‘What We Do in the Shadows’: Bloody funny

HollywoodandFine.com Amusing and slight, “What We Do in the Shadows” is a mockumentary drawn from the same sensibilities that produced “Flight of the Conchords,” “Eagle v. Shark” and “Boy,” among others. Written and directed by the team of Jemaine Clement and Taiki Watiti, this film presents a flock (coven? pride? …

The week in film: ’22 Jump Street,’ ‘The Signal’ and more

HollywoodandFine.com After I saw “22 Jump Street,” I noted publicly that, while it was funnier than “21 Jump Street,” so was my root canal. (Although the latter did include laughing gas.) Still, the bar wasn’t particularly high. So why is this film currently floating atop the Rotten Tomatoes chart with …

Week in Film: ‘X-Men,’ ‘Love Punch,’ ‘Words and Pictures’

HollywoodandFine.com If you’re keeping score at home, of the three Marvel comic-book movies so far this summer (a term I use advisedly for a season that technically doesn’t start for another month), “X-Men: Days of Future Past” outranks “Amazing Spider-Man 2” and is about on a par with “Captain America: …

‘Like Father, Like Son,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Hirokazu Koreeda’s “Like Father, Like Son” is a delicate but daunting tale, one whose quietly self-contained story manages to churn great waves of emotional complexity. The set-up is a popular literary and cinematic plot contrivance: the switched-at-birth trope. But it is acted out in movingly stark relief in this …

‘World War Z,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Ahhh yes, the zombie apocalypse – that moment when the dead rise and, by biting the living, turn them into zombies as well. Some theorize that Patient Zero was Ronald Reagan. Before long, there’s an unorganized zombie army meandering around the streets, chomping on any unfortunate warm-blooded soul who …

‘The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Let’s see if we can go through this entire review without making any puns or other kind of wordplay about magic as we discuss “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.” Seek elsewhere if you require jokes about the vanishing laughs and mystifying mediocrity of this film. The two big Steves – …

‘Warm Bodies,’ reviewed by Marshall Fine

HollywoodandFine.com Jonathan Levine’s “Warm Bodies” won the weekend box-office race for a couple of reasons. It’s a romantic comedy that works, for one thing. For another, it’s a smart reworking of “Romeo and Juliet.” And, finally, it takes the zombie genre someplace it hasn’t been before – though, at this …

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