Movie Reviews

Singham

Thursday, August 21, 2014
By Phil Elmore
Singham

Bajirao Singham’s “style of working” (hang on while I put on my Aviator sunglasses) is not a style, so much, as a mandate, where that mandate is to do whatever the hell you want.  Rohit Shetty’s immensely popular 2011 film, Singham (“Lion”) is a remake of an earlier Tamil film.  It stars Ajay Devgn... »

Singham Returns

Wednesday, August 20, 2014
By Phil Elmore
Singham Returns

“Singham Returns,” which comes on the heels of 2011’s “Singham,” is not a movie.  Rather, it is an experience, in which director Rohit Shetty’s vision of a tight-panted, tight-shirted, bemuscled Indian police officer in mirrored aviator shades is hammered home with all the sublety of an alcoholic uncle at an open-bar wedding reception.  Fully... »

Steel Dawn

Monday, January 14, 2013
By Phil Elmore
Steel Dawn

The 1987 film “Steel Dawn” is a masterpiece of filmmaking. It is not a masterpiece because it is well done, for it isn’t. It is not a masterpiece because it is well paced, for its pacing includes vast swaths of soul-killing emptiness that will send you diving for the remote control for relief. It... »

Uncle Buck

Monday, December 17, 2012
By Phil Elmore
Uncle Buck

“Uncle Buck” (1989) is one of those films that you only appreciate when you get older.  I remember seeing it years ago; I thought nothing about it at the time.  Now that I’m the same age as Candy’s character (he died tragically young at 44, while Buck was written as a 40-year-old) I can’t... »

Machete

Saturday, September 18, 2010
By Phil Elmore
Machete

When a movie taps roiling public sentiment even as it seeks to shape that opinion, it will doubtless be noticed. A film that, judging from the nearly empty theater in which I saw it during its opening weekend, might have disappeared quickly has instead gotten a great deal of public attention. Robert Rodriguez, the... »

Pandorum

Saturday, August 14, 2010
By Phil Elmore
Pandorum

What a remarkable surprise of a film this is. I think Pandorum suffered from its promotion as a horror film — simply because, while it does contain a horror ement, I would classify it more as a science-fiction thriller than a horror picture. The movie’s promotion — what there was of it — was inscrutable.... »

Harry Brown

Saturday, June 12, 2010
By Phil Elmore
Harry Brown

Harry Brown is a slow boil — visceral in its horrors, and gritty in its depiction of the criminal underclass of societal predators preying on victims in Harry Brown’s crumbling neighborhood. Michael Caine’s performance is superb — subtle, believable, and somber. When Harry buys a gun from some needle-sharing, drug-addled pot growers, your flesh... »

The Problem with Cameron's "Avatar"

Thursday, January 28, 2010
By Phil Elmore
The Problem with Cameron's "Avatar"

The real problem of this visually stunning movie is the message it sends. By the climax of the film, you’re supposed to be on the edge of your seat pumping your fist in the air, shouting, “Yeah! Get those lousy capitalist, despoiling humans! Drive those nasty humans back to their dying planet! Because…” And... »

The Road

Monday, January 11, 2010
By Phil Elmore
The Road

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a relentlessly depressing book. Written in a broken, personal diary style that is intended to make it more powerful, the text becomes less so because it seems gimmicky.  Still, this tale of survival in a post-apocalyptic world held my attention when I read it, driving me on for page... »

Shoot ‘Em Up

Thursday, June 25, 2009
By Phil Elmore
Shoot ‘Em Up

To say that Shoot ‘Em Up is a stupid movie is an extraordinary understatement.  This is a stupid movie that tries and fails to be a stupid movie, achieving a transcendant level of stupidity that comes only from the failure to be edgy and self-aware.  What I mean is that the filmmakers obviously thought... »