Title Tws summary ▲ Trust Year Viewable | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A hypocritical indictment of conspicuous consumption, this bargain-basement satire never strikes beyond the obvious. Nominally attempting to bury the cult of brands, The Joneses instead praises them – name dropping and extolling cars, fragrances, golf clubs and all the effluvia touted in the a…
WikChip Image
Amber Heard: Generic hottie, generic ...
|
||||||
Great concept, strong cast, crummy movie. I’m probably not part of this movie’s target market, though I loved Thelma & Louise. But I found Mad Money silly and boring. Even as an airplane movie, it barely passed the time.
|
||||||
The NY Times’ take on the banking crisis endgame gets reenacted in this made-for-HBO docudrama. Notwithstanding the Big Lie told in the middle, the movie otherwise seems to competently essay the mechanics of the fall of Lehman Brothers, AIG and the imposition of TARP. The Big Lie comes when t…
WikChip Image
Tim Geithner: Mr. Too-Big-To-Fail him...
|
||||||
Second-rate performances by first-rate stars in a second-rate thriller with a heavy-handed political agenda make Arbitrage a third-rate movie. Don’t believe the praise it’s received from the Mainstream Media. They’re in love with writer-director Nicholas Jarecki’s politics more than his movie…
WikChip Image
The movie's lone shining star: Tim Roth
|
||||||
Enron’s rise and fall gets reprised in this dolorous documentary. Unfortunately there’s little new here for those who followed the debacle when it went down. Worse, the narrative is marred by a blanket sense of sanctimonious disgust and the testimony of at least one disgraced antagonist, convic… |
||||||
The legendary chef behind a Michelin Three Star sushi restaurant gets profiled in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. Indeed, Jiro Ono does dream of sushi, and has for most of his 85 years. Unfortunately his BioDoc is too subtle for its own good, even given its zen subject. It also focuses as much on Ji…
WikChip Image
Jiro's Dreamy Sushi
|
||||||
The Intouchables clearly plays better in its native France than to we Americans. There it is a cultural sensation that bridges the divide between an immigrant underclass and wealthy patricians, the former living in bleak suburban projects, the latter in central Paris. Featuring big French sta…
WikChip Image
"You're going to buy that?!"
|
||||||
Anybody seen a golden Hollywood crown? Tom Hanks lost his by directing, starring in and co-writing this disappointing dramedy. Notwithstanding Hanks having Hanks – the most likable leading man this side of Jimmy Stewart – and a resonant au courant theme, Larry Crowne barely rises to second ra…
WikChip Image
Hanks in a red shirt sells the movie.
|
||||||
Starts out with a big splash (pun intended) of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Big waves, lots of confusion, and a tremendous amount of human suffering. If this weren’t billed as a true story, I would have dismissed what happened next as too circumstantial and fabricated. The movie quickly evol…
|
||||||
This modestly intriguing drama – about a disconsolate frump who befriends a sympathetic illegal alien – never catches fire, ultimately falling prey to a thin story, foolish outrage about a supposed injustice, and an insufficiently charismatic cast. The movie’s highpoint – a joyful celebration …
WikChip Image
Fleeting joy in this downbeat movie.
|