http://www.grouchoreviews.com/ Sun, 16 Jun 2013 00:26:27 GMT Film/DVD reviews, interviews and features. http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4526 /reviews/4526 The show continues to grow in dimension and in scope, a reality that‘s also meaningful within its fictional universe. Fri, 14 Jun 2013 19:25:05 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/2317 /reviews/2317 On video, Safety Last! is a certified treat, but in packed movie houses, with audiences invariably gasping and giggling on every cue, it‘s a near-religious experience. Thu, 13 Jun 2013 08:33:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4524 /reviews/4524 The first major Western in sound...One can occasionally feel the filmmakers showing off the technology, with close-ups of a crying baby or sizzling ham and eggs. Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:10:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4480 /reviews/4480 Oz the Great and Powerful gets saved from the junk heap by Franco and especially by director Sam Raimi, who happily treats the enterprise as a sandbox. Tue, 11 Jun 2013 15:48:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4521 /reviews/4521 By setting the show in the recent past, Sorkin can productively remind or inform a broad audience of the pith of important news we‘ve lived through...a subplot about [NSA] wiretapping...[even] gets ahead of the curve... Mon, 10 Jun 2013 23:02:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4517 /reviews/4517 Once blithely acceptable as American id, McClane‘s become the archetypal American idiot. Sun, 09 Jun 2013 23:32:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4520 /reviews/4520 Cannily plays in equal measure to the sci-fi TV crowd and families, to red states and blue states, and it‘s a formula…refined in Season Two…that seems to be working. Sun, 09 Jun 2013 22:11:31 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4508 /reviews/4508 What remains most striking about Philadelphia may be the...conspicuous emphasis on intense close-ups. They force an inescapable emotional intimacy in relation to issues the mainstream, at least at the time, would rather have looked away from. Wed, 29 May 2013 20:19:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/2909 /reviews/2909 Distinguished by its thoughtfulness regarding the nature of Western heroism, as defined not only by dead-eye gunplay, but by family, community, and moral rectitude. Tue, 28 May 2013 22:47:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4469 /reviews/4469 The awfulness of the narrative is plain to see, and yet...no one can say Stand Up Guys lacks personality. Thu, 16 May 2013 15:27:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4497 /reviews/4497 Though the film nakedly seeks a wide audience through conventional plotting and characterization…and despite being (like most action movies) guy-centric…Shanghai Noon provides good, clean ‘family‘ fun. Tue, 14 May 2013 18:51:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/684 /reviews/684 This innocent, sixties-style, big-budget comedy-romance-action-adventure romp is solid family entertainment that would make any self-respecting kid‘s jaw drop for a good two hours. Tue, 14 May 2013 18:48:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4503 /reviews/4503 As good as, if not better than, any of the feature films that would later star the Next Generation cast. Tue, 14 May 2013 04:53:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4502 /reviews/4502 Not only did the third season mark a quantum leap in non-niche popularity for the series, but a greater consistency in the show‘s writing and execution that meant a precipitous drop in fan complaints. Tue, 14 May 2013 04:53:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/3340 /reviews/3340 All the ingredients for a great evening at the movies: lively music, eye-catching scenery, larger-than-life comic set pieces, suave men and beautiful women, and odd-man-out Clouseau, played to perfection by the one and only Peter Sellers. Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:07:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4488 /reviews/4488 Day-Lewis...wears well the weariness of the office and Lincoln‘s puckish yet subdued sense of humor, scaling the man closer to life-size than Mount Rushmore monumental. Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:01:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4439 /reviews/4439 Supplements its palace intrigue with the good old-fashioned pull of romance and costume drama...Mikkelsen‘s magnetism and sly expressiveness hold the film‘s center with a quiet potency. Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:57:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4487 /reviews/4487 Monsieur Verdoux can boast a screenplay with a highly unusual moral complexity and a deeply philosophical bent...Yes, Verdoux is a film that name-drops Schopenhauer, but it‘s also damn funny... Mon, 25 Mar 2013 03:21:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4461 /reviews/4461 By most cinematic measures, Zero Dark Thirty is one of the best-made films of 2012. It also probably shouldn‘t exist. Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:31:00 GMT Peter Canavese http://www.grouchoreviews.com/reviews/4440 /reviews/4440 In the hands of Ang Lee, a true film artist, Life of Pi elegantly walks Martel‘s philosophical line while also brilliantly using every modern cinematic tool to spin an epic yarn. Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:17:00 GMT Peter Canavese