HollywoodandFine.com Don’t judge “A Bag of Hammers” by its first 15 minutes. The debut feature from writer-director Brian Crano may start out sounding like a goofy buddy comedy, but stick with it – and it will surprise you. In a good way. The two central characters are Alan (Jake Sandvig) …
HollywoodandFine.com When Tim Burton and Johnny Depp decided, “Oh, wouldn’t it be fun to make a movie out of the campy ’60s TV show ‘Dark Shadows’,” the correct response should have been the following three words: “Wild Wild West.” Apparently no one had the stones to say that to Burton …
HollywoodandFine.com It’s only May and I already have my favorite film of the year: Bobcat Goldthwait’s “God Bless America,” as acidic and funny a movie as you’re likely to see this or any other year. Already available on VOD, it opens in limited theatrical release Friday (5/11/12). An antidote to …
HollywoodandFine.com Here’s the best thing I can say about “The Avengers” (and no, I will NOT refer to it as “Marvel’s The Avengers,” because the branding is implicit): It offers a couple of the biggest laughs in recent memory, including a slapstick gag worthy of Chuck Jones in his “Looney …
HollywoodandFine.com Don’t trust the trailers for Anne Renton’s “The Perfect Family.” They make it look like an irreverent, iconoclastic satire, one that attacks hypocrisy among the pious – like something from the Farrelly brothers or, perhaps, John Waters. Oh wait – Waters already made that movie with Turner and called …
PAVLOV’s FRANCHISE: The Delusion of Marvel’s The Avengers By Armond White Previous Marvel Comics superhero movies such as Iron Man, The Hulk, Captain America and Thor were like roughly cut puzzle pieces that looked odd and unfinished by themselves–pretend-movies derived from already established brands. Most of them, particularly Jon Favreau’s …
HollywoodandFine.com An all-star comedy in the same vein as such crowd-pleasers as “The Full Monty,” “Calendar Girls” and other British charmers, John Madden’s “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is the kind of movie they seldom make anymore – except in England. When they try to do it in America, you …
Boaz Yakin Actioner Plays It Safe By Armond White Beneath Jason Statham’s chin scruff is a heart of gold. Producer Luc Besson never let it go sentimental in movies like the terrific Transporter series or Besson-influenced productions like War with Jet Li. Neveldine-Taylor took Statham’s violent relentless stoicism to the …
HollywoodandFine.com Boaz Yakin’s “Safe” is high-octane silliness, a movie whose individual parts are greater than their sum. The plot, in a script Yakin wrote, pulls in strands of everything from cage fighting to the Russian mob. And then it sets Jason Statham loose in a world where he is the …
HollywoodandFine.com “The Five-Year Engagement” wrings a slightly different change on the old boy-meets-girl formula – and finds enough big laughs to make the whole thing enjoyable, even if it’s never particularly fresh. Written by Jason Segel and Nick Stoller (who also directed), “Engagement” brings together the same mix of the …
