"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 Review: "Unfinished Song"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Friday, 05 July 2013 14:14
- Written by Matt Oakes
Film Review: "The Lone Ranger"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 02 July 2013 02:46
- Written by Matt Oakes
"The Lone Ranger"
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Starring Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, Mason Cook
Action, Adventure, Western
149 Mins
PG-13
Directed by Gore Verbinski
Starring Armie Hammer, Johnny Depp, William Fichtner, Ruth Wilson, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Wilkinson, James Badge Dale, Barry Pepper, Mason Cook
Action, Adventure, Western
149 Mins
PG-13
One of the many problems The Lone Ranger faces is that it doesn't feel modern. The Wild West that audiences have begun to again embrace with films like True Grit and Django Unchained thrive not because of their niche western setting but because of their steadily unique voice. In a genre where everything has been done before, they divided and conquered simply by doing something audiences haven't seen before.
In The Lone Ranger, everything feels retread, tired, and ready to boot. As a winking tribute of sorts, it works to an extent, but tonally it's stretched like an old rubber band ready to snap. The souring riff on the noble savage, played with tone-deaf readiness by Hollywood's favorite eccentric, Johnny Depp, is off-putting, head-scratching, mildly offensive and entirely dated. The kitschy elements of the 1930s icon could have been celebrated and preserved, even in light of a modernized overhaul, but instead director Gore Verbinski and go-to cohort Johnny Depp have gone for broke and come up with bags of sand.
June '13 Digital Week V
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 01 July 2013 01:27
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Call the Midwife—Complete Season 2
(BBC Home Entertainment)
In this series’ second season, more babies are born as midwife Jenny Lee continues doing God’s work in the poorest areas of London. This is a show that’s unafraid to be sentimental and melodramatic, but even if it leaves me cold, the acting is of such high caliber that it works to a point as soap opera.
Film Review: "The Heat"
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Thursday, 27 June 2013 04:00
- Written by Matt Oakes
"The Heat"
Directed by Paul Feig
Starring Melissa McCarthy, Sandra Bullock, Demián Bichir, Marlon Wayans, Michael Rapaport, Thomas F. Wilson, Tony Hale, Kaitlin Olson
Action, Comedy, Crime
117 Mins
R
After working on television series such as The Office, Weeds and Bored to Death, director Paul Feig emerged as a voice for a very particular brand of female comedy with Bridesmaids that has extended somewhat over into The Heat, but the ruse is up. Attempting to subvert status quo, Feig has executed a whitewash rebranding of the female comedy, collapsing gender norms and racial stereotypes into a generic mass so indistinct and overextending that it'll be a miracle if he hasn't set back the female comedy 20 years. While there are genuine moments of laugh-out-loud comedy to be had throughout, the female buddy cop angle is overdone and coated in a saccharine glaze. Top that off with a ceaseless dose of broad and overbearing comedy, a total of exactly 190 useless f-bombs and "action" situations so fantastical that the sense of stakes melts in your mouth like a filet mignon and you have a film just beating you over the head with a dead fish to the point of surrender.
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