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| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
27890 |
| Total Ratings: |
245772 |
| Total Reviews: |
26604 |
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| MAPS TO THE STARS |
"Fast Company or Western Promises"
Peter Sobczynski says... "Over the years, there have been any number of films satirizing the inner workings of Hollywood moviemaking machine and the weirdos that populate both sides of the camera. Some very good ones have emerged during that time but the problem with a lot of them is that they are made by people who presumably still have to go on working within the industry--in an effort to ensure that they can still go on working, the resulting satire is either so overblown that it just becomes silly or so toothless that not even the most sensitive of artistic souls could possibly take offense. For example, I think that many of us can agree that one of the great comedic minds of our time is Christopher Guest, the man behind such classics as "Waiting for Guffman," "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind," films that have demonstrated a noticeably keen and biting wit. And yet, at two points in his career, he has offered up satirical looks at the film industry, "The Big Picture" and "For Your Consideration" and while both films have their good points (the former has a supporting performance from Martin Short as a manic agent as high-maintenance as his clients ("I'll have a thimbleful of the almond torte") that may be one of the best things he has done on film that you probably haven't seen), neither one ever comes close to hitting the heights Guest is clearly capable of achieving. Therefore, the best Hollywood satires are the ones that have come from either those who are so powerful in the industry that they can say whatever they want and get away with it (as was the case when Billy Wilder made his classic "Sunset Boulevard") or are at such profound odds with the industry that they have nothing to lose by telling it the way they think it is (as is what happened when perennial maverick Robert Altman unloaded on the contemporary studio mentality with "The Player" and unexpectedly scored one of the biggest hits of his career)." (more)
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| LAZARUS EFFECT, THE |
"Could come back to life, but it dies here."
Jay Seaver says... "There's a thing that sometimes happens where a movie under-performs but the name apparently has just enough value that whoever winds up with the rights makes a direct-to-video sequel, or two, or more, with tiny budgets that maybe allow one person from low in the original's cast to return and probably doesn't bring the original writers and directors back. But, perhaps, they do get the same guy to a few of them, he or she goes off in a new direction, and they develop a small but hard-core fanbase that tells you the sequels are really great and just ignore the first one. "The Lazarus Effect" has great potential along those lines, and it's a shame about the movie itself." (more)
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| MAPS TO THE STARS |
"Should have stayed off the map."
Jay Seaver says... "Hollywood stories can be self-indulgent or snide, depending on what sort of axes the people making them have to grind, rarely managing to hit the sweet spot in the middle. What they seldom are, though, is extraneous, but that's what happens with "Maps to the Stars" - there's one track that's a nifty little story with some potential. Whenever it gets into stuff that's specifically about the movie business, on the other hand, one can't help but be reminded that David Cronenberg used to make things far more original than this." (more)
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| SNOW GIRL AND THE DARK CRYSTAL |
"I'm not sure what's going on here, but it looks great."
Jay Seaver says... "Maybe the best way to describe "Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and the Dark Crystal" (to give it the full name that appears on-screen) is to imagine if Ray Harryhausen had been born in China, making the sort of weird fantasies that were popular in Hong Kong in the 1970s, only he had access to twenty-first century CGI and performance capture. It's rough and all over the place, but also a fair amount of fun." (more)
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| LA MALA, A |
"Cute, not cruel."
Jay Seaver says... "There are a lot of romantic comedies that start from from premises as ludicrous as that of "A la Mala", but few of them do as well in selling that starting point. It's a goofy little thing, but it's got a cute couple at the center and makes enough nimble steps along the way to be a great deal of fun." (more)
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| FOCUS (2015) |
"No "Maudlin's Eleven""
Peter Sobczynski says... ""Focus" is a film in which Will Smith plays an ultra-slick con man who embarks on an elaborate scheme to relieve someone with more money than common sense of millions of dollars utilizing charm, bluster and a story that even the most gullible of individuals might find themselves questioning at times if it was put forth to them. (No, there is no truth to the rumor that it was originally intended to be titled "The Making of After Earth.") In theory, this sounds like it might have the makings for a reasonably diverting night at the movies but somewhere along the lines between conception and execution, something clearly went horribly wrong because the end result is a smug, soulless and deeply annoying contraption that spends too much time trying to throw its increasingly implausible narrative curveballs at the audience and not nearly enough time giving them a story or characters that they can invest enough interest in so that they can at least be somewhat surprised by the relentless rug-pulling on display." (more)
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| HISTORY OF TIME TRAVEL, THE |
"It's a gimmick, but it's a good one."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2015 BOSTON SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL: Mock documentaries are inherently gimmick movies; it is a rare one that does not crash hard up against the form's limitations, and when that happens, it doesn't matter whether the disappointment comes from the filmmaker having to cheat or the presentation just fizzling out. "The History of Time Travel" inevitably paints itself into a corner, but unlike most cases, that's where it wants to be." (more)
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| ROBOT OVERLORDS |
"Bland isn't the worst thing a B-movie can be, but it's close."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2015 BOSTON SCI-FI FILM FESTIVAL: I don't miss the days when science fiction films tended to be obviously cheap productions with second-class actors and effects, but it was a lot easier to spot a disposable B-movie then. Now decent effects are maybe not cheap but they're not out of reach, and people who have had some success will sign up rather than see it as beneath them. Thus you get things like "Robot Overlords", more capable than its ancestors but still not much more than filler at best." (more)
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CRITICWATCH - QUOTE WHORES COME INTO FOCUS IN 2015
by Erik Childress |
| "Will Smith is back in theaters this weekend after almost two years off - not counting his career-defining cameo as Satan in last year's Winter's Tale. Criticwatch is also back after a rather slow 2014 on the article front but just a couple of months off since announcing last year's quote whores of the year and offering another retrospective on why Peter Travers and Pete Hammond should not be read, heard or seen in any capacity. Especially when they are using their words. More on them at another time. This week though we are on alert about this week's ads for Focus which once again sees the same ol' whores up to their same 'ol tricks." (more) |
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'HOLY KLEENEX, BATMAN! IT WAS RIGHT UNDER OUR NOSE AND WE BLEW IT!'
- Robin, Batman ('63)
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