Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
The Mechanic
There’s a certain class of moviegoer—particularly those who don’t self-identify as action-film aficionados—that a certain breed of action-movie star, like The Rock or Jason Statham, nonetheless has the ability to schooool. (I’d throw Denzel Washington into the mix, but he also has the bona fides of a gen-u-wine actor.) Part of the equation is physical, [...]
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Thursday, January 13th, 2011
True Grit
Early on in the Coen brothers’ True Grit, the characters go to see a trio of desperadoes hang. As soon as the condemned Chocktaw opens his mouth to recite his last words, the executioner drapes a black hood over his head and the platform beneath gives way to kingdom come. It’s a sly trick—one that [...]
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Sunday, May 2nd, 2010
A Nightmare on Elm Street
There’s no dishonor in trying to improve upon Wes Craven’s classic A Nightmare on Elm Street; cloning it is another matter. It’s a form of ablation—using Freddy Krueger’s claws as surgical tools. The innards from the 1984 original have been removed, and placed, intact, in the gloomy frames that are meant to signify the present. [...]
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call—New Orleans
I can’t help but feel that, given the right circumstances, even the most sophisticated among us can devolve into reality-show contestants. When it was reported that Werner Herzog was making a movie based on Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant (1992), the latter basically said, “Oh no you di’-in’t,” and the former retorted, “I ain’t here to [...]
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Monday, February 15th, 2010
The Wolfman
If the hair on my knuckles spiked, the muscles in my back contorted, and I let out a bloodcurdling howl during The Wolfman, it was probably just a yawn. Maybe my failure of intuition—and unwarranted heeding of publicity—had left me crabby. But shouldn’t the remake of a 1941 monster-movie classic indulge in just a little [...]