BLOGS
February 2013 Archives
By the time Steven Soderbergh retires (we're still waiting to find out whether it'll be temporary or permanent) from filmmaking following the release of his final theatrical release Side Effects and the HBO premiere of his last film, Behind the Candelabra, he'll have helmed more than 25 features and a handful of shorts. And while many of those movies have deservedly received extensive acclaim and awards attention, some great ones have slipped through the cracks and still remain misunderstood and/or unappreciated. (Others, meanwhile, have deservedly languish in obscurity... looking at you, The Good German.) Here are our picks for the retiring director's five most underrated movies, in order of release; with no new Soderbergh features on the horizon for the foreseeable future, maybe these will finally get some attention.
Don't fly these friendly skies.
Super Bowl XLVII: Judging the Movie Trailers
We critique all the big movie ads that aired during last night's big game, from Iron Man 3 to World War Z.
Warm Bodies: Dead and Not Loving It
I generally try not to be too persnickety when creative types take liberties with long-established mythologies. Vampires that sparkle in sunlight instead of burn to a crisp? Kinda stupid, but okay. Peter Parker gains his web-shooting abilities organically rather than through invention? Not ideal, but I'll run with it. So I went into the new zombie rom-com Warm Bodies with an open mind, not thrilled about the improbable idea of watching a member of walking dead fall in love with a living, breathing human, but willing to be persuaded that such a thing might be possible. Unfortunately, not only did Warm Bodies -- which writer/director Jonathan Levine adapted from a book by Isaac Marion that, full disclosure, I haven't read -- fail to convince me of its central conceit, but the movie's general depiction of zombie life is shoddy, inconsistent and often downright dumb. As silly as I felt muttering to myself "But a zombie couldn't/wouldn't do that!" at every turn, that's how much the movie got on my nerves and made it almost impossible to enjoy its few modest charms. Here are the most irritating changes Warm Bodies makes to zombie lore.
Leave it to a pair of old pros to teach all those young whippersnappers out there how to make a crude, violent, racist, exploitative, T&A-filled and altogether brainless action movie. Dumb as a bag of rocks and as blunt as a... well, a bullet to the head, Bullet To the Head brings director Walter Hill and star Sylvester Stallone together for the first time in their respective careers. It proves to be a fruitful collaboration, with the two of them bringing out the best in each other. Now, that's not to say that movie itself is any good, because it's not... at least, not in the typical definition of "good" where elements like storytelling, character development and thematic subtleties are taken into account. No, this particular brand of "good" is more sensory in nature; while watching Bullet To the Head you're acutely aware of how stupid and pointless the whole enterprise, yet at the same time the movie successfully delivers a steady stream of short, sharp shocks to your system that keep you engaged. Put another way, it's bad, but it's never, ever boring.
If you've ever dreamed of seeing Al Pacino, Christopher Walken and Alan Arkin together in the same movie, well... keep on dreaming. Because whatever deranged feature your mind conjures up while you're sleeping will almost certainly be better than Stand Up Guys the painfully bad crime comedy that finally unites these three acting legends under the guidance of director Fisher Stevens. (Yes... that Fisher Stevens). Not since Pacino squared off against Robert De Niro in Righteous Kill has a single movie so thoroughly blasphemed a set of Acting Gods.
Blog Categories
A Festival for the Rest...ival
20 Entries
Accidents Do Happen
46 Entries
Adventures in Fakery
77 Entries
Alien Nations
4 Entries
Animation Desensitization
80 Entries
Awards Schmawards
17 Entries
Box Office Tally
79 Entries
Burning Questions
6 Entries
Coming Soonish
9 Entries
Cool Nerds Guide
6 Entries
Cop Rick
4 Entries
Crazy In Love
2 Entries
Director? I Hardly Knew Her!
156 Entries
Disease of the Week
1 Entries
Doc Watch
2 Entries
DVDs Unwrapped
24 Entries
Fantasyland
2 Entries
Footage Lost (And Found)
2 Entries
For Your Amusement (Park)
10 Entries
Foreign Relations
52 Entries
Future Tense
1 Entries
Galleries (and Other Picture Postcards)
23 Entries
Gangster's Paradise
5 Entries
Getting Dramatic
5 Entries
Girls on Film
79 Entries
Happy Anniversary
9 Entries
Hi, High School
1 Entries
Hollywood To TWoP: Hello There!
38 Entries
I Voted for GORE!
101 Entries
I Want My DVD
227 Entries
I Want My VOD
22 Entries
I've Got Two Tickets to Merchandise
33 Entries
IMDb Fun Times
6 Entries
Indie Snapshot
48 Entries
Indie, Indie, Come Back Home
38 Entries
It Came From New York
6 Entries
It Came From San Diego
14 Entries
It's a Major Award!
75 Entries
Legal Eaglese
21 Entries
Let's Blame the Media!
49 Entries
Let's Go To The Video!
29 Entries
Letterbox of Recommendations
22 Entries
Lights, Camera... Action Jackson!
182 Entries
Little TV Shows That Done Hit the Big Time
71 Entries
Martial Artistry
11 Entries
Momentous Occasions
25 Entries
More On Movies
37 Entries
Movie Merchandise
4 Entries
Musicalifornication
47 Entries
Name That Tune
3 Entries
Obituaries Without Pity
23 Entries
On the Frontlines
1 Entries
Oscars and Grouchery
11 Entries
Politicking
3 Entries
Pre-Prequel
1 Entries
Pre-PrequelAdd category
0 Entries
Pros and Controversy
26 Entries
Read All About It
4 Entries
Real People, Fake Movies
23 Entries
Remakes R Us
8 Entries
Reviews of Movies We Haven't Seen Yet
42 Entries
Reviews of Movies We've Actually Seen
503 Entries
Scary Monsters & Super Creeps
103 Entries
Sci-Fidelity
147 Entries
Script From the Headlines!
56 Entries
Separate but Sequel
247 Entries
Sequelitis
20 Entries
Shameless Self-Promotion
27 Entries
Sing Out, Louise
3 Entries
Sports in Our Shorts
6 Entries
Strike Watch
14 Entries
Stupid Cinematic Celebrity Sayings
34 Entries
Sundance Sundance Revolution
13 Entries
Swords and Sorcerers
2 Entries
Taste the Reading Rainbow
94 Entries
Tears in Heaven
1 Entries
The Art of the Cannes
6 Entries
The Biz
122 Entries
The Casting Conch
192 Entries
The History, Booooyyyyy!
79 Entries
The Kongs of Comedy
203 Entries
Theatre With an "R" and an "E"
11 Entries
Things to Know
1 Entries
Things We Learned
1 Entries
Time Tripping
1 Entries
Top of the
1 Entries
Top of the MWoP
5 Entries
Trailer Trashing
73 Entries
Trailers Without Pity
37 Entries
Video Games Killed the Movie Star
23 Entries
Watching Movies With Kids
4 Entries
We Call Do-Over
177 Entries
We Watches the Watchmen
33 Entries
What's Up, Documentary?
17 Entries
When Animal Movies Attack
13 Entries
YA Wasteland
4 Entries
You Got Comic Book in My Movie
250 Entries
You Know, For Kids!
132 Entries