However, those who have seen the original may wish to approach this version only to witness what Fincher brings to it, as the story remains unchanged in all but minor details. Many scenes seem shot on the very sets of Niels Arden Oplev’s 2009 film. What Fincher grants is a sharper, crisper look; a brisker […]
Rod Lott
Posted inArts & Culture
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol
In fact, so ridiculously entertaining is this fourth chapter of an uneven franchise, it may very well make my list of the year’s best films. This is pure Hollywood product at its unapologetic, blockbusting best. Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, now sprung from a Russian prison to infiltrate the Kremlin and prevent […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol
In fact, so ridiculously entertaining is this fourth chapter of an uneven franchise, it may very well make my list of the year’s best films. This is pure Hollywood product at its unapologetic, blockbusting best. Tom Cruise returns as IMF agent Ethan Hunt, now sprung from a Russian prison to infiltrate the Kremlin and prevent […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Last Hard Men / Sky Riders
Neither, however, was really all that good. “The Last Hard Men” — snicker, snicker — is an update of the traditional Western, in which Coburn sets himself free of a prison chain gang using a railroad spike so he can exact revenge on a retired lawman (Charlton Heston, gruff as ever and hiding behind one monster […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Last Hard Men / Sky Riders
Neither, however, was really all that good. “The Last Hard Men” — snicker, snicker — is an update of the traditional Western, in which Coburn sets himself free of a prison chain gang using a railroad spike so he can exact revenge on a retired lawman (Charlton Heston, gruff as ever and hiding behind one monster […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bobby Fischer Against the World
The man was Bobby Fischer, a notoriously private guy who nonetheless became a global superstar in 1972 for unseating Russia’s Boris Spassky for the world championship in chess, so perhaps it’s not so inappropriate that a documentary about his life begin unfolding to the famous funk groove of Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft.” For a brief time, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Bobby Fischer Against the World
The man was Bobby Fischer, a notoriously private guy who nonetheless became a global superstar in 1972 for unseating Russia’s Boris Spassky for the world championship in chess, so perhaps it’s not so inappropriate that a documentary about his life begin unfolding to the famous funk groove of Isaac Hayes’ “Shaft.” For a brief time, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Captain America / Captain America II: Death Too Soon
The bigger question — to me, at least — was, “Hey, what about those two equally terrible but highly amusing made-for-TV movies CBS aired in the late ’70s?” The good people at Shout! Factory must have heard my cries, piggybacking off the summer hit’s home-vid release with a two-fer DVD of 1979’s “Captain America” and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Captain America / Captain America II: Death Too Soon
The bigger question — to me, at least — was, “Hey, what about those two equally terrible but highly amusing made-for-TV movies CBS aired in the late ’70s?” The good people at Shout! Factory must have heard my cries, piggybacking off the summer hit’s home-vid release with a two-fer DVD of 1979’s “Captain America” and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Klown Kamp Massacre
At the grand re-opening of Klown Kamp at Camp Sparking Lake — long “closed due to death curse” — many a wannabe clown meets his maker in a grisly manner, such as a seltzer bottle full of face-melting acid. Naturally, the debut film from the directorial team of Daniel Valdez and Philip Gunn is primarily […]