|
| EFC STATS |
| Movies Listed: |
31650 |
| Total Ratings: |
247950 |
| Total Reviews: |
27973 |
![[169871728 Hits]](/cgi-bin/gd.cgi?169871728)
|
|
|
| ROAD NOT TAKEN, THE |
"Not-quite-crime drama."
Jay Seaver says... ""The Road Not Taken" is one of those indie movies that could get filled under "crime" even though it isn't, really, but there's enough crime in it that if you want to push it as something of interest to more than just art-house audiences, you can fit it. It's more a story of a loser who winds up in the middle of a bunch of criminals and kind of floats through that situation for a while, at least until the filmmaker wants to end things. It's pretty decent, as those things go, giving you the good naturalistic acting and peeks at people just getting by you might not find in the crowd-pleasers, especially from China." (more)
|
|
| GREAT BATTLE, THE |
"At the very least, a pretty good battle."
Jay Seaver says... "Somewhere in the middle of "The Great Battle", I felt like I'd reached the point where these medieval Asian war movies just blur together. There was a heck of a battle going on, and I was duly impressed, but sort of felt like I was killing time. I'd seen the flights of arrows, the whirling swordsmen, the bickering lieutenants, the warrior princess, all in speed-ramped slow motion, and though this was pretty good it didn't really have anything new or astounding. It scratched an itch, no question, but could it do more?" (more)
|
|
| FAHRENHEIT 11/9 |
"Near-Death Of A Nation"
Peter Sobczynski says... "When Michael Moore sits down to make a movie in which he has a clear and specific topic that he wants to deal with—the economic devastation of his hometown of Flint, Michigan (“Roger & Me”), the culture of fear in America that has led to the proliferation of guns (“Bowling for Columbine”), the people that took advantage of the horror of 9/11 to advance their own agendas (“Fahrenheit 9/11”), the inequities and failure of the American health care system (“Sicko”)—the results have been some of the most powerful and provocative documentaries of this era. However, when he has gone into projects that didn’t have such a specific target that he could focus on with laser-like precision, as was the case with “The Big One,” “Capitalism: A Love Story” and “Where to Invade Next”—the results have been far more scattershot with his obvious passion and purpose crossing the line into outright hectoring. Oddly enough, his latest film, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” seems to be a combination of both of Moore’s usual approaches. On the one hand, a large part of the film feels curiously unfocused as he veers from topic to topic like a TV news program that is desperately afraid of losing the attention of the viewers for even a second. At the same time, a couple of the numerous narrative threads running through the film are so strong and powerful that they dominate the proceedings to the point where many viewers will find themselves wondering why Moore didn’t just center the film on those particular topics in the first place." (more)
|
|
| HOUSE WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS, THE |
"An Eli Roth Film. You Know--For Kids"
Peter Sobczynski says... "“The House With a Clock in Its Walls” is a film that contains any number of unexpected sights—ranging from the dead rising from the grave to Cate Blanchett zapping a collection of evil pumpkins into goo with the help of a trusty magic wand—but the most astonishing one of them all comes right at the beginning when it is revealed that this PG-rated throwback to the fantasy films of the 1980s that Steven Spielberg used to oversee through his Amblin Entertainment production shingle was directed by none other than Eli Roth, the auteur of such savagely violent horror films as “Hostel” and “The Green Inferno.” However, my surprise is not due simply because of the notion of a guy known for making gory exploitation films now making something for a younger audience—after all, Joe Dante started out doing things like “Hollywood Boulevard” and “Piranha” for Roger Corman before moving on to the likes of “Gremlins,” “Explorers” and “Innerspace” back in the day. No, my surprise is due to the discovery that Roth, who in the past has demonstrated himself to be a monumentally clumsy and lazy filmmaker whose works have essentially served as the cinematic equivalent of a kid repeatedly showing you his chewed-up food at the dinner table, has actually made a halfway decent film for the first time in his career, a goofy horror-comedy that demonstrates far more wit and style in any given scene than he has been able to muster up in any of his previous efforts." (more)
|
|
| LIFE ITSELF (2018) |
"Even Mikey Would Find This Impossible To Swallow"
Peter Sobczynski says... "When I first encountered the trailer for “Life Itself” a few weeks ago, it looked liked such a gauche and gimmicky piece of would-be Oscar bait that I was almost willing to give it the benefit of the doubt that it was an original and ambitious work that had been artlessly reduced to a couple of minutes of seemingly random moments by a studio marketing department that has no idea of how to properly introduce it to the public. After premiering at the Toronto FilmFestival a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to a couple of colleagues who saw it there who hastened to assure me that no, it really was just as bad as the trailer made it look. Once again, I was kind of willing to give it the benefit of the doubt since festival reactions tend to be the hottest of hot takes and the more extreme positions, both pro and con, should probably be taken with the proverbial grain of salts. However, now that I have finally seen “Life Itself,” I can assure you that both my initial impression of the trailer and the comments of my colleagues were both spot on as it truly is one of the smarmiest, stupidest and most hollowly manipulative films that I have ever seen in my life. This is a film that has been custom-designed to give viewers all of the feels and jerk as many tears as allowed by law but the only thing I felt while watching it was utter contempt and the only authentic tear that I shed was the one that came when I looked at my watch after it had been playing for what felt like four days and discovered that there was still about an hour left to go." (more)
|
|
| PREDATOR, THE |
"Another decade, another Predator."
Jay Seaver says... ""Predator" had no business spawning a franchise at all, and yet Twentieth Century Fox keeps trying because, while there's nowhere to take it without losing the sheer 1980s muscle-headed appeal of the original film, it's just too damn merchandisable. So roughly every ten years the try again, and it's not like they don't give it their best shot, but digging deeper into the mythology behind a dumb action movie is something of a fool's errand. This attempt to do so is pretty capable, in a disposable-paperback way, but even by those standards could have been more." (more)
|
|
| FAHRENHEIT 11/9 |
"Messier but better than Moore's first 'Fahrenheit.'"
Rob Gonsalves says... "Michael Moore’s 'Fahrenheit 11/9' is a sloppy but affecting essay about American crisis." (more)
|
|
| MADELINE'S MADELINE |
"Equal parts excellent performances and art-house hooey."
Jay Seaver says... "SCREENED AT THE 2018 FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Well, that's me done with Josephine Decker. I don't want to be. There are some terrific performances to be found in this movie, a pretty decent core story, and moments that feel like something approaching self-awareness. As with her previous work, I can see great talent and potential there. I want to say nice things. And the thing of it is, if I hadn't come into this movie with a chip on my shoulder about certain things from her previous films, I'd probably be a lot more impressed, although it's not like the things that put that chip there wouldn't still be big negatives." (more)
|
|
'WHAT WE'VE GOT HERE IS... A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE.'
- Captain, Cool Hand Luke
|
| |
|
Articles 
