Christopher Llewellyn Reed's Blog, page 72
August 21, 2015
“American Ultra” Offers Eisenberg’s Mad Skills, and Not Much Else
American Ultra (Nima Nourizadeh, 2015) He’s a stoner! But wait, he might be so much more. What’s that spoon doing stuck in the throat of the man in front of him? Who knew that dopey, hapless Mike Howell was so handy with cutlery? That about sums up American Ultra: jokey and ultra-violent. It’s too bad that it’s not […]
August 14, 2015
The Docucinema of Bold Ink: “Best of Enemies,” “The End of the Tour” and “Straight Outta Compton”
My apologies, for this is going to be one of my occasional Frankenposts, with multiple movies folded into one larger piece. With the start of the fall semester hard upon us, I find myself more than a little overwhelmed with my Department Chair duties and final syllabus prep. Throwing these films together like this allows […]
The Ditzy, Dizzy “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” Dazzles with (Empty) Style
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Guy Ritchie, 2015) The original “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” television series ran from 1964 to 1968 on NBC. I have only a vague memory of watching some of it during rebroadcasts in the 1970s. I often get it confused with actor David McCallum’s short-lived 1975-76 series “The Invisible Man“ – which I am […]
August 7, 2015
The Redundant Reboot: “Fantastic Four” Falls Flat
Fantastic Four (Josh Trank, 2015) Where to begin? Perhaps with the question, not unique to this particular movie, of why. In a world where The Amazing Spider-Man comes out just ten years after the critically and commercially successful – and therefore not in apparent need of an immediate reimagining – Spider-Man (and only five years after the third film in that Tobey […]
August 5, 2015
“Shaun the Sheep Movie” Entertains, But Needs Its Woolly Bits Shorn
Shaun the Sheep Movie (Mark Burton/Richard Starzak, 2015) The English animation studio Aardman Animations – best known for its Wallace and Gromit short films, television series and one feature – has long been a favorite of mine, producing delightful absurdist confections that I can watch multiple times without losing interest. Still, while I almost always marvel at their stop-motion ingenuity (and […]
July 31, 2015
Go, Tom, Go! In “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation,” Cruise and Company Run a Great Game
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie, 2015) Christopher McQuarrie, the Oscar-winning writer of Bryan Singer’s terrific 1995 The Usual Suspects – as well as of last year’s (mostly) equally smart Tom Cruise vehicle Edge of Tomorrow – but also the director of the terrible Tom Cruise vehicle Jack Reacher – clearly has a thing for action thrillers (be they of […]
July 24, 2015
In “Southpaw,” Fuqua and Gyllenhaal Knock Themselves Out
Southpaw (Antoine Fuqua, 2015) I can pinpoint the exact moment that this dreary film lost me. A terrible tragedy occurs towards the end of Act I – something that, in screenwriting terms is called a “plot point” or “inciting incident” – and all I could think was, “Really? You did that?” From then on, I was […]
July 22, 2015
“Mr. Holmes” Misses His Mark
Mr. Holmes (Bill Condon, 2015) On a recent episode of WNYC’s Studio 360, actor Ian McKellen (best known, to mainstream audiences, for his roles as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings series and Magneto in the X-Men films, but also a very accomplished stage actor) stated that, ever since working with director Bill Condon on Gods […]
July 17, 2015
Got Marvel Malaise? Clever “Ant-Man” Offers Cure for What Ails You
Ant-Man (Peyton Reed, 2015) Tired of big, bombastic studio superhero films such as Avengers: Age of Ultron? That movie may have grossed over $1,000,000,000 at the world box office, but I, for one, was bored silly. The genre is tired. How many times can the world be almost destroyed, and then saved at the last minute, before […]
“Trainwreck” Offers a Chain of Amusing Anecdotes but a Wreck of a Story
Trainwreck (Judd Apatow, 2015) Since I first saw Trainwreck at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, two things have happened. First, the good: much to my delight, I have finally discovered Amy Schumer‘s body of work. Second, the bad: I have soured a bit on her debut feature, as – at this week’s press screening – I did not like it […]
