pacific Rim is not very good.
In his quest to make something that crosses the borders of nations and ages, del Toro taps into something else entirely; a pandering soap of an actioner leaning with all its weight on brazen, inconsequential destruction and shimmery, bang-em-up CGI. Missing a massive chance to tell a story that feels the least bit real, del Toro's chief offense is in crafting something that is more eye-rolling than entertaining. He settles on a wet dream of soapy, bathtub thrashings fueled by the seeming imaginative power of a candy-addled toddler. The one-liners are laughable, character motivation is as thin as the post-it notes this script seems to be made up of and even the mile-high action feels weightless and hollow. Like kids who've yet to develop a sense of empathy, this is an exercise in slamming action figures together until the pieces inevitably break.
July '13 Digital Week I
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 09 July 2013 02:01
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Inescapable
(IFC)
Ruba Nadda’s tidy thriller follows a father returning to Damascus—which he left a quarter century earlier for a new life in Toronto—to find his missing adult daughter, aided by a Canadian embassy rep who knows her (there’s a good moment when they have to identify a body and the emissary says it’s not her because the corpse doesn’t have a tattoo “where a father can’t see it”).
Film Review: "Despicable Me 2"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 08 July 2013 15:23
- Written by Matt Oakes
"Despicable Me 2"
Directed by Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Starring Steve Carrell, Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Moises Arias, Elsie Kate Fisher, Ken Jeong, Steve Coogan
Animation, Comedy, Crime
98 Mins
PG
It's hard to muster any more than a "meh" for Dreamwork's latest animated pic as Despicable Me 2 has accomplished very little. Capitalizing on ripe affection for the first entry, this follow-up falls deep into the sophomore slump...even though it's destined to earn one metric boatload of money. But rather than earning the sequel through must-be-told storytelling, this is a requisite afterthought - a blueprinted follow-through. Any semblance of inspired innovation is lacking and sidelined is the one element that gave the franchise launcher such unexpected heart - Gru's relationship with the girls. Shifting to a romantic plot and a moral re-alignment for Gru leaves this animated flick bland and over-reliant on color-by-numbers plot points punctuated with mindless slapstick gags.
Film Review: "Unfinished Song"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 05 July 2013 14:14
- Written by Matt Oakes
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